The story “Fatal Eggs” was written by Bulgakov in 1924. Already publishing the story in an abridged form in four issues of the magazine “Red Panorama” (1925), Bulgakov changed the title from “Ray of Life” to “Fatal Eggs”. The entire story was published in the magazine “Nedra” No. 6 for 1925, and in the same year it was included in the collection “Diaboliad”.
Literary direction and genre
The story belongs to the modernist movement in literature. Fantastic events Bulgakov transfers what is happening in it to the near future (1928). Thanks to this, the story acquires the features of a dystopia, in which the events of Soviet life and the achievements of Soviet science are satirically interpreted.
Issues
In a satirical story the main problem social – the future of the country. Bulgakov questions the viability of the new state, still hoping that after the “invasion of reptiles,” epidemics and diseases, the country can recover.
They also rise philosophical problems: the role of chance in human life and history, personality in history.
Plot and composition
The events of the story have a clear chronological framework and the accuracy characteristic of chronicles. The events began on April 16 (the day after Easter in 1928), and the invasion ended on the night of August 19-20 (the day after the Transfiguration). Such hints at the resurrection (in this case, of something devilish) and the transformation of the world, its return to its previous imperfect but normal state, embody Bulgakov’s hope for a possible return to the previous “normal” pre-revolutionary life.
The professor's age is precisely indicated (58 years old), the year when his wife ran away from Persikov, unable to bear his frogs.
Zoology professor Persikov, specializing in amphibians, accidentally discovers a ray created by refraction in the lenses of a microscope, under the influence of which living organisms grow to unusual sizes and multiply intensively. Soon an epidemic of chicken disease destroys all the chickens in the country. The chairman of the “Red Ray” state farm, who wants to quickly restore chicken breeding in the republic, having secured paper from the Kremlin, temporarily takes three beam-generating cameras from the professor.
The animals at the institute have a presentiment of evil: the toads start a concert, chirping “ominously and warningly.” When Rokk begins to illuminate the eggs with a red beam, dogs howl and frogs scream at the state farm, then the birds fly away from the surrounding groves, and the frogs disappear from the pond. They seem to know about a mistake, which Rokk, who received a package from abroad intended for Persikov, is not aware of. The eggs first hatch into two anacondas, 15 arshins in length and as wide as a person. One of them swallows Rokk's fat wife Manya, after which Rokk turns gray and runs to Dugino station with a request to send him to Moscow.
An agent of the state political administration is killed in a fight with snakes and crocodiles crawling out of the greenhouse. The reptiles threaten Smolensk, which is burning in a fire caused by stoves left in a panic. The animals move towards Moscow, laying a huge number of eggs along the way. Gold reserves and works of art are being hastily removed from Moscow, where martial law has been declared. A horse army was sent to fight the animals, three quarters of which died near Mozhaisk, and gas detachments, which poisoned a huge number of people.
An angry crowd kills Persikov and destroys his camera, and three cameras at the Red Ray state farm are destroyed in a fire.
The chicken pestilence, and then the invasion of reptiles, are presented in the story as a fatal disaster, the punishment of an entire country. Proof of this are the boundaries of the chicken pestilence. In the north and east, the pestilence was stopped by the sea, and in the south by the steppe. But surprising is the fact that the pestilence stopped at the border of Poland and Romania. Words about the different climate of these places hint at the true reason - a different political system, over which the diseases of the Soviet state have no power.
The invasion of reptiles (a telling word and, undoubtedly, was associated by Bulgakov with the events of the revolution and civil war) was stopped by severe frosts, which cannot exist in nature at this time. This is a symbol of help from above; only God can stop the Soviet danger creeping into the country like huge reptiles. No wonder the frost struck on the night after the religious holiday of the Transfiguration of the Lord (the Savior among the people).
It was not possible to restore the cameras without Persikov, apparently because they were made at the instigation of the devil.
Heroes of the story
Professor Vladimir Ipatievich Persikov– a genius focused on science. He is a professor of zoology at the university and director of the Zoological Institute on Herzen Street.
The professor's appearance is unattractive, even repulsive or funny. Bulgakov ironically calls the head wonderful: “bald, like a pusher.” Bulgakov pays attention to such details as the protruding lower lip, which gave the face a capricious tint, the red nose, old-fashioned glasses, and a creaky, croaking voice. Persikov had a habit of twisting his index finger when explaining something.
Detachment from the outside world, as well as his faithful housekeeper Marya Stepanovna, allow the professor to survive the most difficult, hungry and cold years. But this same detachment makes him a misanthrope. Even the death of his own wife, who left Persikov 15 years ago, seems to leave him indifferent.
