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Physician writers

Many Russian classics had a second profession, often unrelated to literature. We have collected the stories of writers-doctors: why they received a medical education, how they found time for writing and medical practice, and what they finally chose - read in the publication of the Kultura.RF portal.

Vladimir Dal

Vasily Perov. Portrait of Vladimir Dahl (detail). 1872. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

In 1826, after serving in the Black Sea Fleet, midshipman Vladimir Dal entered the medical faculty of the University of Dorpat (today the University of Tartu). As the surgeon Nikolai Pirogov said, "Dal changed from sailors to doctors". He was one of the best students, even in the years of study he excelled in surgery.

“I felt the need for a thorough study, for education, in order to be a useful person in the world.”

Vladimir Dal

At the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, Dal graduated from the medical faculty ahead of schedule with the highest rank of doctor of the 1st department. He was sent to the army, where the future writer served as an intern in a mobile hospital.

After the war, Vladimir Dal worked in the St. Petersburg military land hospital. He became a famous surgeon: he performed more than 40 cataract surgeries. In 1837, Dahl, along with several other doctors, tried to treat the dying Alexander Pushkin, he also stated his death. The doctor described the last days of the poet’s life and the results of the autopsy in the article “Death of A.S. Pushkin.

“I ate my teeth and turned gray over medical art”- Vladimir Dal wrote about himself. His knowledge of medicine was highly appreciated by the St. Petersburg medical elite - even after Dahl left surgery. In the 1850s, he led a circle of city doctors, wrote articles on the right way of life, folk medicine, and spoke in favor of homeopathy. Until the end of his life, Vladimir Dal did not stop practicing medicine. In the four-volume Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Russian Language, he explained the meanings of some medical concepts.

Anton Chekhov

Osip Braz. Portrait of Anton Chekhov (detail). 1898. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Anton Chekhov began to study at the medical faculty of Moscow University named after I.M. Sechenov in 1879. During these years, Chekhov did not give up literature - he managed to do medical work and write books.

The young doctor practiced at a hospital in Voskresensk near Moscow (today the city of Istra). He later described this time in the works "Dead Body", "Rural Aesculapius", "Surgery". Chekhov said that medical and natural science knowledge helped him to reveal the feelings and experiences of literary heroes.

“Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get tired of one, I sleep at the other. Although it is disorderly, it is not so boring, and besides, both of them absolutely lose nothing from my treachery ... "

Anton Chekhov

In Zvenigorod, Anton Chekhov was in charge of the hospital. He received 40 patients a day, went to autopsies, acted as an expert in the courts. But the peak of his medical career fell on the years of his life in Melikhovo near Moscow. The district doctor's possessions included 25 villages, 4 factories and a monastery.

“Medicine is progressing a little. I'm flying and I'm flying. I have a lot of acquaintances, and therefore, a lot of patients. Half have to be treated for nothing, while the other half pays me five and three rubles.

From a letter to brother Michael

The work of a doctor took a lot of time, and sometimes Anton Chekhov could not concentrate on his books. He wrote about this to his publisher Alexei Suvorin more than once: “I am alone, because everything cholera is alien to my soul, and work that requires constant traveling, talking and petty troubles is tiring for me. No time to write. Literature has long been abandoned, and I am poor and miserable ... " Only in 1898 did Chekhov leave medical practice, but continued to follow medical advances.

Vikenty Veresaev

Sergey Malyutin. Portrait of Vikenty Veresaev. 1919. State Literary Museum, Moscow

Vikenty Veresaev defended his PhD at the Faculty of History and Philology at St. Petersburg University (today the Institute of History of St. Petersburg State University), and then entered the Medical Faculty of Dorpat University.

“My dream was to become a writer, and for this it seemed necessary to know the biological side of man, his physiology and pathology; in addition, the specialty of a doctor made it possible to closely converge with people of the most diverse strata and ways.

From the autobiography of Vikenty Veresaev

The doctor began to practice in 1894 in his native Tula. However, two years later he returned to St. Petersburg: he worked as an intern, headed the library at the Botkin hospital and wrote scientific articles that were highly appreciated by the metropolitan medical community.

In 1901, Vikenty Veresaev published the famous Notes of a Doctor. In the work, he described cases from his medical practice, observations, experiences and thoughts of a young doctor. However, colleagues greeted the book with rejection: such revelations could set readers hostilely against medicine.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Veresaev was mobilized to the front. He treated the wounded on the front line, and at the same time made sketches of future works. Later, the doctor-writer published the books "At War" and "Tales of the Japanese War."

“People do not have even the remotest idea either about the life of their body, or about the forces and means of medical science. This is the source of most misunderstandings, this is the reason for both blind faith in the omnipotence of medicine and blind disbelief in it. And both equally make themselves felt with very grave consequences.

Vikenty Veresaev

Michael Bulgakov

In 1909, after graduating from high school, Mikhail Bulgakov entered the medical faculty of Kyiv University. There were already doctors in the family: one Bulgakov's uncle treated Patriarch Tikhon, and the second was a well-known doctor in Moscow.

During the First World War, Mikhail Bulgakov went to the front: he served for several months in front-line hospitals in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Chernivtsi, and Kyiv. Together with him went the first wife Tatiana Lappa, she became a sister of mercy. Directly from the front, Bulgakov was sent to the Smolensk province - to manage the hospital, where his wife helped him. Bulgakov received 50 patients a day, more than 15 thousand patients came out in a year. About this period of his life, he later wrote an autobiographical cycle, Notes of a Young Doctor.

“Medical debt is 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. In life, 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, knew how to immediately grasp the characteristic features of the disease, and rarely made mistakes in diagnoses. Courage helped him decide on difficult operations.

Nadezhda Zemskaya, sister of Mikhail Bulgakov

Diploma of Approval "in the degree of a doctor with honors with all the rights and benefits assigned by the laws of the Russian Empire to this degree" the young doctor received only in 1916.

In 1918, Mikhail Bulgakov returned to Kyiv, and a year later he left medicine to become a writer. He wrote plays, short stories, articles for the capital's newspapers and magazines.

Vasily Aksenov

Writer Vasily Aksenov worked as a doctor for a very short time. He graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute (today - the First St. Petersburg State Medical University named after Academician I.P. Pavlov) in 1956.

“The medical path was just accidental. Until the 8th grade, I studied in Kazan, then - 9-10th grades - finished my studies in Magadan. Mom left the camp in 1947 and remained an exile in this city. It was in Magadan that I began to write poetry. I imagined myself as a poet. But he entered the medical faculty. Mom and stepfather persuaded: "It is easier for doctors in the camps."

From an interview with Continent magazine, 1981

Aksenov dreamed of getting a job as a doctor on long-distance ships and seeing the world. Such a prospect was in the Baltic Shipping Company, but due to the political conviction of his parents - Vasily Aksenov's mother Evgenia Ginzburg was repressed - he was not given a visa.

