Research work in literature. Anton Chekhov - diary entries

Chekhov - great writer not only because he possessed a huge artistic visual talent, but also because he, with his characteristic character of writing talent, introduced a new big word into the history of Russian literature with his works.

He created his own special literary genre, a special form of a short story. It is original in the methods of creativity, original in style, original in the themes of creativity. He was extremely original as a writer. He did not follow any of the writers. Writers have followed and continue to follow.

Chekhov, in his originality as an artist, was influenced by the medical education he received. About this, five years before his death, he wrote in his autobiography: “Classes in medical sciences had a serious influence on my literary activity, they significantly expanded the scope of my observations, enriched me with knowledge, true price which for me, as a writer, can only be understood by someone who is a doctor himself ... Acquaintance with natural sciences, scientific method, always kept me on my guard, and I tried, where possible, to comply with scientific data, and where impossible, not to write at all.

In the same remarkable document, having already gone through almost all of its life path, already a world-famous writer, Chekhov said that he "does not repent that he went to the medical faculty."

Anton Pavlovich entered the medical faculty of Moscow University as a 19-year-old boy in 1879.

There is very little information about his student years. According to his university friend, Dr. Rossolimo, he was completely invisible among his comrades "because of his extreme modesty." He studied medicine with great interest, listening to the lectures of Babukhin, Zakharyin, Klein, Foght, Snegirev, Ostroumov, Kozhevnikov, Erisman, Sklifosovsky. Chekhov the student did not stop practicing medicine even during summer holiday and since 1881 every summer he worked in the Chikinsky zemstvo hospital of the Zvenigorod district of the Moscow province with Dr. P. A. Arkhangelsky.

After graduating from Moscow University in 1884, Chekhov hung a plaque on the door of his apartment - “Doctor A.P. Chekhov” and began to receive incoming patients and visit patients on calls.

On January 31, 1885, Chekhov wrote about his city practice to his uncle M. G. Chekhov: “Medicine is advancing little by little. I'm flying and I'm flying. Every day you have to spend more than a ruble on a cab driver. I have a lot of acquaintances, and therefore, a lot of patients. The strip has to be treated for nothing, while the other half pays me five and three rubles.

At the same time, Chekhov was intensively preparing for the exams for the degree of doctor of medicine. He decided to write a history of medical practice in Russia, intending, probably, to present this work as a doctoral dissertation. The collected materials have been preserved (in the Central Archive) and marked with the years 1884 and 1885 (Examined and described by Belchakov. See his article in the collection "Chekhov and his environment", pp. 105-133, L., 1930). They consist of 46 Chekhov's quarter-page manuscripts with extracts from numerous sources up to the 17th century. The lists of sources that Chekhov intended to study include: one with 73 titles, another with 24, and a third with 15. Among the extracts made by Chekhov, his remarks are also found. So, there is an interesting remark about False Dmitry, regarding which the dispute was not resolved, whether he was an impostor or was a real prince. Chekhov later repeated this remark in a letter to Suvorin dated March 17, 1890: “The real Tsarevich Dmitry had hereditary epilepsy, which would have been in old age if he had survived. Therefore, the impostor was in fact an impostor, since he did not have epilepsy. This America was discovered by the doctor Chekhov ”(Letters, vol. III, pp. 29-30).

After graduating from Chekhov University, he was offered a doctor's position in Zvenigorod - "refused", as he informed Leikin in a letter dated July 23, 1884, but for a short time, two weeks, during the vacation of a permanent doctor, he still was the head of the Zvenigorod Zemstvo hospital and at the same time performed the duties of a county doctor, performing forensic autopsies and speaking in court as an expert.

In a letter from Chekhov dated June 27, 1884, we find an artistic description of one of the autopsies he performed: “I opened it together with the county doctor in a field under the greenery of a young oak. The dead man is "not dead", and the peasants, on whose land the body was found, prayed with Christ God and with tears that they would not open it in their village: "Women and children will not sleep from fear." “An alarmed village, a tenant with a badge, a widow woman wailing 200 steps from the autopsy site, and two peasants in the role of Kustodiev near the corpse.” Near them “a small fire goes out”... “A corpse in a red shirt, in new trousers, covered with a sheet. On the sheet is a towel with an image. “An autopsy results in a fracture of 20 ribs, pulmonary edema and an alcoholic smell of the stomach. Death is violent, resulting from strangulation. The drunk was crushed in the chest with something heavy, probably a good peasant's knee.

As to how long Chekhov practiced in Moscow, no definite indications were found. It is known that in 1886 and in 1887. he had a constant reception of patients, about which in September 1886 Chekhov wrote to Trifolev: “I receive daily from 12 to 3 hours, for writers my doors are wide open day and night. At 6 o’clock I am always at home” (“Chekhov Collection”, M., pp. 137-140, 1929).

Chekhov's urban private practice was not without anxiety. Once Anton Pavlovich remembered that on the prescription he gave to the patient, when indicating the dosage, he put a comma in the wrong place. Excited, he hired a scorcher with the last of his money and rushed to the patient. The prescription had not yet been taken to the pharmacy, and Chekhov successfully corrected it. Another case that excited young doctor, was the death of an old patient who held his hand until her last breath. After that, Chekhov took off his doctor's tablet and did not hang it up again (Bibliographical essay, Letters to A.P. Chekhov, vol. I, 1912).

In the summer, living in a dacha near Moscow, and then for two years near the city of Sumy, Kharkov province, Chekhov received patients who came to him, for whom he brought with him a "whole cart" of medicines.

From the village of Babakino near Moscow, Chekhov wrote on May 27, 1880: “I have many patients. Rachitic children and old women with eruptions. There is an old woman with a mug on her hand. I’m afraid that I’ll have to deal with erysipelas of the tissue, there will be abscesses, and it’s scary to cut the old woman. ”

When preparing to go to the Kharkov province, he wrote in May 1888 to V. G. Korolenko: “I dream of abscesses, swelling, lanterns, diarrhea, specks in the eye and other grace. In the summer, I usually receive the paralyzed for half a day, and my sister assists me - this is a fun job.

In the Kharkov province, Chekhov sometimes received Liptvareva together with a woman doctor. He played a leading role in these receptions, as can be seen from his message in a letter to Suvorin dated May 30, 1888: “During consultations, we always disagree - I am an evangelist where she sees death, and I double those doses [of ], which she gives. Where death is obvious and necessary, there my doctor feels completely undoctoral.”

“Once they took in a young khokhlushka with a malignant tumor of the glands on the neck and on the back of the head. The defeat has occupied so much space that no cure is conceivable. And because the woman now does not feel pain, and in six months she will die in terrible agony, the doctor looked at her so deeply guilty, as if she was apologizing for her health and ashamed that medicine was powerless.

Shortly after graduating from university in the summer, Chekhov put forward his candidacy for the post of doctor in a children's hospital. The appointment did not take place - we did not find information about the reason in the biographical materials about Chekhov.

In 1890 Chekhov went to Sakhalin. In his usual jocular form, he wrote that by examining the Sakhalin penal servitude, he wants to "at least pay a little" to medicine (letter to Suvorin dated March 9, 1890). By his description of Sakhalin, Chekhov's real goal was to arouse public interest in him as "a place of unbearable suffering, of which only a person is capable of."

Chekhov spent a lot of work preparing for the trip, collecting the information he needed on ethnography, meteorology, botany, geology and the economy of Sakhalin. He wrote at that time: “I sit all day, read and make notes. In my head and on paper there is nothing but Sakhalin. Insanity, "mania sachalinosa". “Day by day I read and write, read and write.” “From the books you [Suvorin] sent me, cockroaches started up in my brain. Such painstaking, anathemic work that I seem to die of longing before I get to Sakhalin.

In early April 1890, Chekhov left Moscow. There was no railroad across Siberia at that time, and Chekhov rode in a wagon to the Amur, then on a steamboat along the Amur and across the sea.

The long and long journey of 11,000 versts was at times very difficult, especially during the spring thaw. More than once Chekhov's wagon turned over and he was thrown into puddles and mud, after which he had to ride in wet clothes for some time. His boots were narrow, and he had to "get out of the wagon, sit down on the damp ground and take them off to give his heels a rest." I bought felt boots, “walked in them through mud and water”, “until they got sour from dampness and dirt”. “Do you know,” he wrote, “what does wet felt boots mean? These are jelly boots. He jumped into the water many times. “It’s damp in felt boots, like in a latrine; squishes, stockings blow their nose ”(Letter to sister M.P. Chekhova dated April 14-17, 1890).

This path was difficult, but rich in impressions for the writer, and Chekhov outlined his impressions in letters and travel essays that were published in Novoye Vremya (Collected Works, vol. XI, item “From Siberia”, pp. 255-279 1929).

In Chekhov's letters we find some information about the establishment of a medical case in the places through which he passed.

“There are no hospitals or doctors. The paramedic is being treated. Bleedings and blood-sucking cups on a grand, brutal scale. On the way, I was examining a Jew with liver cancer. The Jew is exhausted, barely breathing, but this did not stop the paramedic from supplying 12 blood-sucking cans.

Chekhov's letters also mention the provision of medical assistance to them on the way.

Chekhov arrived on Sakhalin on July 10, that is, he spent three months on the road.

Chekhov examined the Sakhalin prisons and the premises of the settlers, infirmaries, examined the life of the prison and non-prison inhabitants of the island, their occupations and relationships, went and traveled the whole island.

He stayed on Chekhov Island for three months, working hard in this hard labor "hell", not sparing his stomach: "I got up every day at 5 o'clock in the morning, went to bed late, had the patience to make a census of the entire Sakhalin population - as a result, there is not a single hard labor or settler who wouldn't talk to me." Chekhov saw and examined everything on Sakhalin, "only death penalty I didn't see it," he wrote. Informing Suporpn in a letter dated September 11, 1890, about his presence during the lashing, he described how a young German, a medical official, determined how many blows a person subject to lashing could endure. “He knows that I am a doctor, but he was not ashamed to decide this issue in my presence, a question that cannot even be resolved approximately.” "Three or four nights" after the spectacle of punishment, Chekhov dreamed of an executioner and a "disgusting mare." This spectacle was later described in his book "Sakhalin Island" (Collected Works, vol. XI, pp. 227-230, 1929).

The book "Sakhalin Island" has a modest subtitle "From travel notes". But in essence it is a serious research work, which contains a huge amount of material from published sources, references to which are abundant in the notes of the book. This book is so comprehensive, so rich in numerical data, so harmoniously structured that one wonders how a young doctor who had no experience in this kind of sanitary-statistical, economic and natural-historical surveys could write it.

It is also of artistic value with individual paintings of Sakhalin life. These pictures are creepy, and from them one can get an idea of ​​Chekhov's painful experiences during his stay among the Sakhalin convicts and settlers. “My short Sakhalin past,” Chekhov wrote to the famous lawyer and writer A.F. Koni, “seems to me so huge that when I want to talk about it, I don’t know where to start, and every time it seems to me that I’m talking not what you need." Children made a particularly heavy impression on Chekhov, of whom there were 2,122 on the island in 1890. In the same letter to Kopi, he wrote: “I saw hungry children, I saw thirteen-year-old kept women, fifteen-year-old pregnant women.”

There was no organized help for children - pupils of hard labor - on the island. Telling Koni about his impressions, Chekhov wondered about organizing help for children. Which way should we go in this matter? He did not believe in charity. Some kind of state organization is necessary, he wrote.

