Ball - the main character of the fantastic story of MA Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog", a homeless dog, who was picked up and sheltered by Professor Preobrazhensky. This is an eternally hungry, frozen, homeless dog that wanders in the alleyways in search of food. At the beginning of the story, we learn that a cruel cook scalded his side, and now he is afraid to ask someone for food, lies against the cold wall and waits for the end. But suddenly from somewhere the smell of sausage comes and he, unable to bear it, follows her. A mysterious gentleman walked along the sidewalk, who not only treated him to sausage, but also invited him to his home. Since then, Sharik began a completely different life.
The professor took good care of him, cured his sore side, brought him into proper shape and fed him several times a day. Soon Sharik began to turn away even from roast beef. The rest of the inhabitants of the professor's large apartment also treated Sharik well. In response, he was ready to faithfully serve his master and savior. Sharik himself was a smart dog. He could distinguish letters on street signs, knew exactly where the Glavryba store was in Moscow, where the meat counters were. Soon something strange happened to him. Professor Preobrazhensky decided to conduct an amazing experiment on the transplantation of human organs on it.
The experiment was a success, but after that Sharik began to gradually take on a human form and behave like the former owner of the transplanted organs - the thief and repeat offender Klim Grigorievich Chugunkin who died in a fight. So Sharik turned from a kind and intelligent dog into an ill-mannered boor, an alcoholic and a rowdy named Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov.
"Heart of a dog" characteristics of Preobrazhensky
Preobrazhensky Philip Philipovich - the central character of the fantastic story of MA Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog", the luminary of medicine of world significance, an experimental surgeon who achieved remarkable results in the field of rejuvenation. The professor lives and works in Moscow on Prechistenka. He has a seven-room apartment, where he conducts his experiments. Together with him live the housekeepers Zina, Daria Petrovna and temporarily his assistant Bormental. It was Philip Philipovich who decided to conduct a unique experiment on a stray dog \u200b\u200bto transplant the human pituitary gland and testes.
As a test subject, he used a stray dog \u200b\u200bSharik. The results of his experiment exceeded expectations, as the ball began to take on a human form. However, as a result of this physical and psychological humanization, Sharik turned into a terrible rude, drunkard and law-breaker. The professor connected this with the fact that he transplanted the organs of Klim Chugunkin to the dog - a rowdy, recidivist thief, alcoholic and bully. Over time, rumors about a dog that turned into a man leaked out into the world and an official document was issued to Preobrazhensky's creation in the name of Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. Moreover, the chairman of the house committee Shvonder forced Philip Fillipovich to register Sharikov in the apartment as a full-fledged inhabitant.
Sharikov acts as the complete antipode of the professor, which leads to an insoluble conflict. When Preobrazhensky asked him to move out of the apartment, the case ended with threats with a revolver. Not a minute more hesitating, the professor decided to correct his mistake and, having put Sharikov to sleep, performed a second operation, which returned the dog's kind heart and former appearance.
"Heart of a dog" characteristic of Sharikov
Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov - the main negative character of the story "Heart of a Dog", the man who the dog Sharik turned into after the operation of Professor Preobrazhensky. At the beginning of the story, it was a kind and harmless dog that the professor had picked up. After an experimental operation to implant human organs, he gradually took on a human form and behave like a human, albeit immoral. His moral qualities left much to be desired, since the transplanted organs belonged to the deceased recidivist thief Klim Chugunkin. Soon, the dog, converted to a human, was given the name Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov and was given a passport.
Sharikov became a real problem for the professor. He was rowdy, harassed neighbors, molested servants, used foul language, got into fights, stole and drank a lot. As a result, it became clear that he had inherited all these habits from the previous owner of the transplanted pituitary gland. Immediately after receiving a passport, he got a job as the head of the subdivision for cleaning Moscow from stray animals. Sharikov's cynicism and heartlessness forced the professor to carry out another operation to turn him back into a dog. Fortunately, he retained Sharik's pituitary gland, so at the end of the story Sharikov again became a kind and affectionate dog, without boorish habits.
"Heart of a dog" characteristic of Bormental
Bormental Ivan Arnoldovich - one of the main characters of the story "A Dog's Heart" by MA Bulgakov, assistant and assistant to Professor Preobrazhensky. This young doctor is fundamentally honest and noble by nature. He is completely devoted to his teacher and is always ready to help. He cannot be called weak-willed, since at the right moment he knows how to show strength of character. Preobrazhensky accepted Bormental as an assistant when he was still a student at the department. Immediately after graduation, the capable student became an assistant professor.
In a conflict situation that arose between Sharikov and Preobrazhensky, he takes the side of the professor and does his best to protect him and other characters. Sharikov was once just a stray dog \u200b\u200bwho was picked up and sheltered by a professor. For the purposes of the experiment, the human pituitary gland and testes were transplanted to him. Over time, the dog not only became human, but also began to behave like a person, like the previous owner of transplanted organs - the thief and repeat offender Klim Chugunkin. When the rumor about the new inhabitant reached the house committee, Sharik was given documents in the name of Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov and registered in the professor's apartment.
Bormental carefully monitored the behavior of this arrogant and ill-mannered creature, not disdaining even physical violence. He had to temporarily move to the professor to help cope with Sharikov, whom he nearly strangled in a rage. Then the professor had to carry out a second operation to turn Sharikov back into a dog.
"Dog's heart" characteristicShvonder
Shvonder - a minor character in the story "Heart of a Dog", a proletarian, the new head of the house committee. He played an important role in Sharikov's introduction into society. Despite this, the author does not give him a detailed description. This is not a person, but a public face, a generalized image of the proletariat. All that is known about his appearance is that a thick head of curly hair towered over his head. He does not like class enemies, to which he refers to Professor Prebrazhensky and demonstrates this in every possible way.
For Shvonder, the most important thing in the world is a “document,” that is, a piece of paper. Upon learning that an unregistered person lives in Philip Filippovich's apartment, he immediately obliges to register him and issue a passport in the name of Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. He does not care where this person came from and that Sharikov is just a dog transformed as a result of an experiment. Shvonder admires power, believes in the power of laws, regulations and documents. He doesn't even care that the professor has made a real revolution in science and medicine. For him, Sharikov is just another unit of society, an apartment tenant who needs to be registered.
In the course of studying the work of Mikhail Bulgakov, schoolchildren go through the story "Heart of a Dog". One of the key characters in this work is Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. All the ideological and plot content of the story is concentrated on this image. So, we have before us the characteristics of Sharikov. "Dog's heart". Composition by a 9th grade student.
Mikhail Bulgakov wrote his story "Heart of a Dog" in 1925. But readers were able to get to know her only after more than 60 years - in 1987. And this is not surprising - after all, the author makes fun of Soviet reality in this work, which he, like many representatives of the intelligentsia of that time, was very displeasing.
The main characters of the story are Professor Preobrazhensky and Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov. The first image evokes sympathy and respect. Preobrazhensky is a very intelligent, educated, well-mannered and decent person. But the characterization of Sharikov in the story "Heart of a Dog" is extremely negative.
Polygraph Poligrafovich was born as a result of an experiment by a professor who conducted experiments in the field of rejuvenating the human body. Preobrazhensky performed a unique operation, transplanting the brain of the deceased man to the yard dog Sharik. As a result, the dog turns into a human. He was named Polygraph Poligrafovich.
