The Fatal Eggs (Russian: Роковые яйца, pronounced [rəkɐˈvɨjə ˈjæjtsə]) is a novella by Mikhail Bulgakov, a Soviet novelist and playwright.
He finished The Fatal Eggs in early October 1924[1] and published it in the journal Nedra in February 1925 and included in the short-story collection Diaboliad later that year.
The narration begins in Moscow of the then-future year of 1928, which seems to have overcome the destructive effects of the Russian Civil War and to be quite prosperous.
Meanwhile, the country is affected by an unknown disease in domesticated poultry, which results in the extinction of all chickens in Soviet Russia, with the plague stopping at the nation's borders.
A sovkhoz manager, Aleksandr Semenovich Rokk (whose name is also a pun on the novel's title, Rok meaning fate), receives an official permission to confiscate Persikov's equipment and to use the invention to attempt to restore the chicken populace to the pre-plague level.
As a result, Rokk breeds an enormous quantity of large and overly-aggressive snakes, ostriches and crocodiles, which start attacking people.
[2] Although Bulgakov was not repressed, from 1925 he was questioned by the GPU several times and was never allowed to leave the Soviet Union, possibly as a result of his negative image, which was at least partly from the publication of The Fatal Eggs.
"[5] There are a number of English translations of The Fatal Eggs, including: A film adaptation directed by Sergei Lomkin was released in 1996.