Analysis and Critical Reception
A number on influences on the novel can be detected. One of the sources behind The Fatal Eggs was H. G. Wells's 1904 novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, where two scientists discover a way to accelerate growth — which at first results in a plague of gigantic chickens, and eventually in an all-out war between people affected by growth and those who are not. The novel is in fact referenced in the text of the novel in a conversation between Persikov and his assistant. It has also been noted that the death of the snakes from cold weather though they successfully resisted the military force is reminiscent of the death of aliens from a pathogen bacteria in The War of the Worlds. Other influences may include rumours of "a giant reptile, to capture which a regiment of Red Guards was deployed".
Many Soviet critics saw the events of The Fatal Eggs as a critique of Soviet Russia. Indeed, there is a case to be made for Professor Persikov's identification with Vladimir Il'ich Lenin (note the similarity in names), as both of them can be said to have unleashed destruction on Russia, and there seem to be similarities between them both in appearance and character. Chicken plague and the sanitary cordons that foreign countries established against it were seen as a parody of the ideas of internationalism and the policy of Antanta against it. Although Bulgakov was not repressed, from 1925 he was questioned by the GPU several times and was never allowed to leave the Soviet Union, possibly as a result of his negative image which was at least partly due to the publication of The Fatal Eggs. Although there were positive responses, upon the whole the novel was viewed as dangerous and anti-Soviet.
Bulgakov was aware that the story might be displeasing to the authorities - after presenting the story at a literary evening in late 1924, he wrote in his diary: 'Is it a satire? Or a provocative gesture? ... I'm afraid that I might be hauled off ... for all these heroic feats.'
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