Communism In Bulgakov's Heart Of A Dog

In Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog, he is trying to make a comparison between the Soviet system and the stray dog that is found lying whimpering in the middle of the street. The book goes on to talk about the transformation that this dog undergoes as part of Dr. Preobrazhensky’s plan to turn him into a human (symbolic of the changes that need to be done to the Soviet system). Through reading the book and putting together the events that take place -- at the same time realizing that Bulgakov is writing from the standpoint of someone who is not an avid proponent of Communism -- we can see that Mikhail Bulgakov, like many others, believes that Communism is in fact slowly failing the Soviet Union. Moreover, through examining the changes that Dr. Preobrazhensky …show more content…
Preobrazhensky is a strong proponent of anti-Communism, but he is untouchable by government officials because of the responsibility that he has in treating their leaders. This is symbolic of the distrust from most individuals in the Soviet Union and the leaderships realization that even though these people may be mad they are still needed to make the State thrive. Similarly, in the book we can see that Dr. Preobrazhensky has issues with the Bolshevik Housing Committee when they ask him to decrease the size of his flat. This can be tied back to the way that the Soviet State enacted collectivization, decreasing the size of farms and land that individuals owned to benefit the greater good (i.e. to make more money for the leaders). Even though Preobrazhensky refuses to do what the committee asks, they realize that he is providing them a service and they cannot realistically force him to do something (the same realization that Stalin and other Communist leaders had during the period).

As Dr. Preobrazhensky begins his plan to make Sharik a human, we learn that the body parts being used in the operation are coming from a homeless Bolshevik on the street. Again, this represents the negative light in which Bulgakov views the Bolshevik party. Once the operation is completed, Sharik acts nothing like Preobrazhensky expected he would. Being a very unkempt man and showing no regard for morals or proper behavior, a connection can be made between the early stages …show more content…
Even though Preobrazhensky wanted to make something that would combat the Soviets, he only added to the problem. In this sense, Bulgakov is saying that there really is no way to prevent these things from happening, but that people can only try and prevent them from happening to themselves in one way or