Heart of a Dog

Heart of a Dog

First English edition
Author	Mikhail Bulgakov
Original title	Собачье сердце
Language	Russian
Genre	Satire
Publisher	Harcourt Brace (English)
Publication date	1968
Publication place	USSR
Published in English	1968
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
OCLC	816041597
Dewey Decimal	812/.54 19
LC Class	PS3556.E42 E4 1990

Heart of a Dog (Russian: Собачье сердце, romanized: Sobach'ye serdtse, IPA: [sɐˈbatɕjɪ ˈsʲertsə]) is a novella by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. 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.^[1] It is generally interpreted as an allegory of the communist revolution and "the revolution's misguided attempt to radically transform mankind".^[2] Its publication was initially prohibited in the Soviet Union, but it circulated in samizdat until it was officially released in the country in 1987. 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. Since then, the novella has become a cultural phenomenon in Russia, known and discussed by people "from schoolchildren to politicians".^[3] It was filmed in Russian and Italian language versions, and was adapted in English as a play and an opera.^[4]