What did Preobrazhensky want with his experience? So who has the heart of a dog? Arguments for exceeding self-defense

In 1925, Bulgakov wrote “Heart of a Dog.” The fate of the story was decided already at the first reading of the manuscript among writers - an OGPU agent was present there, who wrote a detailed review-denunciation. The work was branded as counter-revolutionary and banned. After the long-awaited publication of “The Heart of a Dog” in the Soviet Union in 1987, the sympathies of readers and viewers were entirely on the side of Professor Preobrazhensky.

What does the professor do? Performs operations to transplant monkey gonads into people. For what? No matter how fantastic it may sound - yes, for rejuvenation! Few people know that the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky was the Russian emigrant doctor Sergei Voronov.

All the newspapers trumpeted his experiments in those years. But first, let's look even further into history...

In 1817, in the British colony on the island of Mauritius, an amazing child appeared in an American-French family. Even his first and last name were double, Franco-Saxon: Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard. You could put it separated by a comma: citizen of the world.
His father, a sailor, one day did not return from a voyage, and his mother raised her son alone. Charles Edouard adopted mainly French culture, although until the end of his days he spoke with a noticeable English accent. As a young man, he went to Paris to study as a doctor. Subsequently, he traveled a lot around the world, worked in different countries, but it was France that remained his alma mater, and then the birthplace of his glory.

In 1846, the young doctor returned to the island of Mauritius. Just at this time, a cholera epidemic broke out on the island, and Brown-Séquard selflessly fought for the lives of the sick. Already during these years he combined medical practice with scientific research.
Then he went to his father’s homeland, the United States, worked in leading hospitals, taught at Harvard University. A few years later, Brown-Séquard moved to London, where he worked for several years in a hospital for paralytics and epileptics. And everywhere he conducted in-depth research, wrote scientific works that enriched medical science. Often the scientist conducted experiments on himself, although in his published works he referred to anonymous patients.

He was already over fifty when he received French citizenship and has not left France since then. In 1869, he became a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, and ten years later he headed the Department of Experimental Physiology at the College de France. There his bold experiments on transplantation of tissues and organs of animals took place. In 1886, Brown-Séquard was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
By the age of seventy, the professor experienced a noticeable decline in mental and physical activity. And there is still so much work ahead, so many plans!.. He remembered that in animals the peak of activity coincides with the period of puberty. This observation served as the impetus for a new series of experiments. Moreover, the scientist himself acted as a “guinea pig”. He made an infusion from tissues taken from the testicles of young dogs and guinea pigs; The scientist injected this liquid under his skin. The injections were extremely painful. But then the pain subsided, and the old professor felt that his former strength and mental acuity were gradually returning to him, and his sexual tone was also increasing.
On June 1, 1889, Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard gave a report to the Biological Society. It was a scientific sensation! The professor informed his colleagues about the results obtained: he provided specific data on the increase muscle mass, improving the functioning of the rectum and genitourinary system, brain activity. Colleagues gave the scientist a standing ovation.

The report was soon published as a brochure and became widely known. Aging rich people and celebrities, especially women, inundated the professor with pleas: give us back our youth! In order to finance further research, Brown-Séquard began selling an injectable extract called Secardin. The public immediately dubbed the drug “the elixir of youth.”

At the height of the excitement around Secardin, its creator felt with horror that his condition was deteriorating, a complete loss of strength, mental and sexual activity was occurring. The aging process accelerated, the luminary of medicine set and died out within five years.
Already during his lifetime, the name of Brown-Séquard became surrounded by legends. It was said that during a cholera epidemic he ate the excrement of infected patients in order to experience the symptoms of the onset of the disease; that he injected fresh blood into the severed head of an executed criminal, trying to revive it; that he transplanted a second head to a dog, grafted a cat's tail onto a rooster... It is not surprising that the image of this experimental scientist was reflected in his contemporary literature. For example, the poet and writer Villiers de Lisle-Adam portrayed Brown-Séquard in the short story from the Strange Tales series.

Subsequently, scientists found that the substance extracted by Brown-Séquard from animal testicles did not affect the hormonal activity of the human body. And the initial effect experienced by the old professor and some patients was a consequence psychological reasons, the so-called placebo.

Despite this misconception of Brown-Séquard (how many of them are known in the history of science!) doctors highly valued his works. And for some colleagues, the embarrassment with the “elixir of youth” did not look like a defeat, but as a tempting direction for further research. Our compatriot, who became a famous French surgeon, turned out to be such a successor.

In Europe he was known under the name Serge Voronoff. Sergei Voronov, or rather Samuil Abramovich Voronov, was born in July 1866 in a village near Voronezh. He graduated from a real school, where, unlike gymnasiums, Jews were admitted, and at the age of 18 he left for France to continue his education.

After studying at the Sorbonne and the Higher Medical School, in 1907 Sergei Voronov was naturalized and received a French passport. The Russian student was the favorite student of the French surgeon and biologist Alexis Carrel, who became a laureate in 1912 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine, from whom he acquired knowledge of the technique of surgical organ transplantation.

Then Voronov went to Egypt for fourteen years, where he made a remarkable career, becoming a surgeon and physician at the court of the Khedive. He made a great contribution to the development of the health care system in this country: he opened an infectious diseases hospital, created a nursing school and founded the Egyptian Medical Journal. It was in Egypt in 1898 that Voronov first closely examined a medical phenomenon that was interesting to him - the Khedive's eunuchs. He was surprised to learn that boys are castrated at 6-7 years old, long before the body stops growing and developing. Observations of castrati prompted Voronov to think about the importance of the sexual secretion glands: men deprived of them were often ill, had an imperfect skeletal structure, obesity, and even their ability to think was affected: eunuchs had difficulty memorizing verses from the Koran. These unfortunate people showed early signs typical of old people: White hair, clouding of the cornea, and they died earlier.

What if the secret of vigor and longevity is hidden in the sex glands? So Voronov came up with the idea of ​​​​stimulating the aging body by transplanting the seminal glands. For a long time he conducted experiments on animals: he transplanted the glands of young goats, sheep and bulls into old goats, they began to jump and mate again. The First World War slowed down his path to rejuvenation practices: Voronov became the chief surgeon of the Russian Military Hospital in Paris. There he treated the wounded, using monkey bones to create orthopedic prosthetics for soldiers.

