3. Features of the cycle "Notes of a young doctor"
At the very beginning of his literary career for M. Bulgakov, as M.O. Chudakova Chudakova noted in her work, M.O. Decree. op. - from. 262
Characteristic is the story on behalf of the narrator, "close to the author, about his own misadventures, with an underlined freedom from fictional "fiction", based on autobiography in the genre of a diary or notes." Several works have this word itself in the title: “Notes of a young doctor”, “Notes on cuffs”, “Notes of a dead man”. It is always a chronologically sequential, organized first-person narrative, with a series of time milestones - years, seasons, months, days.
The "Notes of a Young Doctor", known to us only in the printed edition of 1925-1927 (the edition of 1916-1918, entitled "Sketches of a Zemstvo Doctor" has not been preserved), is based on the material of the author's first post-university years: service as a Zemstvo doctor (1916-1917 ) in the Smolensk province. "Notes of a young doctor" were started in 1916-1917 in Nikolsky and Vyazma, work on them continued in Kiev (1918-1919).
In 1963, the stories collected by E.S. Bulgakova, came out as a separate edition. However, the story "Star Rash" (1926) was not included in the book; it was published in Russian only in 1981 by L. Yanovskaya. The second time the cycle "Notes of a Young Doctor" was published as part of a one-volume collection, the story "Morphine" (1927) was not included in the collection.
In Notes of a Young Doctor, Bulgakov recalls his medical practice in the countryside. Before us are unfolding pictures of the peaceful activity of the doctor, the struggle for human life not only against diseases, but also against the inertia and ignorance of the village.
"Notes of a Young Doctor" is not an autobiography, but literature using medical observations and personal experience. Here you can already feel the author's attentive and quite professional view of the characters and events from the outside.
All seven stories of the "Notes of a Young Doctor" are characterized by a local plot, the short duration of the described event (the action takes place most often within one day). Bulgakov transmits only episodes from the work of a doctor, but from them it is easy to compose general idea about his activities. Each case is described in such detail, with such closeness of the author's gaze that the reader feels like an eyewitness to what is happening.
The seven stories of the cycle are united not only by the personality of the narrator, but by the time and place of the action. As for the scene of action, only in one of the stories ("Steel Throat") the hospital where Bulgakov's, largely autobiographical hero works as a zemstvo doctor, is called Nikolskaya, as it was in fact in the real biography of the writer, and in others ("Blizzard ”, “Baptism by turning”) - N-coy. In reporting the time of the hero's service, Bulgakov deprives the stories of this time. The year 1918, which passed through the country with fire and blood, embodied in the "White Guard", in the "Notes of a Young Doctor" is quiet and ordinary. Only in one episode will a soldier come back “from a collapsed front after the revolution”, and the patients, turning to the doctor, call him either in the old fashioned way - “Mr. Doctor”, or in a new way - “Comrade Doctor”.
According to Rooster Towel and Steel Throat, the narrator first arrives at his place of duty on September 17, 1917, at the age of 23, having just graduated from the university as a doctor less than two months ago. And in the story "Egyptian Darkness" he celebrates, already in December, his 24th birthday. In fact, Bulgakov had already worked, by the time he arrived in the Smolensk province, all of 1916 in front-line hospitals, being in Vyazma being both older and more experienced, in May 1916 he turned 25 years old. Why does the author need these transformations? “It can be considered - for the sake of simplicity and “truth of art” - otherwise, in all its complexity, life is difficult to perceive from the text: there are too many distracting, atypical circumstances in it then, we need explanations, reservations and links” Mikheev M. Repeating the motive in “ Notes of a young doctor" Bulgakov // Artistic text as a dynamic system. - M., 2006, - p. 239 .
The cycle of stories "Notes of a Young Doctor" is a truly fascinating, artistically vivid stories about the formation of the personality of a young doctor, a gifted person who is constantly fighting, defending human life.
In the center of the "Notes" is a hero with an obvious past (he graduated from the university with a medical degree), present and future. The future is present in the stories-dreams of the "young doctor" and in the retrospective view of the narrator, looking at his life already from another time. He is an intellectual, quite definitely aware of his role in society.
The content of the book is a few cases from the medical practice of yesterday's university graduate, faced with the need to be the only, "universal" doctor in a small hospital. Fear of complex operations, loneliness, understanding of the limitations of one's knowledge ("unusable university burden") keep the young doctor in constant tension, create an anxious mood. His fears come true - a dying, crippled girl is brought from the village, and the doctor makes an amputation; then comes the day of the first difficult childbirth in his medical practice; finally, the most difficult is the case when it is impossible to help, death.
And, surprisingly, with such a seemingly gloomy plot, the stories are optimistic, imbued with a love of life. The secret of this cheerfulness lies in the character of the hero-narrator, who has an inexhaustible sense of humor and subtle irony, most often directed at himself, which expresses the originality of the hero's personality.
This is the smile of a person who, literally with sweat and blood, overcomes enormous difficulties, acutely feels the full responsibility of medical duty and at the same time retains the ability to notice the funny. “The round figure of a noiseless grandmother, baptized either on the door frame, or on the doctor” Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. 58; a hospital caretaker rushing to give birth, and fury, with curses, tearing the flying outsole of a boot on the go; the physiognomy of the doctor himself, “only half-shaven and therefore reminiscent of the convicts of Sakhalin” Ibid. - from. 32 - all this is the necessary relaxation after the pages that keep the reader on their toes.
In these uncomplicated, at first glance, stories, Mikhail Bulgakov appears as a master of subtle psychological writing. As E.A. Yablokov, who studies the work of M. Bulgakov: “the personality of the hero is often split in two: one speaks, orders, acts; the other - with fear and despair, is watching the actions of the first "Yablokov, E.A. Text and subtext in the stories of M. Bulgakov (“Notes of a young doctor”) / E. A. Yablokov. - Tver: Tver. State. Univ., 2002. - p. 11 - (Lectures in Tver). : “Inside myself, I thought like this: “What am I doing? After all, I will slaughter the girl.” But he said something else: “Well, quickly, quickly agree!” “Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. 31 . In moments of danger to the life of the patient, the doctor became tough, harsh. He looks around "angrily and gloomily", says "sternly", "not recognizing his own voice", "like a wolf squinting" at a pile of tweezers. These are the features of the external portrait. But the state of mind of the hero in these very moments is characterized by common sense, inspiration and mercy.
