the apartment in tears. Seething with hatred, Sharikov vows to have her fired. Again Bormenthal beats up Sharikov and makes him promise not to do anything of the sort. The following day, a senior Party official, patient and good friend of Professor Preobrazhensky, Pyotr Alexandrovich, arrives and informs the Professor that Sharikov has denounced him to the secret police or CHEKA. Explaining that nothing is going to happen to him due to the State's distrust of Sharikov, the Party official departs. When Sharikov returns, the Professor and Bormenthal order him to leave the flat permanently. Instead, Sharikov refuses and draws a revolver. Enraged, the Professor and Bormenthal pounce upon him. That night, an ominous silence reigns in the flat and the lights are left on for many hours after bedtime. Over the days that follow, the Professor and Bormenthal look far more relaxed than at any time before Sharikov's arrival. Eventually, the police arrive escorted by a beaming Schwonder. Bearing a search warrant, they demand that the Professor and Bormenthal produce Sharikov on pain of immediate arrest. Unintimidated, the Professor orders Bormenthal to summon Sharikov, who is changing back into a dog. The Professor explains the change as a natural phenomenon, although it's obvious to the reader that he and Bormenthal have simply reversed the operation. Followed by the now apoplectic Schwonder, the police depart. In the aftermath, the fully canine Sharik blissfully resumes his status as a gentleman's dog. However, in the ending of the book, he describes the Professor bringing home a human brain and removing the pituitary gland. This perhaps shows that Sharik retains some memories of his time as a human, or that Filip intends to carry out a similar experiment. Themes The novella has been interpreted both as a satire on Bolshevism and as a criticism of eugenics. One commonly accepted interpretation is that Bulgakov was trying to show all the inconsistencies of the system in which Sharikov, a man with a dog's intelligence, could become an important part. Sharik is seen as "a reincarnation of the repellent proletarian", and the professor represents a "hyperbolic vision of the bourgeois dream", according to J. A. E. Curtis. Names figure prominently in the story. Preobrazhensky's name is derived from the Russian word for "transfiguration". "Sharik" is a common name for dogs in Russia meaning "little ball". The name and patronymic "Poligraf Poligrafovich" echoes a tradition of nonsense