Returning to Paris, Voronov began a series of experiments on transplanting animal tissues to sick people. He transplanted sections from chimpanzee glands into patients suffering from thyroid diseases. The operations brought a noticeable effect. This method has also proven effective in treating dementia. The name of Sergei Voronov thundered in Russia. The illustrated weekly Iskra wrote in 1914:
“A sensational discovery. In French medical academy our compatriot, Dr. Sergei Voronov, made a sensational report about the operation he performed in his clinic on a 14-year-old idiot boy. From the age of six mental development this boy stopped, and all the signs of abnormality and cretinism were clearly visible: a dull look, dullness and lack of understanding of the most ordinary things. Voronov inoculated this boy with the thymus gland of a monkey. The success exceeded expectations. The boy's eyes came to life, mental abilities, understanding, and curiosity appeared. Doctor Voronov - former employee Carrel."

At the beginning of the 20th century, biological knowledge moved forward in giant strides. Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine Karl Landsteiner identified blood groups. Alexis Carrel opened the door to organ transplant surgery. But a huge distance separated that medical era from the ethical principles of our time - doctors were not afraid of anything, the most daring interventions in human body seemed to them like ordinary steps on the path to a brilliant future.

On the poster: "Serge Voronoff. Testicular transplant from monkey to human. Retired colonel, veteran of the Indian Campaign in excellent shape after surgery."

Voronov could only take advantage scientific discoveries his contemporaries, combining them with a brilliant mastery of practical surgery. In 1920, Dr. Voronov performed the first operation on a person, implanting a monkey’s thyroid gland, and then moved on to transplanting the gonads. From a technical point of view, the operations proceeded as follows: the surgeon did not replace one organ with another, but added a thin “cut” of the drug to the human testicles, which took root (as was then believed) in the recipient’s body and began to produce sex hormones. Rather, it could be called an “inoculation” of monkey energy.

Interestingly, he initially conducted an advertising campaign in France in favor of donation, but never found volunteers willing to part with their gonads. Potential candidates either asked for an incredible price, or were at such a low level of the social ladder that the proposed material was no longer good for anything... It was decided to take spare parts from large primates. “Will a monkey surpass a human in the quality of its organs, a stronger physical shell, less susceptible to bad heredity: gout, alcoholism, syphilis? I don’t know, but I can say that when transplanting the thyroid gland and testicles, monkey organs gave better results than human organs,” wrote Dr. Voronov in his work “Research on old age and rejuvenation by transplantation.”

Doctor and his assistant with a monkey on the operating table.

In the 1920-30s, Sergei Voronov served as director of the Laboratory of Experimental Surgery at the College de France. These years marked the era of his surgical triumph. He transplanted thyroid and gonads and ovaries to his patients: about 500 operations in France, as well as countless of them in a clinic in Algeria. He also operated in the United States, where the New York Times newspaper devoted front-page reports to the details of his surgical interventions. Now it is not possible to find which Swiss clinic Voronov collaborated with; most likely, he had practice here too. His patients were entrepreneurs, politicians, artists from 65 and even up to 85 years old. The transplants cost enormous amounts of money, and Voronov became fabulously rich.

Soon, 45 surgeons and professors were working all over the world using the “Voronov method”. Doctors organized expeditions to Africa to collect monkeys, and some of them sincerely regretted that it was impossible to take organs from those sentenced to death. At the same time as Voronov, another famous surgeon, Paul Niehans (1882-1971), practiced in Switzerland. In his elite clinic in Montreux, he became a pioneer of cell therapy - his method of rejuvenation was based on the introduction of embryonic cells into the patient's body, also obtained from the gonads.

At the same time, Voronov conducted experiments on rejuvenation on animals - sheep, goats and bulls. He transplanted thin sections from the testicles of young animals into the scrotum of old animals, as a result they acquired the energy and agility of the young. Finally it was the turn of the monkeys and people. They say that Voronov made the first human transplants for millionaires, and he took testicles from executed criminals. It is clear that this “material” was limited, so the main “donors” were chimpanzees and baboons. The first officially recorded operation to transplant glands from a monkey to a human took place on June 12, 1920. And three years later, Sergei Voronov made a sensational report at international congress surgeons in London. Seven hundred colleagues applauded Voronov's success. His published works, such as Grafting Rejuvenation, have become widely known throughout the world, including Soviet Russia.

Dr. Voronov’s unique method made him the richest physician in the world. Operations in his clinics in France and Algeria were put on stream. His clients included millionaires, politicians, stage and screen stars. To meet the growing demand for transplant material, he had to start his own monkey nursery.

Voronov himself led the life of a rich man and a star: he rented the first floor of a first-class hotel, maintained two mistresses, a large staff of servants, secretaries, security guards and drivers. However, his legal wives did not complain about the lack of attention from their husbands, but the first two died one after the other, only the third outlived her husband.

A brilliant writer, Voronov published several books that became bestsellers in the 1920s. Thus, in his work “Rejuvenation by Grafting,” he says that operations increase sexual desire, memory, hearing, vision and incredibly increase performance. But it would be vulgar to say that Dr. Voronov was only interested in the continuation of human sexual function. He dreamed - no more, no less - to give a person eternal youth and defeat death.

“Death outrages a person as the greatest of injustices, because he keeps intimate memories of his own immortality,” Voronov wrote in the book “Live. A Study of Ways to Awaken Vital Energy and Increase Longevity,” published in Paris in 1920. “Each cell that makes up the body, and which at first was united and independent, remembers its endless and eternal life and screams in horror before its own death from its connection with other dying cells... For billions of years, cells united, forming ever more complex structure, from the simplest organism of the amoeba to the pinnacle of creation - man, and this harmonious unification is often disrupted, which leads to a terrible immoral phenomenon - death."

Voronov's method of rejuvenation inspired writers. Under the pen of Mikhail Bulgakov, he turned into Professor Preobrazhensky from the story “The Heart of a Dog.” As we remember, Sharikov’s creator not only gave a human pituitary gland to a dog, but also made a living by restoring potency to the old and depraved enemies of the revolution. And Conan Doyle brought out the Russian doctor in the story about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, “The Man on All Fours.”

Around 1925, a new inhabitant of the Cote d'Azur caused a lot of noise - Sergei Voronov bought Grimaldi Castle, a vast estate on the Italian side, located a hundred meters from Menton. A French surgeon with a Russian name equipped a laboratory there and a nursery for breeding monkeys in his own garden. Locked in metal cages, chimpanzees, orangutans and baboons behaved restlessly: it seemed that they did not doubt for a minute what awaited them... They say that their owner did not limit himself to transplanting monkey glands into men, but also dealt with the reproductive function of women. He transplanted eggs into post-menopausal women, and then his imagination went even further to transplanting a woman's egg into a monkey and attempting to fertilize it with human sperm. These works increasingly moved him away from Faust, bringing him closer to Frankenstein.

Grimaldi Palace

It is absolutely clear that Voronov took his experiments seriously. But practice has shown that, although testicle transplantation could stimulate sexual activity and libido for some time, it did not restore the worn-out heart, blood vessels and other organs necessary for life.

