JBUON 2021; 26(1): 8-10 ISSN: 1107-0625, online ISSN: 2241-6293 • www.jbuon.com Email: [email protected] SPECIAL ARTICLE Anton Chekhov – Doctor and writer Rajko Igić Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical School, University of Banja Luka, 78000 Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL 60612, USA; Medical Center, 25000 Sombor, Serbia. Summary Anton P. Chekhov was born 160 years ago. He graduated in compared Chekhov’s stories to impressionist paintings. These 1884 at the Medical School, Moscow University. Then he masterpieces and his best plays, including, “Three Sisters,” practiced medicine in a middle-class section of Moscow, but “The Cherry Orchard,” “The Seagull,” and “Uncle Vanya”, many of his patients were poor and could not pay. He soon have influenced many outstanding writers, and they still started to write stories, and after several years purchased strongly appeal to the readers and theatergoers around the the rundown Melikhovo estate. There he lived until declining world. Chekhov’s numerous characters include an array of health from tuberculosis forced him to move to the milder more than 30 medical doctors who are discouraged by vari- climate of Yalta. Chekhov asked the big question, what is the ous problems and poor working conditions. Chekhov, many purpose of life? Science could not answer, so his writings his followers, and the majority of modern doctors-writers presented man as a victim of a preposterous world, and he are perhaps trying to find the meaning of life in the reign created hundreds of characters who embodied weakness, pas- of arts to science. sivity, and ineffectiveness. In his own personal life, he elected not to marry and serve biological renewal as the purpose of being. Instead, he followed another path: creating innova- Key words: Chekhov, the big question, the purpose of being, tive stories and plays that would become his legacy. Tolstoy doctors-writers Anton P. Chekhov (1860-1904) noted that a the See of Azov where he lived for 19 years. Anton symbiosis of the muse and Æsculapius could was average student in his local gymnasium, but markedly increase a writer’s capabilities with his he earned a reputation for his satirical comments famous quip “Medicine is my lawful wife, litera- and funny stories. ture my mistress. When I tire of the one, I spend When he passed his final exams, Anton went to the night with another, and neither of them suffers Moscow, where he obtained a scholarship to study from my infedelity”[1]. medicine at Moscow University. His family also Nineteen years before Anton Chekhov was moved to Moscow, and all of them lived together born, his grandfather, a serf belonging to a Rus- in a small, neglected apartment. Even while he con- sian nobleman, purchased his own freedom and centrated on his studying, Anton earned money for that of his family for 700 roubles per soul. For all, the family by publishing hundreds of humorous he payed a total of 3,500 roubles. Thus, Anton was sketches and stories under various pseudonyms born as a free citizen in Taganrog, a small city on in local newspapers and magazines. Although this Corresponding author: Rajko Igić, MD, PhD. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical School, University of Banja Luka, 78000 Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL 60612, USA; Medical Center, 25000 Sombor, Serbia. Email: [email protected] This work by JBUON is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (ABBREV) 9 form of moonlighting did not pay much, the added not to marry and serve biological renewal as the income allowed the family to rent a better apart- purpose of being. Instead, he followed another path: ment and improve their way of life [2]. creating innovative stories and plays that would Chekhov graduated in 1884. He then leased a become his legacy. small house in a middle-class section of Moscow Tolstoy compared Chekhov’s stories to im- that would accommodate both his medical practice pressionist paintings. These masterpieces and his and his family. He spent a good part of each day best plays (including, “Three Sisters,” “The Cherry making house calls. Many of his patients were poor Orchard,” “The Seagull” and “Uncle Vanya”) have and could not pay, so his medical practice proved influenced many outstanding writers, and they to be unprofitable. However, upon the advice of a still strongly appeal to the readers and theater- publisher, he began to write serious short stories. goers around the world. Although Chekhov’s life Several years later, he was able to purchase the span was very short (only 44 years), he was in a rundown Melikhovo estate where he lived. He con- good company; Pushkin, Byron, Lermontov, Njegoš, tinued