For a year, Aksenov worked as a therapist at the quarantine station of the Leningrad Sea Port, then he was transferred to the position of chief physician in the hospital of the water health department. There Vasily Aksenov began to write his first story - Colleagues.

“As for the material for literary works, they lie precisely in the thick of life, and not in the traveler's window. It was at the medical site that you could get the most valuable material for a novel, novel, story. "Notes of a Russian traveler" - the genre has already become obsolete. "The frigate" Pallada "you are unlikely to write."

From a letter from mother Evgenia Ginzburg to her son, 1956

When he returned to Moscow in 1958, two of his stories were published in Yunost magazine. In 1961, the stories "Colleagues" and "Star Ticket" were first published. After that, Vasily Aksenov left medicine forever.

In the works of Soviet literature, the image of a doctor is revealed mainly through his attitude to work and the patient, through the conflict between the innovator and tradition, teacher and student, between those who seek to save a person at any cost, help the sick, and people who use medicine as a means of achieving material wealth. well-being. Magnificent images of selfless doctors, devoted to their work, doctors by vocation were created by Yu. German, V. Kaverin, A. Korneichuk, Julius Krelin, V. Aksenov, A. Koptyaeva, .... Their works are well known, many have been filmed.
Soviet literature of the 1950s and 1960s very often idealized doctors, which aroused objections from the doctors themselves. They urged writers and journalists to write more about the everyday side of the work of doctors, and not just about noble and heroic deeds.
Currently, idealization is giving way to a more complex approach. Let us explain this by the example of Y. Krelin's story "The Surgeon". Her hero is the surgeon Mishkin. At work, he is respected for his humanity, genuine intelligence. He is the conscience of the team. Mishkin is appreciated for his high professionalism. “All surgery in the region rests on it,” says the chief physician. Mishkin is trouble-free and absolutely disinterested, alien to any fuss. Despite the worldly disorder, he is happy. His goal is to heal, save people. Work for him is the main necessity of life. And yet, doctor Mishkin is not a scheme, but a living person with whom the author does not always agree... So, the author does not hide the fact that the thinking of his hero is limited to the scope of practical surgery. He does not attach much importance to theory, he does not seek to complete the research he has begun.
An interesting image is drawn in the story "The Sentence" by Vladimir Soloukhin. Academician B.P. Petrov is a scientist of the old school, a major surgeon, a deeply intelligent person. The author admires Petrov's sensitivity, his ability to support the patient. The writer notes that many of the doctors he encountered did not have the patience to question the patient in detail. With this he connects the problem of late diagnosis. Not all of the writer's judgments are indisputable, as was mentioned during the discussion of his work by the medical community, but they are interesting. For example, a conversation about negative emotions that constantly oppress a person, or “time trouble”, even a short one, but detrimental to health, deserves attention. Observations by V.A. Soloukhin largely coincide with the thoughts of other writers.
I would like to draw attention to the notes of the surgeon Fedor Uglov “Under the white mantle”. This is not a work of art. The author tells about the representatives of Soviet medicine V.P. Demikhov, V.K. Kalzine, A.A. Smorodintsev, I.M. Velikanov, M.P. Chumakov, V.N. Shamov, S.T. Zatsepin and others. The main idea of ​​the notes is the affirmation of the ideal of a doctor-creator, a revolutionary in science, a disinterested fighter for human health and a sharp criticism of the so-called "business style", administration, careerism. F. Uglov draws attention to the problem of the leading personnel of health care, on which the improvement of medical and sanitary services for the population in our country largely depends. He also talks about the state of surgery abroad, in particular about the prevention of surgical diseases. Written passionately, truthfully, Uglov's notes are consonant with V.V. Kovanov and prose by V.A. Soloukhin. The books of N.M. adjoin the works of this series. Amosov "Thoughts and Heart", "The Book of Happiness and Unhappiness", revealing the inner world of a major medical scientist.
The images of doctors are also depicted in works of fine art in the form of portraits of prominent and many obscure doctors. They were written by Rembrand, F. Hals, Holbein, Veronese, El Greco, Goya, David, I.E. Repin, Van Gogh, M.V. Nesterov and others. Thanks to this, the names of many well-known and little-known doctors, as well as their appearance in various historical periods, have been preserved. The images of physicians are also revealed in canvases on the theme “Doctor and Patient”, painted by such Dutch artists as J. Sten, G. Low, Andrian van Ostade, G. Terborch, Pieter de Goch and others, who left us genre scenes from life doctors. Their usual characters are a patient and a doctor in an office set by the attributes of healing. As a rule, the doctor feels the pulse of the patient or examines the vial of urine. The best works of this series reveal the relationship between the patient and the doctor. Many domestic painters devoted their canvases to this topic. Their paintings give a visual representation of the working conditions of doctors and the peculiarities of health care in peacetime and on the battlefields.
In the books of E.I. Lichtenstein "Manual on Medical Deontology" (Kyiv, 1974) and "Remembering the Patient" (Kyiv, 1978), the problems of medical deontology are considered on the basis of the works of L.N. Tolstoy, G. Flaubert, A.P. Chekhov, O. Henry, S. Maugham and other classics of Russian and foreign literature. The author notes that in the development of medical deontology as a science, classical art has played a large and not yet fully realized and appreciated role.
In Soviet literature, the problems of medical deontology are attracting more and more attention. V.A. Soloukhin refers to such a phenomenon as patronage treatment. V.M. Shukshin (“Snake Venom”), Y. Krelin, Victoria Tokareva (“Bad Mood”) are outraged by the manifestations of bureaucracy, indifference, rudeness on the part of some doctors, middle and junior medical personnel. The notorious problem of "gifts" was also covered in the periodical press. An analysis of these publications shows that Soviet writers expanded the traditional understanding of the sphere of ethical and deontological problems of medicine, including the attitude towards the patient of auxiliary personnel - receptionists, wardrobe workers, etc. It turns out that not only the theater begins with a hanger...
Yu. Krelin, N.M. Amosov, F. G. Uglov, V.V. Kovanov, N.V. Elstein. I.A. Shamov, L.D. Khundanov, An. Sofronov. It is interesting to compare their reflections with the judgments of, for example, Rene Leriche (“Memories of my past life”), M.L. Gross ("The Doctors") and Madeleine Riffaut ("Hospital As It Is")

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on the topic: The image of a doctor in Russian fiction

Performed:

Shevchenko Galina

Doctors are representatives of one of the most difficult professions. The life of a person is in their hands. The essence of the profession of a doctor is most clearly revealed in the works of classical literature. Writers of different eras often made doctors the heroes of their works. Moreover, many talented writers came to literature from medicine: Chekhov, Veresaev, Bulgakov. Literature and medicine are brought together by the deepest interest in the human personality, since it is an indifferent attitude towards a person that determines a true writer and a true doctor. Since ancient times, the main commandment of a doctor is “do no harm”.