In the Grimaldi Palace, nicknamed Voronov's Palace, Sergei's brother, Alexander Voronov, lived all year round and managed the estate. He died in Auschwitz during World War II. In 1940, the Nazis confiscated all the equipment of Voronov's laboratory, all his archives and documents located in the palace on the Cote d'Azur. The doctor himself lived in New York during the war with his third wife. And after the liberation of France, he returned, finding complete destruction and several starving monkeys at home.

Gertie, the surgeon's third wife was 49 years younger than him

Everything has changed. Those who applauded Voronov now laughed at him. The doctor took the criticism hard. He spent several years in depression, and then plunged headlong into the pleasures that his patients so craved - endless parties, travel and love affairs. Married for the third time. The third wife of a native of a village near Voronezh, the brilliant beauty Gertie, or Gertrude, was 49 years younger than him - an Austrian subject, Romanian by birth, cousin of the official mistress of the Romanian king Carol Magda Lupesco. (Voronov’s first wife, Marguerite Barb, was a poetess, a fan of the Rosicrucian Order, the marriage ended in divorce. The second, the daughter of American oil millionaire Evelyn Bostwick, fell passionately in love with Voronov and became his devoted assistant. To marry him, she divorced Count Perigny, but died of cancer three years after the wedding, in 1921.) Gertie lived with Voronov for 15 years, until his death.

Slava Voronov was a little “greasy,” as the French say. The doctor did not hide the fact that his operations also lead to vigorous sexual activity, hence the unhealthy excitement around his activities. Manipulation of testicles has become the topic of many jokes and pop couplets in the Old and New Worlds. In France, during these years, an ashtray, decorated with a figurine of a monkey covering its genitals with its paws, and the inscription: “No, Voronoff, you won’t take me!” became fashionable. On the other hand, thoughtful authors expressed concerns - after all, no one knew what consequences awaited Voronov’s patients in the future and what their offspring would be like.

Book: "From Cretin to Genius"

In reality, the effect of Voronov's operations, like Brown-Séquard injections, turned out to be short-lived. Subsequently, scientists found that the substance contained in the testicles is testosterone; it has only a temporary effect on the human body. The scientific community turned its back on Voronov; the newspapers that glorified his experiments now mocked him. They falsely accused him, for example, already in the 1990s it was suggested that it was he who, during his operations, brought the AIDS virus to humans. Only recently has medicine once again recognized Voronov’s merits in the fight against old age.

Voronov died on September 3, 1951, at the age of 85, in Lausanne. The death of the professor is shrouded in mystery. It is known that in a Swiss city on a lake he was treated for the consequences of a fall - Voronov broke his leg. He was bothered by chest pain. Presumably, the cause of his death was pneumonia or a blood clot that moved from his leg to his heart. “Voronov must have died from the consequences of syphilis, which he contracted during one of the transplants,” ill-wishers gloated. It is believed that the surgeon's ashes were transported to Nice and buried in the Russian cemetery of Cocade. However, during research of the cemetery and its archives, no such burial was found. There is no his grave in both Menton cemeteries. “No one knows whether his body rests in Menton or whether he was cremated in Switzerland,” writes the Swiss researcher J-Y. Naw

Two years later, the inconsolable widow married again, to the Portuguese prince Da Foz. The wedding ceremony was presided over by the Bishop of Monaco. “The newlywed was very elegant in a dress of blue-gray lace and a hat with a feather of the same shade and a magnificent mink cape covering her shoulders,” wrote the Nice Matin newspaper on November 1, 1953.

And transplant surgery has taken another step forward. A year later, a world premiere was held - a kidney transplant from a living donor, an identical twin brother. In the 1960s, the recipient mortality rate for such operations reached 81% when taking a kidney from a deceased person, and 52% if the donor was living.

It is interesting that Voronov, the creator of such trends in medicine as cell therapy or the hormonal theory of aging, was not alone in the desire to study the effect of sex hormones, and in guessing that they could be used for rejuvenation. At the same time, chemists and pharmacists approached the problem from the other side. So, they became actively interested in testosterone: the effect of this hormone on the body and the methods of its synthesis.

The first to do this was on May 27, 1935, a professor of pharmacology from Amsterdam, Ernst Lacker. He obtained the hormone, to which he assigned the name “testosterone,” by processing a huge number of bull testes, and published the work “On the male hormone in crystalline form, obtained from the testicles.”

Also in 1935, German chemist Adolf Butenandt invented a formula for the chemical production of testosterone. He worked for the Schering pharmaceutical company in Berlin, which managed to survive the First world war without affecting production. In 1923, thanks to inflation, this company made huge profits, and some of the income was spent on collecting 25,000 liters of urine from police officers - enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool. From it the patient Butenandt extracted 15 milligrams of a relatively inactive breakdown product of testosterone, which he called androsterone. He quickly came to the conclusion that this method of obtaining the hormone was too labor-intensive (and unpleasant), so he invented a simpler method that is still relevant today. The chemist methodically deduced the structure of the hormone and then produced it from cholesterol, just as the body itself does. On August 24, 1935, he sent a description of this process and a sample of the product to a German chemical journal.

Sometimes great discoveries happen in parallel. A week later, Leopolda Ruzicka, a Croatian chemist working for the pharmaceutical company Ciba (the predecessor of Novartis) in Zurich, announced that he had received a patent for a method for producing testosterone from cholesterol. For this, both researchers, Ruzicka and Butenandt, received the Nobel Prize in 1939.

In 1940, the Nazis occupied France, and the Vichyists under their control confiscated all the equipment of Voronov's laboratory, all his archives and documents located in his palace on the Cote d'Azur. He also had to flee from Algeria to neutral Switzerland. There, local authorities categorically forbade him to engage in “rejuvenation”, and until the end of his days - in 1951 - Voronov was an ordinary pensioner. He lived to be 85 years old.

In the USSR, the main enthusiast of these practitioners was Dr. Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (died 1932).

It was Ilya Ivanov’s experiments that became fiction in the USSR, growing in speculation every year. Ivanov allegedly bred a “hybrid man” - half-man, half-ape.

In 1999, Voronov’s name was heard again: speculation appeared in the press that the immunodeficiency syndrome virus, discovered in the 1980s, was “delivered” to humanity by him. During his transplants, Voronov allegedly transferred AIDS from monkeys to patients. True, subsequent years spared his reputation, and the reissue of the books even improved it. In 2008, his book “From Cretin to Genius” was published in Russian. In it, the scientist shows himself to be a talented storyteller, discussing heredity, and quite realistically explains that thought is the result chemical reaction, in which the secretion of the thyroid gland plays a decisive role.

