A biting satire of Bolshevism, it was written in 1925 at the height of the New Economic Policy, a period during which communism appeared to be relaxing in the Soviet Union.

It was almost immediately adapted into a movie, which was aired in late 1988 on First Channel of Soviet Television, was widely praised and attracted many readers to the original Bulgakov text.

[4] The book was rejected for publication in 1925, due in part to the influence of Lev Kamenev, then a leading Party official.

One suggestion for the real life prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky is a Russian surgeon Serge Voronoff who was famous for his experiments on implanting humans with animal's testicles and thyroid glands, though there were others who did similar work.

[5] Another suggestion is professor Vasily Preobrazhensky, who headed the St. Petersburg Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the time the novella was written.

Like the fictional professor, he "did not like the proletariat", and possibly for this he was banished to Arkhangelsk, where he continued his work, including transplants of ovaries, with a hearsay report of short-term rejuvenation effect.

[6][7] In Moscow in 1924, foraging for trash one winter day causes a stray dog to be found by a cook and to be scalded with boiling water.

To his surprise, a successful surgeon, Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky, arrives and offers the dog a piece of sausage.

At the house, Sharik gets to know Dr. Preobrazhensky's household, which includes Doctor Ivan Arnoldovich Bormenthal (the professor's student and protégé) and two female servants: Zinaida Prokofievna Bunina and Darya Petrovna Ivanova.

As a result, he refuses to decrease his seven-room flat and treats the Bolsheviks on the housing committee, led by Schwonder, with unveiled contempt.

As a seething Sharik plots to destroy Filip's stuffed owl again, the door opens and he is dragged by the skin of his neck into the lab.

The organs were cut from Klim Grigorievich Chugunkin, who was killed in a brawl and was repeatedly a thief, an alcoholic and a bully.

During the weeks after the operation, the household is stunned, as Sharik begins transforming into an incredibly unkempt and at first primitive human.

As a result, Sharikov curses in front of women, refuses to shave, dresses in unwashed clothing and eats like a complete slob.

Later, Bormenthal begs the professor for permission to dose and kill Sharikov with arsenic and calls him a "man with the heart of a dog".

Breaking with his former beliefs, the professor admits that any peasant woman could give birth to a genius and that eugenics are therefore a waste of time.

[8][9] One commonly-accepted interpretation is that Bulgakov was trying to show all the inconsistencies of the system in which Sharikov, a man with a dog's intelligence, could become an important part.

[11] The story was filmed in Italian in 1976 as Cuore di cane and starred Max von Sydow as Preobrazhensky.

In March 2024, Heart of a Dog was staged at the University of Leeds, directed by James Ahearne and Matthew Beaumont.

[14] A new musical adaptation of Heart of a Dog was developed in Australia and was to premiere in May 2013,[15] written by Jim McGrath, composed by Marc Robertson and directed by Nick Byrne.