Notes of a Young Doctor

Directly from the bright auditorium of Moscow University, a young doctor finds himself in a gloomy, remote wilderness — for here, in a rural hospital, he, a recent graduate, must become a doctor for the first time. This means seeing up to a hundred patients a day, performing surgeries with a steady hand that he has only read about, facing snowstorms and the relatives of the sick. Every day, the doctor must fight not only against smallpox, scarlet fever, and anemia but also against ignorance, poverty, — and most importantly, against his own fears and doubts. He has no right to lose, as someone's life is always at stake. Amid all this, the cycle of early stories by Mikhail Bulgakov, many of which are based on real cases from his personal medical practice, is full of hope, gentle humor, and faith in the power of knowledge. And also — love.