The medical part of the study describes a visit to the main medical institution of the convict island - the Alexander infirmary - and Chekhov's outpatient reception in this infirmary. Here is a little of this description: “The beds are wooden. On one lies a convict from Douai with his throat cut; brine half an inch long, dry, gaping; you can hear the air rushing. There is no bandage around the neck; the wound is left to itself. To the right of this patient, at a distance of 3-4 arshins from a peg-Chinese with gangrene; to the left - hard labor with a mug. In the corner - another with a mug. Surgical patients have dirty bandages, a sea rope of some kind, suspicious in appearance, as if they were walking on it ... "A little later, I receive outpatients ... The table at which the doctor sits is fenced with wooden bars, as in a banking office so that during the reception the patient does not come close, and the doctor for the most part examines it from a distance ... Right there in the waiting room front door there is a warder with a revolver, some men and women are scurrying about ... They bring a boy with an abscess on his neck. Gotta cut. I ask for a scalpel. The paramedic and two men take off and run away somewhere, a little later they return and give me a scalpel. The instrument turns out to be blunt... Again, the paramedic and the men take off and, after a two or three minute wait, bring another scalpel. I start to cut, and this one also turns out to be blunt. I ask for carbolic acid in solution - they give me, but not soon - it is clear that this liquid is also not used often. No basin, no balls of cotton wool, no probes, no decent scissors, not even water in sufficient quantities ... "...

"Sakhalin Island" Chekhov wrote almost the entire year 1891. Initially, this work was published in the journal Russian Thought in 1893 in the form of articles, and in a separate edition the book was published in 1895. “It bears the stamp of extraordinary preparation and a merciless waste of time. In it for strict form and the efficiency of tons, behind the multitude of factual digital data one feels the saddened and indignant heart of the writer ”- this is how the big man of that time A.F. Koni spoke about Chekhov’s book.

Chekhov himself, apparently, was pleased with the book. He wrote to friends: “Medicine cannot reproach me for treason. I have paid due tribute to learning."

Chekhov's goal was achieved; his book made a huge impression both here and abroad; the prison department began to stir, outfitting an expedition to Sakhalin.

Chekhov repeatedly told his university friend Dr. Rossolimo that he dreamed of giving students a course in private pathology and therapy. He intended to describe the suffering of patients in such a way as to force his listeners - future doctors - to experience these sufferings and fully understand them. But to read a course at the university, a degree was needed, and Chekhov regretted that he could not write and defend a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine in time. After a trip to Sakhalin Chekhov and Rossolimo. suggested that the book "Sakhalin Island" could be presented as a dissertation.

Rossolimo asked the dean of the medical faculty about "Sakhalin Island" as a possible dissertation for Chekhov and about granting Chekhov the right to lecture students in the course of private pathology and therapy. The dean answered both questions in the negative.

Gradually, Chekhov moved away from medicine, becoming more and more a professional writer, and he recognized this as some kind of betrayal of medicine and in letters called himself a "pig" in front of her.

In the summer of 1891, Chekhov again practiced as a doctor, apparently during country rest. In a letter to Suvorin dated August 18 of this year, he gave the following description of a medical case: “A woman was carrying rye and fell off the cart upside down. Terribly crashed: concussion, traction of the cervical vertebrae, vomiting, severe pain etc. They brought her to me. She groans, groans, asks the god of death, and she herself looks at the peasant who brought her, and mutters: “You, Kirill, throw the lentils, then you will thresh, and now grind the oats,” I tell her that - after about oats, there is something more serious to talk about, and she told me; "He has good oats." A troublesome envious woman! It's easy to die that way."

In the nineties, literary earnings made it possible for Chekhov to comfortably support himself and his family, and he was even able to acquire, with the transfer of the seller’s bank debt, a small estate near the village of Melikhovo, Serpukhov district, Moscow province, where he moved with his family in early 1892.

From the very first days, the sick were drawn to Chekhov; from the very morning they were standing in front of the house, coming and sometimes coming even from distant villages, and Chekhov would not let anyone go without advice. The sick woke Chekhov sometimes at night. Medical care and medicines for the sick were free.

Talking about this work in the early days of Chekhov's life in the countryside, his brother Mikhail, in his biographical sketch for Volume IV of the book Letters of L.P. Chekhov, reports on individual cases of assistance provided by Chekhov. So, one rach brought a man with a stomach pierced by a pitchfork, and Chekhov, on the floor in his office, fiddled with him, cleaning his wounds and bandaging them. Often Chekhov went to the sick. Thus, while not yet formally a zemstvo doctor, he became one in reality.

In 1891/92 there was a crop failure and famine in the Volga provinces. Responsive to someone else's misfortune, Chekhov went to help the starving in the Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh provinces. He bought up horses, which were sold by the population for nothing, organized their feeding until spring plowing, and then, when this time came, he distributed them to horseless peasants. Chekhov's brother reported in his biographical sketches that once (it was in the starving province of Nizhny Novgorod) Chekhov almost died when he lost his way during a heavy snowstorm.

In 1892 there was cholera in Russia. The cholera epidemic spread across the Volga region among the population weakened by hunger. It can be seen from Chekhov's letters that he was very disturbed by the thought of a cholera epidemic approaching from the Volga. There were very few doctors in the Serpukhov district, and the population, living in poor sanitary conditions, turned out to be helpless to fight the terrible enemy. Chekhov voluntarily, “out of a sense of duty,” as the writer Potapenko wrote about this in his memoirs, shouldered the heavy burden of a Zemstvo “cholera” doctor on his weak shoulders (Niva, No. 26-28, 1914)

The report on the activities of the Serpukhov Uyezd Sanitary Council reads: “A new medical center has been opened in the village of. Melikhovo, Bavykinskaya volost, thanks to the kind offer of the local landowner, Dr. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who expressed to the Council a desire to take part in the fight against the epidemic free of charge ”(Review of activities ... for 1892-1893, published by the Serpukhov district zemstvo, 1893).

Despite the developing tuberculosis process in Chekhov, he worked at that time as an ascetic. He began his outpatient appointment at 5 o'clock in the morning. Sometimes, all day long, in all weather, without leaving the tarantass, he rode around his section with 25 villages. The work of a doctor began to take away from him all the time. “You can’t even think about literature,” he wrote in letters to Leikip and Mizinova in July 1892. He complained in his other letters: “You have to be both a doctor and a health officer at the same time”, “horses and carriages I’m lousy, I don’t know the roads, I don’t see anything in the evenings, I don’t have money, I get tired soon, and most importantly, I just can’t forget what I need to write. “There are days when I have to leave the house four or five times; you will return from Kryukov, and a messenger from Vaskov is waiting in the yard, ”he wrote. Chekhov was also worried about individual patients of his medical practice. So, in February 1893, a three-year-old boy was brought to him, who sat in a cauldron of boiling water. "Terrible sight! Chekhov wrote. - Most of all got s .... tse and genitals. The whole back is scalded."

Zemstvo furnished Chekhov's medical station very badly. All expenses for the site were covered by Chekhov, "begging for funds from local manufacturers and landowners", while the expenses of the Zemstvo were expressed in insignificant amounts for his site (Chekhov's Reports in the Appendix).

In the memoirs of Chekhov, written by Dr. P. I. Kurkin, his fellow medical worker in the Serpukhov district, we read:

...“The years of 1892-1893 were very difficult for the zemstvo medicine of the Moscow province; an epidemic of Asian cholera was approaching the province ... All medical and sanitary forces were mobilized ... And in famous writer in this difficult time of danger to the people, the citizen doctor immediately showed up. Immediately, from the first almost moment of medical mobilization in 1892, in the Moscow province, A.P. Chekhov became, so to speak, under arms. He formed about Melikhovo, an extensive zemstvo medical district, consisting of as many as 26 villages, took over the supervision of the health of the population of this area and carried out the duties of the Melikhovo zemstvo doctor for 2 years - 1892 and 1893, until the danger had passed ... And it is amazing to recall now to what extent Anton Pavlovich entered seriously and intimately into the professional interests of a practical social worker, such as our district doctor. How simple everything was, free from superfluous phrases, businesslike, serious. The duties of a zemstvo doctor were accepted in full. Anton Pavlovich becomes an obligatory member of the district sanitary council and attends with complete accuracy all its meetings in the city of Serpukhov and in the zemstvo hospitals of the district. He is included in all commissions on school and factory sanitation in his district; inspects school buildings, factory premises, etc. In the village. Melikhovo, he regularly receives incoming patients, gives them medicines; for auxiliary work has a zemstvo paramedic. Conducts trips to the villages, investigates suspicious cases of diseases; provides for places where it would be possible to open clinics for cholera in the event of an epidemic. He keeps all the statistical records of the diseases he observes and, on a par with the doctors in the service of the Zemstvo, draws up reports on his work using the same forms and reports these reports to the sanitary council ... Behind the dry and callous data of these reports and reports, we, the witnesses of these moments of Anton Pavlovich's life, stands as a lively, humane, deep, friendly, full of warmth and affection, although somewhat harsh in appearance, the personality of a dear and unforgettable writer who put the work of a citizen doctor on his shoulders. He remained the same - even, calm, attentive, when he listened to the patient's complaints either in his "pharmacy", or on the porch of the Melikhovsky house. He was like that in the Sanitary Council, affable, affectionate, although silent in big company... (“Public Doctor”, No. 4, pp. 66-69, 1911)”.

The cholera epidemic did not reach Chekhov's district, and in October 1893 he ceased to be a zemstvo "cholera" doctor. But he did not stop treating, because the sick continued to go to him, and he had to go to the sick at home.

Chekhov established good relations with the population, despite the fact that he was a "landowner". And he wrote with satisfaction to Avilova: “The main thing that arranged our good relations was medicine” (Letter dated March 9, 1899).

Living in Melikhovo (1892-1897), Chekhov was not only a doctor and a writer, he did a lot of social work.

He was a vowel of the Serpukhov Zemstvo by choice in 1895 and a member of the sanitary council of this zemstvo, was a member of the school council and a trustee of three primary schools. At his own expense, he built buildings for these schools, He built with enthusiasm, he himself - delivered plans, bought building materials himself and watched the buildings himself - built them for that downtrodden and dark population, which he depicted in his works “In the ravine” and “ Guys." If funds allowed, Chekhov would build many schools - this is how his brother Mikhail commented on his report on Chekhov's construction activities.

And Chekhov built a highway from the Lopasnya station to Melikhovo, built a fire shed and a bell tower in Melikhovo. He built the bell tower not because he was a believer - he repeatedly wrote to his friends about his disbelief (For example, a letter to Suvorin dated March 27, 1891), but because the Melikhovsky peasants asked him about it.

Chekhov also took part in the first general population census Russian Empire in 1897. He was in charge of the census section and was at the head of a detachment of 16 counters. “In the morning I go around the huts, out of habit I hit my head on the lintels and, as if on purpose, my head cracks like hell: both migraine and influenza,” Chekhov wrote about his participation in the census.

