Mikhail Bulgakov is the leading Russian mystic of the 20th century. A physician by training and a subtle satirist by vocation, he witnessed and masterfully described the collapse of eras, the Revolution, the Civil War, the challenges of the profession, and the abyss of addiction.

For his series of stories, 'Notes of a Young Doctor,' he drew on his own experience as a zemstvo doctor and created a whole galaxy of colorful characters with their own quirks, fears, and prejudices. And the story 'Morphine,' stylized as a diary, is also almost autobiographical: after an unsuccessful operation, Bulgakov was forced to inject himself with painkillers and became addicted to them.