Today the name Voronov is on the list of famous residents of Lausanne along with the names of the writer

Summary of a literature lesson in 11th grade

Subject: The image of Professor Preobrazhensky in M. Bulgakov’s story “The Heart of a Dog.”

The purpose of the lesson: to reveal the skill of M. Bulgakov in creating the image of the artistic image of Professor Preobrazhensky, which contains the idea of ​​the work.

Tasks

educational: work on the skills of text analysis, skills of revealing the image of a literary hero;

developing: develop thinking, the ability to generalize and draw conclusions, improve monologue and dialogic speech of students;

educational: to cultivate the civic position of students, a sense of responsibility for their own actions and for what is happening in society, to interest them in the work of M.A. Bulgakov.

Board design

1. Portrait of M.A. Bulgakov.

2. Portrait of N.M. Bulgakov (prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky.

3. Portrait of the hero of the story, made by a student.

4. Recording: Techniques for creating an artistic image of a hero:

A) Hero's name

B) Portrait of a hero.

C) The actions of the hero.

D) Description of the situation in which the hero is located.

D) Speech characteristics of the hero (monologues, including internal ones, dialogues).

E) The system of images of the work, the environment - minor characters through which the image is revealed.

G) Compositional techniques used by the author to reveal the character of the hero.

Lesson equipment

Interactive board, projector, computer for viewing an excerpt from the film “Heart of a Dog” by N. Bozhko.

Leading task

1. Individual task: report on the role of minor characters in revealing the image of Professor Preobrazhensky (for 1-2 minutes)

2. Individual task: report on the image of Doctor Bormental and his role in revealing the character of Professor Preobrazhensky (for 1-2 minutes)

During the classes

Organizational moment - 1 min.

I . Teacher's opening speech - 1 min.

We continue to study the story by M.A. Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog” and today the image of Professor Preobrazhensky is in the center of our attention.

It was already noted earlier that the changes taking place in Russia in the 20-30s, associated with the construction of socialism and a new future man, were perceived by the humanist writer as a huge experiment, terrible in its scale and consequences. Bulgakov had a negative attitude towards the idea of ​​​​creating a new society, educating a new person, free from the previous morality and culture. The writer perceived this as interference in the natural course of things, the thousand-year history of mankind, and the consequences of this interference could be disastrous for everyone, including the “experimenters” themselves. The story “Heart of a Dog” warns about this.

But besides this, in his work Bulgakov reflects on the role of the scientist and science, on the role of the intelligentsia in society, on their moral responsibility to society. That is why the image of Professor Preobrazhensky becomes so important.

The purpose of our lesson is to analyze this image, to comprehend Bulgakov’s writing skills in creating the image of the main character. We will try to determine ways and techniques for revealing the character of the characters in the story.

II . Work on the image of Professor Preobrazhensky - 18-20 min

So, before us main character stories - Professor Philip Philipovich

Preobrazhensky.

- What do you think is the meaning of Bulgakov’s first and last name of his hero?

(Listen to students' answers)

NamePhilip translated from Greek means “lover of horses.” Horse in Ancient Greece was one of the symbols of a noble man. And the wordphilippic means “an angry diatribe, a speech against someone or something. Students should come to the conclusion that with this image the author probably wanted to expose the experiment in which the professor transformed a dog into a man. The prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky was the writer’s uncle, Nikolai Mikhailovich Bulgakov, a famous doctor, an intelligent and talented person (photo on the board).

Let us pay attention to the portrait-illustration of the hero of the story.

- Is this how you imagined the professor?

(Listen to students' answers)

The character of a literary hero in work of art is revealed in certain ways and techniques. Pay attention to the notes on the board.

Let's see how Bulgakov creates a portrait of F.F. Preobrazhensky.

(Work with text) Chapter 1 from the words “The door is across the street... Give it to me.”

From the words “What a personality!” until the end of the chapter.

- What feature of the writer’s depiction of the hero’s appearance did you notice?

(The portrait is given through the eyes of a dog. At the same time

citizen = master

comrade = lackey)

- What technique does Bulgakov use when describing Preobrazhensky’s apartment? For what? (Reception is an antithesis. Two different worlds- a world of cleanliness, prosperity, peace and comfort and a world of dirt, stench, poverty and anger).

Professor, gentleman, educated, well-mannered, noble person, personality. He is a world-famous scientist and practicing doctor who earns money through his labor and talent. He is confident, calm, and can do what he loves. Philip Philipovich keeps a servant and lives in 7 rooms. According to the new government - the house committee headed by Shvonder - this is an unaffordable luxury.

(Working with text) Ch. 2 - an episode of the house committee coming to the professor’s apartment demanding a seal. From the words “Tiled squares…. The golden chain sparkled"

- Pay attention to details. How does the professor change in appearance during a conversation with the “proletarians”?

(The face “turned tenderly purple” - “the purpleness took on a somewhat grayish tint” - “his purpleness turned yellow”, he “barked”)

- What did the author want to emphasize?

(Irritation. He is infuriated by the lack of basic common sense, reference to dubious authorities).

- What do you think, maybe living in 7 rooms is really an unaffordable luxury?

(We listen to the opinions of the students. No, this is not a luxury - this is a normal condition of human life. It is interesting that the purpose of the rooms is rational. This has evolved over the centuries and has even become entrenched in the language: bedroom, dining room, children's room, office..)

(Working with text) Ch. 3 . From the beginning to the words “filled with liquid saliva”

From the words “Let’s get off the plates” to “don’t read Soviet newspapers”

Derzhavin’s lines immediately come to mind:

Crimson ham, green cabbage soup with yolk,

Ruddy yellow pie, white cheese, red crayfish,

What tar, amber, caviar...

And lines from Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”:

And Strasbourg's pie is imperishable

Between live Limburg cheese

And a golden pineapple.

- Why are the associations not accidental?

(Food consumption culture has its roots in our

history)

- How does this description help to understand the image of Professor Preobrazhensky?

(The culture of life is an important component of the general human

chesky culture. Comparing Preobrazhensky and Shariko-

va, the reader immediately highlights the superiority of man, “able

there is something").

III . The role of minor characters in revealing the image of the hero – 10 min.

(We listen to the student’s answer to the individual advanced task: “The role of images of servants in revealing the character of Professor Preobrazhensky”).

In Soviet Russia, the work of servants was considered slave labor, degrading human dignity. But Bulgakov proves the opposite: any work, if done responsibly and with soul, is necessary and will be appreciated. The professor himself, treating his servants with respect and trust, does not humiliate, but, on the contrary, makes them feel needed, important, and even involved in the life of the professor.

Antithesis again: Sharikov’s attitude towards Zina and Daria Petrovna.