Persikov scares ordinary people; they talk to him “with respect and horror,” or with a smile, as if they were talking to a small, albeit large, child. Persikov is dual in nature, he only partly relates to the human world, and partly to the other world. In a word, Persikov is an almost demonic creature, therefore he is far from life and is not interested in it.
Persikov loses his human appearance when he learns that two batches of eggs have been mixed up. He becomes multi-colored, blue-white, with different-colored eyes. On the other hand, there is something mechanical about Persikov: he acts and speaks automatically and monotonously, calling on Pankrat in case of danger.
Alexander Semenovich Rokk– head of the demonstration state farm “Red Ray”, located in Nikolskoye, Smolensk province.
This hero has a telling surname. When Pankrat tells Persikov that Rock came to him with paper from the Kremlin, Persikov is surprised that Rock could come and bring paper from the Kremlin. Rokk is dressed in an old-fashioned way; on his side he has an old-style Mauser in a yellow holster.
Rokk's face makes an extremely unpleasant impression on everyone. Small eyes look in amazement and confidence, the face is blue-shaven.
Until the age of 17, Rokk served as a flutist in the concert ensemble of maestro Petukhov, and performed in the “Magic Dreams” cinema in the city of Yekaterinoslavl. The revolution showed that “this man is positively great.”
Persikov immediately guesses that Rokk will “do the devil knows what” with the eggs. The guys in the Ending call Rokk the Antichrist, and the eggs are the devil, they even want to kill him. At the end of the story, Rock disappeared to God knows where, which once again proves his devilish nature.
Stylistic features
The story has many hidden meanings. The subtext is in the title itself. The original title “Ray of Life” is ironic, because the red ray invented by the professor turns out to be precisely the ray of death that threatens the entire country. This name echoes the name of the state farm where all the misfortunes began - “Red Ray”. The name “Fatal Eggs” is symbolic; the egg, as the beginning and symbol of life, turns out to be fatal as a result of an error and turns the life (reptiles) born in it into death for people.
The egg and chicken become the subject of the heroes' ridicule and the author's irony. The inscription “Burning of chicken corpses on Khodynka” evokes in the reader the memory of the Khodynka tragedy with a huge number of victims, which occurred due to the fault of the authorities (this is how chickens become innocent victims for people).
People laugh at death, turning the chicken pestilence into the subject of jokes and carnival. The coupletists sing a vulgar song: “Oh, mom, what will I do without eggs?..”, a slogan appears addressed to foreign capitalists: “Don’t covet our eggs - you have your own.” Grammatical and stylistic errors neutralize the tragedy of the play “Chicken Dough” and the inscription on the egg store “Quality guaranteed.” Literary work“Chicken children” is immediately associated with the rude “sons of bitches.”
Rocca's question to Persikov over the phone is also ambiguous: “Should I wash the eggs, professor?”
To create a comic effect, Bulgakov actively uses cliches and cliches of the official business style, creating unimaginable names for emergency commissions (Dobrokur). Bulgakov gives his heroes speaking names. The head of the livestock department at the Supreme Commission is called Ptakha-Porosyuk (a hint at the food program).
The main techniques for creating the comic in the story are irony and grotesque.
ABSTRACT
“EXPERIMENT IN M.A. BULGAKOV’S STORIES “FATAL EGGS” AND “HEART OF A DOG”
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………2
1. Life and time of creation of the stories “Fatal Eggs” and “ dog's heart"……. 3
2. Professor Persikov’s experiment in the story “Fatal Eggs”…………. 5
3. Professor Preobrazhensky’s experiment and its consequences in the story “Heart of a Dog”…………………………………………………………………………………. 8
4. Lessons learned from the analysis of the works “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog”……………………………………………………………………………………………… 12
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………… 13
List of sources used………………………………………………………. 14
INTRODUCTION
Bulgakov's work is the pinnacle phenomenon of Russian artistic culture of the twentieth century. Bulgakov's creativity is diverse. But a special place in it is occupied by the theme of scientific experiment, which is raised in the socio-philosophical stories of satirical fiction “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog”, which have much in common.
This topic relevant and today, because Bulgakov’s satirical fiction warns society of impending dangers and cataclysms. We are talking about the tragic discrepancy between the achievements of science - man’s desire to change the world - and his contradictory, imperfect essence, inability to foresee the future, here he embodies his conviction in the preference of normal evolution over a violent, revolutionary method of invading life, about the responsibility of a scientist and a terrible, destructive force smug aggressive ignorance. These themes are eternal and they have not lost their significance even now.