The image-profession of a doctor in Russian classics has an increased semantic load, even when it appears in the work fleetingly, in a short episode. Recall the work of Astafiev "Lyudochka". In one of the episodes, we meet a guy who is dying in a hospital. The boy caught a cold in the cutting area, and a boil appeared on his temple. The inexperienced paramedic scolded him for talking about trifles, squeamishly crushed the abscess with her fingers, and a day later she accompanied the guy, who had fallen into unconsciousness, to the district hospital. Perhaps, during the examination, the paramedic herself provoked a breakthrough of the abscess, and he began to exert his destructive effect.

In medicine, this phenomenon is called "iatrogeny" - the negative impact of a medical worker on a patient, leading to adverse consequences.

For comparison, I would like to quote Bulgakov's story "Towel with a Rooster". A young doctor ended up in a provincial hospital after a medical university. He is worried about the lack of professional experience, but he scolds himself for his fear, because the medical staff of the hospital should not doubt his medical viability. He experiences a real shock when a dying girl with a crushed leg appears on the operating table. He never performed amputations, but there is no one else to help the girl. Despite the fact that the hero of the story is not alien to human weaknesses, like any of us, all personal experiences, all personal experiences, recede before the consciousness of medical duty. Because of this, he saves human life.

In my opinion, the most complete fate of the doctor, with all its vicissitudes and troubles, with the search for one's own "I", we can find in the works of A.P. Chekhov ("Chamber No. 6", "Case from practice", "Ionych", etc.).

M.A. Bulgakov can be called the successor of the tradition that has developed in Russian literature, which can be conditionally designated as a "writer-doctor". A writer of this type does not just depict the professional activities of a doctor, he refers to the spiritual side of healing.

In Notes of a Young Doctor, Bulgakov draws a parallel, quite traditional for Russian literature, between the concepts of "doctor" and "man", trying to show us that one is unthinkable without the other. Also, the main features of this situation were reflected in the stories of the Bulgakov cycle: the doctor’s loneliness, his existence outside of history, outside the family, an indication of his closeness to foreigners (the doctor’s surname is Bomgard, his best “friends” are the books of the German Doderlein, his predecessor, about whom he recalls with gratitude, also a German - Leopold Leopoldovich). A young doctor in the course of his professional activities finds himself on the verge of life and death, performing the functions of a healer not only of the body, but also of the soul.

The features of the "Notes of a Young Doctor" cycle are that we are given a unique opportunity to follow the professional growth of a doctor. The "young" doctor, making the path from death to life together with the patient, acquires not only new knowledge, but also a new status in society.

In this regard, the image of Dr. Werner from the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time", which is partly romantic and partly realistic hero. On the one hand, "he is a skeptic and materialist, like almost all doctors," and on the other hand, "the irregularities of his skull would strike any phrenologist with a strange interweaving of opposite inclinations," and "the youth called him Mephistopheles." In this character, it is equally easy to detect both demonic features and his extraordinary humanity and even naivety. For example, Werner was well versed in people, in the properties of their character, but "never knew how to use his knowledge," "mocked his patients," but "wept over a dying soldier."

This character indicated the direction in which the image of a doctor developed in Russian literature, from Dr. Krupov A.I. Herzen to Bazarov I.S. Turgenev.

A well-known image of a doctor in the second half of the 19th century is the image of a medical student Bazarov from the novel by I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". In my opinion, this image is very different from the image of Dr. Krupov. Bazarov's belonging to doctors does not have such a deeply symbolic meaning as that of Herzen. Throughout the novel, Bazarov’s profession remains, as it were, on the periphery, his confidence in his own knowledge of life and people comes to the fore, in fact, his complete inability to resolve even his own worldly and worldview contradictions, he knows and is poorly versed even in himself, therefore, many of his thoughts, feelings, actions are so unexpected for him.

However, the theme of the connection between diseases and the structure of society is not bypassed in this work. Prone to simplifications, Bazarov says: “Moral illnesses ... from the ugly state of society. Fix society and there will be no disease.” Many of Bazarov's statements sound quite bold, but these are more hints at actions than the activity itself. literature character story

Doctors are the heroes of many literary works. This is due to the fact that the importance of human health in our lives is enormous. Accordingly, the role of the healer of the afflicted is great. Literature is an artistic rethinking of real life situations. As M.M. Zhvanetsky: "Any case history is already a plot." I will not delve into deep antiquity, although works of literature about healers can be found in ancient Egyptian papyri. Russian classical literature is very rich in works where the main character is a doctor. Among the Russian writers themselves, there is a large proportion of doctors (A.P. Chekhov, V.V. Veresaev, M.A. Bulgakov, Vladimir Dal, V.P. Aksyonov, etc.).

Perhaps this phenomenon can be explained by the fact that not every thinker is a doctor, but every doctor is a thinker.

Herzen in the story "For the sake of boredom" speaks of "patrocracy", of the utopian management of society by doctors, calling them "the general of the medical empire." This is a completely "serious" utopia - the "state of doctors", because the hero of the story rejects irony: "Laugh as much as you like ... But before the advent of the medical kingdom, it is far away, and you have to treat continuously." The hero of the story is not an ordinary doctor, but a socialist, a humanist by conviction ("I am by profession for treatment, not for murder"), like Herzen himself.

As we can see, the writer wants the doctor to take up a broader field: he will become a wise ruler of the world, he has dreams of a generous king-father of this world. The utopian nature of this character in the story "Boredom for the sake of" is obvious, although very bright for Herzen.

After analyzing these works, which I read earlier, I identified the qualities that a real doctor should have: dedication, dedication, humanity. It is necessary to be a true professional, to treat work responsibly, otherwise the consequences may turn out to be tragic. In any conditions, the main thing for a doctor is to save human life, overcoming fatigue and fear. This is what the great words of the Hippocratic Oath are about.

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The image of a doctor in Russian literature is a topic that is little touched upon in literary criticism, but its significance for culture is very great. The motives of illness and healing, in literal and symbolic meanings, permeate both folklore, and religion, and any kind of art in any nation, since they "penetrate" life itself. Literature gives an aesthetic, not worldly, but deeply vital cut of being, therefore here we are not talking about professional information proper, here they do not learn any craft, but only understanding, seeing the world: every profession has its own, special angle of view. And we can talk about the artistic, including semantic, meaning of the depicted case. The task of the history of medicine is to show how the appearance of a doctor and his professional qualities are changing. Literature will touch upon this indirectly, only to the extent of reflecting life: what the artist sees in the medical field and what aspects of life are open to the eyes of the doctor.