The author seems to be saying: you can’t smile and be kind while doing a difficult, dangerous job. During the operation, when the question of a person's life is being decided, the faces of doctors, midwives, paramedics become "evil", the movements are "predatory". This is a consequence of the strong tension of the mind and body. And it is this tension that helps them win the fight with death.
According to I.Yu. Makhovoy Makhova, I. Yu. Competence in phenomenological research (based on the stories of M.A. Bulgakov “Notes of a young doctor”) // Psychology of competence: phenomenology, diagnostics and dynamics in a Russian university. - Komsomolsk-on-Amur, 2006 - p. 59, “outward signs of his conformity to the image of an experienced doctor. The patient's condition, her health and life are secondary":
“On my way to the Murinskaya wilderness, I remember, back in Moscow, I promised myself to behave respectably. My youthful appearance poisoned my existence in the first steps. Everyone had to introduce themselves:
Such a doctor.
And everyone raised their eyebrows and asked:
Really? I thought you were still a student.
No, I finished, - I answered gloomily and thought: “I need to get glasses, that's what” Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. nine .
In the story "Baptism by turning", an extreme medical situation associated with the need for an obstetric operation in the transverse position of the fetus is perceived by a young doctor differently than in the story "Towel with a Rooster": here in the first place in importance are knowledge, skills, skills, and not maintenance reputation of a qualified serious doctor. When describing the situation, emphasis is placed on the feeling of loneliness, the lack of a competent environment. In this case, a new significant object arises - a patient, but who has only "objective" features for a young doctor:
“What is it about this woman with a dysfunctional birth? Um… misplaced… narrow pelvis… Or maybe something worse. What good, forceps will have to be applied. Should I send her straight to the city? Yes, this is unthinkable! Pretty doctor, nothing to say, everyone will say! Yes, and I have no right to do so. No, you really need it. So what to do? The devil knows. There will be trouble if I get lost; shame before midwives ... "Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. twenty .
“... Here I am alone, a woman is tormented under my arms; I am responsible for her. But I don’t know how to help her, because I saw childbirth close only twice in my life in the clinic, and those were completely normal. Now I am doing research, but this does not make it any easier for me or for the woman in labor; I don’t understand anything anyway and I can’t feel it inside there. And it's time to do something.
Transverse position ... since the transverse position, then you need to ... you need to do ...
Turn on the leg, - Anna Nikolaevna could not resist and seemed to notice to herself. An old, experienced doctor would squint at her for poking forward with his conclusions ... I'm not a touchy person ... ”Ibid. - from. 22.
In the story "Steel Throat" continues professional development the doctors. On a November blizzard night they wake him up. They brought in a girl dying of diphtheria croup. The doctor has never done a tracheotomy, but he understands that the child is doomed, the operation is the only chance for salvation. And he takes risks. The girl is saved. There is a rumor going around the villages that Lidka has been inserted with a "steel throat" and she lives perfectly with him. The popularity of the doctor grows to "tragic" proportions: he sees more than a hundred people a day. A young doctor yearning for the light of electric bulbs, dreaming of the advice of experienced colleagues, not confident in his abilities, and, nevertheless, bravely going to the operation - this is how he appears before us. main character. He understands what awaits him in case of failure. No one will forgive him: neither his mother, nor the peasant patients. But the doctor's duty is above all for him. In their own way, the whining grandmother, the culprit of a neglected disease, the personification of the darkness and ignorance of the village, is impressive; Lidka's mother, with her "black fury" and "bad voice" before the operation and "shining eyes" after her daughter's recovery, and, finally, the young paramedic, very capable person who fainted during surgery.
“I took a lifeless hand, put my fingers on it with a familiar gesture and shuddered. Under the fingers it trembled finely, often, then it began to break, stretch into a thread. My stomach turned cold as usual, as always, when I saw death point-blank. I hate her” Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. 41. These lines are from the story "Blizzard" (1926). A story about how it was not possible to defend a life that had just blossomed. The clerk, ardently in love with the young beauty - the forester's daughter, after the long-awaited engagement, took the bride to sled, and the trotter "when he took it, the bride was shaken - and his forehead on the jamb."
In the title of the story "Blizzard" the main plot line is immediately "twisted". The blizzard turned out to be insidious, deceptive. In the morning it was a beneficent blizzard: it gave the narrator - the young doctor - the first almost free day in the whole winter. Only two patients came to his hospital. And this gave him a happy opportunity to rest and wash, as he was already dying under the burden of his early glory. After an incredibly successful operation, the first in his career (“Steel Throat”), hundreds of patients began to visit him a day. In addition, he had an inpatient department for thirty people. He did operations, he also went to give birth, because he was the only doctor in a rural hospital.
And now, despite the blizzard, before he had time to wash himself, somehow drying his head in front of the stove, he went to another village on the basis of a desperate note from his colleague, also, as it turned out, a young doctor. Arriving at the place, he realized that he would definitely fall ill now, and it was even more offensive for him when he saw that he had come here in vain - the girl could not be saved. In dull despair after meeting with death, he immediately, waving off the persuasion to stay, wait out the blizzard, goes back. The driver lost his way, the travelers were chasing and the wolves had already overtaken them. The case saved or shots from the Browning, which fortunately the doctor had with him - is unknown. Only the old, peeling hospital lost in the snow seemed to the young doctor after the experience more beautiful than the palace.
In this story, an attachment to A. S. Pushkin, characteristic of the entire work of M. Bulgakov, also appeared. The story is preceded by an epigraph from the textbook poem "Winter Evening" (1825):
Like a beast, she will howl
It will cry like a child.
It is unlikely that the epigraph was needed only to remind everyone of the familiar lines. No, what was needed was a memory of the whole atmosphere of his poetry. Perhaps also the fact that Pushkin's sadness is always fraught with light.
