Bulgakov: A Dog's Heart characters

Appears from the start

A stray dog surviving a Moscow winter by scavenging and judging the people around him. Badly scalded by a cook, he is wary but highly responsive to food and kindness when an imposing gentleman leads him home.

Appears from the start

A celebrated Moscow surgeon who occupies a large apartment and treats wealthy patients with rejuvenation procedures. Authoritative, cultivated, and fiercely protective of his domestic order, he takes Sharik in for purposes he does not initially disclose.

First appears in chapter 2

Professor Preobrazhensky's young medical assistant and devoted pupil. He helps manage the practice, keeps clinical notes, and participates in the professor's experimental work.

First appears in chapter 2

A young household servant in the professor's apartment. Zina feeds and cleans Sharik, assists with patients, and is frequently called upon as the professor's carefully ordered home becomes increasingly unsettled.

First appears in chapter 2

The professor's cook, whose meals are part of the comfort and routine of his household. She is direct, capable, and less inclined than Zina to tolerate disruption.

First appears in chapter 2

The head of the building's new housing committee. He presses the professor to surrender rooms and represents the political and bureaucratic order that the professor resents.

First appears in chapter 4

A recently deceased habitual criminal whose organs are selected for the professor's experiment. The donor's history becomes medically important after tissue from his body is transplanted into Sharik.

Also known as Polygraph Polygraphovich

First appears in chapter 6

The humanlike person who emerges after the professor transplants human organs into Sharik. He adopts an elaborate official name, speaks coarsely, demands legal recognition and housing, and displays habits that combine the stray dog's impulses with traits associated with the donor.