Morphine

Mikhail Bulgakov — the main Russian mystic of the 20th century. A medic by education and a subtle satirist by calling, he himself witnessed and masterfully described the break of eras, the revolution, the Civil War, the complexities of the profession, and the abyss of addiction. For the cycle of stories "Notes of a Young Doctor", he based it on his own experience working as a zemstvo doctor and created a whole array of colorful characters with their quirks, fears, and prejudices. And the story "Morphine", stylized as a diary, is also almost autobiographical — after a failed operation, Bulgakov was forced to inject himself with painkillers and became addicted to it.