The hero of the stories is not distinguished by either a titanic will or an iron character. But he is constantly fighting hard. First of all, with the disease: “... I looked into the pupils, tapped on the ribs, listened to how my heart mysteriously beats in the depths, and carried one thought in myself - how to save it? And this is to be saved. And this! Everyone!” Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. 37 . But not only is there a struggle with the disease, the doctor also has to overcome his own cowardice, ignorance. And in this he is helped by an indestructible love for people. After a hopeless, as it seems to the doctor, amputation, he asks: "When he dies, be sure to send for me." And here is one doctor. “Now they’ll knock ... they’ll say:“ She died ... ”Yes, I’ll go and look in last time» Ibid. - p. eighteen . This is how people think about their relatives, but Bulgakov's doctor thinks this way. But here is an unexpected turn in the story, and the stone falls from the soul of the reader. They really knock at the doctor, but a lot of time has passed - a recovered girl is at the door.
The thought of the need to "obediently study" never leaves the young doctor. The writer's conviction that educational institutions are not able to graduate fully prepared for independent work people, will take shape later in the "Life of Monsieur de Molière": "I believe that in no educational institution an educated person become impossible. But in any well-established educational institution, you can become a disciplined person and acquire a skill that will come in handy in the future, when a person outside the walls of an educational institution begins to educate himself ”Bulgakov, M.A. Selected works: In 3 vols. T2: The life of Mr. de Molière; Dead man's notes; Master and Margarita. - M.: TERRA, 1997. - p. 122 .
Among the works of M. Bulgakov, published in the 1920s in the journal "Medical Worker", there is also the story "Star Rash". “These lines, in fact, have no analogues in world literature. With the greatest chastity and humanity, Bulgakov described in the story of patients with syphilis and the details of their medical examination, at the same time giving a deep scientific analysis of the spread of this terrible disease and outlining measures to combat it. Even today this medical program can serve as examples of medical fearlessness and scientific consistency” Vilensky, Yu.G. "Doctor Bulgakov", Kiev, 1991, p. 47 . The story mentions a university and a professor with a gray beard. This is Sergei Petrovich Tomashevsky, an outstanding Russian syphilidologist, public figure, "advocate of women's medical education" Ibid. - from. 49 . His report, for example, says that the clinic treated patients with all forms of syphilis, with about a sixth of the patients being tertiary lues, and three-quarters of the patients were found to have warts. Clinic S.P. Tomashevsky had a rich library, the latest methods of treatment were used here. “Sufficient diagnostic experience, radicalism in the use of salvarsan, an epidemiological approach to syphilis - Mikhail Bulgakov undoubtedly acquired all this within these walls” Ibid. . Not much time will pass, and the young doctor, abandoned in the provincial wilderness, will face the tragic epidemic of the region one on one: “Now that many years have passed, far from the forgotten peeling white hospital, I remember the star rash on his chest. Where is he? Ah, I know, I know. If he is alive, from time to time he and his wife go to the dilapidated hospital. Complain of ulcers on the legs. I can clearly imagine how he unwinds footcloths, looking for sympathy. And a young doctor, a man or a woman, in a white darned dressing gown, bends to his feet, presses the bone above the ulcer with his finger, looking for the causes. Finds and writes in the book: "Lues III" "Bulgakov, M.A. Decree op. - from. 78 . It is this difficult and dangerous branch of medicine that will become in 1918 - 1919. the main specialty of Dr. M.A. Bulgakov.
It is not at all accidental that this story dropped out of the cycle, and for a long time. It is in it that it is clearly stated that the communication of the young doctor with the local peasants went exactly the same as in the story of A.P. Chekhov "The New Dacha". The simple-hearted intellectual-enthusiast always runs into a wall of heavy distrust; his relations with the peasants were not idyllic. The year "spent in close contact with them gave Bulgakov a lot to form a living, not speculative, idea of his people" Shteiman, M.S. Decree op. - from. 290 .
The Young Doctor's Tales, as the author himself called them, are indeed written by a young man; they are bright, smiling, well convey the excitement and joy of a graduate of the medical faculty who is starting a village practice, who bears little resemblance to the author. Conflicts and difficult situations are resolved in them easily and successfully.
While working on his first works, the young writer gradually learns the lesson of Russian classical prose: there must be a certain distance between the author and the characters, even those dear and close to him. That is, the writer should look at what happened to him and other people as his own and someone else's past. Of course, such maturity and height of the writer's view could not come at once.
Bulgakov is looking not only for a new point of view on current events and their participants, but also for his own style. I.A. Bunin in "Cursed Days" spoke bitterly about the decay and disease of the language, about its breaking and clogging even among the people. The satirist Bulgakov sees this disease, and hence all his mockery of abbreviations, clerical stamps, pseudo-revolutionary jargon, self-confident illiteracy of newspapermen. “But Bulgakov also laughs at the former “smoothness of smooth phrases” of decadent writers, writers of the beginning of the century. He himself did not fence himself off from the new “whirlwind” language of the era of the turning point, where “incorrect” lively speech, church high style and biblical images, book intellectual conversation, rhetoric of rallies and clumsy typewritten phrases of the chancellery bizarrely combined. On the contrary, the language of Bulgakov's satire lives on this irregularity and decay, skillfully using all the cliches and absurdities, pushing incompatible dialects and jargons. Hence his unique comedy” 40 Ibid. - from. 294 . A novice prose writer already knows how, following Chekhov, to show the character of a character through his speech.
The archetype of the trickster in the novel by Charles Dickens "The Post-Memory Notes of the Pickwick Club"
trickster novel dickens hero "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" - the first novel by the English writer Charles Dickens, first published by Chapman and Hall in 1836 - 1837 ...
Dr. Bulgakov in the cycle of stories "Notes of a young doctor"
"Notes of a Young Doctor" - a cycle consisting of the stories "Towel with a Rooster", "Baptism by a Turn", "Steel Throat", "Blizzard", "Egyptian Darkness", "Missing Eye" and "Star Rash". All these stories in 1925-1926...
Genre is general concept, reflecting the most essential properties and connections of the phenomena of the world of art, the totality of the formal and content features of the work ...
