The book's publication was at first forbidden in the Soviet Union. It circulated in samizdat until it was officially released in the country in 1987. It is "one of novelist Mikhail Bulgakov's most beloved stories" featuring a stray dog "named Sharik, who takes human form" as a slovenly but self-important New Soviet Man. The dog's internal monologue at the start, grumbling at his life in the city, sets the scene for the novel.