Practical medicine in rural conditions weighed heavily on Chekhov. As early as 1891, such complaints erupted in his letters: “Oh, how tired I am of the sick! The neighboring landowner was fucked by the first blow, and they drag me to him in a lousy shaking cart. Most of all, I'm tired of women with babies and powders that are boring to hang up ”(Letter to Suvorin dated August 28, 1891). In 1892, Chekhov wrote about the troubles associated with being a doctor and "about the disgusting days and hours that only doctors have." And he wrote further: “My soul is weary. Boring. Not to belong to oneself, to think only of diarrhoea, to shudder at night from the barking of dogs and knocking on the gate (have they come for me?) to ride disgusting horses along unknown roads, to read only about cholera and wait only for cholera ... This, sir, such an okroshka, from which it will not be healthy. And again: “It is not good to be a doctor. It's scary, and boring, and disgusting. The young manufacturer got married and a week later he calls me: “Definitely, this minute, please” ... A girl with worms in her ear, diarrhea, vomiting, syphilis ... Ugh! (letter dated August 16, 1892). “A job 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, because I found it convenient for myself and my independence to refuse the remuneration that district doctors receive ”(letter dated August 1, 1892).

In the summer of the same 1892, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin about overworking with heavy, beyond his strength work: “I get out of bed and go to bed with the feeling that my interest in life has dried up.” In a letter to Leikin dated July 13, we read: “By noon I begin to feel tired and want to fall asleep”; in a letter to Mizinova dated July 16: “I have more work than my throat ... I am tired and annoyed as hell.”

But the summer suffering of feverish work in preparation for a meeting with cholera ended, and Chekhov wrote with satisfaction: “Life was difficult in the summer, but now it seems to me that I have not spent a single summer as well as this; I liked and wanted to live” (Letter dated October 10, 1892).

Chekhov's life in the countryside, combined after the cholera of 1892/93 with a voluntary life, is relatively small medical practice and with frequent trips to Moscow, St. Petersburg and abroad, continued until 1897, when, at the insistence of the doctors treating him, he decided to stop medical practice and move to Yalta. In Yalta, only at first there were separate cases of providing them with medical assistance. In general, it must be considered that during the Yalta period of his life, Chekhov completely and forever left medicine, but, apparently, he never forgot it. He wrote to the writer Avilova in July 1898 that he "would like to take up medicine, would take some [medical] job", but that he lacked "physical flexibility" for this.

While living in Yalta, Chekhov spent a lot of his mental strength on caring for the consumptive patients who came there. He wrote about this several times in 1899 to his brother M.P. Chekhov: “I am overwhelmed by patients who are sent here from all sides - with bacilli, with cavities, with green faces, but without a penny in my pocket. We have to fight this nightmare, indulge in different tricks.

Tarakhovsky: “Consumptive visitors are overcoming. They turn to me. I'm lost, I don't know what to do.

If you knew how these consumptive poor people live here, who are thrown here by Russia in order to get rid of them. If you only knew - this is one horror "...

Gorky: “Consumptive poor people overcome. Seeing their faces when they beg and seeing their pitiful blankets as they die is hard.”

And Chekhov was an active member of the Yalta guardianship of visiting patients, helped and arranged for the consumptive poor, collected donations for the construction of a sanatorium in Yalta, built a sanatorium, but the built sanatorium quickly filled up, and the consumptives all went to Yalta and again there was nowhere to put them. And again Chekhov busied himself, arranged and wrote appeals for donations.

But this activity of Chekhov was more the charity of a person sensitive to the grief of others than the work of a doctor. And as a doctor, he never ceased to be indignant at how carelessly doctors sent patients to Yalta, and he wrote to his friends about this more than once: “Your northern doctors send tuberculosis patients here because they are unfamiliar with local conditions. If the process is just beginning, then it makes sense to send a patient here in the fall or winter. But to send an incurable patient here, and even for the summer months, when it is hot and stuffy here, as in hell, and in Russia it is so good - this, but to me, is not at all medical.

During all periods of his short life, Chekhov, both when he was a doctor par excellence and when he stopped practicing medicine, vividly felt his professional belonging to the medical world, was always interested in questions of medical life, fussed about doctors and arranged medical literary enterprises. It is known how he "saved" journals that were dying from lack of funds, first the "Surgical Chronicle", and then "Surgery". In 1895, he took part in the congress of Moscow zemstvo doctors who gathered in the zemstvo psychiatric hospital near the village of Pokrovsky. As can be seen from his letters, in 1899 he was a member of the fund for mutual assistance of doctors, and in 1900 he signed up to be a member of the Pirogov Congress of Doctors and paid a membership fee (Letter to Dr. Kurkin dated January 18, 1900)

Chekhov highly valued the public opinion of the medical environment. When, at the end of 1902, members of the Pirogov Congress of Doctors, who had gathered in Moscow from all over the country, sent telegrams to Chekhov with greetings and expressing gratitude to the doctors for his literary activity, these telegrams brought him great joy. In letters to Dr. Kurkpn and Dr. Chlenov, Chekhov wrote that, having received the telegrams, he "felt like a prince" and was raised "to a height that he never dreamed of."

A lot of books and articles have been written about Chekhov. Many memoirs of relatives, friends and acquaintances have been published about him over the decades since his death.

But not everything can be believed from what is written about Chekhov. And literature about him is waiting to be cleansed of inaccuracies and outright falsehood, so that it can be restored. true biography writer.

The most brutal untruth about Chekhov appeared shortly after his death in correspondence from Vienna in Odessa News (1904, No. 6371). It is signed Yak. Sosnov. It reported that Chekhov was in Vienna "at the beginning of the 80s" and "worked" in the Viennese clinics of Bplrot and Kaposi. But it is known that in these years Chekhov was a first-year student at the medical faculty of Moscow University and therefore could not work in Vienna clinics. It is also known that Chekhov was in Vienna only in 1891 and 1894, both times in transit to France and Italy, that is, both times he was there for a very short time. Consequently, he could not “work” in Viennese clinics even during these years. And in Chekhov's letters from Vienna there is not a word about Viennese clinics.

In the same correspondence from Vienna, there are other reports about Chekhov: and that he became disillusioned with medicine (this was in the early 80s! - V. X.); and that he decided to leave the medical field of activity to those who feel a greater vocation for medicine and who are less exacting than he; and his opinion that a doctor should not take more than a "couple" (! - V. Kh.) or two patients a day.

What it is? Is it just a fiction about our great medical writer, or is it the truth that the author of the correspondence from Vienna heard about some other Chekhov's doctor, the writer's namesake, and which he, in his ignorance, attributed to the medical writer Chekhov?

One way or another, there is no doubt that Yakov Sosnov put into literary circulation an obvious fable about Chekhov, and the most offensive thing is that no one refuted this fable for 40 years and they began to repeat it in literature.

So, in the work of A. Izmailov “Chekhov. 1860-1904. Biographical sketch. M., 1916" this fable was repeated (as a fact requiring verification), and Izmailov arbitrarily changed the years indicated in the correspondence of Odessa News, forwarding without any explanation "the beginning of the 80s" to "the beginning of the 90s".

This "correction" is absolutely inadmissible for Chekhov's biographer. Izmailov did not even look through Chekhov's letters before "correcting". And from them it is clear that in 1891 Chekhov arrived in Vienna at 4 pm on March 19 (letter to M.P. Chekhova dated March 20), and in Venice on March 22 (letter to I.P. Chekhov dated March 24 ), that is, Chekhov stayed in Vienna for one or perhaps two days. Thus, it is absolutely indisputable that Chekhov could not work in the Vienna clinics in 1891. Regarding 1894, there are no exact data refuting Izmailov's "correction", but we repeat that this year Chekhov was only passing through Vienna.

The tale is repeated without comment and in bibliographic index Masanov's "Chekhoviana": in his annotation to the description of the Odessa correspondence, only "work in Vienna clinics" is said. The same indication without criticism is found in the work of Kazantsev “A. P. Chekhov as a Physician, published in Clinical Medicine (No. 22, 1929), and Friedeks in his bibliographic work Description of Memoirs (M., 1930) (To our question to Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova, there were If there were any grounds for the statement of the Odessa News correspondent that Anton Pavlovich worked in Vienna clinics, Olga Leonardovna categorically stated that such a statement was a complete fiction and that Anton Pavlovich did not work and could not work in Vienna clinics).

Lies about Chekhov the doctor, less crude, of course, than those of Yakov Sosnov, can also be found in the memoirs of Chekhov's friends and acquaintances.

Kuprin, in the essay "In Memory of Chekhov", published for the first time in 1905, wrote that the doctors who invited Chekhov to a consultation with their patients spoke of him (where and when? - V. Kh.) as a thoughtful observer and insightful diagnostician; this is written according to the memories of the Yalta period of Chekhov's life. But the Yalta doctor Altshuler, who constantly communicated with Chekhov and treated him in Yalta, reported in his Fragments from Memoirs (Russkiye Vedomosti, 1914, No. 151) that only in the first year of his stay in Yalta did Chekhov have separate cases of medical practice and that once he took part in a consultation at the bedside of a sick man.

The Moscow doctor Chlenov wrote in Russkiye Vedomosti (Russian Vedomosti, 1906, No. 169) that Chekhov retained an interest in medicine until the end of his life and followed it, always subscribing to medical journals. And the doctor Altshuler also testified in his Fragments that Chekhov did not read medical books in Yalta and that in the “Doctor” he received, which, according to another testimony, was sent to him by the editors of Russkaya Mysl, he read only the section of the chronicle and small news.

Artists of the Art Theater, who wrote about Chekhov, paid attention in their memoirs to the theme "Chekhov the Doctor".

Sullerzhitsky conveyed the words of Stanislavsky that Chekhov "terribly loved to treat." Stanislavsky, in his book My Life in Art, wrote that Chekhov was "much more proud of his medical knowledge than of his literary talent." Vishnevsky in "Scraps of Memories" says that Chekhov was very angry when they negatively treated his medical knowledge.

Vasily Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote in his "Memo about A.P. Chekhov" that Chekhov "could not stand" praise for his talent as a writer and at the same time "took to heart" doubts about his medical merits.

And, finally, the artist Ge, who reported on the accidental assistance provided by Chekhov at the Art Theater to an extra soldier wounded on stage, gave a huge headline to this message: "Chekhov is a theater doctor."

The memoirs just quoted are homogeneous and not contradictory. But they contradict other memories. And, of course, these were Chekhov's jokes, characteristic of him in his conversations and letters, and Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko and the artists of the Art Theater took them seriously. After all, their memories belonged to last period Chekhov's life, when he, already a very important writer, who devoted all his time to artistic creativity, of course, could not take himself seriously as a doctor.

This assumption was confirmed to the author by Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova. She spoke about the usual nature of Anton Pavlovich's friendly interviews with the artists of the Art Theater in his free time from business conversations. They were playful banter with each other, jokes that he loved and great master which was Anton Pavlovich. Poking fun at Anton Pavlovich and his joking were, obviously, the conversations about the medical merits of Anton Pavlovich set out by the artists.

After one medical advice given by Chekhov in a joking manner, Nemirovich-Danchenko laughed.

“And suddenly touchy:“ Yes, you don’t believe me? I'm a bad doctor, in your opinion?

It darkened, and then long later: “Someday they will make sure that I, by God, am a good doctor” ...

As licentia poetica from Nemirovich-Danchenko's part, this "darkened" sounds.

Sergeenko, a comrade of Chekhov from Taganrog school bench, wrote that Chekhov had no vocation for medicine at all and that Chekhov “never seriously studied medicine” (“About Chekhov” in the collection “Memoirs and Articles”, 1910). Potapenko also refuted reports that Chekhov once liked to treat (“Several years with A.P. Chekhov”, Niva, 1914, No. 26-28).