(We listen to the student’s answer to the individual advanced task about the role of Dr. Bormental in revealing the image of the professor.)

We draw a conclusion about the role of minor characters in revealing the image of the main character: portrait, interior, everyday life, minor characters - everything indicates that Philip Philipovich Preobrazhensky is a self-confident, worthy, intelligent person with high culture.

IV . The role of the image in revealing the idea of ​​the work – 15 minutes.

-What is the purpose of a professor’s life? (We listen to the students’ answers).

The purpose of his life is to serve science. For this reason, he decided on an experiment to humanize the dog... But Sharikov appears in the apartment - this “ new person“, and devastation immediately begins, as indeed everywhere: in the house, in the country.

In the early 30s, at the Moscow Workshop of Communist Drama, Valery Yazvitsky’s one-act play “Who is to Blame” (“Devastation”) was staged, where the main character is an ancient, crooked old woman in rags named Devastation. Soviet propaganda sought to make a mythical, elusive villain out of the devastation, trying to hide that its root cause was the Bolshevik policy, war communism, when people, having no incentive to work, stopped working honestly and efficiently.

- How does Preobrazhensky propose to get rid of the devastation? (Bring order to the country, when everyone should mind their own business and be responsible for their work)

The revolution gave birth to “new people” who destroyed old world, a great culture, armed with one right - to take everything and divide it. But the goal of the revolution is to improve the lives of ordinary people, to transform the world.

Wanting to improve human nature, Preobrazhensky created a monster who easily accepted proletarian ideas. The pituitary gland transplant operation humanizes the dog within a week; the “humanization operation” of the Shvonders lasted longer, but the result is essentially the same. These people have only external human characteristics, which are insufficient for the definition of “human” to be applicable to them. Millions of Shvonders and Sharikovs were instilled with a terrible idea: in order to become the master of life, you don’t need to work hard, make an effort, educate yourself, it’s enough that you are a “proletarian”.

Watching an excerpt from the film - a fragment from Chapter 8 - a conversation between the professor and Dr. Bormenthal about the result of the experiment. - 5 minutes.

- What conclusion does the professor come to after his experiment?

(The failure of such experiments is inevitable, because it is impossible to “humanize” something that has ceased to be human, having lost the spiritual, moral and ethical basis on which the relationship between society and the individual is built. That is why the experiment with the humanization of the dog failed in the same way as the tragic communist experiment Time has shown how right Bulgakov was in his insights.

- Does the writer condemn the professor for this experiment?

(Working with text) – epilogue “The gray harmonies of trumpets warmed...

- What does the author call the professor? (Supreme being, omnipotent man, gray-haired wizard).

- What conclusion can be drawn?

(In the story, the professor manages to return everything to normal: the evil boor Sharikov again becomes kind and affectionate dog. It's a pity that in real life it is impossible to turn back time.)

V. Lesson summary.

The image of Professor Preobrazhensky is the main image, by comprehending which one can understand the writer’s ideological plan. This is one of the most vivid, memorable images created by Bulgakov. The author's skill is manifested in the ability to use various ways and techniques for creating the image of your hero.

VI. Homework - 1-2 min.

A talented writer, in the images he created, expresses thoughts that concern not only his contemporaries, but also his descendants. Experiments to create a new person continue in the twentieth century.Icentury. Now scientists are trying to clone people. I suggest you answer the question in writing:

“What did the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov warn humanity about when creating the image of Professor Preobrazhensky?”

VII . Giving and commenting on lesson grades - 2 minutes.

Sensational rejuvenation surgeries

M. Bulgakov’s fantastic story “The Heart of a Dog” about a professor conducting an experiment on transplanting a human pituitary gland into a dog was, in fact, not completely fictional. The main character, Professor Preobrazhensky, had a real prototype, or rather, even several prototypes. In those days, Russian and foreign scientists actually conducted experiments on human rejuvenation, and even on crossing humans with animals! There are at least four contenders for the role of Preobrazhensky’s prototype.

Evgeny Evstigneev as Professor Preobrazhensky in the film by V. Bortko *Heart of a Dog*, 1988

Researchers who search for prototypes of this literary hero usually start with portrait resemblance and geographic coordinates. The fact is that the story describes the apartment of Professor Preobrazhensky, and this description coincides in detail with the furnishings of the apartment of Bulgakov’s uncle, gynecologist Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky. In addition, one cannot help but notice the external similarity between the professor described in the story and Pokrovsky.

Bulgakov's uncle N. M. Pokrovsky and the house on Prechistenka in which he lived

This version is also supported by the memoirs of the writer’s first wife, Tatyana Lappa: “When I started reading “Heart of a Dog,” I immediately guessed that it was him. Just as angry, he was always humming something, his nostrils flared, his mustache was just as bushy. He was then very offended by Mikhail for this. Nikolai Mikhailovich was distinguished by an inflexible, hot-tempered character.” However, the similarities are limited to these details. Pokrovsky did not conduct scandalous experiments. Unlike the next contender for the role of the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky.

Charles Brown-Séquard

Professor Preobrazhensky not only treats patients, but also their rejuvenation - for example, in one episode he tells a 51-year-old woman that he intends to transplant monkey ovaries into her. This sounds anecdotal, but, nevertheless, very close to reality. The outstanding French doctor Charles Brown-Séquard, at the age of 70, began experiments on rejuvenation - he gave himself 6 injections of an extract from the testes of rabbits and dogs. According to him, he felt a surge of strength and vigor and felt rejuvenated.

Evgeny Evstigneev as Professor Preobrazhensky in the film by V. Bortko *Heart of a Dog*, 1988

To demonstrate the veracity of his feelings, Brown-Séquard ran up the stairs, which he had previously climbed with difficulty. His report, read at the Paris Scientific Society in 1889, caused a lot of noise. Some scientists followed his example and repeated his experiment. But soon the scientist recognized the short duration of the rejuvenating effect: he began to quickly become decrepit and died after 5 years - nature took its toll.

Samuil Abramovich Voronov

Samuil Abramovich Voronov

Brown-Séquard's experiments were continued by a French surgeon Russian origin Samuil Abramovich Voronov. He developed a technique for grafting monkey testicular tissue into human testicles. His experiments were so popular that he soon had a line of wealthy patients dreaming of rejuvenation and sexual activity. Thousands of people underwent treatment according to Voronov’s system, and soon he even opened a monkey nursery for the convenience of carrying out procedures. But soon Voronov lost confidence and was proclaimed a charlatan.

Samuil Abramovich Voronov

And in the USSR, no less sensational experiments were carried out at the same time by Professor Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, who discovered the method of artificial insemination to the world. He was creating interspecific hybrids and dreamed of crossing a man with a monkey. He came up with this idea in 1910 at the World Congress of Zoologists. His dream was not destined to come true, but similar ideas were heard in the scientific world of the early twentieth century.