Tasks of this essay are to analyze the plots in M.A. Bulgakov’s stories “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog”, the place and influence of the scientific experiments of their main characters on the development of plots in the stories, and also draw conclusions about what the writer warned his contemporaries about in his works , And purpose of this essay to find out what impact it has on our modern life.
This work used materials from critical articles by literary critics of the work of the writer M.A. Bulgakov of the Soviet and modern periods, as well as independent conclusions on this topic.
The novelty of my work lies in proving the significance, relevance and “survivability” of M.A. Bulgakov’s literary heritage today, about the threat of any thoughtless experiment that contradicts human nature and its morality.
1. Life and time of creation of the stories “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog”.
The story “Fatal Eggs” was written in 1924, and published in 1925, first in an abbreviated form in the magazine “Red Panorama” No. 19-22, 24, and in No. 19-21 it was called “Ray of Life” and only in No. 22.24 acquired the now well-known name “Fatal Eggs”. In the same year, the story was published in the almanac “Nedra”, in the sixth issue, and was included in Bulgakov’s collection “Diaboliada”, published in two editions in 1925 and 1926, and the publication of the collection in 1926 became Bulgakov’s last lifetime book in his homeland.
The author never saw the story “Heart of a Dog,” written in 1925; it was confiscated from the author along with his diaries by OGPU officers during a search on May 7, 1926. “Heart of a Dog” is Bulgakov’s last satirical story. She avoided the fate of her predecessors - she was not ridiculed and trampled upon by false critics of “Soviet literature”, because was published only in 1987 in the magazine “Znamya”.
The action of “Fatal Eggs” is timed to 1928; the realities of Soviet life in the first post-revolutionary years are easily recognized in the story. The most expressive in this regard is the reference to the notorious “housing issue,” which was supposedly resolved in 1926: “Just as amphibians come to life after a long drought, with the first heavy rain, Professor Persikov came to life in 1926, when the united American-Russian The company built, starting from the corner of Gazetny Lane and Tverskaya, in the center of Moscow 15 fifteen-story buildings, and on the outskirts of 300 workers' cottages, each with 8 apartments, once and for all putting an end to that terrible and funny housing crisis that so tormented Muscovites in the years 1919-1925 "
The hero of the story, Professor Preobrazhensky, came to Bulgakov’s story from Prechistenka, where the hereditary Moscow intelligentsia had long settled. A recent Muscovite, Bulgakov knew and loved this area. He settled in Obukhov (Chisty) Lane, where “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog” were written. People who were close to him in spirit and culture lived here. The prototype of Professor Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky is considered to be Bulgakov’s maternal relative, Professor N.M. Pokrovsky. But, in essence, it reflected the type of thinking and the best features of that layer of the Russian intelligentsia, which was called “Prechistinka” in Bulgakov’s circle.
Bulgakov considered it his duty to “persistently portray the Russian intelligentsia as the best layer in our country.” He treated his hero-scientist with respect and love; to some extent, Professor Preobrazhensky is the embodiment of the outgoing Russian culture, the culture of the spirit, aristocracy.
Since 1921 M.A. Bulgakov lived in Moscow, which, like the whole country, was transitioning to the NEPA era - paradoxical, acute, contradictory. The harsh days of war communism were becoming a thing of the past. The era was seething. Bulgakov's pen was in a hurry to capture the rapidly flowing incredible, unique reality. It responded with satirical touches in essays and feuilletons, entire fantastic-satirical works, such as “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog.”
2. Professor Persikov's experiment in the story "Fatal Eggs".
Bulgakov’s satirical story “The Fatal Eggs” is imbued with apocalyptic motifs, work on which, as well as on “Diaboliada”, was carried out during the writing of “The White Guard”.
The plot outline of the story “Fatal Eggs” is very simple and echoes the plots of many science fiction novels by H. Wells (which is directly indicated in the story). It amazes with the boldness of the author's imagination and the abundance of very risky private statements and satirical attacks.
At the center of the story is the traditional image of an eccentric scientist, a theorist, completely immersed in his scientific research, far from reality and not understanding it. Professor Vladimir Ignatievich Persikov was 58 years old, “his head is wonderful, bulging, bald, with a tuft of yellowish hair sticking out at the sides.”