The two brothers of Anton Pavlovich testified to the same thing as Sergeenko and Potapenko. Brother Mikhail wrote that Chekhov did not have any attachment to medical practice, that he did not like it (Collection "In Memory of Chekhov", 1906). Brother Alexander wrote about the 90s that Chekhov, even at that time, was engaged in one literature (“ Russian wealth”, No. 3, 1911).

Biographical materials about Chekhov and his rich correspondence, which greatly adds to, and sometimes makes it possible to correct, much that has been written about Chekhov, allow us to draw such a conclusion about Chekhov as a practical doctor.

Chekhov did not have sufficient clinical training necessary for any practicing physician. His small medical practice after graduating from the university could not give him any significant experience. His short but intense work as a zemstvo doctor in the Serpukhov district proceeded in the worst conditions for a doctor. Chekhov did not even have a small hospital. There were also no necessary assistants in order to develop surgical activities and organize medical research. There was no microscope. Only outpatient appointments and trips to the medical area with 26 villages, 7 factories and 1 monastery reduced this area to the level of an ordinary medical assistant's station. Under these conditions, Chekhov could not grow as a doctor. He could not grow as a doctor also because, in addition to unpaid medical work, he had to give his time also to literary work. Even in the year of the most intense medical work, in 1892, he wrote such significant works as Ward No. 6 and The Story of an Unknown Man.

This gives grounds to believe that Chekhov was not and could not be any great figure as a practical doctor. But his personal qualities made him a "desirable" doctor for the population.

An extremely attractive image of Chekhov emerges from the memoirs of him, of which a lot has been published. Always responsive to the grief and suffering of people, always ready to help in any way he could, gentle and affectionate in dealing with people, Chekhov the doctor attracted the hearts of patients.

Brother Mikhail Pavlovich wrote in biographical sketches attached to the six-volume edition of A.P. Chekhov’s letters: “Anton Pavlovich loved to help ... to bother, intercede for someone; helping financially was his favorite thing. Chekhov was a humanist doctor in the best sense of the word. In addition, as his trip to Sakhalin showed in particular, he was persistent and resolute when necessary. All this was supposed to inspire his patients with faith in him and confidence in the saving power of his medical advice and his medicines. And faith in a doctor is, as you know, an essential condition for the success of the treatment of this doctor.

There are three testimonies of patients about Chekhov as a doctor. All of them belong to the time of his Melikhovo practice.

Shchepkina-Kupernik in her memoirs recorded a review of Chekhov by her former nurse, who lived not far from Melikhovo: “Do not be afraid, dear! We have such a dokhtur that you will not find in Moscow either - Anton Pavlovich lives ten miles away; so desirable, he gives me medicine.

Another testimony is a former rural teacher who was treated by Chekhov in 1892; judging by the advice given to him by Chekhov, he was apparently ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. In his recently published memoirs, he says that Chekhov, who refused the medical fee offered to him, did not limit himself to medical advice alone, but fussed about sending his patient to the Crimea and, obviously in order for him to breathe more air from fields, meadows and forests, he got him, a novice hunter, a good gun, and then a hunting dog. In 1944, this patient summed up his impressions of his famous doctor as follows: “It is difficult to say who was superior in Chekhov: a man or an artist. His personality traits were one harmonious whole, in which it was impossible to separate a person from an artist and an artist from a doctor ”(M. Plotov, Big Heart,“ TVNZ”, No. 164, 1944).

We found the third evidence in the book of memoirs of the writer Teleshev. An old man, who accidentally met Teleshev in the carriage, gave the following review of Chekhov: “An eccentric man. Stupid ... "Who is stupid?" “Yes, Anton Pavlich! Well, tell me, is it good: my wife, an old woman, went, went to treat - cured. Then I fell ill - and he treated me. I give him money, but he does not take. I say, Anton Pavlich, dear, what are you doing? You are not a stupid person, you understand your business, but you don’t take money - why live like that? .. ”(N. Teleshev, Notes of a Writer, M., Ogiz, 1943, p. 161).

Undoubtedly, Chekhov was a thinking doctor and was not satisfied with empiricism alone, or, as he expressed it, with "particulars" acquired from personal experience and the experience gained by others, but ascended to the "general", to the theory of medicine. This can be seen from his letter to Suvorin dated October 18, 1888: “Whoever does not know how to think in a medical way, but judges by details, he denies medicine. Botkin, Zakharyin, Virkhov and Pirogov, undoubtedly smart and gifted people, believe in medicine as in God, because they have grown to the concept of "medicine".

Only a few separate statements from the field of medical theory can be found in his letters, but they are fragmentary and not developed. So, in a letter to Suvorin dated May 2, 1889, he wrote about "the striking similarity of mental phenomena with physical ones." In other letters, according to Pettenkofer, he explained the connection between drought and the occurrence of epidemics, wrote in passing about the importance of the nose in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, about the essence of cancer, angina pectoris, etc.

In the following excerpts from Chekhov's letters (See Bibliographic Records) one can find many medical advice given by him to addressees. Chekhov, as a practical doctor, is characterized by the fact that he did not limit himself to advice, but explained to the patient the essence of his illness and its cause, and also described the processes in his body that caused the manifestations of the disease felt by the patient. Thus, the theory accompanied the practice of Chekhov, a practical doctor.

In letters to friends, Chekhov repeatedly expressed his opinion about the two most authoritative doctors of his time - Botkin and Zakharyin.

In 1889, when Botkin fell seriously ill, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin (letter dated October 15): “What is the matter with Botkin? I didn't like the news of his illness. In Russian medicine, he is the same as Turgenev in literature, in terms of talent. Chekhov recommended Zakharyin as a doctor in such words to Suvorin, who complained of headaches: “Would you like to consult Zakharyin in Moscow? He will take a hundred rubles from you, but will bring you at least a thousand benefits. His advice is precious. If the head is not cured, then it will give so much good advice and instructions that you will live an extra 20-30 years” (letter dated November 27, 1889). Chekhov treated Zakharyin as a person ironically: "Type," he wrote in the same letter to Suvorin. In a letter dated March 29, 1890, Chekhov limited Zakharyin's competence, saying that he treats well only catarrhs, rheumatism, and diseases in general that lend themselves to objective research. “I prefer Tolstoy among writers, and Zakharyin among doctors,” he wrote to Tikhonov in 1892 (Botkin was no longer alive at that time).

Chekhov the doctor and Chekhov the writer are inseparable from one another. "Ward No. 6", "Black Monk", "Seizure" could only be written by a doctor; vivid images Chekhov's neurasthenics and the same images of doctors and paramedics of the last decades of the last century could only be created by a doctor.

Chekhov expressed his attitude to medicine, on the one hand, and to artistic creativity, on the other, in such playful phrase characteristic of him: “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When one gets bored, I spend the night at the other.

Apparently, Chekhov believed that this phrase well defined the relationship between his medical essence and the writing, judging by the fact that in his letters he cited it in various options four times during the first decade of his small medical practice (Letters dated January 23, 1887, September 11, 1888, February 11, 1893, and March 15, 1896).

Chekhov began writing and publishing very early. Back in 1880, he appeared in the "Dragonfly" of his little story, and in 1886 a collection of his stories called "Colorful Stories" was published. Among them are those that reflected Chekhov's impressions received during his student practice in the Zvenigorod district and then as a doctor.

At first, in his youth, the writer's attention was attracted mainly by the funny things in life. He published his funny stories and stories, often on medical topics, in humorous magazines under the signature

"A. Chekhonte", "An. Che”, “A Man Without a Spleen”, “Doctor without Patients”, “Ruver”, etc. Later, Chekhov's works became more and more serious, and life was touched more and more deeply in them and the social problems of the time were covered. Chekhov signed them with his full last name.

In his memoirs about Chekhov, Gorky wrote: “No one understood as clearly and subtly as Anton Chekhov, the tragedy of the little things in life; no one before him knew how so mercilessly and truthfully to paint people a shameful and dreary picture of their life in the dull chaos of the philistine everyday life. His enemy was vulgarity; he struggled with her all his life, he ridiculed her and portrayed her with a passionless sharp pen, being able to find a mold of vulgarity even where at first glance everything seemed to be arranged well, conveniently, even with brilliance ”(“ M. Gorky and A. Chekhov, 1937, pp. 46 and 146).

As a practical doctor, the writer Chekhov had a wide field of observation of life in all the diversity of human types and positions. Rotating in different strata of the population, first in Moscow, then in the Moscow and Kharkov villages, visiting the poor and the rich, the exploited and the exploiters - peasants, workers, landowners, manufacturers, he drew abundant material for artistic creativity while visiting the sick in their home environment. And Chekhov the doctor constantly saw a lot of human grief and suffering, insults and injustice and reflected them in his works.

“Has man ever come so close to the complex essence of suffering? Has anyone gone so deep into human hearts for suffering is the measure for man? If Chekhov did not have the experience of a doctor, could he do it? - Such questions with implied negative answers were asked by the French doctor of medicine Duclos in his book about Chekhov (Ducios Henri Bernard, Antone Tchehov, "Le medecin et l "ecrivain", Paris, 1927).

Duclos also noted that in Chekhov's works, "with an exceptional wealth of images," a huge proportion of doctors and patients among them is striking (Quotations from Duclos's book are given according to Gurevich's article in the book "Chekhov Collection", M., 1929, pp. 240-250).

How good doctor approaches the patient, carefully and comprehensively examining and studying him, so the “medically thinking” writer Chekhov approached the people of his “twilight”, sick era. With a remarkable gift for penetrating into the depths of life and into the depths of the human spirit, he depicted gloomy, morally decomposed and crippled people, vegetating in the "sleepy stupor" of their ugly and boring life.

“They don’t have a penny of will,” Chekhov wrote about the idle intellectuals and whiners of his time and tried to make these people, as in a mirror, see themselves in his works and recognize themselves in them.

Chekhov's works of art depict the era of the 80s and 90s of the last century with its hospitals and outpatient clinics, with its doctors, paramedics and midwives, with all the conditions in which they worked medical workers and the sick lived, got sick, recovered and died sick. With these works, Chekhov wrote a new, brilliant in form and extremely rich in content, chapter in the history of Russian medicine, and not a single historian should pass it by.

Chekhov always gravitated towards psychiatry.

The writer Ieronim Yasinsky in his memoirs (“Roman my zhizni”, 1926, p. 268) conveyed Chekhov’s words that he was “extremely interested in all sorts of deviations of the so-called soul” and that he would have become a psychiatrist if he had not become writer.

Of all branches of medicine, psychiatry received the most from Chekhov as a writer. Chekhov gave a number of images of unbalanced people, neurasthenics and the mentally ill in his works, many psychopathic states are depicted in them. The general picture of the era, which produced unbalanced people, neurasthenics and the mentally ill, was painted by Chekhov.

In his work “Chekhov as a portrayer of a sick soul”, psychiatrist M. P. Nikitin had every reason to say: “Psychiatrists should consider Chekhov their ally in exposing those ulcers, the fight against which is the vocation and task of psychiatrists.”

