New Soviet man
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Heart of a Dog , a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, is a biting satire of the New Soviet man written in 1925 at the height of the NEP period, when Communism appeared to be weakening in the Soviet Union. It's generally interpreted as an allegory of the Communist revolution and "the revolution's misguided attempt to radically transform mankind." Its publication was initially prohibited in the Soviet Union, but circulated in samizdat until it was officially released in the country in 1987. It is "one of novelist Mikhail Bulgakov's most beloved stories" featuring a stray dog "named Sharik who takes human form," as a slovenly and narcissistic incarnation of the New Soviet Man.
The novel has become a cultural phenomenon in Russia, known and discussed by people "from schoolchildren to politicians."