Literature is also a kind of medicine - spiritual. Poetry has gone far from, perhaps, the first appeals of the word to the cause of healing: in their own way, poetic conspiracies, spells were designed for genuine healing from ailments. Now such a goal is seen only in a symbolic meaning: "Each verse heals the beast's soul" (S. Yesenin). Therefore, in classical literature, we focus on the hero-doctor, and not the author-healer (shaman, medicine man, etc.). And in order to comprehend our topic, its antiquity, which goes back in different variations to the pre-written word, should cause some caution in the analysis. One should not be deceived by light and decisive generalizations, such as what doctors-writers say about medicine, because in general, almost every classic novel contains at least an episodic figure of a doctor. On the other hand, the perspective of the topic suggests unconventional interpretations of familiar works.

And how convenient it would be to focus only on A.P. Chekhov!.. To use the famous aphorism about "the wife-medicine" and "literature-mistress"... Here the word "for the first time" so beloved by literary critics could appear: for the first time in Chekhov's literature fully reflected the image of the domestic physician, his selflessness, his tragedy etc. Then came Veresaev, Bulgakov. Indeed, as if thanks to Chekhov, literature looked at life through the eyes of a doctor, not a patient. But there were doctors-writers even before Chekhov, and it would be more accurate to say: it's not about the biography of the author; in the literature of the 19th century, a rapprochement with medicine was prepared. Isn't that why literature appealed too loudly to healers, constantly complaining either about hemorrhoids, or about catarrhs, or about "a breeze"? Not jokingly, it is clear that not a single profession was perceived as meaningful as the position of a physician. Was it so important whether the hero of literature is a count or a prince, an artilleryman or an infantryman, a chemist or a botanist, an official or even a teacher? Another thing is a doctor, such an image-profession is always not only meaningful, but symbolic. In one of his letters, Chekhov said that he "cannot come to terms with such professions as prisoners, officers, priests" (8, 11, 193). But there are specialties that the writer recognizes as a "genre" (Chekhov's expression), and it is the doctor who always bears such a genre, i.e. increased semantic load, even when it appears in the work fleetingly, in a short episode, in one line. For example, in Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" it is enough for the lines "everyone sends Onegin to the doctors, They send him to the waters in unison", and the flavor of the genre is obvious. Just as in "Dubrovsky", where only once will you meet "a doctor, fortunately not a complete ignoramus": the profession of "teacher" Deforge hardly carries a semantic accent, in medicine, the intonation of the author is clearly embedded, which, as you know, in his time "ran away from Aesculapius, thin, shaved, but alive." The image of a doctor in Gogol is deeply symbolic - from the charlatan Christian Gibner ("The Government Inspector") to the "Grand Inquisitor" in "A Madman's Notes". Werner is important to Lermontov precisely as a doctor. Tolstoy will show how a surgeon, after an operation, kisses a wounded patient on the lips ("War and Peace"), and behind all this is the unconditional presence of the symbolic coloring of the profession: the doctor, by position, is close to the basics and essences of being: birth, life, suffering, compassion, decline , resurrection, torment and torment, finally, death itself (Compare: "I am convinced of only one thing ... That ... one fine morning I will die" - Werner's words from "A Hero of Our Time"). These motives, of course, capture the personality of everyone, but it is in the doctor that they are concentrated as something due, like fate. That is why, by the way, a bad or false physician is so acutely perceived: he is a charlatan of existence itself, and not only of his profession. The perception of medicine as a purely bodily matter in Russian literature also has a negative connotation. Turgenevsky Bazarov only on the verge of his death realizes that a person is involved in the struggle of spiritual entities: "She denies you, and that's it!" - he will say about death as a protagonist of the life drama, and not about a medical lethal outcome. The symbolism of the doctor is directly related to the Orthodox spirituality of Russian literature. The doctor in the highest sense is Christ, who casts out the most ferocious ailments with his Word, moreover, he conquers death. Among the parable images of Christ - a shepherd, a builder, a bridegroom, a teacher, etc. - the doctor is also noted: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" (Matt. 9:12). It is this context that gives rise to the utmost exactingness to the “esculapius”, and therefore even Chekhov’s attitude towards the doctor is harsh and critical: he who knows only how to bleed and treat all diseases with soda is too far from the Christian path, if he does not become hostile to it (cf. Gogol : Christian Gibner - the death of Christ), but even the ability of the most capable doctor cannot be compared with the miracle of Christ.

A.P. Chekhov, of course, will stand at the center of our topic, but one cannot fail to note several authors who preceded him, at least giving doctors in Russian literature as the leading heroes of their works. And it will be Dr. Krupov from Herzen's works and Turgenev's Bazarov. Of course, Dr. Werner from A Hero of Our Time meant a lot. So, already before Chekhov, a certain tradition arises, so some seemingly purely Chekhovian finds will most likely turn out to be unconscious, but variations of his predecessors. For example, it will be typical for Chekhov to show the hero's choice of one of two paths: either a doctor or a priest ("Belated Flowers", "Ward No. 6", letters), but this motif will already be found in Herzen; Chekhov's hero has long conversations with the mentally ill - and this is also the motive of Herzen's "Injured"; Chekhov will talk about getting used to someone else's pain - Herzen will also say the same ("Our brother is hard to surprise ... We get used to death from a young age, nerves get stronger, dull in hospitals", 1, I, 496, "Doctor, dying and dead"). In a word, the favorite “for the first time” should be used with caution, and so far we have only touched on particulars, and not the very perception of the medical field, for an example.

Lermontovsky Werner, in turn, was clearly a guide for Herzen. A number of scenes in the novel "Who is to blame?" generally echo the "Hero of Our Time", but we note that it is Herzen, perhaps due to his biography (cruel illnesses and death in his family), who is especially attached to the image of a doctor (see: "Who is to blame?", "Doctor Krupov" , "Aphorismata", - associated with the common hero Semyon Krupov, then "For the sake of boredom", "Injured", "Doctor, the dying and the dead" - i.e. all the main works of art, except for "The Thieving Magpie"). Nevertheless, the presence of just an episodic Lermontov doctor is strong everywhere: a gloomy and ironic state, the constant presence of death in thoughts, aversion to worldly worries and even to the family, a sense of being chosen and superior among people, a tense and impenetrable inner world, and finally Werner's black clothes , which is deliberately "exacerbated" by Herzen: his hero is already dressed "in two black frock coats: one all buttoned up, the other all unbuttoned" (1, 8, 448). Let us recall Werner's concise summary: "He is a skeptic and a materialist, like almost all doctors, and at the same time a poet, and in earnest - a poet in deed always and often in words, although in his life he did not write two verses. He studied everything living strings of the human heart, as one studies the veins of a corpse, but he never knew how to use his knowledge... Werner surreptitiously mocked his patients; His small black eyes, always restless, tried to penetrate your thoughts... The youth called him Mephistopheles... it (nickname - A.A.) flattered his vanity "(6, 74). As is customary in Pechorin's journal, Werner only confirms this characterization. Moreover, his character is the imprint of the profession, as can be seen from the text, and not just the play of nature. Let us add or emphasize - the inability to use the knowledge of life, unfolding personal destinies, which is emphasized by the usual familylessness of the doctor ("I am incapable of this," Werner), but often does not exclude the ability to deeply influence women. In a word, there is some demonism in the doctor, but also a hidden humanity, and even naivety in the expectation of good (this can be seen with the participation of Werner in a duel). Spiritual development makes Werner condescendingly treat both a sick person and the possibilities of medicine: a person exaggerates suffering, and medicine gets off with simple means like sour-sulfur baths, or even promises that, they say, it will heal before the wedding (this is how one can understand from Werner's advice).