Sharikov took the worst from his "donors". From mongrels - the property of snarling, running after cats, catching fleas, etc. From a convicted thief, a bully and an alcoholic - the corresponding traits: laziness, arrogance, stupidity, cruelty. The result was an explosive mixture that horrified Professor Preobrazhensky and his assistant, Dr. Bormental. They were shocked and upset about their creation. And no matter how much they tried to instill in him the features of a normal person, they did not succeed.
But society accepted Sharikov quite calmly. He even received a responsible position and enjoyed authority in his circle. This made Polygraph Poligrafovich more and more impudent and cruel. Seeing that his behavior does not evoke public condemnation, but on the contrary, Sharikov became an even greater moral monster than he was initially.
As a result, Preobrazhensky could not stand it and returned the unbelted monster to the dog's body. But what did Bulgakov want to say to all these readers? In my opinion, the image of Sharikov in the work symbolizes all those who came to power through the revolution. Uneducated, limited, lazy and arrogant people imagined themselves to be the masters of life, and turned a normal country into a ruin. In a fantastic story, the professor managed to "drive the genie back into the bottle."
But in real life, alas, this is impossible. Therefore, each person should think over their actions very well. It’s not for nothing that they say: “Measure seven times, cut once”. Otherwise, such monsters as Sharikov may appear. And it's really scary!
Heart of a Dog was written in the wake of Fatal Eggs in January-March 1925. The story could not pass the censorship. What was it about it that scared the Bolshevik government so much?
Nedr editor Nikolai Semenovich Angarsky (Klestov) rushed Bulgakov with the creation of Dog's Heart, hoping that it would have no less success among the reading public than Fatal Eggs. On March 7, 1925, Mikhail Afanasyevich read the first part of the story at the literary meeting of Nikitinskiye Subbotniks, and on March 21, the second part was also there. One of the listeners, M.L. Schneider, conveyed to the audience his impression of “Heart of a Dog” in the following way: “This is the first literary work that dares to be itself. The time has come for the realization of the attitude to what happened ”(that is, to the October Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent stay of the Bolsheviks in power).
At the same readings, an attentive OGPU agent was present, who, in the reports of March 9 and 24, assessed the story quite differently:
“I was at the next literary“ subbotnik ”at EF Nikitina's (Gazetny, 3, apt. 7, v. 2-14-16). Bulgakov read his new story. Plot: the professor takes out the brains and seminal glands from the just deceased and puts them into the dog, as a result of which the latter is "humanized". At the same time, the whole thing is written in hostile, breathing infinite contempt for the Soviet Union in tones:
1) The professor has 7 rooms. He lives in a workhouse. A deputation comes to him from the workers with a request to give them 2 rooms, since the house is overcrowded, and he has only 7 rooms. He meets the requirement to give him an 8th. Then he goes to the phone and at No. 107 says to some very influential Soviet worker “Vitaly Vlasyevich” (in the surviving text of the first edition of the story, this character is named Vitaly Alexandrovich; in subsequent editions he turned into Pyotr Alexandrovich; probably, the informant recorded the middle name incorrectly by ear. - BS) that he will not do the operation for him, “stops his practice altogether and leaves forever for Batum”, because workers armed with revolvers came to him (and this is actually not) and make him sleep in the kitchen , and the operations are done in the restroom. Vitaly Vlasyevich calms him down, promising to give a "strong" piece of paper, after which no one will touch him.
The professor is triumphant. The working delegation is left with a nose. "Then, comrade," says the worker, "buy literature for the benefit of the poor of our faction." “I won't buy,” the professor answers.
"Why? It's not expensive. Only 50 k. Perhaps you have no money? "
"No, I have money, but I just don't want to."
"So you don't like the proletariat, then?"
"Yes," the professor confesses, "I do not like the proletariat."
All this is listened to accompanied by the gloating laughter of the Nikitin audience. Someone can not stand it and exclaims angrily: “Utopia”.
2) “Devastation,” the same professor grumbles over a bottle of Saint-Julien. - What it is? An old woman barely wandering with a stick? Nothing like this. There is no devastation, there has not been, will not be and does not exist. The devastation is the people themselves.
I lived in this house on Prechistenka from 1902 to 1917 for fifteen years. There are 12 apartments on my staircase. You know how many patients I have. And downstairs on the front door stood a hanger for coats, galoshes, etc. So what do you think? During these 15 years, not a single coat, not a single rag has disappeared. So it was until February 24 (the day the February Revolution began - BS), and on the 24th they stole everything: all the fur coats, my 3 coats, all the canes, and even the samovar whistled at the doorman's. That's what. And you say devastation. " Deafening laughter from the entire audience.
3) The dog he sheltered tore a stuffed owl for him. The professor was in an indescribable rage. The servant advises him to beat the dog well. The professor’s rage does not subside, but he thunders: “You can't. You can't beat anyone. This is terror, but this is what they achieved by their terror. You just need to teach. " And he fiercely, but not painfully, pokes the dog with his muzzle at the torn owl.
4) “The best remedy for health and nerves is not to read newspapers, especially Pravda. I observed 30 patients in my clinic. So what do you think, those who have not read Pravda recover faster than those who have read, "etc., etc. There are many more examples, examples of Bulgakov definitely hating and despising the entire Sovstroy, denies everything his achievements.
In addition, the book is replete with pornography, clothed in a business, supposedly scientific look. Thus, this book will please both the malevolent man in the street, and the frivolous lady, and sweetly tickle the nerves of just a depraved old man. There is a faithful, strict and vigilant guard at the Soviet Power, this is Glavlit, and if my opinion does not disagree with his, then this book will not see the light. But let me point out the fact that this book (the first part of it) has already been read to an audience of 48 people, of which 90 percent are writers themselves. Therefore, her role, her main work, has already been done, even if she will not be missed by Glavlit: she has already infected the writers' minds of listeners and will sharpen their feathers. And the fact that it will not be published (if it “doesn’t”) will be a luxurious lesson for them, these writers, a lesson for the future, a lesson in how it is not necessary to write in order to miss censorship, that is, how publish your beliefs and propaganda, but in a way that sees the light of day. (On 25 / III 25 Bulgakov will read the second part of his story.)
My personal opinion: such things, read in the most brilliant Moscow literary circle, are much more dangerous than the uselessly harmless speeches of the 101st grade writers at the meetings of the All-Russian Union of Poets. "
The unknown informant reported on Bulgakov's reading of the second part of the story much more succinctly. Either she made a lesser impression on him, or thought that the main thing had already been said in the first denunciation:
“The second, and last, part of Bulgakov’s story“ Heart of a Dog ”(I told you about the first part two weeks earlier), read by him on“ Nikitinsky Subbotnik ”, aroused strong indignation of the two communist writers who were there and the general delight of all the others. The content of this final part boils down to approximately the following: the humanized dog became impudent every day, more and more. She became depraved: she made vile proposals to the professor's maid. But the center of the author's mockery and accusations rests on something else: on the wearing of a leather jacket by a dog, on the demand for living space, on the manifestation of a communist way of thinking. All this pissed the professor out of himself, and at once he put an end to the misfortune he had created, namely: he turned the humanized dog into the old, ordinary dog.