Professor Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov and the expected result of his experiments

Polygraph Sharikov - the result of an experiment by Professor Preobrazhensky

It is difficult to say which of these outstanding doctors was really the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky, and whether he actually had prototypes - perhaps this is a collective image that embodied the features of the best minds of that era.

Fantastic M. Bulgakov's story “Heart of a Dog” about a professor conducting an experiment on transplanting a human pituitary gland into a dog was, in fact, not completely fictional. The main character has Professor Preobrazhensky- there was a real prototype, or rather, even several prototypes. In those days, Russian and foreign scientists actually conducted experiments on human rejuvenation, and even on crossing humans with animals! There are at least four contenders for the role of Preobrazhensky’s prototype.

Researchers who search for prototypes of this literary hero usually start with portrait resemblance and geographic coordinates. The fact is that the story describes the apartment of Professor Preobrazhensky, and this description coincides in detail with the furnishings of the apartment of Bulgakov’s uncle, gynecologist Nikolai Mikhailovich Pokrovsky. In addition, one cannot help but notice the external similarity between the professor described in the story and Pokrovsky.

This version is also supported by the memoirs of the writer’s first wife, Tatyana Lappa: “When I started reading “Heart of a Dog,” I immediately guessed that it was him. Just as angry, he was always humming something, his nostrils flared, his mustache was just as bushy. He was then very offended by Mikhail for this. Nikolai Mikhailovich was distinguished by an inflexible, hot-tempered character.” However, the similarities are limited to these details. Pokrovsky did not conduct scandalous experiments. Unlike the next contender for the role of the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky.

Professor Preobrazhensky not only treats patients, but also their rejuvenation - for example, in one episode he tells a 51-year-old woman that he intends to transplant monkey ovaries into her. This sounds anecdotal, but, nevertheless, very close to reality. The outstanding French doctor Charles Brown-Séquard, at the age of 70, began experiments on rejuvenation - he gave himself 6 injections of an extract from the testes of rabbits and dogs. According to him, he felt a surge of strength and vigor and felt rejuvenated.

To demonstrate the veracity of his feelings, Brown-Séquard ran up the stairs, which he had previously climbed with difficulty. His report, read at the Paris Scientific Society in 1889, caused a lot of noise. Some scientists followed his example and repeated his experiment. But soon the scientist recognized the short duration of the rejuvenating effect: he began to quickly become decrepit and died after 5 years - nature took its toll.

Brown-Séquard's experiments were continued by the French surgeon of Russian origin Samuil Abramovich Voronov. He developed a technique for grafting monkey testicular tissue into human testicles. His experiments were so popular that he soon had a line of wealthy patients dreaming of rejuvenation and sexual activity. Thousands of people underwent treatment according to Voronov’s system, and soon he even opened a monkey nursery for the convenience of carrying out procedures. But soon Voronov lost confidence and was proclaimed a charlatan.

And in the USSR, no less sensational experiments were carried out at the same time by Professor Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov, who discovered the method of artificial insemination to the world. He was creating interspecific hybrids and dreamed of crossing a man with a monkey. He came up with this idea in 1910 at the World Congress of Zoologists. His dream was not destined to come true, but similar ideas were heard in the scientific world of the early twentieth century.

It is difficult to say which of these outstanding doctors was really the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky, and whether he actually had prototypes - perhaps this is a collective image that embodied the features of the best minds of that era. This issue remains controversial, as

Context

We present to your attention all the materials that formed the basis of the criminal case against Professor Philip Filippovich Preobrazhensky. All quotes are taken from the literary source.

Illegal business

Why does a famous doctor, a “world luminary,” a professor operate at home and not in a clinic? Probably for the same reason that his clients pay a lot of money so that no one knows about their operation. Essentially, it is an underground clinic for business clients, criminals and prohibited experiments. All transactions are paid in cash.

“- Hehe. Are we alone, professor? This is indescribable,” the visitor began embarrassedly. “Password d’onner - 25 years, nothing like that,” the subject took hold of the button of his trousers, “would you believe it, professor, naked girls in flocks every night.” I'm positively fascinated. You are a magician. (...)
“I’m the one who’s the prettiest of all!..” The patient sang along in a voice rattling like a frying pan and, beaming, began to get dressed. Having put himself in order, he, jumping up and spreading the smell of perfume, counted out a wad of white money to Philip Philipovich and tenderly began to shake both hands.

"- I swear to God! - The lady said and living spots made their way through the artificial ones on her cheeks, - I know - this is my last passion. After all, this is such a scoundrel! Oh, professor! He card sharper, all of Moscow knows this. He cannot miss a single vile milliner. After all, he is so damn young. “The lady muttered and threw out a crumpled piece of lace from under her rustling skirts. (...)
“I’m inserting monkey ovaries into you, madam,” he announced and looked sternly.
- Oh, professor, are they really monkeys?
“Yes,” Philip Philipovich answered adamantly.
- When is the operation? “The lady asked, turning pale and in a weak voice.
— “From Seville to Grenada...” Uhm... On Monday. You will go to the clinic in the morning. My assistant will prepare you.
- Oh, I don’t want to go to the clinic. Is it possible for you, professor?
- You see, I perform operations at home only in extreme cases. It will cost very much - 50 chervonets.
“I agree, professor!”

His rates were 10 rubles per visit, while the typist's salary at that time was 45 rubles per month. That. ordinary patients with serious illnesses do not have the opportunity to make an appointment with a leading doctor.

“Some typist receives four and a half chervonets for the ninth grade, well, it’s true, her lover will give her fildepers stockings.”

"Well, okay, I'm not against sharing. Doctor, how many people did you turn away yesterday?
“Thirty-nine people,” Bormental answered immediately.
- Hm... Three hundred and ninety rubles."

Corruption. Blackmail

As you know, corruption is not only bribes, but also the abuse of one’s position for personal interests. Preobrazhensky uses his connections to illegally live in seven rooms, bypassing the decisions of the relevant authorities.

“We’re coming to you, professor, and this is what we’re talking about” // Youtube

“We, the management of the building,” Shvonder spoke with hatred, “came to you after a general meeting of the residents of our building, at which the issue of densifying the apartments of the building was raised...
- Who stood on whom? - Philip Philipovich shouted, - take the trouble to express your thoughts more clearly.
— The question was about compaction.
- Enough! I understand! Do you know that by the decree of August 12, my apartment was exempted from any kind of compaction or relocation?
“It is known,” Shvonder replied, “but the general meeting, having considered your question, came to the conclusion that, in general, you occupy an excessive amount of space.” Completely excessive. You live alone in seven rooms. (...)
“Then, professor, in view of your stubborn opposition,” said the excited Shvonder, “we will file a complaint against you with higher authorities.”
“Yeah,” said Philip Philipovich, “right?” “And his voice took on a suspiciously polite tone, “I’ll ask you to wait a minute.”