Compositional and stylistic features of Jasper Fforde's novels
What is the secret behind Jasper Fforde's popularity? Why is the mixture of a detective with an alternative history, diluted with school classic characters familiar from childhood, has become almost a cult in the English-speaking world...
Metamorphoses of heroes and images of the body in the prose of M.A. Bulgakov
"Notes of a Young Doctor" is a cycle of stories: "Towel with a Rooster", "Baptism by a Turn", "Steel Throat", "Blizzard", "Egyptian Darkness", "Missing Eye" and "Star Rash". All these stories in 1925 - 1926 ...
Problematics and poetics of the cycle of poems by B. Pasternak "When it clears up" (impressionistic tendencies)
Time concept. "... I want to understand<…>how Proust found the lost time ... ". "I chose the world of slums as a dwelling ... ". Features of the poetics of the cycle: Metaphor. Elements of impressionistic technique ...
The time of the appearance of the novel by I.W. Goethe "The Suffering of Young Werther" is 1774. None of the works of Goethe had such a phenomenal success as this novel. tragic fate The young hero made a huge impression on his contemporaries...
The role of allusions to the novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe "The Sufferings of Young Werther" in Ulrich Plenzdorf's story "The New Sufferings of Young V."
The literature of the GDR in the 1970s “gravitates toward a more multifaceted picture of the present and the contemporary than in previous decades. There is an active inclusion of the feelings and thoughts of an individual in the field of view of German writers "...
The role of allusions to the novel by Johann Wolfgang Goethe "The Sufferings of Young Werther" in Ulrich Plenzdorf's story "The New Sufferings of Young V."
Russian literature of the time of national upsurge. Second half of the 14th-first half of the 15th century
pre-revival literature patriotic story Chronicle story “About the battle on the Don and how Grand Duke fought the Horde” was written shortly after famous battle. The story with this heading is a lengthy edition of another ...
Creativity G.R. Derzhavin
A significant place in the work of Derzhavin is occupied by the heroic-patriotic theme. The poet glorified the military exploits of the Russian people, starting from the 80s, when the Russian-Turkish war was going on, and ending with the victories over Napoleon. These are such poems...
1.1 "Notes of a young doctor". Intention and artistic originality The image of a doctor occupies a key place in Bulgakov's work. IN different periods creativity, depending on the worldview and artistic method...
The theme of pain and suffering in Bulgakov's prose
It's no secret that the main motives in the works of Mikhail Afanasyevich are the motive of Duty, Peace, Guilt, Retribution. In my opinion, the motif of Pain and Suffering is no less important in Bulgakov's work...
Types of Russian life in the cycle of M. Gorky "Across Russia"
M. Gorky paid great attention to the selection and order of the stories in the cycle "Across Russia". For example, the story "Merry Man", written much earlier than other short stories, concludes the entire cycle. Means...
If a person has not ridden horses on back roads, then there is nothing to tell him about this: he will not understand anyway. And to the one who went, I don’t want to remind.
I will say briefly: forty miles separating the county town of Grachevka from the Muryevskaya hospital, my driver and I drove for exactly one day. And even to the curious level: at two in the afternoon on September 16, 1917, we were at the last storehouse located on the border of this wonderful city of Grachevka, and at two five minutes on September 17 of the same 17th unforgettable year, I stood on a bat, dying and the grass softened from the September rain in the courtyard of the Muryevskaya hospital. I stood in this form: my legs were numb, and so much so that I vaguely right there, in the yard, mentally leafed through the pages of textbooks, stupidly trying to remember whether it really exists, or I imagined it in yesterday's dream in the village of Grabilovka, an illness in which human muscles ossify? What's her damn name in Latin? Each of these muscles ached with unbearable pain, reminiscent of toothache. There is no need to talk about the toes - they no longer moved in their boots, they lay quietly, they looked like wooden stumps. I confess that in a fit of cowardice I cursed medicine in a whisper and my application, filed five years ago with the rector of the university. From above at this time sowed, as if through a sieve. My coat is swollen like a sponge. fingers right hand I tried in vain to grab onto the handle of the suitcase and finally spat on the wet grass. My fingers could not grab anything, and again, stuffed with all sorts of knowledge from interesting medical books, I remembered the disease - paralysis.
“Paralysis,” I said to myself desperately in my mind and God knows why.
- P ... along your roads, - I spoke with wooden, blue lips, - you need to p ... get used to driving ...
And at the same time, for some reason, he stared angrily at the driver, although he, in fact, was not to blame for such a journey.
“Eh... comrade doctor,” the driver replied, also barely moving his lips under his blond moustache, “I’ve been traveling for fifteen years, but I still can’t get used to it.
I shuddered, looked back wistfully at the white peeling two-story building, at the unbleached log walls of the medical assistant's house, at my future residence - a two-story, very clean house with mysterious coffin windows, sighed. And then, instead of Latin words, a sweet phrase flashed through my head, which a full tenor with blue thighs sang in his brains, stunned from pitching and cold:
Goodbye, goodbye for a long time, the gold-red Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, shop windows... ah, goodbye...
“I’ll put on a sheepskin coat next time...” I thought in spiteful desperation and tore the suitcase by the straps with unbending hands, “I... although next time it will be October already... put on at least two sheepskin coats. And I won't go before a month, I won't go to Grachevka... Think for yourself... after all, I had to spend the night! We did twenty versts and found ourselves in the darkness of the grave ... night ... I had to spend the night in Grabilovka ... the teacher let me in ... And this morning we left at seven in the morning ... and here you go ... father-sveta ... slower pedestrian. One wheel slams into the pit, the other rises into the air, the suitcase on its feet - bang ... then on its side, then on the other, then with its nose forward, then with the back of its head. And from above it sows and sows, and the bones freeze. But how could I believe that in the middle of a gray, sour September, a person can freeze in the field, as in a fierce winter ?! An, it turns out, it can. And while you are dying a slow death, you see the same thing, the same thing. To the right is a humpbacked, gnawed field, to the left a stunted copse, and next to it gray, tattered huts, about five or six. And it seems that there is not a single living soul in them. Silence, silence all around ... "
The suitcase finally gave way. The driver leaned on him with his stomach and pushed him straight at me. I wanted to hold him by the belt, but my hand refused to work, and my companion, swollen and fed up with books and all sorts of junk, flopped right on the grass, kicking me in the legs.