If similarly grossly disguised (for all this “humanization” is only an emphatically noticeable, careless make-up) attacks appear on the book market of the USSR, then the White Guard abroad, exhausted no less than us from book hunger, and even more from fruitless searches for an original, biting plot , it remains only to envy the exceptional conditions for the counter-revolutionary authors in our country. "
Messages of this kind must have alerted the authorities that controlled the literary process, and made the ban on Heart of a Dog inevitable. People skilled in literature praised the story. For example, on April 8, 1925, Veresaev wrote to Voloshin: “It was very pleasant for me to read your review of Mikhail Bulgakov ... his humorous things are pearls promising an artist of the first rank from him. But the censorship cuts him mercilessly. Recently I stabbed the wonderful thing "Heart of a Dog", and he is completely discouraged. "
On April 20, 1925, in a letter to Veresaev, Angarsky complained that Bulgakov's satirical works “are very difficult to carry through censorship. I'm not sure that his new story "Heart of a Dog" will pass. In general, literature is bad. The censorship does not assimilate the party line. " The old Bolshevik Angarsky here pretends to be naive.
In fact, a gradual tightening of censorship began in the country as Stalin's power strengthened.
The reaction of criticism to Bulgakov's previous story "Fatal Eggs", regarded as an anti-Soviet pamphlet, also played a role. On May 21, 1925, Nedr employee B. Leontiev sent Bulgakov a very pessimistic letter: “Dear Mikhail Afanasyevich, I am sending you Notes on Cuffs and Heart of a Dog. Do whatever you want with them. Sarychev said in Glavlit that the "Heart of a Dog" is no longer worth cleaning. "The whole thing is unacceptable" or something like that. " However, N.S. Angarsky, who liked the story very much, decided to turn to the very top - to a member of the Politburo L.B. Kamenev. Through Leontyev, he asked Bulgakov to send the manuscript of "A Dog's Heart" with censorship corrections to Kamenev, who was resting in Borjomi, with a cover letter, which should be "author's, tearful, with an explanation of all the ordeals ..."
On September 11, 1925, Leontyev wrote to Bulgakov about the disappointing outcome: “Your story“ Heart of a Dog ”was returned to us by LB Kamenev. At the request of Nikolai Semyonovich, he read it and expressed his opinion: "This is a sharp pamphlet on the present, it should never be printed." Leont'ev and Angarsky reproached Bulgakov for sending Kamenev an uncorrected copy: “Of course, one cannot attach much importance to two or three of the most poignant pages; they could hardly change anything in the opinion of a man like Kamenev. And yet, it seems to us that your unwillingness to give the previously corrected text played a sad role here. " Subsequent events showed the unfoundedness of such fears: the reasons for the banning of the story were much more fundamental than a few uncorrected or corrected pages in accordance with the censorship requirements. On May 7, 1926, as part of a campaign sanctioned by the Central Committee to combat “changeover”, Bulgakov's apartment was searched and the manuscript of the writer's diary and two copies of the typewritten “Heart of a Dog” were confiscated. Only more than three years later, what was confiscated with Gorky's assistance was returned to the author.
The fabulous "Heart of a Dog", like "Fatal Eggs", goes back to the work of Wells, this time to the novel "The Island of Dr. Moreau", where a maniac professor in his laboratory on a desert island is engaged in the creation of surgical unusual "hybrids" of humans and animals ... Wells' novel was written in connection with the growth of the movement against vivisection - the operation of animals and their killing for scientific purposes. The idea of \u200b\u200brejuvenation, which became popular in the 1920s in the USSR and a number of European countries, is also present in the story.
In Bulgakov's work, the kindest professor Philip Philipovich Preobrazhensky is conducting an experiment to humanize the cute dog Sharik and very little resembles Wells' hero. But the experiment ends in failure. Sharik perceives only the worst features of his donor, drunkard and bully proletarian Klim Chugunkin. Instead of a kind dog, an ominous, stupid and aggressive Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov appears, who, nevertheless, fits perfectly into socialist reality and even makes an enviable career: from a creature of uncertain social status to the head of the sub-department for cleaning Moscow from stray animals. Probably, having turned his hero into the head of a subdivision of the Moscow communal services, Bulgakov recalled his forced service in the Vladikavkaz subdivision of arts and Moscow Leto (literary department of the Glavpolitprosvet) with an unkind word. Sharikov becomes socially dangerous, incited by the chairman of the house committee Shvonder against his creator - Professor Preobrazhensky, writes denunciations against him, and in the end even threatens with a revolver. The professor has no choice but to return the newly minted monster to its primitive canine state.
If the Fatal Eggs made a disappointing conclusion about the possibility of realizing the socialist idea in Russia with the existing level of culture and enlightenment, the Heart of a Dog parodies the attempts of the Bolsheviks to create a new person, called to become the builder of a communist society. In his work "At the Feast of the Gods", first published in Kiev in 1918, the philosopher, theologian and publicist S.N. Bulgakov remarked: “I confess to you that sometimes comrades seem to me to be beings completely devoid of spirit and possessing only lower spiritual abilities, a kind of Darwinian monkey - Homo socialisticus ”. Mikhail Afanasevich in the image of Sharikov materialized this idea, probably taking into account the message of VB Shklovsky, Shpolyansky's prototype in the "White Guard", cited in the memoir "Sentimental Journey" about monkeys who allegedly fight the Red Army.
Homo socialisticus turned out to be surprisingly viable and perfectly fitted into the new reality. Bulgakov foresaw that the Sharikovs could easily squeeze out of the light not only the Preobrazhensky, but also the Shvonders. The strength of Polygraph Poligrafovich lies in his virginity in relation to conscience and culture. Professor Preobrazhensky sadly prophesies that in the future there will be someone who will incite Sharikov against Shvonder, as today the chairman of the house committee incites him against Philip Filippovich. The writer, as it were, predicted the bloody purges of the 30s already among the Communists themselves, when some Shvonders punished others, less successful. Shvonder is a gloomy, although not without comic, personification of the lowest level of totalitarian power - the house manager, opens a large gallery of such heroes in Bulgakov's work, such as Hallelujah (Harness) in Zoyka's Apartment, Bunsha in Bliss and Ivan Vasilievich, Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy in The Master and Margarita.
There is also a hidden anti-Semitic subtext in "Heart of a Dog". In the book of M.K.Diterikhs "The Murder of the Tsar's Family" there is such a description of the chairman of the Ural Council, Alexander Grigorievich Beloborodov (in 1938 he was safely shot as a prominent Trotskyist): " opinions. Cruel, noisy, he came to the fore among a certain milieu of workers during the Kerensky era, during the notorious work of political parties to "deepen the revolution." Among the blind mass of workers, he was very popular, and dexterous, cunning and clever Goloshchekin, Safarov and Voikov (he considered all three Dieterichs Jews, although disputes about the ethnic origin of Safarov and Voikov continue to this day. - B.S.) skillfully used this popularity, flattering his gross pride and pushing him constantly and everywhere forward. He was a typical Bolshevik from among the Russian proletariat, not so much in theory as in the form of manifestation of Bolshevism in crude, brutal violence, which did not understand the limits of nature, an uncultured and unspiritual being. "
Sharikov is exactly the same creature, and the chairman of the house committee, the Jew Shvonder, directs him. By the way, his surname may have been constructed by analogy with the surname Shinder. It was worn by the commander of a special detachment mentioned by Dieterichs who accompanied the Romanovs from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg.
