Ward №6

"This is a medical story, historia morbi," wrote A.P. Chekhov about "The Black Monk" in a letter, and the time he worked on "The Black Monk" coincided with the period of the writer's keen interest in psychiatry: "In order to solve questions about degeneration, psychosis, etc., one must be familiar with them scientifically." "In "Ward No. 6" our general customs and characters are depicted in miniature. Ward No. 6 is everywhere. This is Russia... Chekhov himself did not think what he wrote (he told me this), and yet it is so. His ward is Rus'!" wrote Nikolai Leskov in a review.