“But for it to be such a piece of paper...” // Youtube

“Philip Philipovich knocked, picked up the phone and said into it:
- Please... Yes... Thank you. Please ask Peter Alexandrovich. Professor Preobrazhensky. Pyotr Alexandrovich? I'm very glad I found you. Thank you, I'm healthy. Pyotr Alexandrovich, your operation is cancelled. What? Completely cancelled. The same as all other operations. Here's why: I'm stopping work in Moscow and in Russia in general... Now four people came in to me, one of them a woman disguised as a man, and two armed with revolvers and terrorized me in the apartment in order to take away part of it.
“Excuse me, professor,” Shvonder began, his face changing.
- Sorry... I don’t have the opportunity to repeat everything they said. I'm not a sucker for nonsense. Suffice it to say that they asked me to give up my examination room, in other words, they forced me to operate on you where I was still cutting up rabbits. In such conditions, I not only cannot, but also have no right to work. Therefore, I stop my activities, close my apartment and leave for Sochi. I can give the keys to Shvonder. Let him operate.
The four froze. The snow melted on their boots.
- What should I do... I myself feel very unpleasant... How? Oh no, Pyotr Alexandrovich! Oh no. I don't agree anymore. My patience has run out. This is the second time this has happened since August. How? Hm... Whatever. At least. But only one condition: by whomever, whenever, whatever, but that there be such a piece of paper, in the presence of which neither Shvonder nor anyone else could even come to the door of my apartment. Careful paperwork. Factual. Real! Armor. So that the name is not even mentioned. It's over. I died for them. Yes. Please. By whom? Yeah... Well, that's another matter. Yeah... I'm passing the phone now. Please,” Philip Philipovich addressed Shvonder in a snake-like voice, “they will talk to you now.”
“Excuse me, professor,” said Shvonder, now flaring up and then fading, “you have distorted our words.”
- I ask you not to use such expressions.
Shvonder took his hat in confusion and said:
- I'm listening to. Yes... Chairman of the house committee... No, they acted according to the rules... So the professor already has a completely exceptional position... We know about his work. They wanted to leave as many as five rooms to him... Well, okay... So... Okay..."

Coercion to crime. Abuse of power

Preobrazhensky uses blackmail to force his clients to commit a crime (abuse of power). The visibility of their offenses distracts the attention of investigators from the actions of Preobrazhensky himself.

“You don’t like the proletariat” // YouTube

“You know, professor,” the girl spoke, sighing heavily, “if you weren’t a European luminary, and you wouldn’t have stood up for you in the most outrageous way (the blond pulled her by the edge of his jacket, but she waved it off) the faces of whom, I’m sure , we will explain later, you should have been arrested.”(from this statement it is obvious that in the near future Preobrazhensky’s client will be subject to an inspection by authorities, while the professor himself will have a paper providing him with temporary immunity from any inspections)"

“...Professor Preobrazhensky, at a completely inopportune hour, received one of his former patients, a fat and tall man in a military uniform. He persistently sought a meeting and achieved it. Entering the office, he politely clicked his heels.
“Have your pains returned, my dear?” - asked the haggard one
Philip Philipovich, please sit down.
- Mercy. No, professor,” the guest answered, putting his helmet on the corner of the table, “I am very grateful to you... Hm... I came to you on another matter, Philip Philipovich... Having great respect... Hm... Warn . Sheer nonsense. He's just a scoundrel...
The patient reached into his briefcase and took out a paper.
- It’s good that they reported to me directly...
Philip Philipovich straddled the nose of his pince-nez over his glasses and began to read. He muttered to himself for a long time, his face changing every second.
"...and also threatened to kill the chairman of the house committee, Comrade Shvonder, from which it is clear that he keeps firearms. And he makes counter-revolutionary speeches, and even ordered his social servant Zinaida Prokofyevna Bunina to burn Engels in the stove, like an obvious Menshevik with his assistant Bormenthal Ivan Arnoldovich, who secretly lives in his apartment without being registered. I certify the signature of the head of the cleaning department P.P. Sharikov. Chairman of the house committee Shvonder, secretary Pestrukhin."
-Will you let me keep this? - asked Philip Philipovich, becoming covered in spots, - or is it my fault, maybe you need this to give the matter a legitimate move?
“Excuse me, professor,” the patient was very offended and flared his nostrils, “you really are looking at us very contemptuously.” I...” and then he began to pout like an Indian rooster.
- Well, sorry, sorry, darling! - Philip Philipovich muttered, I’m sorry, I really didn’t want to offend you.
“We know how to read papers, Philip Philipovich!”

Covering up a crime

At the same time, Preobrazhensky himself is involved in covering up the crimes of his clients. In particular, he performs a clandestine abortion in his apartment on a seduced 14-year-old girl, fulfilling the order of a pedophile and not reporting his crime in law enforcement agencies.

"- I'm too famous in Moscow, professor. What should I do?
“Gentlemen,” Philip Philipovich shouted indignantly, “you can’t do this.” You need to restrain yourself. How old is she?
- Fourteen, professor... You understand, publicity will ruin me. One of these days I should get an overseas business trip.
- But I’m not a lawyer, my dear... Well, wait two years and marry her.
- I'm married, professor.
“Oh, gentlemen, gentlemen!”

Stealing a corpse

To conduct prohibited experiments with human organs, he organizes the theft of a corpse from the morgue.

“When did he die?” he shouted.
- Three hours ago. - Bormental answered, without taking off his snow-covered hat and unzipping his suitcase.
Who died? “The dog thought gloomily and dissatisfiedly and poked his head under his feet, “I can’t stand it when they rush about.”
- Get out from under your feet! Hurry, hurry, hurry! - Philip Philipovich shouted in all directions and began to ring all the bells, as it seemed to the dog. Zina came running. - Zina! Call Daria Petrovna on the phone and don’t accept anyone! You are needed. Doctor Bormenthal, I beg you - quickly, quickly, quickly!

"Notebook of Doctor Ivan Arnoldovich Bormental.
December 23. At 81/2 pm, the first operation in Europe according to Professor Preobrazhensky was performed: under chloroform anesthesia, Sharik’s testicles were removed and instead, male testicles with epididymis and spermatic cords were transplanted, taken from a 28-year-old man who died 4 hours 4 minutes before the operation and preserved in a sterilized physiological fluid according to Professor Preobrazhensky."