Herzen generally develops Werner's character, his "genesis". If Chekhov's doctor Ragin from "Ward No. 6" wanted to be a priest, but because of the influence of his father, as if involuntarily became a doctor, then Krupov's choice of a medical field is not coercion, but a passionate dream: born in the family of a deacon, he was supposed to become a church minister , but wins - and already contrary to the father - an unclear, but powerful attraction to initially mysterious medicine, that is, as we understand it, the desire for real philanthropy, embodied mercy and healing of one's neighbor wins in a spiritually excited person. But the origin of the character is not accidental: the religious spiritual height passes to the real path, and it is expected that it is medicine that will satisfy spiritual searches, and in dreams it may turn out to be the material reverse side of religion. Not the last role here is played by the unattractive, according to Herzen, church environment, which repels the hero, here people "are struck by an excess of flesh, so that they rather resemble the image and likeness of pancakes than the Lord God" (1, I, 361). However, genuine medicine, not in the dreams of a young man, influences Krupov in its own way: in the medical field, he discovers the "backstage side of life" hidden from many; Krupov is shocked by the revealed pathology of man and even of being itself, youthful faith in the beauty of natural man is replaced by a vision of the disease in everything, the painfulness of consciousness is especially acutely experienced. Again, as would later be in the spirit of Chekhov, Krupov spends everything, even festive time, in a lunatic asylum, and an aversion to life ripens in him. Let us compare Pushkin: the famous precept "morality is in the nature of things", i.e. a person is naturally moral, reasonable, beautiful. For Krupov, man is not "homo sapiens", but "homo insanus" (8.435) or "homo ferus" (1, 177): a crazy man and a wild man. Nevertheless, Krupov speaks more definitely than Werner about his love for this "sick" person: "I love children, but I love people in general" (1, I, 240). Krupov, not only in his profession, but also in everyday life, strives to heal people, and in Herzen this motive is close to his own pathos of a revolutionary-minded publicist: to heal a sick society. In the story "Doctor Krupov" Herzen with an obsessive claim presents the essentially shallow and not even witty "ideas" of Krupov, who regards the whole world, the whole history as madness, while the origins of the madness of history are in the always sick human consciousness: for Krupov there is no healthy human brain , just as there is no pure mathematical pendulum in nature (1, 8, 434).

Such a "flight" of Krupo's mournful thought in this story seems unexpected for the readers of the novel "Who is to blame?", where the doctor is shown, in any case, outside world-historical generalizations, which looked more artistically true. There, Herzen showed that in a provincial environment, Krupov turns into a resonant inhabitant: "the inspector (Krupov - A.A.) was a man who became lazy in provincial life, but nevertheless a man" (1, 1, 144). In later works, the image of the doctor begins to claim something grandiose. Thus, Herzen sees the ideal vocation of a doctor in an unusually broad way. But ... broadly in design, not in artistic embodiment, in the outline of a great scheme, and not in the philosophy of a doctor. Here the claims of the revolutionary take precedence over the possibilities of the artist in Herzen. The writer is primarily concerned with the "disease" of society, which is why Krupov is already in the novel "Who is to blame?" He does not heal so much as he thinks about everyday things and arranges the fate of the Kruciferskys, Beltov, and others. His purely medical skills are given remotely, they are precisely “told”, but they are not “shown”. Thus, the capacious phrase that Krupov "belongs to his patients all day long" (1, 1, 176) remains only a phrase for the novel, although, of course, Herzen's doctor is not only not a charlatan, but the most sincere an ascetic of his work - a work, however, which is in the shadow of an artistic design. It is the human and ideological aspects of a doctor that are important to Herzen: not being a charlatan, his hero must reflect Herzen's understanding of the influence of medicine on the doctor's personality. For example, in the episode when Krupov disregarded the demands of the arrogant nobleman, did not arrive immediately at his capricious call, but ended up taking delivery from the cook, the social, and not actually medical, angle is much more significant.

And here Herzen in the story "For the sake of boredom" speaks of "patriocracy", i.e. about the utopian management of the affairs of society by none other than doctors, ironically calling them "general-headquarters-archiatrs of the medical empire." And, despite the irony, this is a completely “serious” utopia - the “state of doctors”, - after all, the hero of the story rejects irony: “Laugh as much as you like ... But before the advent of the medical kingdom, it’s far away, and you have to treat continuously” (1, 8, 459). The hero of the story is not just a doctor, but a socialist, a humanist by conviction ("I am by profession for treatment, not for murder" 1, 8, 449), as if brought up on the journalism of Herzen himself. As you can see, literature persistently wants the doctor to take up a broader field: he is a potentially wise ruler of this world, he has dreams of an earthly god or a generous king-father of this world. However, the utopian nature of this character in the story "Boredom for the sake of" is obvious, although for the author it is very bright. The hero, on the one hand, often finds himself at a dead end before ordinary everyday vicissitudes, on the other hand, he treats the idea of ​​a “medical kingdom” with bitterness: “If people really start to improve, moralists will be the first to remain fools, then who should be corrected?” (1, 8.469). And Titus of Leviathan from "Aphorismata" will even hopefully object to Krupov in the sense that madness will not disappear, will never be cured, and the story ends with a hymn to "great and patronizing madness" (1, 8, 438) ... So, the doctor remains eternal reasoner, and his very practice gives him a quick succession of observations and - sharp, ironic "recipes".

Finally, let us touch on the last feature of Herzen's hero-doctor in this case. The doctor, albeit utopianly, claims to be much, it is the universe (“a real doctor must be a cook, a confessor, and a judge”, 1, 8, 453), and he does not need religion, he is emphatically anti-religious. The idea of ​​the kingdom of God is his spiritual rival, and he treats both the church and religion in every possible way (“The so-called that light, about which, according to my studies in the dissecting room, I had the least opportunity to make any observations”, 1, 8, 434 ). The point is not at all in the notorious materialism of the doctor's consciousness: he wants to replace all authorities with his career with the most good goal; "Patrocracy" - in a word. In "The Damaged" the hero already talks about the coming overcoming of death (this closest rival for the doctor) precisely thanks to medicine ("people will be treated for death", 1, I, 461). True, the utopian side of Herzen is everywhere associated with self-irony, but this is rather coquetry next to a seemingly such a bold idea. In a word, here too, with the invasion of the motive of immortality into medicine, Herzen predetermined a lot in the heroic doctors of Chekhov and in Turgenev's Bazarov, to which we now turn: the doctor Bazarov will be spiritually broken in the fight against death; Dr. Ragin will turn away from medicine and from life in general, since immortality is unattainable.