to work as a volunteer doctor, primarily in Lazarević, Mayakovsky, Blok, Lorca, Vallejo, Or- the sphere of public health. He lived there, on the well, and many other prominent writers also had Melikhovo estate, 44 miles south of Moscow, un- short lives. Like these masters, Chekhov’s innova- til declining health from pulmonary tuberculosis tive and prolific literary output secured him a place forced him to move to the milder climate of Yalta, among the greatest men of letters. Chekhov’s nu- on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula sur- merous characters include an array of more than rounded by the Black Sea. 30 medical doctors who are discouraged by various While he lived in Melikhovo, Chekhov saw problems and poor working conditions. hundreds of patients; he made more than a thou- In a long story titled “Ward No. 6,” set in the psy- sand home visits all free of charge, and joined the chiatric division of a provincial hospital, Dr. Ragin fight against cholera and illiteracy. [3] Although he meets and becomes preoccupied by Gromov, a practiced medicine by day, at night he wrote many brilliant paranoid man who has been confined for stories and two superb plays, “The Seagull” and proclaiming that truth and justice must triumph. “Uncle Vanya.” Throughout the story, Ragin struggles with an in- In 1890, he traveled across Siberia to Sakhalin Is- ternal battle of deciding whether or not his own land, a prison for Russian convicts. The hardships life is of any value. There would be no point in of that journey and his three-month sojourn on the living if his life would be forgotten once he was island were terrible. His report of the trip, “Sakha- gone. And, because he did not think about the world lin Island,” includes a moving description of bru- around him for a very long time, the world in his tal beatings [4]. His writings about what he had spirit was lost. Ironically, Dr. Ragin is attacked by witnessed made such an impression on medical his superiors in his own ward, and after a beating professionals and the Russian public that corporal by a nurse, he dies of a stroke. When the novel- punishment was abolished for women in 1897 and ist Nikolay Leskov read this masterpiece, he said, for men in 1904 [5]. “Ward No. 6 is Russia!” [8]. Insight into the meaning of life has been a Chekhov improved both the modern story and central preoccupation of literature from Homer to modern play, and he clearly showed the synergy many modern writers, but the science and philoso- of the Æsculapius and muse, but it was the muse phy are unable to give us a direct answer. Through who helped him survive. Many other famous medi- all of his various explorations, Chekhov continued cal doctor-writers have been in a similar position, to ask himself--what is the purpose of life? Science where they share medicine and writing, some- could not answer his question, so his writings pre- times abandoning medical practice altogether for sented man as a victim of a preposterous world [6]. writing. A short list of these doctor-writers would Despite enormous progress, contemporary sci- include: Arthur Conan Doyle, Anton P. Chekhov, ence provides the only possible factual answer: the Laza Lazarević, Fridrich Schiller, Mikhail Bulga- purpose of life is related to its obvious biological kov, Archibald Joseph Cronin, William Somerset function – to continue the species. Maxim Gorki, as Maugham, and William Carlos Williams. Some of young poet, said: “Such question man should not them were more involved in medicine (L.L., A.J.C., ask himself. Live… that is all! When you think about W.C.W.), others simply switched from doctoring to its purpose, you will be unsatisfied with your life” writing (F. S., A.C.D., M.B., W.S.M.,), or practiced [7]. To acknowledge science’s inability to explain medicine sporadically (A.P. C.). the purpose of life, Chekhov created hundreds of Since science and philosophy cannot give us characters who embody weakness, passivity, and an answer to the big question, the medical doctors ineffectiveness. In his own personal life, he elected who follow a man from his birth to death are often JBUON 2021; 26(1): 9 10 (ABBREV) occupied with this problem [9]. Chekhov, many his There are certainly others who wish to succumb followers, and the majority of modern doctors-writ- to the muse entirely. These may soon appear in ers perhaps are trying to find the meaning of life in the literature of our times, perhaps hesitatingly at reign of arts to science. Traditionally, many medical first, but finally to be recognized, as Chekhov was, doctors still answer the call of the muse, but most as among the world’s greatest physician-writers or of their time is required to be devoted to medicine.