The Fatal Eggs

First published in 1925, ‘The Fatal Eggs’ is a satirical science-fiction novella by Mikhail Bulgakov, a Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. As the new actuality of post-Revolution Soviet life commences to sink in, a skillful but bizarre zoologist named Persikov conceives the machine that revolutionizes the development of living organisms by drastically boosting their size and reproductive speeds. Meanwhile, a mysterious plague has wiped out the whole poultry inhabitants of Russia, increasing apprehensions about the government’s capability to provide for its people. Desiring to utilize Persikov’s yet-untested innovation to restore the destroyed chicken population, the secret service seizes Persikov’s machine—with catastrophic consequences.