“Oh, you, mistress ...” the driver began frightened, but I did not make any claims: I still had my legs, even throw them away.
- Hey, who's here? Hey! shouted the driver, and flapped his arms like a cock's wings. - Hey, bring the doctor!
Then faces appeared in the dark windows of the paramedic's house, stuck to them, the door slammed, and then I saw a man in a tattered coat and boots hobble towards me on the grass. He respectfully and hurriedly took off his cap, ran two steps towards me, for some reason smiled shyly and greeted me in a hoarse voice:
Hello, Comrade Doctor.
- Who are you? I asked.
And then he grabbed the suitcase, threw it over his shoulder and carried it. I limped after him, trying unsuccessfully to reach into my trouser pocket to remove my purse.
A person, in fact, needs very little. And above all, he needs fire. Heading into the wilderness of Muryev, I remember, back in Moscow, I made a promise to myself - to behave respectably. My youthful appearance poisoned my existence in the first steps. Everyone had to introduce themselves:
- Such a doctor.
And everyone raised their eyebrows and asked:
– Really? I thought you were still a student.
- No, I finished, - I answered gloomily and thought: "I need to get glasses, that's what." But there was no need to wind up the glasses, my eyes were healthy, and their clarity was not yet clouded by worldly experience. Unable to protect myself from the usual indulgent and affectionate smiles with the help of glasses, I tried to develop a special, respectful habit. He tried to speak measuredly and weightily, to restrain impetuous movements as much as possible, not to run, as people run at the age of twenty-three, who graduated from the university, but to walk. It all turned out, as now, after many years, I understand, very badly.
At the moment, I violated this unwritten code of conduct of mine. He sat crouched, sat in his socks, and not somewhere in the office, but sat in the kitchen and, like a fire worshiper, passionately and inspiredly reached for the birch logs burning in the stove. On my left hand I had a tub turned upside down, and on it lay my shoes, next to them a peeled, bare-skinned rooster with a bloody neck, next to the rooster his multi-colored feathers in a pile. The fact is that while still in a state of rigor, I managed to perform a whole series of actions that life itself demanded. The pointed-nosed Aksinya, Yegorych's wife, was approved by me as my cook. As a result, the rooster died under her hands. I had to eat it. I got to know everyone. The paramedic's name was Demyan Lukich, the midwives were Pelageya Ivanovna and Anna Nikolaevna. I managed to go around the hospital and was convinced with perfect clarity that the instrumentation in it was the richest. At the same time, with the same clarity, I was forced to admit (to myself, of course) that the purpose of very many brilliant virgin instruments was not at all known to me. I not only did not hold them in my hands, but, frankly, I did not even see them.
“Hm,” I murmured very meaningfully, “however, your tools are lovely. Hm...
“Well, sir,” Demyan Lukich remarked sweetly, “this is all through the efforts of your predecessor Leopold Leopoldovich. He operated from morning to evening.
Then I broke out in a cool sweat and looked wistfully at the shining mirror cabinets.
We then walked around the empty wards, and I made sure that forty people could easily be accommodated in them.
“Leopold Leopoldovich sometimes had fifty lying,” Demyan Lukich consoled me, and Anna Nikolaevna, a woman in a crown of gray hair, said to something:
- You, doctor, are so youthful, so youthful ... Just amazing. You look like a student.
“Fuck, hell,” I thought, “what a deal, honestly!”
And grumbled through his teeth, dryly:
– Um... no, I... that is, I... yes, younger...
Then we went down to the pharmacy, and immediately I saw that it was not only bird's milk. There was a strong smell of herbs in the darkish two rooms, and everything was on the shelves. There were even proprietary foreign remedies, and need I add that I have never heard anything about them.
"NOTES OF A YOUNG DOCTOR"
A cycle consisting of the stories "Towel with a Rooster", "Baptism by a Turn", "Steel Throat", "Blizzard", "Egyptian Darkness", "Missing Eye" and "Star Rash". All these stories in 1925-1926. were published in the Moscow magazine "Medical Worker", as well as ("Steel Throat") in the Leningrad magazine "Red Panorama". When published, all but two of them were subtitled "Notes of a Young Doctor", or the same footnote. There is a footnote to the story “Egyptian Darkness”: “From the book “Notes of a Young Doctor”, which is being prepared for publication”, however, the book was never published during Bulgakov’s lifetime. In the story "Steel Throat" the subtitle was different: "The Young Doctor's Tale", and the story "Star Rash" had no subtitles and notes at all, relating it to any cycle or book. For the first time 3. Yu. in. in the form of a cycle came out in 1963 in the Ogonyok Library (No. 23) without the story Star Rash (obviously, as it does not have direct indications of belonging to the 3rd century), with the title “Steel Throat” changed to "Silver Throat" and dating events from 1917 to 1916, possibly for censorship reasons, as well as to artificially approximate the time of action with the time of Bulgakov's arrival in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province as a zemstvo doctor. By 3. ju. in. adjoins the story (or story) "Morphine", published in " Health worker” in 1927, however, most researchers do not include this story in the cycle, since not only did it not have any indication of belonging to 3. Yu. in. when published, but also quite different from the stories of the cycle in form and content. Here, the main part is not a direct narration on behalf of a young doctor, but the diary of such a doctor, Dr. Polyakov, which, after his suicide, is read by Polyakov's friend from the university, Dr. Bomgard. Unlike the hero-author in 3. Yu. in. the protagonist of "Morphine" Polyakov is defeated in the fight against his illness - morphinism and dies. Obviously, "Morphine" was conceived by Bulgakov as a separate work, outside the cycle of 3. y. century, although on common autobiographical material with him.
