Prechistenka Street

Prechistenka Street is the Moscow setting associated with the professor’s flat, where the story’s final return to domestic routine answers an official accusation with an image of Sharik restored to canine life. In the closing scene, the street remains outside the blinds while Sharik rests indoors, making the apartment a refuge and the street a quiet frame for the ending.

Setting and Final Scene

At night, the blinds shut out the sky over Prechistenka Street, where a lone star is visible. Inside the flat, the radiators hiss, and Sharik lies on the carpet beside the leather couch. The contrast places the street beyond the threshold and centers the closing scene on the dog’s renewed comfort at home.

Connection to the Plot’s Resolution

The street is named in the aftermath of a formal accusation: an official has charged the professor, Bormenthal, Zinaida Bunina, and Darya Ivanova with murdering Poligraph Poligraphovich Sharikov, identified as a sub-department controller of the City of Moscow Cleansing Department. The professor rejects the charge’s premise by asking who Sharikov is and pointing instead to the dog he operated on. Shvonder asks that the professor’s remark be entered in the report. The final reference to the night sky over Prechistenka Street thus follows a public dispute over identity and alleged death with a private scene of Sharik alive in the flat.

Place and Return

The narrative’s last movement returns to the professor’s residence on Prechistenka Street, but the emphasis falls on ordinary life rather than official scrutiny. Sharik’s head still aches around the circular scar in the mornings, while the evening warmth eases the discomfort; he thinks himself fortunate to be settled in the flat. The street is not described as the cause of the conflict or as a developed urban setting. Its brief appearance instead locates the apartment in Moscow and gives the ending a precise exterior boundary: beyond the closed blinds lies the night; within them, Sharik has a home again.