The second most important image in the system of characters in the story is the image of A.S. Rokka. The very appearance of Rock is presented in the story as the personification of the era of military communism, a time absolutely alien and hostile to Bulgakov and personifying for him the essence of the proletarian revolution: “He was terribly old-fashioned. In 1919, this man would have been completely out of place on the streets of the capital, he would have been tolerable in 1924, at the beginning of it, but in 1928 he was strange. While the most backward part of the proletariat - the bakers - wore jackets, when the French was a rarity in Moscow - an old-fashioned suit, abandoned completely at the end of 1924, the one who entered was wearing a leather double-breasted jacket, green trousers, windings and boots on his feet, and on his side is a huge old-style Mauser pistol in a yellow broken holster.” It is curious that, according to the narrator, this man would have been tolerable precisely at the beginning of 1924. I think that we have Bulgakov’s unambiguous indication of the time of Lenin’s death, and, therefore, Rock personifies here the Leninist era, which, as it seems to the author, has gone into the irrevocable past.
The main event in the story is the discovery of the scientist Persikov. Outwardly, this event is nothing more than an artist’s joke. While setting up a microscope for work, Persikov accidentally discovered that when the mirror and lens move, some kind of red ray appears, which, as it soon turns out, has an amazing effect on living organisms: they become incredibly active, angry, multiply rapidly and grow to enormous sizes. But Persikov’s brilliant invention in the conditions of Bolshevik Russia leads to confusion and devilry, which is associated with the end of the world.
It all started with a domestic misunderstanding. “Eternal chaos, eternal disgrace, “some kind of indescribable disgrace,” as a result of which the addresses were mixed up with eggs: instead of snake eggs, the professor was brought “those chicken eggs,” and Rokka, instead of a pile of chicken eggs, was brought only three boxes of eggs.
Events are developing rapidly. When Persikov realized the terrible mistake, it was already too late: “something monstrous” was happening in the Smolensk region. Rokk bred snakes instead of chickens, and they produced the same phenomenal clutch as frogs.” The snakes moved towards Moscow. Nothing could stop them. Death threatened the entire state. Moscow became quiet, and then a mad panic began, fires and looting. As a result of the pogrom perpetrated by an angry, uncontrollable crowd, the Institute engaged in the laboratory breeding of “new life” is burned down, the chamber that generated the ill-fated red ray is broken, the experimenter himself, Professor Persikov, is killed and torn to pieces by the crowd, and with him Pankrat and the servant Marya Stepanovna. And only the traditional Russian frost, which miraculously broke out “on the night from August 19 to 20, 1928” (“a frosty god on a car,” Bulgakov ironizes in the title of Chapter XII of the story), saves Russia from a catastrophe of terrible proportions. Giant reptiles, like ancient dinosaurs of the Mesozoic era, froze to death on the approach to Moscow. “Were dead” were countless snake, crocodiles and ostrich eggs that covered the “forests, fields, vast swamps” of Soviet Russia.
The plot of “Fatal Eggs” contains many of the most incredible events and coincidences. This is the chicken pestilence that came out of nowhere, and the accidental discovery of Persikov, and the confusion with the eggs, and the eighteen-degree frost in August, and the fact that neither the chicken plague nor the invasion of reptiles for some reason spread outside the country, and much more. It’s as if the author deliberately stirs up such contingencies, without caring that they are in any way plausible. But behind the allegorical images and paintings, it is not difficult to discern real or at least quite possible events.
“Fatal Eggs” is not just a satire, but a warning against excessive enthusiasm for the long-established, essentially open red ray, or, in other words, revolutionary progress, revolutionary methods of building a new life. They do not always and not in everything go for the benefit of the people, the writer argued, but can be fraught with catastrophically grave consequences, because they awaken enormous energy in people who are not only thoughtful, honest and aware of their responsibility to the people, but also ignorant and disorderly. Sometimes this process lifts such people to enormous heights, and its further course depends a lot on them.
The most bitter thing was that Bulgakov was not mistaken even in the timing. It was in 1928 that a nationwide disaster began, which was called the general collectivization of agriculture and the elimination of the kulaks as a class, and caused enormous damage to the country.
An apocalypse actually occurred in Russia, which M.A. Bulgakov warned against in his satirical story “Fatal Eggs.”
3. The experiment of Professor Preobrazhensky and its consequences in the story “Heart of a Dog.”
The story is based on a great experiment. Professor Preobrazhensky, an elderly man, lives alone in a beautiful, comfortable apartment. the author admires the culture of his life, his appearance - Mikhail Afanasyevich himself loved aristocracy in everything, at one time he even wore a monocle.
The professor who transforms the dog into a human bears the name Preobrazhensky. And the action itself takes place on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, by all possible means the writer points out the unnaturalness of what is happening, that this is an anti-creation, a parody of Christmas. And by these signs we can say that in “Heart of a Dog” the motives of the latter and best work Bulgakov - a novel about the devil.
