The relevance of the work is due to the growing (since the second half of XX century) interest of literary critics in the study of the artistic world of the once banned writer M. Bulgakov and, in particular, the aspect of poetics, which is associated with the peculiarities of creative understanding of events in the country. The object of the study of this work is the theme of the experiment, which has a symbolic meaning in M.A. Bulgakov's prose. As the material were selected dramatic and prose works of small form of the writer, in the artistic structure of which the theme plays a significant role: "The Heart of a Dog", "The Fatal Eggs", "Bliss" and "Ivan Vasilyevich".