Morphine: This story is perhaps the greatest depiction and description in literature of the human psyche going through addiction

Written by Mikhail Bulgakov

Narrated by Richard Mitchley

Mikhail Bulgakov was born on 15th May 1891 in Kiev, in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire, into a Russian family. He was one of seven children.

In 1901, Bulgakov attended the First Kiev Gymnasium, and developed a keen interest in Russian and European literature, theatre and opera. After the death of his father in 1907, his mother assumed responsibility for his education. After graduating Bulgakov entered the Medical Faculty of Kiev University and then took up a post as physician at the Kiev Military Hospital.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered as a doctor and was sent directly to the front, where he was badly injured at least twice. To suppress chronic pain, especially in the abdomen, he injected morphine. It took years to wean himself off.

He now took up medical posts in various towns and in 1919, he was mobilised by the Ukrainian People's Army and assigned to the Northern Caucasus. There, he became seriously ill with typhus and barely survived.

After this illness, Bulgakov abandoned his medicine to pursue writing. He moved to Vladikavkaz and had two plays staged there with great success. He wrote too for various newspapers and other outlets, but his critics were many. And growing.

When a Moscow's theatre director severely criticised Bulgakov, Stalin personally protected him, saying that a writer of Bulgakov's quality was above ‘party words’ like ‘left’ and ‘right’. Indeed, it is said that Stalin watched ‘The Days of the Turbins’ at least 15 times.

It was not to last and by March 1929, Bulgakov's career was ruined when Government censorship stopped publication of any of his work and plays.

In despair, Bulgakov wrote a personal letter to Stalin. He requested permission to emigrate. He received a phone call from the Soviet leader, who asked the writer whether he really desired to leave. He replied that a Russian writer cannot live outside of his homeland. Stalin thus gave him permission to continue working. In May 1930, he re-joined the theater, as stage director's assistant.

During the last stressful decade of his life, and in poor health, Bulgakov continued to work on ‘The Master and Margarita’, wrote plays, critical works, stories, and continued translations and dramatisations of novels. Many of them were not published, others were derided by critics.

On 10th March 1940, Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov died from nephrosclerosis. He was 48.

‘The Master and Margarita’ was not published in any form until the mid-1960’s

In this story Bulgakov relates the terrifying and hellish descent into addiction that seems so avoidable and yet so chillingly not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Copyright Group
• Release date: Aug 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781803545127

Mikhail Bulgakov

Marian Schwartz is a prize-winning translator of Russian who recently received her second Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to translate Olga Slavnikova’s newest novel, 2017. She has translated classic literary works by Nina Berberova and Yuri Olesha, as well as Edvard Radzinsky’s The Last Tsar. Evgeny Dobrenko is professor in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Sheffield. He is author, editor, or coeditor of more than fifteen books, including Political Economy of Socialist Realism. 

Reviews for Morphine

[cesarvelasco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful ?? short story by Bulgakov. Highly recommended for all lovers or scholars of drugs and sociological behaviors. (Translated from Spanish)

[Fermín de Pas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting book of stories, which includes the one that gives the book its title. Experiences of a newly graduated doctor in a rural and very backward area (Russia in 1917). Bulgakov's narration is clear and simple but very effective. He knows how to give it just the right touch to keep the story continuously interesting. The story called Morphine narrates the tale of a young doctor, a colleague of the protagonist of the stories, and his fall into morphine addiction. Dramatic. Interesting book highly recommended. (Translated from Spanish)

[CASM · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Is there a classic Russian author who doesn't generate confusion with a thousand different names for the same character, who doesn't leave a bitter taste even if the story isn't a drama, and who makes reading enjoyable? I found one: Mikhail Bulgakov.
This author isn't very well-known because he was "literally" erased from the face of the earth along with all his works and driven to ruin by Stalin's regime for not being an adherent to the communist revolution. Because of this, he gained worldwide fame posthumously. I believe one of the things that saved his life from the purge of writers was that he wasn't an opponent; he simply did not adhere to the principles of that brutal totalitarian regime.
I must confess that I really enjoy authors who mix their works with parts of their personal life, with reality. Bulgakov was a doctor, and in "Morphine" (1926, original title: "Морфий"), he tells the story of a newly graduated doctor who makes his first attempts in a rural town in early 20th century Russia. Almost in a humorous way, he recounts the cases he has to resolve in the different stories that make up the book (they are related and are part of the series titled "Notes of a Young Doctor"). Until the final story, Morphine, which gives the book its name, tells of his addiction to morphine but in the name of a character.
Bulgakov, being a doctor, volunteered for the Red Cross during World War I, where he sustained at least two stomach wounds on the battlefield that made him consume morphine and develop an addiction to it.
In real life, he was able to resolve his addiction and never consumed it again; I won't say anything about the character in the book. What I must mention is that I have never encountered an author who provides a description like this one. At least, brutal, sincere, in a few words, masterful.
The story is very entertaining, very well written, conveys emotions with incredible fidelity; due to his youth, he doubts his knowledge and delivers very funny accounts.
I felt very comfortable reading this author; at some point, I will read his considered magnum opus "The Master and Margarita."
An outstanding writer and an extraordinary book. It exudes quality from beginning to end. (Translated from Spanish)