The Fatal Eggs

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The Fatal Eggs is a short, satirical science-fiction novella by Mikhail Bulgakov, written and published in 1924 in Russia. It centers on Vladimir Ipatyevich Persikov, an aging zoologist who discovers that a red light from a microscope speeds up the growth and reproduction of living things. His experiments attract media attention, foreign spies, and the Soviet secret police (the GPU).

In a future Moscow (the year 1928), the country is dealing with a mysterious poultry disease that wipes out all chickens. A sovkhoz manager named Aleksandr Semenovich Rokh is authorized to use Persikov’s discovery to restore the chicken population. But a mix-up occurs: the chicken eggs meant to go to Rokh end up in Persikov’s lab, while reptile eggs intended for the professor are sent to the farmers. This mistake leads Rokh to breed enormous, aggressive snakes, ostriches, and crocodiles that begin attacking people.

Persikov is killed by a mob that blames him for the disasters, and the Red Army fights to contain the beasts. The invasion ends only with a dramatic cold snap in August. An earlier version of the story even ends with Moscow destroyed by the monsters.

The book is widely interpreted as a critique of Soviet Russia, with possible allusions to Lenin and the state’s control over science and international policy. Bulgakov faced questioning by the GPU after publication and was never fully free to leave the Soviet Union, though he was not officially repressed. The Fatal Eggs has been translated into English in several versions.