Killer Eggs

Description

Mikhail Bulgakov wrote his novel “Killer Eggs” during one of the most difficult periods of his life. It is a bitter satire and scathing critique of the reckless adventurism of some Soviet leaders who exploited science, culture, and knowledge for petty purposes, ignoring the real dangers these adventures posed to the country’s future. Had the top leaders of that time grasped Bulgakov’s foresight and vision of what was to come, perhaps they could have spared their people and their homelands the long series of tragedies and disappointments that accumulated over seventy years, culminating in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite Maxim Gorky’s admiration and encouragement of the novel, it was met with harsh criticism. Bulgakov was accused of ill intent and of succumbing to a “new bourgeois mood,” causing him considerable distress and hardship, including persecution and attempts to prevent the publication of some of his works. Nevertheless, *Killer Eggs* remains one of the most beautiful and compelling early science fiction novels. It tells the story of the theft of Professor Perskov’s invention and takes the reader on a journey filled with strange events, culminating in a nationwide frost.