The proud and majestic Professor Preobrazhensky, who spouts ancient aphorisms, is a luminary of Moscow genetics, a brilliant surgeon engaged in profitable operations to rejuvenate aging ladies and lively elders: the author's irony is merciless - sarcasm in relation to the prosperous Nepmen.
But the professor plans to improve nature itself, he decides to compete with Life itself, to create a new person, and performs the main work of his life - a unique operation - an experiment, transplanting a human pituitary gland into the dog Sharik from a 28-year-old man who died a few hours before the operation. This man, Klim Petrovich Chugunkin, was sued three times. “Profession is playing the balalaika in taverns. Small in stature, poorly built. The liver is dilated (alcohol). The cause of death was a stab in the heart in a pub.”
As a result of a most complex operation, an ugly, primitive creature appeared - a non-human, who completely inherited the “proletarian” essence of his “ancestor”. The first words he uttered were swearing, the first distinct words: “bourgeois.” And then - the street words: “don’t push!” “scoundrel”, “get off the bandwagon”, etc. He was a disgusting man of short stature and unattractive appearance. The hair on his head grew coarse... His forehead was striking in its small height. Almost directly above the black threads of the eyebrows, a thick head brush began.” He “dressed up” in the same ugly and vulgar way.
The smile of life is that as soon as Sharikov stands on his hind legs, he is ready to oppress, drive into a corner the “father” who gave birth to him - the professor.
And this humanoid creature demands from the professor a document on residence, confident that the house committee, which “protects interests,” will help him with this.
Whose interests, may I ask?
It is known whose - labor element. Philip Philipovich rolled his eyes.
Why are you a hard worker?
Yes, we know, not a NEPman.
From this verbal duel, taking advantage of the professor’s confusion about his origin (“you are, so to speak, an unexpectedly appeared creature, a laboratory one”), the homunculus emerges victorious and demands that he be given the “hereditary” surname Sharikov, and he chooses the name for himself - Poligraf Poligrafovich. Sharikov is becoming more impudent every day. In addition, he finds an ally - theorist Shvonder. It is he, Shvonder, who demands the issuance of the document to Sharikov, claiming that the document is the most important thing in the world.
The scary thing is that the bureaucratic system does not need the science of a professor. It costs her nothing to appoint anyone as a person. Any nonentity, even an empty place, can be taken and appointed as a person. Well, of course, formalize it accordingly and reflect it, as expected, in the documents. By setting Sharikov against the professor, Shvonder does not understand that someone else could easily set Sharikov against Shvonder himself. A person with the heart of a dog just needs to point out anyone, say that he is an enemy, and Sharikov will humiliate him, destroy him, etc. How reminiscent this is of Soviet times and especially the thirties...
The finest hour for Poligraf Poligrafovich was his “service”.
He presents the stunned professor with a paper stating that Comrade Sharikov is the head of the department for clearing the city of stray animals. Of course, Shvonder got him there. When asked why he smells so disgusting, the monster replies:
Well, well, it smells... well known: according to its specialty. Yesterday
cats were strangled - strangled...
So Bulgakov’s Sharik made a dizzying leap: from stray dogs to orderlies to cleanse the city of stray dogs (and cats, of course). Well, pursuing one’s own is a characteristic feature of all Sharikovs. They destroy their own, as if covering up traces of their own origin...
The last, final chord of Sharikov’s activity is a denunciation-libel against Professor Preobrazhensky.
It should be noted that it was then, in the thirties, that denunciation became one of the foundations of a “socialist” society, which would be more correctly called totalitarian. Because only a totalitarian regime can be based on denunciation.
Sharikov is alien to conscience, shame, and morality. He has no human qualities except meanness, hatred, malice...
It’s good that on the pages of the story the sorcerer-professor managed to reverse the transformation of a man-monster into an animal, into a dog. It’s good that the professor understood that nature does not tolerate violence against itself. Alas, in real life The Sharikovs won, they turned out to be tenacious, crawling out of all the cracks. Self-confident, arrogant, confident in their sacred rights to everything, semi-literate lumpens brought our country to the deepest crisis, because the Bolshevik-Shvonder thesis of the “Great Leap Forward” socialist revolution", mocking disregard for the laws of evolution could only give rise to the Sharikovs.