In the preface to the failed second edition of 3. Yu. in. the sister of the writer N. A. Bulgakov (Zemskaya) noted:
“A native of a large cultural city, who loves and knows art, a great connoisseur and connoisseur of music and literature, and as a doctor prone to research laboratory and office work, Mikhail Bulgakov, once in a remote village, in a completely unusual environment for him, began to do his difficult work as dictated to him by his inner feeling, his medical conscience. Medical duty - that's what primarily determines his attitude towards patients. He treats them with a truly human feeling. He deeply pities the suffering person and ardently wants to help him, no matter what it costs him personally. He pities the little choking Lidka (“Steel Throat”), and the girl who got into the pulp (“Towel with a Rooster”), and the woman in labor who did not reach the hospital and gives birth in the bushes by the river, and stupid women who speak about their illnesses in completely incomprehensible words (“Missing Eye”: “...learned to understand such woman’s speeches that no one will understand”), and all, all of his patients.
He writes about this without excessive recitation, without pompous phrases about the doctor's duty, without unnecessary lectures.
He is not afraid to talk about how difficult it is for him.
In the life of Mich. Bulgakov was sharply observant, impetuous, resourceful and courageous, he had an outstanding memory. These qualities also define him as a doctor, they helped him in his medical activities. He made diagnoses quickly, he knew how to immediately grasp character traits diseases; rarely misdiagnosed. Courage helped him decide on difficult operations.
In 3. y. in. many genuine cases of Bulgakov’s medical activity are displayed during his work in the zemstvo hospital in the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, Smolensk province in the period from September 1916 to September 1917. He was sent there for mobilization as a militia warrior of the 2nd category unfit for military service to fill the vacancy of a zemstvo doctor. From September 20, 1917 until February 1918, Bulgakov continued to serve in the zemstvo city hospital of Vyazma in the same Smolensk province, but this period was reflected only in the framing story of Dr. Bomgard in Morphia, where the main part - the diary of Dr. Polyakov - is also connected with the experience of working in Nikolskoye, named here by Gorelov. On September 18, 1917, the Sychevsk Zemstvo Administration, in connection with the transfer to Vyazma, issued Bulgakov a certificate with a detailed description of his work in Nikolsky: The doctor who was in charge of the Nikolskaya Zemstvo Hospital, for which time he has established himself as an energetic and tireless worker in the Zemstvo field. At the same time, according to the information available in the Administration, in the Nikolsky district, 211 people used inpatient treatment during the specified time, and there were 15361 outpatient visits.
The operational activities of the doctor M. A. Bulgakov during his stay at the Nikolskaya Zemstvo Hospital were as follows: operations were performed - amputation of the thigh 1, removal of toes 3, curettage of the uterus 18, circumcision of the foreskin 4, obstetric forceps 2, turning on the leg 3, manual removal of the afterbirth 1, removal of atheroma and lipoma 2 and tracheotomy 1; in addition, the following were performed: stitching of wounds, opening of abscesses and festering atheromas, punctures of the abdomen (2), reduction of dislocations; once, fragments of crushed ribs were removed under chloroform anesthesia after a gunshot wound.
Many of the mentioned operations were reflected in 3. Yu. in .: amputation of the thigh (“Towel with a rooster”), turning the fetus on the leg (“Baptism by turning”), tracheotomy (“Steel throat”), etc. In 3. y. in. the protagonist is younger than Bulgakov, although the action is shifted by a year compared to Bulgakov's biography: the young doctor arrives in the village in September 1917, and not in September 1916, as was the case with Bulgakov. In "Steel Throat" the main character is 24 years old, while by the time of arrival in Nikolskoye the author is 3. Yu. in. was already 25 years old. However, young age does not prevent the hero of the cycle from successfully overcoming all obstacles and successfully fulfilling his mission. The fact that Bulgakov himself was a really good doctor is also confirmed by the first wife of the writer T. N. Lappa, who was next to him both in Nikolskoye and in Vyazma: “He made wonderful diagnoses. Well orientated." So there is no idealization of reality here, despite the fact that the harsh rural reality is given in 3. Yu. in. without any embellishment. 3. Yu. in. were focused on Notes of a Doctor (1901) by Vikenty Vikentyevich Veresaev (Smidovich) (1867-1945), with whom Bulgakov later had a chance to get close, make friends and even co-author the play Alexander Pushkin. Bulgakov's young doctor is different from that of Veresa. He, unlike the hero of the "Doctor's Notes", practically does not know failures. Veresaev wrote his book at a time when he was close to the Marxists. It seemed to him that "new people came, cheerful, believing, who found happiness not in sacrifice, but in struggle." Bulgakov 3. Yu. in. wrote when just had to reap the fruits of this struggle. For the author of The Doctor's Notes, "the only way out is in the consciousness that we are only a small part of one huge, inseparable whole, that only in the fate and success of this whole can we see our personal destiny and success." For the author and the protagonist 3. Yu. in. first of all, his own professional success is important, and he thinks of the struggle not alone, but in unity with fellow doctors, and not with some amorphous and grandiose whole. The young doctor, as he sees it in Egyptian Darkness, is always with his "army" - paramedics and nurses, and, perhaps more broadly, with the "squad of doctors." Author 3. Yu. in. asserted the strength of the personal feat of an intellectual, bringing help to the suffering and enlightening the people, while Veresaev in his “Doctor's Notes” sought to demonstrate the impotence of a loner, without merging with the mass.
First edition 3. Yu. in. created in the wake of events. According to a friend of Bulgakov’s youth Alexander Petrovich Gdeshinsky (1893-1951) in a letter to N.A. Zemskaya on November 1-13, 1940, Bulgakov read the first edition of the future story “Star Rash” to relatives and friends in Kiev in 1918. It is possible that that early version 3. yu. century, called "Notes of a Zemstvo Doctor", was created during Bulgakov's stay in the Smolensk province. In a letter to his cousin Konstantin Petrovich Bulgakov from Vladikavkaz to Moscow on February 16, 1921. Bulgakov mentioned among the manuscripts that remained in Kiev "Sketches of the Zemsky Doctor" and "Illness" (probably the first edition of "Morphine"). And in a letter to his mother, V. M. Bulgakova, November 17, 1921, the author 3. Yu. in. already from Moscow he reported: “At night I write“ Notes of a Zemstvo doctor. It might turn out to be a solid thing. Processing "Illness". Obviously, after the publication of stories from 3. Yu. in. and "Morphia" Bulgakov destroyed the texts of early editions.