Chekhov created many images of doctors of his era. Most of them are negative. But does it mean that Chekhov used them to characterize the medical environment in general? Of course not. He was fond of doctors, especially zemstvo doctors, knowing that in the vast majority they were not like his doctors in Ionych, Ward No. 6, Duel, Intrigues, etc.

After reading Zola's novel Doctor Pascal, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin that Zola "understands nothing and invents everything. Let him see how our zemstvo doctors work and what they do for the people!”

Chekhov's negative images of doctors are types of city doctors, this is the product of an unhealthy and vulgar environment of bureaucracy and the petty bourgeoisie, this is the result of the influence of the elements of “private practice” that corrupted doctors, with the inevitable pursuit of doctors for fees, competition among them, squabbles and intrigues between them.

In a small, only three pages, story "Intrigues" (1887), Chekhov said a lot about this element.

A whole gallery of degraded, ignorant doctors, mired in the vulgarity of their environment, was shown in his stories by Chekhov (“Ionych”, “Ward No. 6” and many others).

Chekhov condemned the indifference of such doctors to a person and his suffering (“Gusev”, “Ward No. b”, “Intrigues”).

Along with many negative images of doctors, several positive ones are depicted by Chekhov (Astrov in "Uncle Vanya", Sobol in "Wife", Dymov in "The Jumper", Korolev in "Case and Practice", a doctor in "The Head Gardener's Tale").

In several stories, Chekhov showed paramedics of his time ("Court", "Aesculapius", "Surgery", "Woe", "Thieves", "Rothschild's Violin"). These stories reflected one of the troubles in medical affairs of Chekhov's time: not only at doctors, but also at independent medical assistant's stations, the zemstvo replaced the so-called "company" paramedics, that is, paramedics of a very low medical and general culture. Chekhov usually portrayed them in a comical way, as round ignoramuses, rude people with enormous conceit, who put on the appearance of scientists.

Chekhov was a defender of doctors who did not know how and did not want to get settled. He painted picture after picture of the difficult legal situation of doctors and their humiliating dependence on Zemstvo bosses and on local wealthy landowners and manufacturers (“Trouble”, “Mirror”, “Enemies”, “Princess”).

He described the hard work of zemstvo doctors, full of worries (“Uncle Vanya”, “Wife”), their miserable financial situation(“Nightmare”): “Sometimes there is nothing to buy tobacco,” complains the selflessly working zemstvo doctor Sobol (“Wife”).

With his stories, Chekhov urged doctors to treat patients warmly and cordially (“The Fugitive”, “A Case Study”, “The Story of a Senior Gardener”).

He also made such demands on writers who create artistic images of sick people. In a letter dated February 28, 1893, to the writer Shavrova, he said: “It is not the business of an artist to castigate people because they are sick ... If there are guilty ones, then this concerns the sanitary police, not artists. S [syphilis] is not a vice, not a product of evil will, but a disease, and the sick also need warm heartfelt care ... The author must be humane to the tips of his nails.

Except works of art Chekhov, his correspondence with friends is very interesting.

She is huge. In six volumes published by M. P. Chekhova, 1815 letters are collected, and in total up to the present time up to 2200 Chekhov's letters have been published in various editions.

Some letters are artistic value, they describe individual episodes from Chekhov's medical practice. Other letters provide important material for characterizing Chekhov as a doctor and as a writer.

There are many doctors among the addressees of Chekhov's letters: G. I. Rossolimo, P. I. Kurkin, M. A. Chlenov, sisters E. M. and N. M. Lintvareva, N. P. Korobov, N. P. Obolonsky, A I. Smagin, L. V. Sredin, P. R. Rozanov, L. B. Bertenson.

One of the letters to the sanitary doctor and famous statistician Dr. Kurkin is of literary significance, showing Chekhov's exactingness to the language of writers.

The remarkable stylist Chekhov, about whom Gorky wrote that he, together with Pushkin and Turgenev, created the Russian literary language, and Tolstoy said that he was "Pushkin in prose", wrote to Dr. Kurkin about the title of Kurkin's article "Essays on Sanitary Statistics". Chekhov did not like this name because of the three words in it, two are foreign and, in addition, “it is a little long and a little dissonant, since it contains a lot of “s” and a lot of “t”.

With this phrase, Chekhov, as it were, calls on the past, writing doctors, to protect the magnificent Russian language and not litter it with unnecessary foreign words.

In several letters, Chekhov expressed his indignation at Leo Tolstoy for his attitude towards medicine and doctors and for his absurd statements on medical issues.

In a letter to Pleshcheev dated February 15, 1890, Chekhov was indignant at the fact that during his long life Tolstoy "did not bother to read two or three medical books written by specialists." On October 18, 1892, Chekhov wrote: “Tolstoy, behold, he calls us doctors scoundrels, but I am positively convinced that it would have been tough without our brother.”

At the same time, Chekhov was very fond of the great writer of the Russian land, both as a writer and as a person. During Tolstoy's illness, he wrote to Menshikov in January 1900. “His illness frightened me and kept me in suspense. I fear the death of Tolstoy. If he were to die, then a great deal would form in my life. empty place... I do not love a single person as much as him.

And Chekhov said about Tolstoy: this is not a man, but a human being. In his youth, Chekhov was influenced by the teachings of Leo Tolstoy with his idea of ​​non-resistance to evil. Tolstoy's morality "stopped touching" Chekhov in the early 1990s. At this time, he was completely imbued with the consciousness of the need for all kinds of resistance to evil and active struggle against it.

Chekhov's new consciousness was, apparently, the result of his trip to Sakhalin and the strong impressions that he received during the three months of his stay in this "convict hell". About his changed mood, Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “After the Sakhalin labors and the tropics, my life now seems to me to such an extent petty-bourgeois and boring that I am ready to bite.”

Tolstoy held Chekhov very highly as a writer. But, according to Gorky, he once said such a curious phrase for us about Chekhov, whom he “loved affectionately and tenderly”: “Medicine interferes with him; if he were not a doctor, he would write even better ”(M. Gorky and,“ A. Chekhov ”, M., 1937, p. 168).

Once, Gorky reported, L. N. Tolstoy, assessing Russian literature in the presence of Chekhov as literature, essentially not Russian, said, affectionately addressing Chekhov: “But you are Russian, very, very Russian.”

And this Russian writer-doctor was a patriot and loved his homeland. He loved his native Russian steppes, which he vividly described in the story "Steppe", he loved the beauty of the forests of his homeland, the predatory extermination of which mourned the characters of his works ("Uncle Vanya", "Leshy"), he loved the talented Russian people. “My God, how rich Russia is good people!” he exclaimed in a letter to his sister M.P. Chekhova from the “Great Siberian Way” in 1890 (May 14-17).

And about the historical enemy of Russia - Germany - he spoke with disgust. In one of his letters we read: "The Germans have a few geniuses and millions of idiots." In another letter (from Germany), comparing German life with Russian, Chekhov wrote that in German life “one does not feel a single drop of talent in anything, not a single drop of taste.” "Our Russian life is much more talented."

Chekhov's patriotism was effective. Chekhov could not sit idly by when some trouble broke out over his homeland - he was always eager to take part in the fight against it. With his wonderful works, he called his contemporaries-intellectuals, who vegetated in a "sleepy stupor", to cheerfulness, activity and creative work. Gorky wrote about Chekhov in his memoirs about him: “I have not seen such a person who felt the significance of labor as the foundation of culture as deeply and comprehensively as Anton Pavlovich” (M. Gorky, “A. Chekhov”, M., 1937, p. 1-19).

In the same memoirs of Gorky, Chekhov’s words in his last years about Russian intellectuals are quoted: he has practice, ceases to follow science; reads nothing but News of Therapy, and at the age of forty is seriously convinced that all diseases are of catarrhal origin.

At the end of his life, Chekhov, who previously did not believe in the Russian revolution (he wrote about this to Suvorin in a letter in 1892), said: "The main thing is to turn life around." And he died with the hope of "turning over" this.

“Buzzing like a beehive, Russia. Look at what will happen in two or three years: a different, better life... I won’t see it, but I know that it will be completely different, not like the one that exists.”...

Chekhov's constant readiness to take part in the fight against social misfortune should have all the greater moral value in our eyes because it was shown by a person who was constantly ill, who throughout his entire working life was tormented by tuberculosis cough, and hemorrhoids, and intestinal upset.

Chekhov fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis in 1884 (the first hemoptysis he noticed).

Chekhov did not like talking about his illness and did not want those around him to notice the blood on his handkerchief that appeared when he was expectorating. But still, in letters from time to time, he reported on the state of his health and on exacerbations of the disease.

And it is surprising that the doctor Chekhov for a long time, for many years, did not recognize he had consumption, which proceeded in his chronic form, destroying his body slowly but surely.

About hemoptysis, which he had in December 1884, he wrote that it was "apparently, not tuberculosis." In April 1886 he reported: "I am ill, hemoptysis and weak." In April 1887: “I have several pains, very restless and literally poisoning my existence: 1) hemorrhoids, 2) catharsis of the intestines, not conquered by anything, 3) bronchitis with cough and, finally, 4) inflammation of the vein in the left leg” . About hemorrhoids, he wrote: “the disease is stupid, vile ... pain, itching, tension, neither sitting nor walking, and there is such irritation in the whole body that even crawl into a noose ...” In a letter dated October 14, 1888, he wrote in detail about hemoptysis: “I noticed it for the first time 3 years ago in the district court (where Chekhov was as a reporter. - V. X.), it lasted 3-4 days ... it was plentiful. Blood flowed from the right lung. After that, I noticed blood in me twice a year, now flowing profusely, that is, thickly coloring each spit, now not abundantly; every winter, autumn and spring and every wet day I cough. But all this frightens me only when I see blood: there is something sinister in the blood flowing from the mouth, like in a glow. When there is no blood, I do not worry and do not threaten literature with "another loss." The fact is that consumption or other serious pulmonary suffering is recognizable only by the totality of signs, and I don’t have this totality. By itself, bleeding from the lungs is not serious; blood pours sometimes from the lungs all day ... and ends with the patient not ending - and this is most often ... If the bleeding that I had in the district court were a symptom of the onset of consumption; then I would have been in the next world long ago - that's my logic.

The logic is bad, any modern doctor will say, of course.

On the way to Sakhalin, Chekhov wrote to his sister in April 1900: “From stress, from frequent fuss with suitcases, etc., and perhaps from farewell drinking parties in Moscow, I had hemoptysis in the morning, which made me something like despondency, aroused dark thoughts.

For Chekhov, it is characteristic that for many years he did not recognize consumption in himself and did not understand what was the matter. So, in December 1890, he wrote: . "I'm coughing, heart palpitations, I don't understand what's wrong." He also mentions interruptions in another letter dated December 24, 1890: “My head hurts, laziness all over my body, fatigue, indifference, and most importantly, heart failure. Every minute the heart stops for a few seconds and does not beat.” That same December, Chekhov wrote: "Cough, hot in the evenings, headache." And for some reason, Chekhov did not want to be treated, apparently, did not allow himself to be examined by doctors during these years, which he wrote to Suvorin in a letter dated November 18, 1891: that my health will not return to its former state ... "Treatment and concern for my physical existence inspire me with something close to disgust. I will not be treated. I will take water and quinine, but I will not allow myself to be heard.”

According to Dr. Rossolimo, the tuberculous process in Chekhov's lungs worsened after his trip to Sakhalin Island (Personal memories of Chekhov, Russian Doctor, No. 51, 1904, pp. 1732-1733).