Bulletin of the Samara Humanitarian Academy. Series “Philosophy. Philology". 2010. No. 2 (8)

LITERATURE AND MEDICINE: TRANSFORMATION OF THE IMAGE OF THE DOCTOR IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE OF THE XIX CENTURY*

© I. A. Baranova

The article summarizes the key ideas about doctors and medicine in Russian literature of the 19th century, shows the mutual influence of literature and social life, literature and medicine. Using the example of the transformation of the image of a doctor in the Russian literature of this period, the author shows how literature becomes part of the general development of society, reflects current cultural concepts.

Keywords: image of a doctor, transformation, soul, body, suffering.

The image of a doctor is not the most popular topic in Russian literary criticism. And although literary critics and culturologists have repeatedly noted the presence of great potential in the study of this issue, nevertheless, in general, the images of doctors in Russian literature are spoken of as “of great importance” without explaining this wording, or there are attempts to reduce them to some common denominator , although in reality they have undergone significant changes and can be generalized only very conditionally.

We can agree that the image of a doctor is most often one of the most interesting, deep and important, not only because the indicated period of time is rich in works that can serve as an example -

* The article was prepared as part of a study that received grant support (Presidential grant MD-333.2009.6).

Baranova Irina Alekseevna

postgraduate student of the Department of Philosophy

Faculty of Humanities Samara

State University

links between medicine and literature. Of course, among writers and other figures of Russian culture, doctors were also not uncommon1, but the connection between Russian literature and medicine is manifested not so much at the level of quantitative references to certain medical realities, but in the general atmosphere and inclination of the authors, according to K. A. Bogdanov, to pathographic discourse. Psycholinguist V.P. Belyanin, having analyzed a significant part of Russian classical literature, concluded that most of it “turns out to be “sad””3. In 1924, M. Gorky spoke very sarcastically about Russian literature: “Russian literature is the most pessimistic literature in Europe; in our country, all books are written on the same topic about how we suffer - in youth and adulthood: from a lack of reason, from the oppression of autocracy, from women, from love for one's neighbor, from an unsuccessful arrangement of the universe; in old age: from the consciousness of the mistakes of life, lack of teeth, indigestion and the need to die. However, one can come across more emphatic opinions, according to which “moral masochism and the cult of suffering”5 are the defining characteristics of Russian literature and culture in general.

Thus, it can be said that the depiction of doctors, their relationships with patients and various kinds of diseases, as a rule, is only part of the overall picture of the “total disease of society” and is not an end in itself. Only by considering the transformation of the image of a doctor in Russian literature, one can see that he not only conveys the idea of ​​medicine as a social phenomenon with its inherent signs of the times, but also generates a new, deeper understanding of it. Such a transformation is genetically connected with the changes that all Russian literature and culture underwent during the 19th century. But here we should immediately make a reservation that we are primarily interested in the change in the image of the doctor in the literature of the 19th century, and not the presence of the image of the doctor in each specific work. During this period, the image of a doctor is found in a wide range of writers and in a large number of works. Exploring them all is the task of an extremely interesting and important, but larger study than this article. We will rather outline the line along which the change in these images proceeded, therefore, as examples, we will cite only those works that, in our opinion, made a great contribution to changing the idea of ​​the image of a doctor both among literary critics and among the general reading public.

1 Bogdanov K. A. Doctors, patients, readers: Patographic texts of Russian culture of the XVII-XIX centuries. M. : OGI, 2005. S. 9-33.

2 Ibid. S. 9.

3 Belyanin V.P. Texts about death in Russian literature // www.textology.ru/article.html

4 Cit. by: Bogdanov K. A. Decree. op. S. 22.

5 Yarskaya-Smirnova E. R. Russianness as a diagnosis // www.soc.pu.ru/publications/jssa/2000/1/19jarskaja.html

First of all, it is worth noting that the doctor was not always perceived as a hero, in charge of not only the patient's body, but also his soul. Even in post-Petrine Russia, despite the ruling spirit of rationalism and the active promotion of science in general and medicine in particular (for example, in the journals of that time one could meet along with artistic, historical, philosophical and scientific-medical texts), the profession of a doctor was not in honor 6. In Russian folklore of this period, as well as in epigrams, a skeptical or even clearly hostile attitude towards medicine and doctors is predominantly found. Researchers attribute this, firstly, to the sinful, from the point of view of the common people, desire to treat the disease as something separate from the patient's soul. It is worth recalling that before the advent of medicine, the functions of doctors were performed by various healers, healers or representatives of the church (most often, monks). It was believed that the disease is a continuation of the personality and a consequence of the patient's life. Illness is a punishment for a sinful life and adherence to one or more vices. Having healed the soul, the sick person, as a rule, also healed the body (this motive, for example, is quite common in the lives of the saints)7. In addition, in such texts one could often find practically anatomical details in the description of death and illness, which were intended to demonstrate the frailty of the body shell and reminded of “a different fate of the human soul”, that is, they pursued didactic goals. The sudden break from the usual tradition caused distrust. In addition, until the middle of the XIX century. most doctors in Russia were foreigners. Thus, the strangeness of the profession was, as it were, intensified by the strangeness of origin. Numerous examples of this can be found not only in folklore or epigrams, but also in the literature of the "middle" style, such as the novels of F. Bulgarin or V. Narezhny, as well as in the classical texts of Russian literature. Suffice it to recall the lyrical hero of A. S. Pushkin, who happily “eluded Aesculapius, thin, shaved, but alive”9, and the image of Christian Ivanovich Gibner, a county doctor, capable of pronouncing only a sound “somewhat similar to the letter “and” and somewhat on “e” 10, from N. V. Gogol’s comedy The Inspector General.

The image of a doctor penetrates into traditional romantic works along with their inherent aesthetics of life as suffering, decline, destruction, torment, which ends only with death. Writers

6 Bogdanov K. A. Decree. op. pp. 81-82.

7 Smilyanskaya E. Sacred and bodily in folk narratives of the XVIII century about miraculous healings // Russian literature and medicine: Body, prescriptions, social practice: Sat. Art. M. : New publishing house, 2006. S. 28-40.

8 Bogdanov K. A. Decree. op. pp. 119-140.

9 Pushkin A. S. NN (V. V. Engelhardt) (“I eluded Aesculapius ...”) / A. S. Pushkin // Collected. op. in 10 t. M. : State publishing house of fiction, 1959. T. I. S. 72.