Curious memories of the first readings of 3. Yu. in. in Kiev in 1918, Bulgakov's son-in-law (husband of his sister Varia) L. S. Karum (1888-1968), who served as the prototype of Talberg in The White Guard and Days of the Turbins, left. In the unpublished essay “Woe from Talent: M. A. Bulgakov as a Person and a Writer,” he says: “Having a heritage of fiction, it turns out that he did not come to Kiev empty-handed, but brought several stories about his activities as a zemstvo doctor. .. After all, people of his generation and his environment (it is noteworthy that Karum himself, a man of the same generation and environment as Bulgakov, in his declining years preferred to distance himself from this generation. - B.S.) began to live twice. For the first time - in the conditions of the old Russian life, they graduated from the gymnasium, the university, started families, served. They remembered about this life, in which there was not only bad, but also good. The second time they began to live from the very beginning, after the revolution. Sometimes they changed their profession, place of residence, specialty, even family. And the first period brought back memories. He has gone into the past.
The stories are original and fresh, revealing the psychology of the doctor. Until that time, the general public knew about the experiences of the doctor only from the works of V. Veresaev “Notes of a Doctor”, but these were notes of a general practitioner. Bulgakov, on the other hand, describes the psyche of a surgeon, and a young one at that. It was new, written with talent."
In the memoir unpublished manuscript “My life. A story without lies ”L. S. Karum left a unique testimony of how they reacted to 3. Yu. in. Kiev friends of Bulgakov: “In 1918, the Notes made a splash among his friends. In the evenings, Bulgakov retired to the room that served as his office during the reception of patients, and there he read excerpts from the Notes to his enthusiastic listeners. Kolya Sudzilovsky (nephew of L. S. Karum, prototype of Lariosik in The White Guard and Days of the Turbins. - B. S.) once said after reading: “This is amazing, wonderful.” He said that Bulgakov described the case when he had to do a tracheotomy for diphtheria for the first time. Bulgakov was very worried, but, as he says, he performed the operation brilliantly, and the child immediately began to breathe calmly. This clearly refers to an early version of the story "Steel Throat".
In a letter to N. A. Zemskaya dated November 1-13, 1940, A. P. Gdeshinsky noted that in letters from Nikolsky “Misha very much complained about the kulak, callous nature of the natives, who, using his invaluable help as a doctor, refused to selling half a pound of butter when the wife got sick... or something like that." Bulgakov’s anti-kulak sentiments are confirmed in his own handwritten testimony during interrogation at the OGPU on September 22, 1926: “I can’t write on peasant topics because I don’t like the village. It seems to me much more kulak than it is customary to think. However, in 3. Yu. in. anti-kulak motives are practically absent, and the emphasis is on the need to educate the people. Probably, Bulgakov did not want to have anything to do with the official propaganda that stigmatized the kulaks (although their existence was admitted for the time being). In addition, the writer, as an unknown OGPU informant reported in a report dated February 22, 1928, in a conversation with Pushkin researcher N. O. Lerner (1877-1934) stated: “War communism or complete freedom is either necessary or again. The coup... should be made by a peasant who finally spoke his real native language. In the end, there are not so many communists ... but tens of millions of offended and indignant peasants. It is possible that these, which later turned out to be untenable, calculations on the peasantry, led to the muting of the kulak features of the villagers in the 3rd Yu. in.
One of the earliest works written by Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov is Notes of a Young Doctor. It clearly traces the worldview and beliefs of the future great writer, which are reflected in his later work. Among the main features, one can note bright and kind humor, perhaps even some naivety. Condescendingly treats the heroes of his
"Notes of a young doctor" tells us about a young man who decided to devote himself to medicine. At first he looks timid, indecisive, but over time he gains the necessary experience, self-confidence arises. But the most important thing that the main character acquires is a huge responsibility to the people and patients of representatives of this profession. He always rushes to the suffering and needy, no matter what the weather is outside. Bomgard puts a lot of love, care and warmth into his work, which helps the sick to recover.
The protagonist of "Notes of a Young Doctor" is pursued not only by luck and success. Periodically on his way there are difficulties that he is unable to overcome. So, his colleague and friend Dr. Polyakov dies in the chapter "Morphine". In the story "Blizzard", the beloved of one of the characters also cannot be helped. However, the doctor does not run away from unsolvable problems, does not despair, but continues his difficult mission - saving a person's life. Only one thing frightens the protagonist of the work - his impotence in the face of the disease that has engulfed the patient. He is constantly trying to improve himself, develop, acquire new skills and knowledge. In a word, this doctor works a lot on himself.
This story brought its creator, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, great fame.
The plots of the stories from the cycle written by Bulgakov, Notes of a Young Doctor, are rather unpretentious, but they give a panorama of the life of one village located in the Smolensk province, and at the same time reveal the character of the author.
"Rooster Towel"
Bomgard, as soon as he arrived at a new place, was immediately faced with the need to carry out an amputation. Fortunately, the operation ends successfully, the old paramedic praises him and adds that, apparently, the doctor has great experience for this part. Bomgard replies with a shudder that he has already done two, and reproaches himself for lying.
"Snowstorm"
The Doctor goes to a remote village on an emergency call and gets caught in a snowstorm. The author's idea in the story is simple: medical ethics does not allow him to refuse the patient, despite any obstacles that stand in the way, and no matter what it costs.
"Steel Throat"
A girl in the last stage of diphtheria gets an appointment with a doctor. Bomgard, enraged by the ignorance of the grandmother and mother of the child, performs a tracheotomy and temporarily inserts a steel tube into the throat so that the patient does not die from suffocation. This story ends with a joke: from all the surrounding villages, peasants come to look at the rescued girl, confident that the doctor sewed a steel tube down her throat.
"Egyptian Darkness"
He continues with the following story, which anecdotally describes the ignorance of ordinary peasants. It is about a miller with malaria. He decides to take a course of quinine, prescribed for him for a week, at a time, because he does not want to wait long for his recovery. This is what Bulgakov told us in this story.
