The Lepers. The History of the Leprosarium

Georgy Ivanovich Shilin 1896–1938 — a Soviet prose writer, participant of World War I. His first book was positively reviewed by Maxim Gorky, and the peak of his creativity occurred in the 1920s and 1930s, after which the author was forgotten for a long time. The most famous novel by Georgy Shilin is The Lepers. His personal history compelled the writer to delve into the study of the fight against leprosy, this terrible and mythologized disease: when he returned to his hometown for a while, Shilin wanted to visit an old friend, but learned that he was ill and placed in a leprosarium. Thus, the writer found himself in a sick yard for the first time and spent several days among the lepers. Subsequently, Shilin visited leprosariums in different cities of the USSR on multiple occasions and, for his novel, studied available medical literature, consulted with prominent specialists, and even participated in the work of the congress of leprologists. In addition to a serious scientific basis, the novel stands out with vivid, lively characters: patients whose social lives have been cut short, though physically they continue to exist, often already without hope of ever leaving the leprosarium; doctors, selflessly devoted to science and their work, refusing to back down in the face of one of the oldest known human diseases.