4. Lessons learned from analyzing The Fatal Eggs and The Heart of a Dog.
Everything that was happening around and what was called the construction of socialism, was perceived by Bulgakov precisely as an experiment - huge in scale and more than dangerous. To attempts to create a new perfect society by revolutionary, i.e. methods that did not exclude violence, he was extremely skeptical about educating a new, free person using the same methods. For him, this was such an interference in the natural course of things, the consequences of which could be disastrous, including for the “experimenters” themselves. In M. Bulgakov’s diary (“Under Heel. My Diary”), there is a point of view of a witness, ironically observing from the sidelines a grandiose social experiment (“It would be interesting to know how long the “Union of Socialist Republics” will exist in this situation”), and prophetic eschatological intonations (“Yes, this will all end somehow. I believe...”). The author warns readers about this with his works.
The stories “Fatal Eggs” and “Heart of a Dog,” in my opinion, are distinguished by an extremely clear author’s idea. Briefly, it can be formulated as follows: for the first time, Bulgakov’s rejection of revolutionary changes definitely manifested itself, and the revolution that took place in Russia was not the result of natural socio-economic and spiritual development society, but an irresponsible and premature experiment; therefore it is necessary to return the country, if possible, to its former natural state.
CONCLUSION
In the story “Heart of a Dog,” the professor corrects his mistake - Sharikov turns into a dog again. He is happy with his fate and with himself. But in life such experiments are irreversible. And Bulgakov was able to warn about this at the very beginning of those destructive transformations that began in our country in 1917 after the revolution, when all the conditions were created for the appearance of a huge number of 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 now going through difficult times. The Sharikovs, with their truly canine vitality, no matter what, will go over the heads of others everywhere. The heart of a dog in alliance with the human mind is the main threat of our time.
In the course of the work, an attempt was made to prove that stories written at the beginning of the twentieth century remain relevant and today, serve as a warning to future generations. Today is so close to yesterday... At first glance, it seems that outwardly everything has changed, that the country has become different. But consciousness, stereotypes, the way of thinking of people will not change in either ten or twenty years - more than one generation will pass before the Sharikovs disappear from our lives, before people become different, before the vices described by Bulgakov in his immortal works. How I want to believe that this time will come!...
These are sad thoughts about the consequences (on the one hand possible, on the other - accomplished) of the interaction of three forces: apolitical science, aggressive social rudeness and spiritual power reduced to the level of a house committee.
List of sources used.
1. Beznosov E.L. Lecture 4. The image of post-revolutionary Soviet reality in Bulgakov’s story “Fatal Eggs” and the images of “new” people in the satirical story “Heart of a Dog.” // “Literature. – 2004.- No. 38.
2. Bulgakov M.A. Under the Heel: My Diary // Ogonyok. – 1989. - No. 51.
3. Bulgakov M. Heart of a Dog: A Novel. Stories. Stories. –M.: ZAO Publishing House EKSMO – Press, 1999.
4. M.A. Bulgakov. Dog's heart. Reference materials. 11 cells/automatic state THEM. Mikhailova.-M.: Bustard, 1998.
5. Bulgakov M.A. Collection cit.: In 5 vols. M., 1989-1990. T.2.
6. Kamakhina T.V. Professor Preobrazhensky's experiment//Literature at school. – 2002. - No. 7.
7. Kireev Ruslan. Bulgakov. Last flight//Literature.-2004.- No. 32.
8. Petrov V.B. Mikhail Bulgakov looks to the future./ /Literature at school.-2002.- No. 7.
9. Chekalov P.K. Canine and human in M.A. Bulgakov’s story “Heart of a Dog”.//Literature.-2004.- No. 8.
10. Yablokov E.A. Motives of Mikhail Bulgakov's prose. M., 1997.
Topic: science
Problem: consequences of scientific discoveries
M. “Fatal eggs”
The ray turned out to be a sword
The short story “Fatal Eggs” was written in 1924, but the heroes
This work lives in the near future. What does this author want to say?
Why does he move the events described four years into the future? Let's try to answer
to this difficult question.
So, in Moscow lives a science-obsessed, eccentric, brilliant professor.
Persikov, which specializes mainly in frogs. This walking
an encyclopedia that is not interested in anything in this life except naked bastards:
he has neither family nor friends, he does not read newspapers, he gets by with little in everyday life. And so it is
it turned out that completely by accident (of course, not by chance), Persikov collided
with a beam that appears from electric light through repeated refraction
in mirrors and lenses. Needless to say, not a living ray, not natural! But it was under him
exposure, all tadpoles quickly develop, instantly turn into frogs and
produce offspring unprecedented in number, which exceed their parents in size and
characterized by unprecedented aggressiveness.
