History Literature / HeartOfADog

* StockAnimalNames: The dog's name, Sharik, is commonly given to smaller dogs in Russia.

* ParentalNeglect: LProbrazhensky never shows an ounce of love or care for his own creation, but only scorn and sarcasm, which, surprisingly for nobody except him, leads to:

* YourCheatingHeart: One of Preobrazhensky's clients is a middle-aged woman whose young husband is cheating on her with a younger girl. The client came for one of Preobrazhensky's "rejuvenation" treatments under the assumption that an improved libido would discourage her husband from seeking satisfaction elsewhere.
** Another one is a high-ranking official, who cheated on his ''wife with a 14-year old girl'', knocked her up and came running to Preobrazhensky in search of an underground abortion for her.

* UltimateJobSecurity: Preobrazhensky gets away with regularly flipping off the house committee, lives technically alone in seven rooms while most of his contemporaries barely get one, spits out blatantly anti-Soviet views and nostalgically longs for the cultured old times. He can afford it because not only is he really good at his job, the authorities use his surgery services as well.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Sharikov's ultimate fate ''may'' look like this. At the end of the book he gets "downgraded" to a dog--effectively murdered. He was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, he lied, sexually harassed women, and sadistically killed cats, but all that doesn't exactly warrant death, right? But that's not the whole story. The deed that leads to his "downgrading" is his letter to the secret police about Preobrazhensky's anti-Soviet views--which, then and there, was tantamount to murder attempt (and misfired only because Preobrazhensky had some grateful patients in high places).

* YourCheatingHeart: One of Preobrazhensky's clients is a middle-aged woman whose husband is cheating on her with a younger girl. The client came for one of Preobrazhensky's "rejuvenation" treatments under the assumption that an improved libido would discourage her husband from seeking satisfaction elsewhere.

* FilmOfTheBook: Thanks, CaptainObvious.

* GermanRussians: Doctor Bormental.

While it is meant to be a rejuvenation experiment, unexpectedly to the doctors, Sharik's dog features gradually fade away and he transforms into a man, who, with the encouragement of local bureaucrat Shvonder, adopts the nonsensical name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, paralleling absurd "revolutionary" names that were popular in the first few years after the October Revolution. Sharikov's rudeness and simple-mindedness, in stark contrast to the gentlemanly professor, make him ideal leverage in Shvonder's hands to force Preobrazhensky out of his luxurious apartment. Dealing with Sharikov's whims and transgressions, evidently inherited from the previous owner of the transplanted organs, eventually occupies so much of Preobrazhensky's attention that he is forced to practically abandon his surgery work. In the end, after Sharikov's attempt to sic secret police on him, Preobrazhensky turns Sharikov back into a dog.

* AmbiguousGender: One of Shvonder's subordinates. The second thing Preobrazhensky asks (after calmly telling them all to take their shoes off) is, "Are you a man or a woman?", to which he receives a proud response, "What's the difference, comrade?" Turns out one of them is a woman dressed as a man, and blushes when admitting that fact.
** One should note that she wasn't specifically cross-dressing, it's just that revolutionary fashion was extremely uniform and unisex at that time. And when the professor asks her if she's a man or woman, she takes it as an insult, part of his disgraceful reactionary ideas of an "old world" where men and women were unequal (or just, you know, to him being a jerkass).

* BlackShirt: Schwonder and his subordinates. They also qualify as DirtyCommunists.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Sharikov clearly was on that way. Thankfully, he was stopped half-way.
* GenreBlind: Preobrazhensky, using the "spare parts" from an unemployed drunkard and bully in his experiment.

* {{Manchild}}: Literally. Sharikov is technically several months old.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Schvonder. He's only obstructive to Preobrazhensky, though. To Sharikov, he's downright helpful, albeit for his own selfish reasons. (And Preobrazhensky predicts that eventually Shvonder would [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlive his usefulness]] to Sharikov...)

* ParentalNeglect: Let's face it, Probrazhensky never shows an ounce of love or care for his own creation, but only scorn and sarcasm, which, surprisingly for nobody except him, leads to:

* WhileRomeBurns: Despite Preobrazhenskiy's seething diatribe about "ruin in the heads" the undeniable fact is that he ''does'' live in times of post-war ruin and turmoil, and the attempts to empty a couple of rooms out of his obscenely huge apartment are made not out of greed or for profit, but out of pure necessity. He doesn't care.

* BlackShirt - Schwonder and his subordinates. They also qualify as DirtyCommunists.

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Deliberately made in sepia to match the atmosphere of TheSovietTwenties.

A 1925 novella by Mikhail Bulgakov, about a dog turned by Russian scientists into a human [[GoneHorriblyRight and back]]. As it was typical of blatantly anti-Soviet works, it was not published in the Soviet Union until [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the Perestroika]], in 1987.

The narration begins from the perspective of a sickly stray dog freezing to death on the streets of Moscow. The dog is adopted by Professor Filipp Preobrazhensky, a brilliant surgeon who specializes in rejuvenation operations, for an impending experiment, and gradually heals in his absurdly spacious (by Soviet standards) seven-room apartment that also serves as his clinic. However, just as the dog, nicknamed Sharik (a common Russian dog name), begins to acclimate, it is taken to an unexpected operation by Preobrashenzky and his assistant Dr. Bormental, who implant it the pituitary gland and testicles of a recently deceased criminal.