In a letter to Suvorin dated August 18, 1893, Chekhov reported: “In the spring I was in such a mood that I didn’t care. Indifference and a weak-willed state kept me sometimes for whole months.

In October 1893, Chekhov wrote: “Cough, catarrh of the intestines, interruptions of the heart, migraines,” and in a letter dated November 11, 1893: “The cough against the former has become stronger, but I think that consumption is still far away.”

Chekhov's biographer, his brother Mikhail, reported that in 1893 Chekhov suffered greatly from a cough, that he was troubled by heart failures, and that at night "he had terrible dreams, after which he woke up in horror." In February 1894, Chekhov wrote: “Cough overcomes, especially at dawn; Nothing serious yet." In April 1894: “Cough, heart failure, hemorrhoids. Somehow, I had heart failures for 6 days continuously and the feeling was disgusting all the time. In September 1896, he notes in a letter: "Hemoptysis has begun." In March 1897, the throat bled profusely, a catastrophe was close, Dr. Obolensky transferred him to the clinic of prof. Ostroumova. "The doctors identified the apical process and suggested a change in lifestyle." Finally, Chekhov had to admit the seriousness of his situation and consumption. According to brother Mikhail (Letters of L.P. Chekhov, vol. V, p. VIII, "Biographical Sketches"), he expressed surprise: "How could I miss my dullness!" And he wrote to Dr. Sredin: “Every March I spat a little blood, in the same year the hemoptysis dragged on and I had to go to the clinic.

Here the Aesculapius brought me out of blissful ignorance, found wheezing in both tops, exhalation and dullness in one right. I was in the clinic for 15 days, the blood flowed for about 10 days.”

Regarding the next year, 1898, there is a message from the end of November, when Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “I had hemoptysis for five days. But this is between us, do not tell anyone ... I try to spit blood secretly from my own.

Tuberculosis continued to do its job. In March 1900, Chekhov wrote: “Doctor Shchurovsky found a great deterioration in me - first of all, there was a dullness of the tops of the lungs, now it is below the collarbone in front, and behind it captures half of the shoulder blade.”

In Chekhov's letter to his wife dated April 22, 1901, we read: "My cough takes away all my energy, I sluggishly think about the future and write without any desire."

In a letter dated May 1901, Chekhov reported on the results of a new examination carried out by Dr. Shchurovsky: he “found dullness on the left and right in me. On the right is a large piece under the shoulder blade, and ordered to immediately go to koumiss. After koumiss treatment in the sanatorium Aksenov, Ufa province, Chekhov wrote on September 10, 1901 to Dr. Chlepov: “I keep coughing. As soon as I arrived in Yalta, I began to thrash about with and without sputum. And in a letter dated December of the same 1901 to Kondakov, we read that Kondakov’s letter was received just at the time when Chekhov was “lying on his back on the occasion of hemoptysis,” and further: “As I arrived in Yalta, so it went to write - now a cough, now an intestinal disorder, and this is almost every day. Two months later, in a letter dated February 6

1902 we have the same message: “All winter I coughed and occasionally spat blood,” and in a letter dated September 1 of the same year, Chekhov wrote: “Arriving in Yalta, I fell ill, began to cough violently, did not eat anything, and that way - about a month." In a letter to Suvorin dated January 14, 1903: “I am unwell, I have pleurisy, a temperature of 38 °, and these are almost all holidays.”

At the beginning of June 1903, Chekhov wrote that he had been to prof. Ostroumova. “He found emphysema in me, a bad right lung, remnants of pleurisy, etc., etc., scolded me: You, he says, are a cripple.” In September 1903: “I fell ill, began to cough, became weak.” In October the same year: “I have a cough, it has eased a little.” “Diarrhea for more than a month.”

Patiently enduring the disease, Chekhov knew that he would die prematurely. Gorky’s memoirs record the Yalta period of Chekhov’s life: “Once, lying on the sofa, coughing dryly, playing with a thermometer, he said: “To live in order to die is generally not funny, but to live, knowing that you will die prematurely, is already quite stupid."

Dr. Altshuler, who treated Chekhov in Yalta, reported about the same time: “The good mood [of Chekhov] returned less and less often and more and more often found him sitting alone in an armchair and in a reclining position with his eyes closed without the usual book in his hands.”

In the letters sent by Chekhov in the year of his death, there were such reports about his state of health. Sobolevsky on April 20, he wrote: "I have an intestinal disorder and a cough, and this has been going on for several weeks." In May 1904, Chekhov wrote: "He has been ill since the second of May, has not dressed even once since then." “I don’t get out of bed, I have catarrh of the intestines, pleurisy, and a high temperature.”

To Sister M.P. Chekhova from Berlin in June: “My legs began to ache. I did not sleep at night, I lost a lot of weight, injected morphine, took thousands of drugs ... "I went abroad very thin, with very thin skinny legs."

Iordapov on June 12: “Emphysema does not allow me to move well. But thanks to the Germans, they taught me how to eat and what to eat. After all, every day since I was 20 years old, I have an intestinal disorder.

Rossolimo on June 28: “I had a fever all the days” ... “Shortness of breath is severe, just scream at the guard, even for minutes I lose heart. Lost only 15l. weight."

To Sister M.P. Chekhova dated June 28: “My stomach is hopelessly ruined; it is hardly possible to fix it with anything other than fasting, that is, there is nothing and that's it. Last year Chekhov's life was overshadowed by the news of the unfortunate war with Japan for Russia: Chekhov followed them closely. They were invariably unsettling and extremely disturbing to him.

Despite its extremely serious condition, Chekhov sought to take part in the war. It is impossible to read without emotion his two little letters, each in several lines, of almost the same content, sent to the writers Amfiteatrov and Lazarevsky; both letters are dated April 13, 1904. They sound tragic to us. In them, Chekhov, three months before his death, announced that he, if his health allowed, would go in July or August to Far East and as a military doctor.

Regarding these letters, in which Anton Pavlovich expressed intentions that were clearly unrealizable due to the state of his health, Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova informed us of such important biographical information about Anton Pavlovich.

One of the properties of Anton Pavlovich was that he was always going to go somewhere. And before his death in Badenweiler, suffocating from emphysema, he sat in an armchair, surrounded by guidebooks and reference books. He intended to go to Russia soon, but not by the easiest way for him, who was seriously ill, but by all means through Italy. Did he have any idea imminent death? Yes, there was, but, apparently, such a thought did not constantly possess him, and until his last hours he behaved like a man confident "in tomorrow". On the one hand, three days before his death, he spoke of the need to transfer to Olga Leonardovna the money he had placed in a local bank, that is, as if foreseeing his near end, and on the other hand, he persistently asked Olga Leonardovna to go to the nearest city ​​and buy him a white summer suit there, that is, he hoped to still pasture. All the time Russo-Japanese War he was very tormented by the thought of what was happening then in the war. And they made him want to go to the front as a military doctor, which he wrote about in the spring of the year he died.

A.P. Chekhov died in the German resort of Badenweiler. About his last days, the correspondent of Russkiye Vedomosti, Iolos, wrote from the words of Dr. Schwerer, who treated Chekhov: “On Tuesday, the state of the heart did not yet inspire great concern. Only on the night from Thursday to Friday, when the pulse did not improve after the first camphor syringe, did it become obvious that the catastrophe was approaching. Waking up at one o'clock in the morning, Anton Pavlovich began to rave, talked about some sailor, asked about the Japanese, but then he came to his senses and with a sad smile said to his wife, who put a bag of ice on his chest: “You don’t put ice on an empty heart ".

On July 15, 1904, Chekhov met his death calmly and courageously. His last minutes were described by O. L. Knipper-Chekhova in such mournful lines:

“At the beginning of the night, Anton Pavlovich woke up and for the first time in his life he himself asked to send for a doctor ... The doctor came, ordered to give champagne. Anton Pavlovich sat down and in a rather loud voice said to the doctor in German: "Ich sterbe." Then he took a glass, turned his face towards me, smiled his amazing smile, said: “I haven’t drunk champagne for a long time,” calmly drank it all to the bottom, quietly lay down on my left side and soon fell silent forever ”(O. Knipper-Chekhova, A few words about A. P. Chekhov, in the book “Letters from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov to O. L. Knipper-Chekhova”, published by Slovo, Berlin, 1924).

Punctuation marks in a complex sentence

For a job well done, you can get 1 point.

Theory for task 19 in Russian:

The algorithm for completing task 19 of the USE in the Russian language:

1. Define grammatical foundations.
2. Define the boundaries of the subordinate clause.
3. Put punctuation marks.
4. Write the correct numbers on the answer sheet.

Research work in literature on the topic:

"The image of a doctor in the works of A.P. Chekhov"

Completed by: Kudryashova K.K. Checked by: Shakirova G.M.

Study plan

Purpose of the study: determination of the role of the medical profession in the life and work of A.P. Chekhov.

Research objectives:

1. Why A.P. Chekhov chose this profession.

2. As A.P. Chekhov belonged to the medical profession.

3. Medicine and literature in the life of Chekhov.

Hypothesis: the depicted images of doctors in Chekhov's works are of a positive nature.

Object of study - the profession of a doctor in the life and work of A.P. Chekhov.

Subject of study - Chekhov's stories.

For the sequential implementation of the study, I outlined the following stages:

I. The study of theoretical material, special and fiction;

II. Survey of representatives of the medical profession in order to clarify the correctness of their choice;

III. 1. Questioning of representatives of medical practice (Appendix 1)

2. General survey of schoolchildren in grades 5-11 (Appendix 2)

Introduction

A word about a writer.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was not only a Russian writer, a universally recognized classic of world literature, but also an honorary academician Imperial Academy Sciences in the category of fine literature (1900-1902), one of the most famous playwrights in the world, as well as a doctor.

Over 25 years of creativity, Chekhov created about 900 different works (short humorous stories, serious stories, plays), many of which have become classics of world literature. Natural science thinking and literary talent organically combined in the writer, which allowed him to better understand human psychology and correctly depict the spiritual world of his characters.

"I didn't have a childhood as a child." Childhood and youth of the writer.

Father is a merchant in a shop, but a great lover of music, drawing, regent of the church choir. When, after the death of his father, the family leaves for Moscow, Anton is left alone in Taganrog. About these years, A.P. Chekhov wrote to Suvorin: “Write a story about how a young man, the son of a serf, a former shopkeeper, a singer, a schoolboy and a student, brought up on servility, kissing priestly hands, worshiping other people's thoughts, thanking for every a piece of bread, cut many times, went to school without galoshes, fought, tortured animals, loved to dine with rich relatives, hypocrites to God and people without any need - only from the consciousness of his insignificance, write down how this young man squeezes out drop by drop of himself as a slave, and how, waking up one fine morning, he feels that it is no longer slave blood, but real human blood that flows in his veins.

Medicine in the life of A.P. Chekhov
Chekhov the student

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov entered the medical faculty of Moscow University in 1879. Chekhov's student years were full of studies, work in clinics under the guidance of prominent scientists. Chekhov received excellent marks from Bogdanov, Snegirev and Sklifosovsky. Conceived by the future doctor in his student years scientific work The History of Sexual Authority bears traces of a passion for Darwin, whose propagandist was Professor Timiryazev. Posing out to a brother detailed plan supposed research work, Chekhov wrote that he wanted to use Darwin's techniques, which he "terribly likes." The future doctor expressed solidarity with Timiryazev in the feuilleton "Jugglers", directed against the profanation of science, against slovenliness in the methods of scientific research. systematization skills, the ability to find a guiding goal.