The public and authorities become aware of the professor's discovery. Nobody
doesn’t particularly delve into what kind of ray this is, what benefit it could have, everyone gets by
some kind of fairy tales. Persikov receives the desired equipment for enlargement
power of his beam, travels contentedly to clubs and enthusiastically reads lectures about his
opening.
And it had to happen that at one of the lectures there was a man
which is everything last years fights for the happiness of the people, restores the economy, and
Now the party sent him to work in the Smolensk province to head a state farm.
And in the Smolensk region a tragedy happened: an incomprehensible disease destroyed all the chickens. That's
Rokku (that was the name of this valuable employee) came up with a “brilliant” idea. Need to
restore the entire chicken population using Persikov's beam. Frog times instantly
multiply, which means they will also breed miracle chickens that will fly at speed
machine.
The government supported this idea. The authorities temporarily seized the device from Persikov
and handed them over to Rokka, and also brought foreign boxes with some eggs to the state farm.
The result was monstrous. Not only was the unexplored scientific discovery
handed over to ignorant hands, and the supply of eggs was also mixed up: Rokku was brought eggs
all sorts of snakes and crocodiles that were intended for the professor’s experiments.
A few days later, an armada of reptiles destroyed the Smolensk region and
moved towards Moscow. There were many thousands of dead. And it’s unknown how it would have ended
this biological catastrophe, if it hadn’t happened in mid-August almost
twenty degree frost.
The angry crowd beat Persikov to death. But from now on, no one will ever
managed to get this living ray again. But maybe this is for the better.
These are the horrors described in the story. And yet why does the action transfer occur?
to the future? After all, by drawing the image of Persikov before us, he wants to talk about that
responsibility that lies with the professor not so much for his discoveries as
for their popularization. And as a result, the miraculous device ends up in the hands of
semi-literate, but loyal to the party people. We know how it all ended.
It seems that there is also a political aspect in the story, so to speak, a warning against
the current political system. Not long ago the revolution took place, died down
civil war, people without education are entrusted with people's lives, family and
national traditions are uprooted, faith is persecuted, but more and more often
the so-called Ilyich light bulbs light up in the huts, more and more more people believe
into communism. They, as if bewitched by this ray of light, become aggressive and
trample on the moral values of the Russian people. A spiritual mutation occurs.
This is the catastrophe Mikhail warned us about in “Fatal Eggs,” and then
showed the “birth” of a new person in “Heart of a Dog.”
“Fatal eggs” by Bulgakov M.A.
“Fatal Eggs,” written, according to M. Gorky, “witty and deft,” was not simply, as it might seem, a caustic satire on Soviet society of the NEP era. Bulgakov is making an attempt here to make an artistic diagnosis of the consequences of the gigantic experiment that was carried out on the “progressive part of humanity.” In particular, we're talking about about the unpredictability of the invasion of reason and science into the endless world of nature and human nature itself. But wasn’t that what the wise Valery Bryusov spoke about a little earlier than Bulgakov, in the poem “The Riddle of the Sphinx” (1922)?
The World Wars under microscopes silently tell us about other universes.
But we are between them - elk calves in the forest,
And it’s easier for thoughts to sit under the windows...
All in the same cage guinea pig,
The same experience with chickens, with reptiles...
But before Oedipus is the solution to the Sphinx,
Prime numbers are not all solved.
It is the experience “with chickens, with reptiles,” when, under a miraculous red ray accidentally discovered by Professor Persikov, instead of elephant-like broilers, giant reptiles come to life, allows Bulgakov to show where the road paved with the best intentions leads. In fact, the result of Professor Persikov’s discovery is (in the words of Andrei Platonov) only “damage to nature.” However, what kind of discovery is this?
“The red stripe, and then the entire disk, became crowded, and an inevitable struggle began. The newly born furiously attacked each other and tore them to shreds and swallowed them. Among those born lay the corpses of those killed in the struggle for existence. The best and strongest won. And these best ones were terrible. Firstly, they were approximately twice the volume of ordinary amoebas, and secondly, they were distinguished by some special malice and agility.”
The red ray discovered by Persikov is a certain symbol that is repeated many times, say, in the names of Soviet magazines and newspapers (“Red Light”, “Red Pepper”, “Red Magazine”, “Red Searchlight”, “Red Evening Moscow” and even organ of the GPU “Red Raven”), whose employees are eager to glorify the professor’s feat, in the name of the state farm, where the decisive experiment is to be carried out. Bulgakov simultaneously parodies here the teachings of Marxism, which, barely touching something living, immediately evokes in it the boiling of class struggle, “anger and playfulness.” The experiment was doomed from the beginning and burst due to the will of predestination, fate, which in the story was personified in the person of the communist devotee and director of the Red Ray state farm, Rokka. The Red Army must enter into mortal combat with the reptiles creeping towards Moscow.