"Morphine"
"Notes of a Young Doctor" continues with a story - the darkest of all included in the collection. It is actually a monologue of a morphine addict who committed suicide of a colleague of Dr. Baumgard. Bulgakov was very familiar with this topic, since he himself went through the pangs of addiction to this substance, but found the strength to overcome the disease, unlike Polyakov, this unfortunate doctor. On several pages of a poignant story created by Mikhail Bulgakov ("Notes of a Young Doctor"), the horror of drug addiction and its inevitable finale - moral degradation, loss of friends and loved ones, and personality breakdown are shown.
"Baptism by Turn"
Bomgrad here is forced to take a difficult birth. Having no experience in this, he frantically reads the manual before the operation, but in the end the doctor has to rely only on his professional intuition. Having completed the operation safely, he reads the book again and notices that all previously obscure places are now completely clear to him. Book experience was confirmed by practical experience, notes Bulgakov. The book "Notes of a young doctor" continues with the following story.
"Missing Eye"
Bomgard in this work sums up the results of the first year of practice in the Muryevskaya hospital, notices without surprise that he has changed a lot both externally and internally, recalls various curious cases. Now, thanks to experience, he looks without fear at a new case, but those of them in which excessive education prevents him from seeing the obvious and simple (for example, the case with the “missing” eye) save the physician from excessive pride. The young 23-year-old doctor notes that every year he will bring such surprises with him, and the study will never stop.
"Star Rash"
In this story, the doctor comes across a hotbed of syphilis and clearly understands that this terrible disease has a social character, which makes it more difficult to cope with it than with any other ailment. Bomgard begins a long and stubborn struggle against syphilis, but in the end he must admit that successful treatment requires a system that would be able to overcome the fear of this disease among the peasants.
"I killed"
The cycle, which was created by M. Bulgakov ("Notes of a young doctor"), ends with the story "I killed". Bomgard told in it the story of Yashvin, his colleague, who introduced himself as the only surgeon with a pistol, and not with a scalpel. Yashvin's story takes place in Kiev in 1919. The doctor is forcibly taken away by the Petliurists and arranged as a regimental doctor under the command of Colonel Leshchenko. Watching the tortures, murders, reprisals and brutal customs of the period civil war As a result, Yashvin does his own hard work while being placed above professional medical ethics. This is not an easy conflict, considering also the fact that it arises before a representative of such a humane profession.
Attention, only TODAY!
- I.S. Turgenev. Summary of "Notes of a hunter"
- "Heart of a Dog": analysis of the story by Mikhail Bulgakov
- Yeshua Ha-Nozri. Yeshua Ha-Nozri: characteristics. Bulgakov, "The Master and Margarita"
- ";Notes of a hunter"; Turgenev: summary of the collection
"Notes of a young doctor" - a cycle of stories by M.A. Bulgakov. The title is given by analogy with the “Doctor's Notes” (1901) by V. V. Veresaev; preliminary versions of the title: "Sketches of a Zemstvo Doctor", "Notes of a Zemstvo Doctor". The idea (and possibly the beginning of the work) dates back to 1916-1917, when the future writer served as a doctor in the Smolensk province (the village of Nikolskoye, Sychevsky district, then Vyazma). The stories of the cycle were published separately for the first time. All together (with the exception of "Star Rash") first published as a separate edition in 1963; Completely in 1989
Bulgakov's plans regarding the composition of the cycle are unknown, therefore, when preparing the 1963 edition, the author's intention had to be reconstructed; one of the main problems here is the order of the stories: they were arranged according to the internal chronology of events. At the same time, the question of the place of the story “Star Rush” remains debatable: “The time of action places this story approximately after the“ Egyptian Darkness ”, however, the time of the narrator<...>provides a basis for concluding a cycle with them ”(M. Chudakova). Despite the fact that the compilers of the first volume of the Collected Works of M.A. Bulgakov (1989) preferred the second option, the first one seems more correct: the internal logic of the “Notes of a Young Doctor” is based on the image of an annual circle (by the way, Bulgakov’s service in the Nikolskaya hospital lasted almost exactly a year), therefore it is logical that the story “The Missing Eye”, in which the motif of “anniversary”, “jubilee” sounds, in this sense it echoes the opening story “Towel with a Rooster”. As for Starburst, here the narrator says that he graduated from the university "six months ago": this evokes more associations with the middle of the annual cycle, so a more natural place for this story is in the middle of the book.
The beginning of the action of "Notes ...", in comparison with the real facts, is shifted by a year - the moment the young doctor arrived at the hospital was not assigned to September 1916, but to September of the "unforgettable year 1917"; at the same time, there are no echoes of revolutionary events in the Notes, although there is a bifurcation of the narrator due to the time distance: looking at 1917 “from the future”, he focuses exclusively on the medical aspects of events. This does not mean that Bulgakov's book is devoid of socio-psychological problems; on the contrary, due to the author's demonstrative "ignorance" of social cataclysms, the impression of the immobility of the dark peasant mass is intensified.
If V.V. Veresaev in his Notes of a Doctor, denying the individual efforts of the intellectuals-“enlighteners”, called on them to unite (in fact, to participate in the preparation of the revolution), then in Bulgakov’s book the position of the hero-intellectual looks completely unpromising. Growing up, gaining professional experience and making extreme situations almost miracles, the young doctor nevertheless cannot get rid of the feeling that he is in a mysterious, incomprehensible world, which only at first glance seems ordinary and familiar. It is no coincidence that in "Notes ..." (as, indeed, in many other works of the writer) important role plays the motif of a dream, which ends most of the stories in the cycle: on the one hand, the image of a dream enhances the sense of narrative distance, on the other hand, it gives real events past character visions, fantasies.
Bulgakov's story "Morphine" adjoins the cycle "Notes of a Young Doctor". The image of the young doctor here receives a double incarnation (Bomgard - Polyakov), denoting for Bulgakov two options for his own fate; it is not surprising that the story of Polyakov's death, set out in the diary, is experienced by Bomgard as his personal biography and, ten years later, still does not lose interest in the notes. Characteristically, the hero's fruitless attempt to get rid of drug addiction chronologically coincided with October coup. The exact indication of the time of the story's creation - "1927 Autumn" - introduces a jubilee motif and, thus, contains a hint of the reason that forced Bomgard to re-read and publish the notes of Polyakov's suicide.