Damage to state property

“You should read something,” he suggested, “otherwise, you know...
“I’m already reading, I’m reading...” answered Sharikov and suddenly predatory and quickly
poured myself half a glass of vodka. (...) This... what's her name... correspondence between Engels and these m... What's his name - the devil - with Kautsky.
(…)
- Well, well... Well, Shvonder gave it. He's not a scoundrel. So that I can develop...
“I see how you are developing after Kautsky,” Philip Philipovich shouted shrilly and turning yellow. Then he furiously pressed the button in the wall. “Today’s incident shows this perfectly!” Zina!
- Zina! - Bormenthal shouted.
- Zina! - yelled the frightened Sharikov.
Zina came running pale.
- Zina, there in the waiting room... Is she in the waiting room?
“In the waiting room,” Sharikov answered obediently, “it’s green, like vitriol.”
- Green book...
- Well, now fire! - Sharikov exclaimed desperately, - it’s official, from the library!
“The correspondence is called... what’s his name?.. Engels with this devil... Fuck her!”

Animal abuse. Violation of personal rights

Preobrazhensky performs an experiment on a dog in almost complete confidence that the dog will die.

The matter is aggravated by the fact that by the time the experiment began, Sharik was not a laboratory animal or even a yard dog, but Preobrazhensky’s pet.

“He cares about me,” thought the dog, “very much.” good man. I know who it is. He is a wizard, magician and sorcerer from a dog’s fairy tale.”

Thus, the experiment was carried out on an animal unsuitable for this purpose in unsuitable conditions (not a laboratory or a hospital); in addition, the operation was not formalized.

“For some reason, dad, you’re painfully oppressing me,” the man suddenly said tearfully.
Philip Philipovich blushed, his glasses sparkled.
- Who is your “dad” here? What kind of familiarity is this? So I don't want to hear that word again! Call me by my first name and patronymic!
A daring expression lit up the man.
- What are you all... don’t give a damn, don’t smoke... don’t go there... What is this, in fact, as clean as on a tram? Why don't you let me live? And about “daddy” you are wrong! Did I ask for an operation? - the man barked indignantly, - good job! They grabbed the animal, slashed its head with a knife, and now they abhor it. I may not have given my permission for the operation. And equally (the little man turned his eyes to the ceiling, as if remembering a certain formula), and equally my relatives. Maybe I have the right to file a lawsuit?”

"I was seriously wounded during the operation" // Youtube

Death threat

Sharikov’s statement to law enforcement agencies that Preobrazhensky “threatened to kill the chairman of the house committee, Comrade Shvonder, from which it is clear that he keeps firearms” has serious grounds.

“I would hang this Shvonder, honestly, on the first branch,” exclaimed Philip Philipovich, furiously biting into the turkey’s wing, “amazing rubbish is sitting in the house like an abscess. Not only does he write all sorts of senseless libels in the newspapers...” "

“Philip Philipovich bit his lip and through it carelessly said:
“I swear that I will eventually shoot this Shvonder.”

Murder or excess of self-defense

"Sharikov himself invited his death. He raised left hand and showed Philip Philipovich a bitten shisha with an unbearable cat smell. And then with his right hand, towards the dangerous Bormental, he took a revolver out of his pocket. Bormenthal's cigarette fell like a shooting star, and a few seconds later the broken glass Philip Philipovich rushed in horror from the closet to the couch. On it, prostrate and wheezing, lay the head of the purification department, and the surgeon Bormental was placed on his chest and suffocated him with a small white pillow.
A few minutes later, Dr. Bormental, not looking his best, walked into the front door and pasted a note next to the bell button:
“Today there is no appointment due to the professor’s illness. We ask you not to bother with calls.”
With a shiny penknife, he cut the bell wire, in the mirror he examined his scratched, bloody face and his tattered, jumping hands. Then he appeared at the kitchen door and said in a wary voice to Zina and Daria Petrovna:
— The professor asks you not to leave the apartment.
“Okay,” Zina and Daria Petrovna answered timidly.
“Let me lock the back door and take the key,” Bormental spoke, hiding behind the door in the shadows and covering his face with his palm. - This is temporary, not out of distrust of you. But someone will come, and you won’t be able to stand it and open it, but we can’t interfere. We are busy.
“Okay,” the women answered and immediately became pale.
Bormenthal locked the back door, locked the front door, locked the door from the corridor to the hall, and his steps disappeared at the observation room.
Silence covered the apartment, creeping into all corners. Twilight came, bad, wary, in a word - darkness.
True, neighbors across the yard later said that it was as if all the lights at Preobrazhensky’s were burning in the observation room windows facing the yard that evening, and they even allegedly saw the white cap of the professor himself... It is difficult to verify this. True, Zina, when it was all over, chatted that in the office, by the fireplace, after Bormental and the professor left the examination room, Ivan Arnoldovich scared her to death. Allegedly, he was squatting in the office and burning in the fireplace with his own hand a notebook with a blue cover from the pack in which the medical histories of the professor’s patients were recorded. It was as if the doctor’s face was completely green and everything, well, everything was scratched to smithereens. And Philip Philipovich didn’t look like himself that evening. And one more thing... However, maybe the innocent girl from the Prechistensk apartment is lying..."

Arguments for exceeding self-defense

Sharikov threatened Preobrazhensky and Bormental with a revolver, which can be regarded as an armed attack, but the professor and his assistant, having tied up and immobilized the attacker, did not hand him over to the police, but opened his skull and stomach.

Evidence for murder

“— On charges of Preobrazhensky, Bormental, Zinaida Bunina and Daria Ivanova with the murder of the head of the cleaning department of the MKH Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov.
Zina's sobs covered the end of his words. There was a movement.
“I don’t understand anything,” answered Philip Philipovich, raising his shoulders royally, “what kind of Sharikov is this?” Oh, it’s my fault, this dog of mine... Whom I operated on?
- Sorry, professor, not a dog, but when he was already a man. That's the problem.
- So he said? - Asked Philip Philipovich, - this does not mean being human. However, it doesn't matter. Sharik still exists, and no one has definitely killed him.
“Professor,” the black man said, raising his eyebrows in great surprise, “then we’ll have to present him.” It's been ten days since I disappeared, and the data, excuse me, is very bad.
“Doctor Bormenthal, please present Sharik to the investigator,” ordered Philip Philipovich, taking possession of the warrant.
Dr. Bormenthal, smiling wryly, left.
When he returned and whistled, a dog of strange quality jumped out of the office door behind him. He was bald in spots, with patches of fur growing on him, he walked out like a learned circus performer on his hind legs, then sank down on all fours and looked around. Deathly silence froze in the waiting room like jelly. The nightmarish-looking dog with the purple scar on his forehead stood up again. hind legs and, smiling, sat down in a chair."