Thus, the writer's stay at the medical faculty of Moscow University is not just a biographical detail, but a very significant stage in the development of Chekhov's worldview and moral character - a doctor, a writer, and finally, a person who, probably, fully corresponds to the words of Pierre Kruy, a French scientist - bacteriologist of the 20th century: “Medicine is love, otherwise it is worthless.”

In 1884 A.P. Chekhov graduated from the medical faculty of Moscow University, deciding to devote himself to the art of medicine.

Medical activity of A.P. Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich began his practical medical activity in the Chikinskaya zemstvo hospital he knew; for some time he was in charge of the Zvenigorod hospital, replacing the doctor of this hospital, S.P. Uspensky, who went on vacation. From Zvenigorod, he wrote to N. A. Leikin that by the will of fate he was correcting the position of a zemstvo doctor. Half a day is busy with receiving patients (30-40 people a day), the rest of the time he rests. However, Chekhov did not have much rest, since he not only received patients in the zemstvo hospital, but also served as a county doctor, traveled with a forensic investigator to autopsies, carried out orders from the local administration, and acted as an expert in court.

During the period of his medical activity in Voskresensk and Zvenigorod, and then in Babkin, Anton Pavlovich closely observed the life of the local population - peasants, district intelligentsia, landowners. In the midst of this life, the writer drew plots for the stories "The Fugitive", "Surgery", "Dead Body", "Siren", "Daughter of Albion", "Burbot", "Witch" and others.

The Babkin period is a happy time in the writer's life. Three years in a row (1885-1887) he lived here with his family during the summer months. Patients with a variety of diseases applied to Chekhov, which was generally characteristic of the work of a zemstvo doctor. So Chekhov spent three years in Babkino.

Summer 1888 and 1889 he spends in the estate of the Lintvarevs near the city of Sumy, Kharkov province. Chekhov goes there to rest, but he is determined to practice medicine as well. In Luki at the Lintvarevs, as in Babkino, Chekhov devoted several hours a day to medical work.

In 1890 Chekhov went to Sakhalin Island. On this trip and in his work on the island, the best features of Chekhov as a writer, doctor, and citizen showed up. Having settled in 1892 in his estate in Melikhovo, Chekhov established a regular reception of patients.

He was a doctor who received up to 1,000 patients during 1892, he was both the organizer of the fight against the epidemic and an active participant in the county sanitary council, and, according to Kurkin, he did not miss a single meeting of it. Chekhov's close acquaintance with zemstvo doctors made it possible for Chekhov the writer to reflect their life in a number of remarkable works - in the stories "Enemies", "Trouble", "Princess", in the play "Uncle Vanya", etc.

In his own works ("Name Day", "Seizure" and others), he strove to combine the truth of life and scientific data. “I have no doubt,” Dr. Chekhov wrote in his autobiography, “that the medical sciences ... greatly expanded the field of observation, enriched me with knowledge.” literary works, like "The Fugitive", "Dead Body", "Rural Aesculapius", "Surgery", "Trouble", "On Business" and others.

Having moved to Yalta due to illness (the writer was already seriously ill with tuberculosis), Anton Pavlovich left medical practice, but continued to be actively interested in the achievements of medicine, read special magazines. Medicine has now firmly entered the artistic work of Dr. Chekhov, giving objectivity and accuracy to the prose of the remarkable novelist, scientifically reliable depiction of various shades of the characters' state of mind: good or depressed mood, feelings of anxiety and fear, joy and pleasure...

Thus, both in life and in his work, Chekhov always remained a doctor.

I decided to choose the topic of this research work, as a doctor is one of the oldest and noblest professions on Earth.

Medical worker in the work of A.P. Chekhov

Analysis individual stories presented in the table.

Work

Hero

Profession

His attitude to work; patients

Attitude towards him

"A Case Study"

Korolev

Resident

Seeing an ugly girl sobbing, the doctor is imbued with sympathy for this sufferer, whom her mother, sparing no means, treats all her life; wealth did not give these people happiness, joy and health. Moreover, they are separated and lonely.

Lisa saw many doctors, but it was him that she trusted.

"Jumper"

Dymov

Serves in two hospitals: as a resident in one, as a dissector in another

A simple doctor, above the world of vulgarity. One can respect a person for his ascetic labor and high moral strength.

"Served Science and Died of Science"

“What a loss for science ... If we compare all of us with him, he was a great, extraordinary person! What gifts! what hopes he gave us all! .. He was such a scientist, which you cannot find with fire now.

"Ionych"

Startsev Dmitry Ionych

Zemsky doctor

He is a good doctor, otherwise he wouldn't be so popular. "I hastily received the sick at my place in Dyalizh, then left for the city patients."

"He has a huge practice in the city, there is no time to breathe."

"... But still he does not give up the zemstvo place; greed has overcome."

He remains a professional, but the doctor must combine professionalism and humanism.

At first, the degradation of Startsev causes pity and sympathy, then disgust. It is very difficult to answer unambiguously why Ionych has degraded. Of course, he himself is to blame for something, Ekaterina Ivanovna is to blame for something, but the most a large share blame falls on the surrounding Startsev society.

"Wider step, maestro!"

Solodovnikov

rural hospital doctor

Talk about a tractor driver who has an ulcer. Solodovnikov, forgetting that he himself sent him to the area, decided to operate. The girl with the meniscus. Again postponed the operation, "easily agreed."

BUT: in dreams he is at the top of his glory. "... Work, work, work. Exhausting. Joyful. Courageous. Selfless. Love of the population. Respect." "You have to live big." Conclusion: Solodovnikov is not shown as a doctor

Solodovnikov is changing so quickly that he will soon work not for himself, but for other people. Accordingly, their attitude towards him is positive.

"Ward №6"

Ragin

Zemsky doctor

The manners are soft, insinuating. He is an intelligent and honest person, but he does not have the will and faith in his right to change life for the better. At first he worked very hard, but soon got bored and realized that in such conditions it was pointless to treat patients. “And why bother people dying, if death is the normal and legal end of everyone?” From these arguments, Ragin abandoned his affairs and began to go to the hospital not every day.

The doctor is treated like a madman because of his communication with the inhabitant of the ward number 6 Gromov. In the end, by cunning, he is placed in this ward, and he dies of hopelessness. Only Mikhail Averyanych and Daryushka, his former servant, were at the funeral.

"Gooseberry"

Ivan Ivanych Chimsha-Himalayan

Veterinarian

Nothing is said about his medical practice.

“... not only Burkin and Alekhin listened to him, but also old and young ladies and the military, calmly and sternly looking out of golden frames ...”

"Surgery"

Kuryatin

Paramedic

In the story, Chekhov ridicules the “unfortunate doctor”, who covers up his inability, ignorance with arrogance, idle talk “.. Trifles.. . - the paramedic is modest, approaching the closet and rummaging through the tools. - Surgery is rubbish. Here everything is habit, the firmness of the hand ... Just spit ... " But in fact, the paramedic, having caused terrible torment to the deacon, could not pull out the tooth.

At first, the deacon is imbued with the speeches of the paramedic, looks at him with reverence. But after the paramedic tries to pull out his tooth, the deacon's respect is replaced by contempt and hatred.

"Darling"

Smirnin

Regimental veterinarian

The image of Smirnin is written out not so brightly.

"... veterinary business in the city is put out of hand very badly ..." (conversation between Olenka and Smirnin).

First, Olenka (Darling) pities him, then loves, becoming the "echo" and "shadow" of her lover, then the end of the situation comes.

"Mirror"

Stepan Lukich

County doctor

Nellie's pleas for help to her dying husband go unheeded. Nelly takes the doctor by force to her husband.

Nelly scolds the doctor, calls him an egoist, says that she will sue him.

Thus, the doctors in the stories of A.P. Chekhov - these are workers, faithful to the Hippocratic oath, selflessly fighting human ailments, suffering, and people who treat the profession of a doctor negligently.

What kind of a doctor is in our time, what is valued in medical practice, we learned by conducting a survey among medical workers in the Atnyashskaya SVA. The survey was conducted on questions (see Annex 1).

A survey conducted among students in grades 5-11 gave the following result (see Appendix 2).

Conclusion: the alleged hypothesis was not confirmed - not all doctors in Chekhov's stories that I reviewed are goodies. I am very pleased that now medical workers take their work seriously, with love (based on a survey of medical workers in the Atnyashskaya SVA) and at least this number of children (25%) want to be doctors (based on a survey of students).

Chekhov wrote: "Employment in medical sciences had a serious impact on my literary activity." He did not repent of his choice of profession, but during his studies at the university he published more than two hundred different materials. But by creating funny stories conceived monumental works, such as "History of Sexual Authority" (on the interaction of the sexes at all stages of development) and "Medicine in Russia", Chekhov chooses the profession of a doctor and ... a writer. He remained in Russian culture - a doctor-writer and a writer-doctor. Without hesitation, he hurried to a child with diphtheria, "caught cholera by the tail", received peasants, often without taking anything. And he wrote his stories, which brought fame to a real writer. And this is all despite serious illness. Chekhov is devoted to medicine, so the doctor "looks out" from many of his stories.

Bibliography:

Geyser I. M. Chekhov and medicine / I. M. Geyser. – M.: Medgiz, 1954. – 140 p.

Chekhov, A. P. Ionych // Stories / A.P. Chekhov. - M .: Art. lit., 1963

Chekhov, A. P. Chamber No. 6 // Collection. op. in 12 volumes / A.P. Chekhov. - M .: State publishing house of fiction, 1956. - T. 7.

Chekhov A. P. Full coll. op. and letters: In 30 volumes. Works: In 18 volumes. M., 1974-1982.

2) What is your profession for you?

(unanimous answer - "everything - a source of life and pleasure")

3) Have you ever regretted your chosen profession?

(unanimous answer - "no")

4) How many years have you devoted to your profession?

(average age 28)

5) What qualities do you think a doctor should have?

(most of the respondents answered “kindness, compassion, purposefulness, desire to help people”)

6) How are your friends close to what you have chosen

the profession of a medical worker?

(8 out of 8 - “positive, proud, respected”)

7) Do you think the doctor's attitude towards patients has changed over time? If yes, how did it manifest itself?

(8 out of 8 - "no")

8) In your opinion, has the attitude of patients towards doctors changed over time? If yes, how did it manifest itself?

(5 out of 8 believe that the attitude has changed, i.e. they have become more understanding)

9) If you were offered to change your profession to another, would you agree?

(8 out of 8 - "no").

Appendix 2

The eighteenth task of the Unified State Examination in the Russian language, aimed at testing the ability of graduates to punctuate in a complex sentence, can bring one primary score if it is done correctly. Let's revisit the theory of compound sentence punctuation.

Theory for assignment No. 18 USE in the Russian language

Complex sentence is divided into main and subordinate parts; the latter joins with the help of unions and allied words and can be before, after and inside the first.

In the subordinate parts of a complex sentence, unions and allied words are used:

as if, where, for nothing, if (if ... then), for, why, as if, as soon as, how, what, when, which, who, where, only, only, rather than, from where, why, while , because, why, as if, since, so, just, exactly, though, whose, than, what, to, etc.