While it is meant to be a rejuvenation experiment, unexpectedly to the doctors, Sharik's dog features gradually fade away and he transforms into a man, who, with the encouragement of local bureaucrat Shvonder, adopts the nonsensical name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, paralleling absurd "revolutionary" names that were popular in the first few years after the October. Sharikov's rudeness and simple-mindedness, in stark contrast to the gentlemanly professor, make him an ideal leverage in Shvonder's hands to force Preobrazhensky out of his luxurious apartment. Dealing with Sharikov's whims and transgressions, evidently inherited from the previous owner of the transplanted organs, eventually occupies so much of Preobrazhensky's attention that he is forced to practically abandon his surgeries. In the end, after Sharikov's attempt to sic secret police on him, Preobrazhensky turns Sharikov back into a dog.

The book was adapted in 1988 by Vladimir Bortko into a highly successful film, which followed the original text very closely. Bortko later went to direct a TV miniseries adaptation of Bulgakov's ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita''.

* AdaptationDistillation: the film and stage adaptations [[DirtyCommunists tend to exaggerate the brutality and uncouth behavior]] of the 1920s Communists (and Sharikov's as well), while Bulgakov in the original text pokes fun at the good guys just as quickly as he does at the bad ones. For example, the girl typist who complains on the poor food and miserable wages in the stage version appears to be just a victim of the generalized poverty, while in the original text she has to cope with poor food and an indifferent lover ''because she had spent most of her wages on cinema tickets''.

** One should note that she wasn't specifically cross-dressing, it's just that revolutionary fashion was extremely uniform and unisex at that time. And when the professor asks her if she's a man or woman, she takes it as an insult, part of his disgraceful reactionist ideas of an "Old world" where men and women were unequal (or just, you know, to him being a jerkass).

* WhileRomeBurns: Despite Preobrazhenskiy's seething diatrabe about "ruin in the heads" the undeniable fact is that he ''does'' live in times of post-war ruin and turmoil, and the attempts to denude a couple rooms out of his obscenely huge appartement are made not out of greed or for profit, but out of pure neccessity. He doesn't care.

* BeamMeUpScotty: In the movie, there are a few scenes from Bulgakov's other works. Many of them have become MemeticMutation in Russia, and they are often associated with book.

The book was adapted in 1988 by Vladimir Bortko into a highly successful film, which followed the original text very closely. Bortko later went to direct a TV miniseries adaptation of Bulgakov's ''TheMasterAndMargarita''.

** One should note that she wasn't specifically cross-dressing, it's just that revolutionary fashion was extremely uniform and unisex at that time. And when the professor asks her if she's a man or woman, she takes it as an insult, part of his disgraceful reactionist ideas of an "Old world" where men and women were unequal.

The Bortko film adaptation provides the above tropes, plus:

* {{Homage}}: To ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''.

* DrJerk: Preobrazhensky is a good person--but quite arrogant and rather fond of baiting small-fry Soviet officials.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Sharikov's ultimate fate ''may'' look like this. At the end of the book he gets "downgraded" to a dog--effectively murdered. He was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, he lied, sexually harassed women, and sadistically killed cats, but all that doesn't exactly warrant death, right? But that's not the whole story. The deed that leads to his "downgrading" is a letter to the secret police about Preobrazhensky's anti-Soviet views--which, then and there, was tantamount to murder attempt (and misfired only because Preobrazhensky had some grateful patients in high places).

A 1925 short story by Mikhail Bulgakov, about a dog turned by Russian scientists into a human [[GoneHorriblyRight and back]]. As it was typical of blatantly anti-Soviet works, it was not published in the Soviet Union until [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp the Perestroika]], in 1987.

While it is meant to be a rejuvenation experiment, unexpectedly to the doctors, Sharik's dog features gradually fade away and he transforms into a man, who, with the encouragement of local bureaucrat Shvonder, adopts the nonsensical name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, paralleling absurd "revolutionary" names that were popular in the first few years after the October. Sharikov's rudeness and simple-mindedness, in stark contrast to the gentlemanly professor, make him an ideal leverage in Shvonder's hands to force Preobrazhensky out of his luxurious apartment. Dealing with Sharikov's whims, evidently inherited from the previous owner of the transplanted organs, eventually occupies so much of Preobrazhensky's attention that he is forced to practically abandon his surgeries, and eventually, after one annoyance too many, he turns Sharikov back into a dog.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Sharikov's ultimate fate ''may'' look like this. At the end of the book he gets "downgraded" to a dog--effectively murdered. He was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, he lied, sexually harassed women, and sadistically killed cats, but all that doesn't exactly warrant death, right? But that's not all the story. The deed that leads to his "downgrading" is a letter to the secret police about Preobrazhensky's anti-Soviet views--which, then and there, was tantamount to murder attempt (and misfired only because Preobrazhensky had some grateful patients in high places).

* AssholeVictim: Sharikov wasn't a nice man, but nothing he did warranted death, and by reverting him back to dog Preobrazhensky effectively murdered him as a person. [[InsaneTrollLogic But he had been dead at the beginning of the story anyway]]

* DrJerk: Preobrazhensky

* JerkAss: Protagonist(Preobrazhensky) and his antagonists(Sharikov and Shvonder) are jerks.
* Manchild: Literally. Sharikov is technically several months old.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Schvonder. He's only obstructive to Preobrazhensky, though. To Sharikov, he's downright helpful, albeit for his own selfish reasons.