The operation on Sharik is performed by the professor with the priestly surname Preobrazhensky in the afternoon of December 23, and the humanization of the dog is completed on the night of January 7, since the last mention of his dog's appearance in the observation diary, which is kept by Bormental's assistant, is dated January 6. Thus, the whole process of the transformation of a dog into a person covers the period from December 24 to January 6, from Catholic to Orthodox Christmas Eve. There is a Transfiguration, but not the Lord's. The new man Sharikov is born on the night of January 6-7, Orthodox Christmas. But Polygraph Poligrafovich is not the embodiment of Christ, but of the devil, who took a name for himself in honor of the fictitious “saint” in the new Soviet “saints”, which prescribe to celebrate the Day of the Polygraphist. Sharikov is, to some extent, a victim of printing products - books containing Marxist dogmas that Shvonder gave him to read. From there, the “new man” brought out only the thesis of primitive leveling - “take everything and divide it up”.
During his last quarrel with Preobrazhensky and Bormenthal, Sharikov's connection with otherworldly forces was emphasized in every possible way:
“Some unclean spirit possessed Polygraph Poligrafovich, obviously, death was already watching him and doom stood behind him. He himself threw himself into the arms of the inevitable and barked viciously and abruptly:
What is it really? That I, the authorities, perhaps, will not find you? I am sitting here at sixteen arshins and I will sit!
Get out of the apartment, ”Philip Philipovich whispered sincerely.
Sharikov himself invited his death. He raised his left hand and showed Philip Philipovich a shish that was bitten with an intolerable feline smell. And then he took a revolver out of his pocket with his right hand at the dangerous Bormental.
Shish is the "hair" on the head of the devil standing on end. Sharikov's hair is the same: "hard, like bushes on a field that has been uprooted." Polygraph Poligrafovich, armed with a revolver, is a kind of illustration of the famous saying of the Italian thinker Niccolo Machiavelli: "All the armed prophets won, and the unarmed ones died." Here Sharikov is a parody of V.I. Lenin, L.D. Trotsky and other Bolsheviks who, by military force, ensured the triumph of their teachings in Russia. By the way, three volumes of Trotsky's posthumous biography, written by his follower Isaac Deutscher, were titled “The Armed Prophet”, “The Disarmed Prophet”, “The Exiled Prophet”. Bulgakov's hero is not a prophet of God, but of the devil. However, it is only in the fantastic reality that the story can be disarmed and, through a complex surgical operation, brought into its original form - the kind and sweet dog Sharik, who hates only cats and janitors. In reality, no one could disarm the Bolsheviks.
The real prototype of Professor Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky was Bulgakov's uncle Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky, one of whose specialties was gynecology. His apartment at 24 Prechistenka (or Chisty Lane, 1) coincides in detail with the description of Preobrazhensky's apartment. Interestingly, in the address of the prototype, the names of the street and lane are associated with the Christian tradition, and his surname (in honor of the Feast of the Intercession) corresponds to the surname of the character associated with the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
On October 19, 1923, Bulgakov described in his diary his visit to the Pokrovskys: “Late in the evening I went to the uncles (N.M. and M.M. Pokrovsky - BS). They became nicer. Uncle Misha read the other day my last story "Psalm" (I gave him) and asked me today what I wanted to say, etc. They already have more attention and understanding that I am engaged in literature. "
The prototype, like the hero, underwent compaction, and, unlike Professor Preobrazhensky, N.M. Pokrovsky did not manage to avoid this unpleasant procedure. On January 25, 1922, Bulgakov noted in his diary: "To uncle Kolya by force in his absence ... in spite of all decrees ... they brought in a couple."
A colorful description of NM Pokrovsky has survived in the memoirs of Bulgakov's first wife, TN Lapp: “... I just started reading (“ Heart of a Dog ”- BS) - I immediately guessed that it was him. The same angry, always humming something, his nostrils flared, his mustache was just as lush. In general, he was cute. Then he was very offended by Mikhail for this. He had a dog at one time, a Doberman Pinscher. Tatyana Nikolaevna also claimed that "Nikolai Mikhailovich did not marry for a long time, but he loved to look after women." Perhaps this circumstance prompted Bulgakov to force the bachelor Preobrazhensky to engage in operations to rejuvenate the aging ladies and gentlemen, thirsty for love affairs.
Bulgakov's second wife, Lyubov Evgenievna Belozerskaya, recalled: “The scientist in the story“ Heart of a Dog ”Professor-Surgeon Philip Philipovich Preobrazhensky, whose prototype was M.A. - Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky, brother of the writer's mother, Varvara Mikhailovna ... Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky, a gynecologist, former assistant to the famous professor VF Snegirev, lived at the corner of Prechistenka and Obukhov Lane, a few houses from our dovecote. His brother, a therapist, dear Mikhail Mikhailovich, a bachelor, lived right there. In the same apartment, two nieces found shelter ... He (N.M. Pokrovsky - BS) was distinguished by a hot-tempered and uncompromising character, which gave one of the nieces a reason to joke: “You can't please Uncle Kolya, he says: don't you dare give birth and do not dare to have an abortion. "
Both brothers of the Pokrovsky used all their numerous relatives. On St. Nicholas the Winter, everyone gathered at the birthday table, where, in the words of M.A., “sat like a certain God of hosts,” the birthday man himself His wife, Maria Silovna, put pies on the table. A silver dime was baked in one of them. The one who found him was considered especially lucky, and they drank to his health. God of hosts loved to tell an uncomplicated anecdote, distorting it beyond recognition, which caused the laughter of a young cheerful company. "
When writing the novel, Bulgakov consulted both with him and with his friend since the Kiev times of N.L. Gladyrevsky. L.E.Belozerskaya drew such a portrait of him in her memoirs: “My Kiev friend MA, a friend of the Bulgakov family, surgeon Nikolai Leonidovich Gladyrevsky, often visited us. He worked in the clinic of Professor Martynov and, returning to his place, came to us on the way. M.A. I always talked with him with pleasure ... Describing the operation in the story "Heart of a Dog", M.А. I turned to him for some surgical clarifications. He ... showed Mack to Professor Alexander Vasilyevich Martynov, who put him in his clinic and performed an operation for appendicitis. All this was resolved very quickly. I was allowed to go to M.A. immediately after surgery. He was such a pitiful, so wet chicken ... Then I brought him food, but he was annoyed all the time because he was hungry: in terms of food, he was limited.
In the early editions of the story, quite specific persons were guessed among Preobrazhensky's patients. Thus, her frantic lover Moritz, mentioned by an elderly lady, is a good friend of Bulgakov's, Vladimir Emilievich Moritz, an art critic, poet and translator who worked at the State Academy of Art Sciences (GAKhN) and enjoyed great success with the ladies. In particular, the first wife of Bulgakov's friend NN Lyamin, Alexandra Sergeevna Lyamina (nee Prokhorova), the daughter of a famous manufacturer, left her husband for Moritz. In 1930, Moritz was arrested on charges of creating, together with the philosopher GG Shpet, well known to Bulgakov, a "strong citadel of idealism" at GAKhN, exiled to Kotlas, and after returning from exile he safely taught the skill of an actor at the Theater School named after M.S. Schepkina.