10 Gogol N.V. Inspector // Complete Works [In 14 volumes] / N.V. Gogol. M.; L: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1951. T. 4. S. 13.

eras of romanticism do not skimp on physiological details to emphasize the break with the tradition of sentimentalism. "Medically detailed pictures of disease, death, and post-mortem decay express the radicalism of the 'new literature' and 'new philosophy'"11. And although such works have much in common with folk and religious ideas about the soul imprisoned in a bodily shell, the theme of death here is nevertheless devoid of the didactic unambiguity of popular prints. A peculiar motif of love for death and thirst for death appears. Death is perceived as a cure for all worldly sorrows and diseases. The aesthetics of romanticism include the composition of epitaphs, attendance at funerals, in cemeteries, looking at dead bodies, etc. The motif of hope for a “otherworldly recovery” arises.

The propaganda of scientific knowledge, its dissemination and the growing interest of the reading public in it gradually lead to the fact that romantic aesthetics is noticeably trivialized, a large number of parodies of works of “graveyard” poetry appear, and, ultimately, its popularity fades. In society, the most common idea of ​​the body is the understanding of it as a kind of integral and unchanging given, and anatomical studies and experiments are of interest not only to scientists, but also to the secular public, numerous confirmations of this can be found in the diaries, memoirs and letters of contemporaries12.

In this regard, the image of Dr. Werner from the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time", which is partly romantic and partly a realistic hero, is of particular interest. On the one hand, “he is a skeptic and materialist, like almost all doctors”13, and on the other hand, “the irregularities of his skull would strike any phrenologist with a strange interweaving of opposite inclinations”, and “the youth called him Mephistopheles”14. In this character, it is equally easy to detect both demonic features and his extraordinary humanity and even naivety. For example, Werner was well versed in people, in the properties of their character, but “never knew how to use his knowledge”, “mocked his patients”, but “wept over a dying soldier”15. This character indicated the direction in which the image of a doctor developed in Russian literature, from Dr. Krupov A.I. Herzen to Bazarov I.S. Turgenev.

“The dominant feature of medical theory in the second half of the XIX century. becomes an apology for the “laboratory” as opposed to the clinical observation of the patient “at the bedside” at home and in the hospital”16, writes

11 Bogdanov K. A. Decree. op. S. 164.

12 See: Stochik A. M., Paltsev M. A, Zatravkin S. N. Pathological anatomy at Moscow University in the first half of the 19th century. M. : Medicine, 1999. 297 p.

13 Lermontov M. Yu. Hero of our time. M. : OLMA Media Group, 2007. S. 93.

14 Ibid. S. 94.

15 Ibid. S. 93.

16 Bogdanov K. A. Decree. op. S. 19.

K. A. Bogdanov. Obviously, in this atmosphere, the human contact between the patient and the doctor fades into the background. In the era of great discoveries in medicine, medical ethics received much less attention. The physicians of this period are most often portrayed in literature as nihilists or materialists disillusioned with human nature. If in the literature of the second half of the 19th century there is a positive image of a doctor, then, according to E. S. Neklyudova, he, as a rule, is eccentric, lonely and unhappy in family life. Dealing with the human body by the nature of his profession, he does not understand the human soul. Helping people to live, he, nevertheless, is deeply disappointed in life. So, in Russian literature, the image of a doctor appears, responsible not only for human health, but also for the meaning of his existence. For example, Dr. Krupov from the story of the same name by A. I. Herzen, who began his career as a doctor, driven by the desire to help people. He believed that the human being is rational and in the likeness of God, but, however, moving from theory to practice, he found that disease and pathology are also part of human nature. By the nature of his profession, dealing mainly with diseases, Krupov comes to the conclusion that the course of history is ruled not by reason, but by madness, that human consciousness is sick, that there is no healthy human brain, just as there is no “pure mathematical pendulum” in nature. 19. In the novel "Who is to blame?" Krupov no longer “heals so much as he thinks about everyday things and arranges the fate of the Kruciferskys, Beltov and others.”20. In general, in the whole novel, in contrast to the story "Doctor Krupov", the emphasis is on the social nature of the disease. A. I. Herzen speaks, rather, about the "disease of society", therefore here the profession of Krupov acquires a symbolic meaning.

Another well-known image of a doctor in the second half of the 19th century. - the image of a medical student Bazarov from the novel by I. S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons". This character was a little more fortunate than most doctors in Russian literature, more than one scientific work has been devoted to him, so we will not dwell on this figure in detail. Suffice it to say that this image is very different from the image of Dr. Krupov. Bazarov's belonging to doctors does not have such a deeply symbolic meaning as that of Herzen. Some researchers note that Bazarov's profession throughout the novel remains, as it were, on the periphery, on the

17 Merten S. Poetics of Medicine: From Physiology to Psychology in Early Russian Realism // Russian Literature and Medicine: Body, Prescriptions, Social Practice: Sat. Art. M. : New publishing house, 2006. S. 103-122.

18 Neklyudova E. S. House doctor and women's secrets // Mythology and everyday life: Gender approach in anthropological disciplines. SPb. : Aletheya, 2001. S. 363-364.

19 Herzen A.I. Doctor Krupov // Collected. op. in 9 vol. M. : Goslitizdat, 1955. T. 8. S. 434.

20Anikin A. A. The image of a doctor in Russian classics // www.portal-slovo.ru/philology/37293.php?ELEMENT_ID=37293.html

The main plan is his confidence in his own knowledge of life and people, in fact, his complete inability to resolve even his own worldly and worldview contradictions, he knows poorly and is poorly versed even in himself, which is why many of his thoughts, feelings, actions turn out to be so unexpected for himself. However, the theme of the connection between diseases and the structure of society is not bypassed in this work. Prone to simplifications, Bazarov says: “Moral illnesses ... from the ugly state of society. Fix the society and there will be no diseases.”21 Many of Bazarov's statements sound quite bold, but these are more hints at actions than the activity itself.

In the second half of the XIX century. the image of the nihilist doctor is becoming very common. There is an idea of ​​a doctor as a rough materialist, who is only interested in the bodily shell of a person. In L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”, the main character, describing the society that gathers at the table in her house, says about the doctor: “... a young man, not only a complete nihilist, but, you know, eats with a knife”22 . Karenina and Vronsky, having violated the laws of the world, are forced to gather in their society a society that is practically indecent for people of their position. The young doctor puts food in his mouth with a knife instead of a fork, "eating with a knife", demonstrating his bad manners. “According to Anna, 'nihilists' should have had such bad manners,”23 writes S. L. Tolstoy. O. S. Muravyova points out that “a casual remark about a young doctor thrown by Tolstoy’s heroine, who “is not just a complete nihilist, but eats with a knife”, indicates that a clear connection between ideological positions and everyday skills was fixed at the level of everyday consciousness”24 . That is, when we say that in society there was an image of a doctor as a rude materialist, the word “rude” can also be taken literally. Rough means neglecting the beautiful form “in which human relationships are clothed”25, and ultimately neglecting the patient’s spiritual needs as well.