A complex sentence is divided into main and subordinate parts; the latter joins with the help of unions and can be before, after and inside the first. The subordinate part is separated by a comma in the following cases:

A comma is not placed between the main part and the subordinate clause

1. If a subordinating union or allied word is preceded by a coordinating union and (or a particle): He did not return the book to me and when he read it.
2. If there is a particle before the subordinating union or allied word Not : It is necessary to prepare for exams not when the session starts, but long before that (not ... a).
3. If the subordinate clause is truncated to one allied word (a single allied word loses the function of a subordinate clause): The students were scheduled for an exam, but did not specify when.
4. If the subordinate part, thanks to unions and, or, is included in the series homogeneous members: During the work and when the film came out, I didn't really understand it..

In complex sentences, complex conjunctions can be used: due to the fact that, because, instead of, due to the fact that, due to the fact that, in case, while, due to the fact that, on the basis of the fact that, meanwhile, in spite of the fact that, because, before, just as, as, because, before, for the sake of, before, in order to, since, with the aim of especially since etc.

Unions can be included entirely in the subordinate clause, and then a comma is placed before the first part of the union: It [the day] seemed huge, endless and active, despite the fact that we did not even speak to each other on the way.

But unions can be divided - depending on the meaning of the sentence, the logical allocation (strengthening) of the first part of the union. In this case, a comma is placed before the second part of the union, and the first is included in the main part as a correlative word: Because we got up very early and then did nothing, this day seemed very long.

Complex unions are not dismembered while, as if, as if, while: It was very similar, as if a car was moving in the distance.

Complex unions:

Important to remember: If two subordinating unions are nearby, then a comma is placed between them in all cases, except for those when these are complex unions with then. There is no comma after the allied word "which".

Task execution algorithm

1. Read the assignment carefully.
2. We arrange punctuation marks in accordance with the rules of punctuation of the Russian language.
3. We carry out parsing to understand how many parts are in complex sentence and define their boundaries.
4. Write down the correct answer.

Analysis of typical options for task No. 18 USE in the Russian language

The eighteenth task of the 2018 demo

Place punctuation marks: indicate the number (s) in the place of which (s) in the sentence should (s) be a comma (s).

Chekhov's notes for the study "Medicine in Russia" (1) work on which (2) began in 1884 (3) were published only after the death of the writer.

Task execution algorithm:

1. Chekhov's notes for the study "Medicine in Russia", work on which began in 1884, were published only after the death of the writer.
2. The sentence is complex, with a subordinating relationship, consists of 2 parts: 1) Chekhov's notes for the study "Medicine in Russia" were published only after the death of the writer- the main part of a complex sentence; 2) work on which began in 1884- the attributive clause, is connected with the first part with the help of the allied word WHICH, since it is inside the first part, then on both sides we select it with commas.

Answer: 1, 3.

The first version of the assignment

The share of ordinary phones among other mobile devices (1) through which (2) access the Internet (3) is still quite significant and now stands at 39%, but it is already clear (4) that a turning point has occurred: the popularity of smartphones and tablets has overtaken ordinary phones.

Task execution algorithm:

1. It is necessary to put punctuation marks and indicate those numbers in the place of which commas should stand.
2. The share of ordinary phones among other mobile devices through which they access the Internet is still quite significant and now stands at 39%, but it is already clear that a turning point has occurred: the popularity of smartphones and tablets has overtaken ordinary phones.
3. The share of conventional phones among other mobile devices is still quite significant and now stands at 39%- the offer is complicated homogeneous predicates; 2) through which they access the Internet- subordinate attributive, attached to 1 part with the help of a union word which, select the subordinate clause on both sides with commas; 3) but already visible- part of a compound sentence associated with part 1 with the help of the union BUT; 4) that there was a turning point- an explanatory clause connected with the 3rd part with the help of the union WHAT, we put a comma before the union WHAT; 5) The popularity of smartphones and tablets has overtaken regular phones- part of a complex non-union sentence associated with the 4th part with a colon.

Answer: 1, 3, 4.

The second version of the assignment

Place punctuation marks: indicate all the numbers in the place of which commas should be in the sentence.

When he expressed a useless thought aloud (1), his comrade suddenly became nervous again and began to say annoyedly (2) that he did not understand careless Russian people(3) who (4) not only does not put his life in anything, but he does not care about others either.

Task execution algorithm:

1. It is necessary to put punctuation marks and indicate those numbers in the place of which commas should stand.
2. When he expressed a useless thought aloud, his comrade suddenly became nervous again and began to say irritably that he did not understand the careless Russian people, who not only did not value their own lives, but also did not care about others.
3. The proposal is complex various types communication, consists of 5 parts: 1) When he spoke a useless thought aloud - adverbial tense related to the 2nd part, separate the subordinate part with a comma ; 2) his comrade suddenly became nervous again and began to speak irritably- the main part of a complex sentence, complicated by homogeneous predicates; 3) what he does not understand the careless Russian people- an explanatory clause, joins 2 parts with the help of the union WHAT, we put a comma before the union; 4) who not only does not put his life in anything- the attributive clause, is connected with the 3rd part with the help of the allied word WHICH, we put a comma before the allied word; 5) but he doesn't care about others- part of a compound sentence associated with the 4th part with the help of the union BUT.

Answer: 1, 2, 3.

The third version of the task

Place punctuation marks: indicate all the numbers in the place of which commas should be in the sentence.

Task execution algorithm:

1. It is necessary to put punctuation marks and indicate those numbers in the place of which commas should stand.
2. We think that the study of social networks, which has become so popular all over the world, will develop into a separate branch of psychology in the near future.
3. The sentence is complex, with a subordinating connection, consists of 3 parts: 1) we are thinking - main part of a complex sentence ; 2) that the study of social networks will develop into a separate branch of psychology in the near future- subordinate explanatory, joins 1 part with the help of the union WHAT, before which we put a comma; 3) which have become popular all over the world- subordinate definitive, joins 2 parts with the help of the allied word WHICH, before which we put a comma.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

<ДНЕВНИКОВЫЕ ЗАПИСИ>

1890. FROM THE SAKHALIN DIARY:

18 September Korsakov Post. Interrogated in the police department of American whalers who were wrecked. Five Americans and one black. They said that the captain of the ship sent them on a boat in pursuit of a whale; they harpooned the whale and went after it in tow, the boat gave a leak from a strong move; I had to cut the tugboat and let the whale in. Darkness came, the ship was not visible. In the morning it was foggy... Then they stormed at sea for four days, having only 10 pounds of bread with them. Threw them out on the southeastern coast of Sakhalin near Cape Tonin.

My neighbor V. N. Semenkovich told me that his uncle Fet-Shenshin, a well-known lyric poet, would roll down the window in his carriage and spit on the university as he drove along Mokhovaya. Harknet and spit: pah! The coachman was so accustomed to this that every time he passed the university he stopped.

In January I was in St. Petersburg and stayed with Suvorin. Often visited Potapenko. I saw Korolenko. Often visited the Maly Theatre. One day Alexander and I were going down the stairs; B. V. Gay left the editorial office at the same time and said to me indignantly: “Why are you arming the old man (i.e., Suvorin) against Burenin?” Meanwhile, I never spoke ill of the employees of Novoye Vremya under Suvorin, although I deeply disrespect most of them.

In February, passing through Moscow, I visited Leo Tolstoy. He was irritated, spoke sharply about the decadents, and argued for an hour and a half with B. Chicherin, who all the time, it seemed to me, was talking nonsense. Tatyana and Maria Lvovna were playing solitaire; both, thinking about something, asked me to take down the cards, and I showed each separately the ace of spades, and this saddened them; there were two aces of spades in the deck by chance. Both of them are extremely sympathetic, and their relationship to their father is touching. The Countess denied Ge the artist all evening. She, too, was annoyed.

May 5 Deacon Ivan Nikolaevich brought my portrait, painted by him from a card. In the evening, V. N. Semenkovich brought his friend Matvey Nikanorovich Glubokovsky to me. This is the head of the foreign department of Moskovskie Vedomosti, the editor of the Delo magazine and a doctor at the Moscow<овских>imp<ераторских>theaters. The impression is extremely stupid person and bastard. He said that "there is nothing more harmful in the world than a vile liberal newspaper," and said that the peasants whom he treats, having received advice and medicine from him for nothing, ask him for tea. He and Semyonkovich spoke of the peasants with bitterness and disgust.

June 1st was Vagankovsky cemetery and saw the graves of those killed on Khodynka there. I. Ya. Pavlovsky, the Paris correspondent of Novoye Vremya, went with me to Melikhovo.

August 4th. Consecration of the school in Talezh. The Talezh, Bershov, Dubechen and Shchelkovo peasants brought me four loaves, an image, two silver<яные>salt shakers. The Shelkovsky peasant Postnov was making a speech.

From 15 to 18 August M. O. Menshikov visited me. He is forbidden to publish, and now speaks contemptuously of Gaydeburov (son), who told the new head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs that because of Menshikov alone he would not sacrifice The Week and that "we have always warned the desires of censorship." M<еньшиков>in dry weather, he walks in galoshes, carries an umbrella so as not to die from sunstroke afraid to wash cold water, complains of heart failure. From me he went to Leo Tolstoy.

I left Taganrog on the 24th of August. In Rostov I dined with my high school friend Lev Volkenshtein, a lawyer who already own house and a dacha in Kislovodsk. I was in Nakhichevan - what a change! All streets are covered with electricity. In Kislovodsk at the funeral of Gen. Safonov's meeting with A. I. Chuprov, then a meeting in the park with A. N. Veselovsky, on the 28th a hunting trip with Baron Steingel, an overnight stay at Bermamut; cold and strong wind. September 2nd in Novorossiysk. Steamboat "Alexander II". On the 3rd he arrived in Feodosia and stopped at Suvorin's. I saw I. K. Aivazovsky, who told me: “You don’t want to know me, old man,” in his opinion, I should have come to visit him. On the 16th in Kharkov I was at the theater at Woe from Wit. 17th house: wonderful weather.

Vlad. S. Solovyov told me that he always carries an ink nut in his trouser pocket - this, in his opinion, radically cures hemorrhoids.

29 was at the Zemstvo meeting in Serpukhov.

November 26 in the evening there was a fire in our house. S. I. Shakhovskoy participated in the extinguishing. After the fire, the prince said that once, when he caught fire at night, he lifted a vat of water, weighing 12 pounds, and poured water on the fire.

Dec 21 Levitan has an enlarged aorta. He wears clay on his chest. Excellent sketches and a passionate thirst for life.

From January 10 to February 3 - the census. I am the counter of the 16th section and instruct the other (15) counters of our Bavykinskaya volost. Everyone works excellently, except for the priest of the Starospassky parish and the zemstvo chief Galyashkin (head of the census section), who lives almost all the time in Serpukhov, dine there in the assembly and telegraphs me that he is ill. They say about other zemstvo chiefs of our district that they also do nothing.

Writers such as N. S. Leskov and S. V. Maksimov cannot be successful with our criticism, since almost all of our critics are Jews who do not know, are alien to Russian indigenous life, its spirit, its forms, its humor, completely incomprehensible to them, and seeing in a Russian person nothing more, nothing less than a boring foreigner. With the Petersburg public, mostly led by these critics, Ostrovsky never succeeded; and Gogol no longer makes her laugh.