Moritz wrote a book of children's poetry "Nicknames", translated Shakespeare, Moliere, Schiller, Beaumarchais, Goethe. In the later edition, the name Moritz was replaced by Alphonse. The episode with the "famous public figure", kindled with passion for a fourteen-year-old girl, in the first edition was provided with such transparent details that it really frightened N.S. Angarsky:
I am a famous public figure, professor! What to do now?
Gentlemen! Philip Philipovich shouted indignantly. - You can't do that! You need to restrain yourself. How old is she?
Fourteen, professor ... You know, the publicity will ruin me. One of these days I have to get a business trip to London.
But I'm not a lawyer, my dear ... Well, wait two years and marry her.
I'm married, professor!
Ah, gentlemen, gentlemen! .. "
Angarsky crossed out the phrase about a business trip to London in red, and marked the entire episode with a blue pencil, signed twice in the margins. As a result, in the subsequent edition, "a well-known public figure" was replaced by "I am too famous in Moscow ...", and a business trip to London turned into just a “business trip abroad”. The fact is that the words about the public figure and London made the prototype easily recognizable. Until the spring of 1925, only two of the prominent members of the Communist Party traveled to the British capital. The first is Leonid Borisovich Krasin, since 1920 he was the people's commissar for foreign trade and at the same time the plenipotentiary and trade representative in England, and since 1924 - the plenipotentiary in France. He still died in 1926 in London, where he was returned by the plenipotentiary in October 1925. The second is Christian Georgievich Rakovsky, the former head of the Council of People's Commissars of Ukraine, who replaced Krasin at the post of plenipotentiary envoy in London in early 1924.
Bulgakov's story takes place in the winter of 1924-1925, when Rakovsky was the plenipotentiary in England. But the prototype of the child molester was not he, but Krasin. Leonid Borisovich had a wife, Lyubov Vasilievna Milovidova, and three children. However, in 1920 or 1921 Krasin met in Berlin with actress Tamara Vladimirovna Zhukovskaya (Miklashevskaya), who was 23 years younger than him. Leonid Borisovich himself was born in 1870, therefore, in 1920 his mistress was 27 years old. But the public was certainly shocked by the big age difference between the People's Commissar and the actress. Nevertheless, Miklashevskaya became Krasin's common-law wife. He gave Miklashevskaya, who went to work at the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade, his last name, and she began to be called Miklashevskaya-Krasina. In September 1923, she gave birth to a daughter, Tamara, from Krasin. These events in 1924 were, as they say, "heard" and were reflected in "Heart of a Dog", and Bulgakov, to exacerbate the situation, made the mistress of the "prominent public figure" fourteen years old.
Krasin appeared several times in Bulgakov's diary. On May 24, 1923, in connection with the sensational ultimatum of Curzon, to which the feuilleton “Lord Curzon's benefit in“ On the Eve ”was dedicated," the writer noted that “Curzon does not want to hear about any compromises and demands from Krasin (after the ultimatum, he immediately hit London on an airplane) exact execution according to the ultimatum ". Here the drunkard and lecher Styopa Likhodeev is immediately remembered, also a nomenklatura rank, although lower than Krasin - just a “red director”. Stepan Bogdanovich, in the opinion of the findirector Rimsky, went from Moscow to Yalta in some kind of super-high-speed fighter (in fact, Woland sent him there). But Likhodeev returns to Moscow exactly on an airplane.
Another entry is related to Krasin's arrival in Paris and is dated at night from 20 to 21 December 1924: “The arrival of monsieur Krasin was marked by the stupidest story in the style russe: a crazy woman, either a journalist or an erotomaniac, came to Krasin's embassy with a revolver - shoot. The police inspector took her away immediately. She didn’t shoot anyone, and it’s a shallow, bastard story. This Dixon I had the pleasure of meeting either in 1922, or in 1923 in the cute edition of “On the Eve” in Moscow, in Gnezdnikovsky lane. A fat, completely crazy woman. Pere Lunacharsky sent her abroad, to whom she got sick of her harassment. "
It is possible that Bulgakov linked the failed attempt on Krasin's life by the crazy literary lady Maria Dikson-Evgenieva, nee Gorchakovskaya, with rumors of Krasin's scandalous connection with Miklashevskaya.
In his diary entry on the night of December 21, 1924, due to the cooling of Anglo-Soviet relations after the publication of the letter from Zinoviev, the then head of the Comintern, Bulgakov also mentioned Rakovsky: “The famous letter from Zinoviev, which contains unequivocal calls for the indignation of workers and troops in England, - not only by the Foreign Office, but by the whole of England, apparently, unconditionally recognized as genuine. England is over. Stupid and slow Englishmen, albeit with a delay, but nevertheless begin to realize that in Moscow, Rakovsky and couriers arriving with sealed packages lurks a certain, very formidable danger of decomposition of Britain.
Bulgakov sought to demonstrate the moral decay of the one who was called to work for the decay of "good old England" and "beautiful France". Through the lips of Philip Philipovich, the author expressed surprise at the incredible voluptuousness of the Bolshevik leaders. The love affairs of many of them, in particular the "All-Union headman" MI Kalinin and the secretary of the Central Executive Committee A.S. Enukidze, were not a secret for the Moscow intelligentsia in the 1920s.
In the early version of the story, the statement of Professor Preobrazhensky that the galoshes from the hall “disappeared in April 1917” was also read more seditiously - a hint of Lenin's return to Russia and his “April Theses” as the root cause of all the troubles that happened in Russia. In the following editions, April was replaced by February 1917 for censorship reasons, and the February Revolution became the source of all disasters.
One of the most famous passages in "Heart of a Dog" is Philip Philipovich's monologue about devastation: "This is a mirage, smoke, fiction! .. What is your" devastation "? An old woman with a stick? The witch who knocked out all the windows, put out all the lamps? It doesn't exist at all! What do you mean by this word? This is what it is: if, instead of operating, I start singing in chorus every evening in my apartment, I will be in ruin. If I, going to the restroom, start, excuse me for the expression, urinate past the toilet and Zina and Darya Petrovna do the same, the restroom will be ruined. Consequently, the devastation sits not in the closets, but in the heads. " It has one very specific source. In the early 1920s, a one-act play by Valery Yazvitsky "Who is to blame?" Was staged in the Moscow Workshop of Communist Dramaturgy. ("Devastation"), where the main character was an ancient crooked old woman in rags named Devastation, preventing the family of the proletarian from living.