“- Mother... mother...” rolled through the rows. Packs of cigarettes jumped in the illuminated night air, and white teeth grinned at the stunned people from their horses. A dull and heart-stirring chant flowed through the rows:
Neither ace, nor queen, nor jack,
We will beat the bastards without a doubt,
Four on the side - yours are not there...
The buzzing peals of “hurray” floated over all this mess, because a rumor spread that in front of the ranks on a horse, wearing the same crimson cap as all the riders, was riding the old and gray-haired commander of the cavalry who had become legendary 10 years ago.”
There is so much salt and hidden rage in this description, which certainly returns Bulgakov to painful memories of the lost Civil War and its winners! In passing he is an audacity unheard of in those conditions! - venomously mocks the holy of holies - the anthem of the world proletariat "The International", with its "No one will give us deliverance, not God, not the king and not the hero...". This story-pamphlet ends with the blow of a sudden frost in the middle of summer, which kills the reptiles, and the death of Professor Persikov, along with whom the red ray is lost and extinguished forever.
“Fatal Eggs,” written, according to M. Gorky, “witty and deft,” was not simply, as it might seem, a caustic satire on Soviet society of the NEP era. Bulgakov is making an attempt here to make an artistic diagnosis of the consequences of the gigantic experiment that was carried out on the “progressive part of humanity.” In particular, we are talking about the unpredictability of the invasion of reason and science into the endless world of nature and human nature itself. But isn’t that what Bulgakov spoke about a little earlier, in the poem “The Riddle of the Sphinx”
(1922), the sophisticated Valery Bryusov?
The World Wars under microscopes silently tell us about other universes.
But we are between them - elk calves in the forest,
And it’s easier for thoughts to sit under the windows...
There's a guinea pig in the same cage,
The same experience with chickens, with reptiles...
But before Oedipus is the solution of the Sphinx,
Prime numbers are not all solved.
It is the experience “with chickens, with reptiles,” when, under a miraculous red ray accidentally discovered by Professor Persikov, instead of elephant-like broilers, giant reptiles come to life, allows Bulgakov to show where the road paved with the best intentions leads. In fact, the result of Professor Persikov’s discovery is (in the words of Andrei Platonov) only “damage to nature.” However, what kind of discovery is this?
“The red stripe, and then the entire disk, became crowded, and an inevitable struggle began. The newly born furiously attacked each other and tore them to shreds and swallowed them. Among those born lay the corpses of those killed in the struggle for existence. The best and strongest won. And these best ones were terrible. Firstly, they were approximately twice the volume of ordinary amoebas, and secondly, they were distinguished by some special malice and agility.”
The red ray discovered by Persikov is a certain symbol that is repeated many times, say, in the names of Soviet magazines and newspapers (“Red Light”, “Red Pepper”, “Red Magazine”, “Red Searchlight”, “Red Evening Moscow” and even organ of the GPU “Red Raven”), whose employees are eager to glorify the professor’s feat, in the name of the state farm, where the decisive experiment is to be carried out. Bulgakov simultaneously parodies here the teachings of Marxism, which, barely touching something living, immediately evokes in it the boiling of class struggle, “anger and playfulness.” The experiment was doomed from the beginning and burst due to the will of predestination, fate, which in the story was personified in the person of the communist devotee and director of the “Red Ray” state farm, Rokka. The Red Army must enter into mortal combat with the reptiles creeping towards Moscow.
“- Mother... mother...” rolled through the rows. Packs of cigarettes jumped in the illuminated night air, and white teeth bared at the stunned people from their horses. A dull and heart-stirring chant flowed through the rows:
...Neither ace, nor queen, nor jack,
We will beat the bastards without a doubt,
Four on the side - yours are not there...
The buzzing peals of “hurray” floated over all this mess, because a rumor spread that in front of the ranks on a horse, in the same crimson cap as all the riders, was riding the commander of a cavalry mass who had become legendary 10 years ago, aged and gray.”
How much salt and hidden rage there is in this description, which certainly returns Bulgakov to painful memories of the lost Civil War and its victors! In passing he is an audacity unheard of in those conditions! - venomously mocks the holy of holies - the anthem of the world proletariat “The International”, with its “No one will give us deliverance, neither God, nor the king and nor the hero...”. This story-pamphlet ends with the blow of a sudden frost in the middle of summer, which kills the reptiles, and the death of Professor Persikov, with whom the red ray is lost and extinguished forever.
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