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Mikhail Bulgakov
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==Works== {{category see also|Works by Mikhail Bulgakov}} During his life, Bulgakov was best known for the plays he contributed to [[Konstantin Stanislavski]]'s and [[Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko|Nemirovich-Danchenko]]'s Moscow Art Theatre. Stalin was known to be fond of the play ''[[Days of the Turbins]]'' (Дни Турбиных, 1926), which was based on Bulgakov's novel ''[[The White Guard]]''. His dramatization of [[Molière]]'s life in ''[[The Cabal of Hypocrites]]'' (Кабала святош, 1936) is still performed by the Moscow Art Theatre. Even after his plays were banned from the theatres, Bulgakov wrote a comedy about [[Ivan the Terrible]]'s visit into 1930s [[Moscow]]. His play ''Batum'' (Батум, 1939) about the early years of Stalin was prohibited by the premier himself. Bulgakov later reflected his experience of being a Soviet playwright in ''[[Theatrical Novel]]'' (Театральный роман, 1936, unfinished). His prose remained unprinted from the late 1920s to 1961; from 1941 to 1954 the only Bulgakov plays that were staged were ''The Last Days'' and his adaptation of Gogol's [[Dead Souls]]. In 1962, his ''Life of Monsieur de Molière'' was published; in 1963, ''Notes of a Young Doctor''; in 1965, ''Theatrical Novel'' and a collection of his plays were published; in 1966, a collection of his prose including ''The White Guard''; and in 1967 ''The Master and Margarita'' was published.{{sfn|Bulgakova|Lyandres|1988|p=7}} Bulgakov began writing novels with ''[[The White Guard]]'' (Белая гвардия) (1923, partly published in 1925, first full edition 1927–1929, Paris) – a novel about a life of a [[White Army]] officer's family in [[Ukrainian Civil War (1917–1921)|civil war]] [[Kiev]]. In the mid-1920s, he came to admire the works of [[Alexander Belyaev]] and [[H. G. Wells]] and wrote several stories and novellas with elements of [[science fiction]], notably ''[[The Fatal Eggs]]'' (Роковые яйца) (1924) and ''[[Heart of a Dog]]'' (Собачье сердце) (1925). He intended to compile his stories of the mid-twenties (published mostly in medical journals) that were based on his work as a country doctor in 1916–1918 into a collection titled ''[[A Young Doctor's Notebook|Notes of a Young Doctor]]'' (Записки юного врача), but the book came out only in 1963.<ref name="lit-arts-med-db">{{cite web|url=http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=207|title=Literature Annotations: Bulgakov, Mikhail – A Country Doctor's Notebook|last=Coulehan|first=Jack|date=9 November 1999|work=Literature Arts and Medicine Database|publisher=[[New York University]]|access-date=11 February 2009|archive-date=10 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610141408/http://litmed.med.nyu.edu/Annotation?action=view&annid=207|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The Fatal Eggs]]'' tells of the events of a Professor Persikov, who, in experimentation with eggs, discovers a red ray that accelerates growth in living organisms. At the time, an illness passes through the chickens of Moscow, killing most of them, and to remedy the situation, the Soviet government puts the ray into use at a farm. Due to a mix-up in egg shipments, the Professor ends up with chicken eggs, while the government-run farm receives the shipment of ostrich, snake and crocodile eggs ordered by the Professor. The mistake is not discovered until the eggs produce giant monstrosities that wreak havoc in the suburbs of Moscow and kill most of the workers on the farm. The propaganda machine turns on Persikov, distorting his nature in the same way his "innocent" tampering created the monsters. This tale of a bungling government earned Bulgakov his label of counter-revolutionary. ''[[Heart of a Dog]]'' features a professor who implants human testicles and a [[pituitary gland]] into a dog named Sharik (means "Little Balloon" or "Little Ball" – a popular Russian nickname for a male dog). The dog becomes more and more human as time passes, resulting in all manner of chaos. The tale can be read as a critical satire of liberal nihilism and the communist mentality. It contains a few bold hints to the communist leadership; e.g. the name of the drunkard donor of the human organ implants is Chugunkin{{efn|The surname Chugunkin comes from "chugunka" is an informal term for railroad called so because the rails were made from [[cast iron]], ''chugun'' in Russian}} which can be seen as a parody on the name of Stalin ("stal'" is steel). It was adapted as a comic [[opera]] called ''The Murder of Comrade Sharik'' by [[William Bergsma]] in 1973. In 1988, an award-winning film version ''[[Heart of a Dog (1988 film)|Sobachye Serdtse]]'' was produced by [[Lenfilm]], starring [[Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev]], Roman Kartsev and [[Vladimir Tolokonnikov]].
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