Soviet propaganda really made some kind of mythical elusive villain out of ruin, trying to hide the fact that the root cause was in the politics of the Bolsheviks, in military communism, in the fact that people had lost the habit of working honestly and efficiently and had no incentives to work. The only remedy against devastation Preobrazhensky (and with him Bulgakov) recognizes the maintenance of order, when everyone can do their own thing: “Policeman! This, and only this! And it doesn't matter at all whether he will be wearing a badge or wearing a red cap. Put a policeman next to every person and make this policeman moderate the vocal impulses of our citizens. I'll tell you ... that nothing will change for the better in our house, and in any other house, until you pacify these singers! As soon as they stop their concerts, the situation will change for the better by itself! " Lovers of choral singing during working hours Bulgakov punished in the novel "The Master and Margarita", where the employees of the Entertainment Commission are forced to sing non-stop by the former choir director Koroviev-Fagot.
The condemnation of the house committee, instead of his direct responsibilities involved in choral singing, may have as its source not only the experience of Bulgakov's life in a "bad apartment", but also Dieterichs's book "The Murder of the Tsar's Family". It mentions that “when Avdeev (the commandant of the Ipatiev house. - BS) left in the evening, Moshkin (his assistant. - BS) gathered his friends from the guard, including Medvedev, into the commandant's room. they began drinking, drunken hubbub and drunken songs, which continued until late at night.
Usually, fashionable revolutionary songs shouted at all voices: "You fell a victim in a fatal struggle" or "Let us renounce the old world, shake its ashes from our feet", etc. " Thus, the persecutors of Preobrazhensky were likened to regicides.
And the policeman as a symbol of order appears even in the feuilleton "The Capital in a Notebook". The myth of devastation turns out to be correlated with the myth of S.V. Petlyura in the "White Guard", where the former accountant Bulgakov is reprimanded for the fact that he ultimately went about not his business - became the "chief chieftain" of the ephemeral, according to the writer, Ukrainian state. In the novel, the monologue of Alexei Turbin, where he calls for a fight against the Bolsheviks in the name of restoring order, is correlated with Preobrazhensky's monologue and causes a reaction similar to it. Brother Nikolka notes that "Alexei is an irreplaceable person at the meeting, an orator." Sharik, on the other hand, thinks about Philip Philipovich, who has gone into oratorical excitement: "He could earn money right at the rallies ..."
The very name "Heart of a Dog" is taken from the tavern couplet, placed in the book of A. V. Leifert "Balagany" (1922):
... For the second pie -
Frog legs stuffing
With onions, peppers
Yes with a dog's heart.
This name can be correlated with the past life of Klim Chugunkin, who made his living playing the balalaika in taverns (ironically, Bulgakov's brother Ivan also earned his living in exile with this).
The program of Moscow circuses, which Preobrazhensky is studying for the presence in them of numbers with cats that are contraindicated for Sharik (“Solomonovsky… some kind of… yussems and a dead center man… Nikitin… elephants and the limit of human dexterity”) exactly corresponds to the real circumstances of the beginning of 1925 ... It was then that in the 1st State Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, 13 (former A. Salamonsky) and the 2nd State Circus on B. Sadovaya, 18 (former A. Nikitin) trapeze artists "Four Yussems" and the equilibrist Eton, whose number was called "The Man at a Dead Center".
According to some reports, even during Bulgakov's lifetime, "Heart of a Dog" was distributed in samizdat. An anonymous correspondent writes about this in a letter on March 9, 1936. Also, the famous literary critic Razumnik Vasilyevich Ivanov-Razumnik in his book of memoir sketches "Writer's Fates" noted:
“Realizing too late, the censors decided not to miss a single printed line of this“ inappropriate satirist ”(this is how a certain type who has a command at the censorship outpost) said about M. Bulgakov. Since then, his stories and stories were forbidden (I read in the manuscript his very witty story "Sharik") ... "
Here "Ball" clearly means "Heart of a Dog".
“The Tale of the Heart of a Dog was not published for censorship reasons. I believe that the work "The Tale of a Dog's Heart" turned out to be much more malicious than I expected when creating it, and the reasons for the prohibition are clear to me. The humanized dog Sharik turned out, from the point of view of Professor Preobrazhensky, a negative type, since it fell under the influence of the faction (trying to soften the political meaning of the story, Bulgakov argues that Sharikov's negative features are due to the fact that he was under the influence of the Trotskyite-Zinoviev opposition, which in the fall She was persecuted in 1926. However, there is no hint in the text of the story that Sharikov or his patrons sympathized with Trotsky, Zinoviev, the "workers' opposition" or any oppositional Stalinist majority movement. - BS). I read this work at Nikitinskiye Subbotniks, to the editor of Nedr, Comrade Angarsky, and in the circle of poets at Petr Nikanorovich Zaitsev and at The Green Lamp. There were 40 people in Nikitinskiye Subbotniks, 15 people in Green Lamp, and 20 people in the circle of poets. I should note that I have repeatedly received invitations to read this work in different places and refused them, because I understood that in my satire salted in the sense of malice and the story arouses too close attention.
Question: List the names of the people who are in the Green Lamp circle.
Answer: I refuse for ethical reasons.
Question: Do you think there is a political background to Heart of a Dog?
Answer: Yes, there are political moments that are opposition to the existing system. "
The dog Sharik also has at least one funny literary prototype. In the second half of the 19th century, the humorous story-tale of the Russian writer of German origin Ivan Semenovich Gensler "The biography of the cat Vasily Ivanovich, told by himself" was very popular. The protagonist of the story is the St. Petersburg cat Vasily, who lives on Senate Square, upon closer examination, very much resembles not only the cheerful cat Behemoth (although, unlike Bulgakov's magic cat, Gensler's cat is not black, but red), but also the kind dog Sharik (in his canine hypostasis).
For example, here's how Gensler's story begins:
“I come from ancient knightly surnames, which became famous in the Middle Ages, during the time of the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
My late father, if he only wanted, could have procured letters and diplomas about our origin, but, first of all, it would cost the devil only; and secondly, if you reasonably judge, what do we need these diplomas for? .. Hang in a frame, on the wall, under the stove (our family lived in poverty, I will tell you about this later).
But, for comparison, the reasoning of Bulgakov's Sharik about his own origin after he found himself in the warm apartment of Professor Preobrazhensky and ate as much in a week as in the last month and a half of hungry on the Moscow streets: “'I am handsome. Perhaps an unknown dog prince-incognito, "the dog thought, looking at a shaggy coffee dog with a contented muzzle, walking in the mirrored distances. “It is very possible that my grandmother sinned with the diver. That's what I look, I have a white spot on my face. Where is it from, one wonders? Philip Philipovich is a man with great taste, he will not take the first mongrel dog he comes across.
Vasily the cat talks about his poor lot: “Oh, if you only knew what it means to sit under the stove! .. What a horror! .. Rubbish, garbage, muck, cockroaches, whole legions all over the wall; and in the summer, in the summer, mothers are holy! - especially when the hard will pull the bread to bake! I tell you, there is no way to endure! .. You leave, and only on the street will you breathe in clean air.
Poof ... ffa!
And besides, there are various other inconveniences. Sticks, brooms, pokers and all sorts of other kitchen implements are usually stuffed under the stove.
That and look with a grip the eyes will gouge out ... And if not this, they will poke a wet washcloth in the eyes ... All day then you wash, wash and sneeze ... Or at least this too: you sit to yourself and philosophize, closing your eyes ...