In The Death of Ivan Ilyich, L. N. Tolstoy again demonstrates how great is the gulf between the patient and the doctor, who understands the disease in a purely materialistic way. “For Ivan Ilyich, only one question was important: is his position dangerous or not? But the doctor ignored this irrelevant question. From the doctor's point of view, this question is idle and not subject to discussion; only the weighing of probabilities is essential - wandering

21 Turgenev I. S. Fathers and children // Collected. op. in 12 t. M. : Nauka, 1953. T. 3. S. 289.

22 Tolstoy L. N. Anna Karenina. Kuibyshev: Prince. publishing house, 1985. S. 77.

23 Tolstoy S.Yo. On the reflection of life in Anna Karenina: From the memoirs // L.N. Tolstoy / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In-t rus. lit. (Pushkin House). M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1939. Book. II. pp. 584-586.

24 Muravyova O. S. “In all the splendor of his madness” (Utopia of noble education) / O.S. Muravyova // Russian utopias (Almanac "Eve"). You are t. 1. St. Petersburg. : Terra Fantastic Publishing House, Corvus House Publishing House, 1995. P. 172.

giving kidney, chronic catarrh and diseases of the caecum. There was no question about the life of Ivan Ilyich, but there was a dispute between a wandering kidney and a caecum ... "26. The "suffering personality" of Ivan Ilyich is simply absent in the eyes of the doctor, he solves completely different tasks: he tries to cure the patient's body, while the origins of the disease may be hidden in his soul. “Ivan Ilyich’s question is “inappropriate” in the literal sense - there is no “place” for a person who is in danger - a threat to his life, in this world. Embedding moral discourses in the apparatus of biotechnology leads to the complication of the practice of telling case histories. The patient as a person receives a special “place” in them - the place of a “moral subject”. However, the gift of one's own place at the same time turns into its withdrawal. After all, the true “place” of this place is not known to the layman,”27 writes P. Tishchenko. In medicine, which deals only with the human body, answers to the existential questions of Ivan Ilyich “What is wrong with me?”, “Is my position dangerous?”, “Why the torment?” either does not exist, or they are given in an even more frightening, incomprehensible language for the “profane”.

The connection between literature and medicine, perhaps, has never manifested itself as fully and diversely as in the work of A.P. Chekhov, on the one hand, absorbing the experience of previous generations, on the other hand, giving it new depth and authenticity. You can often find the opinion that the images of doctors created by the writer complete the development of this topic and all subsequent representatives of this profession (up to our contemporaries) in Russian literature are just variations of what has already been created. In Chekhov's works, the doctor, as a rule, is entrusted with the duty to treat not only the bodies, but also the souls of his patients. The impotence of medicine in the face of human sorrows often causes mental breakdown and apathy among Chekhov's characters, on the contrary, approaching the ideal of healing inspires them extremely. In the story “Ward C 6”, doctor Andrey Efimovich Ragin is broken precisely by the uselessness of medicine in the face of death, the inability of medicine to give people eternal life, which turns all the efforts of the doctor into a “tragic delusion”, delaying the inevitable. “Why prevent people from dying if death is the normal and legal end of everyone?”28 he asks.

Thus, in Chekhov, the theme of the relationship between religion and medicine again sounds, their common claims to the salvation of man. However, the inevitability of the destruction and death of the human body deprives the doctor of the opportunity to act as the Savior, which paralyzes the will of many of his characters. In one of Chekhov's most famous works about the doctor

26 Tolstoy L. N. Death of Ivan Ilyich // Novels and stories. L.: Artist. lit., 1983. S. 153.

27 Tishchenko P. Bio-power in the era of biotechnology. Bioethics as a moral autopsy // http://polbu.ru/tischnko_bioauthority/ch30_all.html

28 Chekhov A.P. Chamber c 6 // Collected. op. in 12 t. M. : State publishing house of fiction, 1956. T. 7. S. 134.

Che, the story "Ionych", the main character is not so much mired in the little things of life, as is commonly believed, as he refused to understand the meaning of being, if death "puts the limit of life", if "there is nothing in the world but corporality". Startsev's spiritual breakdown takes place in a cemetery, where he thinks about the once beautiful female bodies, now buried in graves and decayed. “How badly mother nature plays a joke on a person, how insulting it is to realize this!”29 - thinks Startsev. After realizing the instability of everything beautiful and spiritual, this character begins to lead an earthly, bodily life, gradually acquires money, real estate, and he himself also increases in volume. Now he is only interested in the most mundane things. The reason for this, in our opinion, is still not the gradual oblivion of the former values, but rather disappointment in the former values ​​and ideals, the realization of one's own impotence.

Startsev lets everything take its course, because he does not know what to do to change the status quo. But not all Chekhov's characters are like that. Some of them do not take on complex global tasks, but try to approach the ideal to the best of their ability, saving the human body and soul as much as possible. Such, for example, are Dr. Dymov from the story "The Jumper" and the doctor Korolev from "A Case Study". It should be added that in many of Chekhov's works there are also negative images of doctors who treat their profession solely as a source of income ("Rural Aesculapius", "Surgery", etc.). He also has neutral images of doctors that do not have an obvious symbolic role. Considering that the doctor appears on the pages of this author's works 386 times30, one can indeed assume that Chekhov "developed all possible variations in the interpretation of this

image"31.

Summing up, we can say that the image of a doctor in Russian literature of the 19th century is not only one of the most common, but also one of the deepest and most filled with the number of those problems and questions that he was called upon to highlight and sharpen. This is a question of the social structure of the state, and questions of religion, morality and ethics. The image of a doctor is often of great importance when the work deals with the basic modes of human existence: care, fear, determination, conscience. This is not surprising, since it is possible to penetrate into the very root of human existence only in such borderline situations that the doctor often deals with: struggle, suffering, death. In Russian literature, the image of a doctor has traveled a long and interesting path from a charlatan to a romantic hero, from a romantic hero to a mundane materialist, and from a materialist to a bearer of morality, a hero who knows the truth, knows everything about life and death, and is responsible for others in the broadest sense.

29 Chekhov A.P. Ionych // Stories / A.P. Chekhov. M. : Art. lit., 1963. S. 212.

30 Gromov M. P. The book about Chekhov / M. P. Gromov. M. : Sovremennik, 1989. S. 240.

31 Anikin A. A. Decree. op.

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critical literature

I. Anikin, A. A. The image of a doctor in Russian classics // www.portal-slovo.ru/philology/37293.php?ELEMENT_ID=37293.html

2 Belyanin, V.P. Texts about death in Russian literature // www.textology.ru/article.html

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6. Neklyudova, E. S. House doctor and women's secrets // Mythology and everyday life: Gender approach in anthropological disciplines. - St. Petersburg. : Aletheia, 2001.

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8. Stolik A. M., Paltsev M. A., Zatravkin S. N. Pathological anatomy at Moscow University in the first half of the 19th century. - M.: Medicine, 1999.

9. Tishchenko, P. Bio-power in the era of biotechnology. Bioethics as a moral autopsy // http://polbu.ru/tischnko_bioauthority/ch30_all.html

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