Suddenly some damn thing will manage to throw a ladle of boiling water over the cockroaches ... After all, he won't look, you stupid little creature, if there is anyone there; You jump out, like a madman, from there, and even if you apologize, the cattle is like that, but no: it still laughs. Is talking:
Vassenka, what's wrong with you? ..
Comparing our life with the bureaucrats who have to live just outside of dog kennels with a ten-ruble salary, you truly come to the conclusion that these people are mad with fat: no, they would try to live under the stove for a day or two! "
In the same way, Sharik becomes a victim of boiling water, which was thrown into the trash heap by the "kanalya cook", and in a similar way talks about the lower Soviet employees, only with direct sympathy for them, while the cat Vasily disguises this sympathy with irony. At the same time, the cook, quite possibly, splashed the boiling water, having no intention of scalding Sharik, but he, like Vasily, sees an evil intent in the incident:
“Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-gu-gug-guu! Oh look at me, I'm dying.
A blizzard in the alley roars a waste to me, and I howl with it. I was lost, I was lost. A scoundrel in a dirty cap, a cook of a normal food canteen for employees of the Central Council of the National Economy splashed boiling water and scalded my left side. What a reptile, and also a proletarian. Oh my God, how it hurts! Boiling water eaten to the bone. Now I howl, howl, but how can you help me.
How did I stop him? Am I really going to devour the Council of National Economy if I rummage in the garbage? Greedy creature! Look someday at his face: after all, he is wider across himself. Thief with a copper face. Ah, people, people. At noon he treated me to a cap with boiling water, and now it was dark, about four in the afternoon, judging by the smell of onions from the Prechisten fire brigade. Firefighters eat porridge for dinner, as you know. But this is the last thing, like mushrooms. Familiar dogs from Prechistenka, however, said that on Neglinnoye in the restaurant "bar" they were eating an ordinary dish - mushrooms, pican sauce for 3 rubles. 75 jar portion. This is an amateur's business, it's like licking a galosh ... Ooh-oo-oo-oo ...
Street cleaners of all proletarians are the most vile scum. Human purification, the lowest category. The cook comes across different. For example, the late Vlas from Prechistenka. How many lives he saved. Because the most important thing during illness is to intercept couscous. And so, it happened, the old dogs say, Vlas would wave a bone, and on it about an eight-ounce of meat. Heavenly kingdom to him for being a real person, a lordly chef of Counts Tolstoy, and not from the Council of Normal Nutrition. What they get up there in the Normal diet is incomprehensible to the mind of a dog. After all, they, scoundrels, cook cabbage soup from stinking corned beef, and those, poor things, do not know anything. They run, eat, lap.
Another typist receives four and a half ducats for the IX category, well, it is true, her lover will give her fildepper stockings. Why, how much bullying she should endure for this fildepers. After all, he does not in any ordinary way, but exposes her to French love. With ... these Frenchmen, between us. Even though they gulp richly, and all with red wine. Yes ... a typist will come running, because you won't go to a bar for 4.5 ducats. She is not enough for cinema, and a woman's cinema is the only consolation in her life. He trembles, frowns, but eats ... Just think: 40 kopecks from two dishes, and they, both of these dishes, are not worth five altyn, because the manager stole the remaining 25 kopecks. Does she really need such a table? Her right lung apex is not in order, and a female disease on French soil, she was subtracted from her at work, fed rotten meat in the dining room, here she is, here she is ... She runs into the doorway in lover's stockings. Her legs are cold, she is blowing in her stomach, because the fur on her is like mine, and she wears cold pants, just a lace appearance. A tat for a lover. Put on flannel, try it, and he will scream: how inelegant you are! I’m tired of my Matryona, I have worn out with flannel pants, now my time has come. I am now the chairman, and no matter how I cheat - everything on a woman's body, on cancerous necks, on abrau-dyurso. Because I was hungry in my youth enough, it will be with me, and the afterlife does not exist.
I'm sorry for her, sorry! But I feel even more sorry for myself. Not out of selfishness I say, oh no, but because we are really not on an equal footing. She's at least warm at home, but for me, but for me ... Where will I go? Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh! ..
Kut, kut, kut! Sharik, and Sharik ... What are you whining, poor thing? Who hurt you? Uh ...
A dry blizzard witch thundered the gate and drove over the young lady's ear with a broomstick. She whipped her skirt up to her knees, bared cream stockings and a narrow strip of badly washed lace underwear, strangled the words and swept the dog. "
For Bulgakov, instead of a beggar official who is forced to huddle almost in a dog kennel, there is an equally beggar employee-typist. Only they are capable of compassion for unfortunate animals.
Both Sharik and Vasily Ivanovich are being bullied by the "proletariat". The janitors and cooks scoff at the first, couriers and watchmen scoff at the second. But in the end, both find good patrons: Sharik - Professor Preobrazhensky, and Vasily Ivanovich, as it seemed to him at first glance, was a family of a shopkeeper who does not scoff at him, but feeds him, in the unrealizable hope that the lazy Vasily Ivanovich will catch mice. However, the hero of Gensler in the finale leaves his benefactor and gives him a derogatory characterization:
“Forgive me,” I said to him, leaving, you are a kind person, a glorious descendant of the ancient Varangians, with your ancient Slavic laziness and mud, with your clay bread, with your rusty herrings, with your mineral sturgeon, with your carriage butter Chukhonsky, with your rotten eggs, with your tricks, hanging and attribution, and finally, your God, that your rotten product is the first grade. And I part with you without regret. If I also come across specimens like you on the long journey of my life, then I will flee to the woods. It is better to live with animals than with such people. Goodbye!"
Bulgakovsky Sharik in the finale of the story is really happy: “... Thoughts in the dog's head flowed folding and warm.
“So lucky for me, so lucky,” he thought, dozing off, “just indescribably lucky. I have established myself in this apartment. I am finally sure that there is uncleanness in my origin. It's not without a diver. The whore was my grandmother, the kingdom of heaven to her, the old woman. True, the whole head was stripped for some reason, but it will heal before the wedding. We have nothing to look at. "
Sharikov Polygraph Poligrafovich - one of the main characters of the story of MA Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog". At the beginning of the story, Sharikov is just a good-natured courtyard dog who is selected by Professor Preobrazhensky. He heals the dog's wound and treats him well. The ball is happy
Life.
“They care about me,” thought the dog, “a very good person. I know who it is. He is a wizard, magician and sorcerer from a dog's tale ... "
As a result of the experiment on transplanting the pituitary gland, Sharikov is born. At first, the professor thought that he managed to create a human being, but soon it becomes clear that, in fact, he managed to "resurrect" the criminal Klim Chugunkin.
“You are at the lowest stage of development,” cried Philip Philipovich, “you are still a forming, mentally weak being, all your actions are purely bestial ...”
Balls are immoral
And stupid, he has neither honor nor conscience. He is devoid of even the rudiments of morality and nobility. He begins his new life playing the balalaika, drinking and swearing. He sticks to women and spoils furniture, makes a flood in the apartment. From the dog Sharik turned out "such scum that the hair stands on end." Sharikov receives support from the authorities in the person of Shvonder, who sees him as a proletarian and a full-fledged member of society. From the dog, Sharikov, perhaps, only has a dislike for cats. Shvonder finds him a job to his liking - now he runs the cat catching department. But even here Sharikov displays a cruelty that is not characteristic of either animals or humans.
Professor Preobrazhensky steadfastly endures the tricks of his ward and at first harbors hope for his re-education. But the behavior of the dog man is getting worse every day. Sharikov goes overboard when he denounces the professor and threatens to kill him.
“But who is he? Klim, Klim. Here's the thing: two convictions, alcoholism, “share everything”, a hat and two ducats disappeared ... .. Ham and a pig ... "
Preobrazhensky makes a "reverse" operation "and the kind, gentle dog Sharik returns to the world. In the words of Professor Preobrazhensky, the author kind of draws a line, the conclusion: "Science does not yet know a way to turn animals into people." And the real beast was not the dog Sharik, but the soulless and cruel Klim Chugunkin.
Essays on topics:
- Professor Preobrazhensky is one of the main characters in the story. Philip Philipovich is a genius doctor, a talented scientist, a “European luminary” of medicine. He is secluded ...
- Shvonder is one of the heroes of MA Bulgakov's story “Heart of a Dog”; representative of the proletariat, chairman of the house committee. The author describes the hero with unconcealed ...
- The action of Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog" takes place in Moscow. Winter 1924/25. In a large house on Prechistenka he lives and conducts a reception ...
- MA Bulgakov is one of the brightest and most talented writers of the mid-20th century. The themes of his works remain relevant and ...
In the story "Heart of a Dog" M.A. Bulgakov does not just describe the unnatural experiment of Professor Preobrazhensky. The writer shows a new type of person who arose not in the laboratory of a talented scientist, but in the new, Soviet reality of the first post-revolutionary years. The plot of the story is based on the relationship between a prominent Russian scientist and Sharik, Sharikov, a dog and an artificially created person. The first part of the story is based mainly on the inner monologue of a half-starved street dog. He in his own way evaluates the life of the street, everyday life, customs, characters of Moscow during the NEP, with its many shops, teahouses, taverns on Myasnitskaya "with sawdust on the floor, evil clerks who hate dogs." Sharik knows how to sympathize, appreciate kindness and affection and, oddly enough, perfectly understands the social structure of new Russia: he condemns the new masters of life (“I am now the chairman, and no matter how much I cheat - everything is on a woman's body, on cancerous necks, to Abrau-Dyurso "), but about the old Moscow intellectual, Preobrazhensky, he knows that "this one won't kick."
In Sharik's life, in his opinion, a happy accident happens - he finds himself in a luxurious professor's apartment, in which, despite the widespread devastation, there is everything and even "extra rooms". But the professor doesn't need a dog for fun. A fantastic experiment is conceived over him: by transplanting a part of the human brain, the dog must turn into a human. But if the Faust who creates a man in a test tube becomes Professor Preobrazhensky, then the second father - a man who gives a dog its pituitary gland - is Klim Petrovich Chugunkin, whose characterization is given very briefly: “Profession - playing the balalaika in taverns. Small in stature, poorly built. The liver is enlarged (alcohol). The cause of death is a stab in the heart in a pub. " And the creature that emerged as a result of the operation completely inherited the proletarian essence of its ancestor. He is arrogant, arrogant, aggressive.
He is completely devoid of ideas about human culture, about the rules of relationships with other people, he is absolutely immoral. The inevitable conflict between the creator and the creation, Preobrazhensky and Sharik, or, more precisely, Polygraph Poligrafovich Sharikov, as the “homunculus” calls itself, is gradually brewing. And the tragedy is that a “man” who has barely learned to walk finds reliable allies in life who provide a revolutionary theoretical basis for all his actions. From Shvonder, Sharikov learns what privileges he, a proletarian, have in comparison with a professor, and, moreover, begins to realize that the scientist who gave him human life is a class enemy. Sharikov clearly understands the main credo of the new masters of life: rob, steal, take away everything created by other people, and most importantly - strive for universal equalization. And the dog, once grateful to the professor, can no longer come to terms with the fact that he “settled in seven rooms alone,” and brings a piece of paper, according to which he is supposed to have an area of \u200b\u200b16 meters in his apartment. Sharikov is alien to conscience, shame, morality. He lacks human qualities, except for meanness, hatred, anger ... Every day he loses his girdle more and more. He steals, drinks, rampages in Preobrazhensky's apartment, sticks to women.
But Sharikov's finest hour is his new job. The ball makes a dizzying leap: from a stray dog, he turns into the head of the sub-department of cleaning the city from stray animals.
And it is precisely this choice of profession that is not surprising: the Sharikovs always strive to destroy their own people. But Sharikov does not stop on the achieved. After a while, he appears in an apartment on Prechistenka with a young girl and declares: “I am signing with her, this is our typist. Bormental will have to be evicted ... ”Of course, it turns out that Sharikov deceived the girl, composed many stories about himself. And the last chord of Sharikov's activity is the denunciation of Professor Preobrazhensky. In the story, the sorcerer-professor succeeds in the reverse transformation human monster into an animal, into a dog. It is good that the professor understood that nature does not tolerate violence against itself. But, alas, in real life the Sharikovs turned out to be much more tenacious. Self-confident, arrogant, no doubters in their sacred rights to everything, the semi-literate lumpen brought our country to the deepest crisis, because violence over the course of history, neglect of the laws of its development could only give rise to the Sharikovs. In the story, Sharikov again turned into a dog, but in life he walked a long and, as it seemed to him, and others were inspired, a glorious path, and in the thirties and fifties he poisoned people, as he once did in the service of stray cats and dogs. Throughout his life he carried a dog's anger and suspicion, replacing them with unnecessary dog \u200b\u200bloyalty. Having entered into intelligent life, he remained at the level of instincts and was ready to change the whole country, the whole world, the entire universe so that these animal instincts would be easier to satisfy.
He is proud of his low birth. He is proud of his low education. In general, he is proud of everything low, because only this raises him high above those who are high in spirit and reason. People like Preobrazhensky must be trampled into the mud so that Sharikov can rise above them. Outwardly, the balls are no different from people, but their non-human essence is just waiting for the moment to manifest. And then they turn into monsters who, at the first opportunity to grab a tidbit, throw off the mask and show their true essence. They are ready to betray their own. All the highest and most sacred turns into its opposite as soon as they touch it. And the worst thing is that the Sharikovs managed to achieve tremendous power, and when they came to power, nonhumans try to dehumanize everyone around them, because nonhumans are easier to control, they have all human feelings replaced by the instinct of self-preservation. In our country, after the revolution, all the conditions were created for the appearance of a huge number of ball-balls with dog hearts. The totalitarian system greatly contributes to this. Probably due to the fact that these monsters have penetrated into all areas of life, that they are still among us, Russia is going through hard times now. It is scary that aggressive balls with their truly canine vitality, no matter what, can survive. A dog's heart in alliance with the human mind is the main threat of our time. That is why the story, written at the beginning of the century, remains relevant today, serves as a warning to future generations. Sometimes it seems that our country has changed. But the consciousness, stereotypes, the way of thinking of people will not change for ten or twenty years - more than one generation will change before the balls disappear from our life, before people become different, before the vices described by M.A. Bulgakov in his immortal work. How I want to believe that this time will come! ..