Berezovo: A Revolutionary Russian Epic

The choice of a backwater such as Berezovo had not been made at random. By systematically misleading the previous hospital administrator about the size of his budget, he had seen to it that the district had been underfunded for years while a large reserve fund had been created in the accounts, which he was now able to bring to life. His appointment as the district’s new hospital administrator by the Provincial Medical Board had been robustly advocated by the informal network of secretaries and assistant secretaries whose support he had canvassed through generous lunches, cunningly laced with passing reminders of dealings that would cause them nothing but misfortune if ever they should come to the attention of the Imperial Medical Inspectorate. At the same time, he had persuaded the board to grant him a degree of autonomy that was to become the envy of other districts, arguing that in view of the vast distances involved and the single medical practitioner available (one Dr. V.I. Tortsov) the administration for the area should henceforth be centred at Berezovo, and that as the hospital administrator he should have full authority to initiate whatever works he deemed necessary. The board, befuddled and bedazzled by such machinations, capitulated to his demands making only two provisos: that the cost of maintaining a medical practice in Berezovo would henceforth be met by the hospital and not by the board; secondly, that the district accounts were to be submitted annually to Tobolsk. Beyond that, he was his own master. He could go to Berezovo, or to the Devil, if he wished.

Within a month of the colonel’s retirement, Tolkach had sold the lease on his house and had taken the broad road north. But, although Modest Tolkach now found himself at last in a position where all things were possible, and where the prizes for which he had laboured so hard for so long were now within his reach, his wife had not appreciated this victory. A pale, taciturn woman, Madame Tolkachaya up this point had appeared to be in every sense a ‘lesser being’. Tolkach regarded her as uncomplaining, unassertive and without a single visible achievement to her credit. So she had appeared while they had lived in Tobolsk, and so he expected her to be in Berezovo. It was a misjudgement that was to prove fatal.

While she had lived in the city, Madame Tolkachaya had been content to remain subservient to her husband’s wishes. However, the prospect of spending the rest of her life in such inhospitable surroundings as those in which she now found herself filled her with dismay. She began to become more outspoken: criticising first the guests that had come to quiz the new arrivals, then her neighbours, and finally Tolkach himself. When he had beaten her she had merely become morose and had refused to leave the house, spending her days staring out of the window, scowling at passersby. As he began spinning his new web over the town, she saw for the first time what kind of man her husband was.

Prior to the arrival of the new hospital administrator, Berezovo’s hospital had consisted of two large and airy public wards: the ground floor housed the male patients, the upper floor being reserved for the female patients. With the increased budget, Tolkach was able to close down the upper ward and convert it into four private sick rooms, moving the female patients downstairs and erecting wooden partitions in the lower wards so that the rules of decency could be observed. Inevitably, such alterations meant that a few of the patients had had to be sent home but, as he pointed out to Dr. Tortsov, the terminally ill felt more comfortable within the bosom of their families rather than to lie neglected in a distant hospital. Once the wards on the upper floor had been redecorated, they were reserved for those of the townspeople who were prepared to pay a little extra for their comfort and privacy. Meanwhile, the cubicles in the general ward on the ground floor were still available to the ordinary people and those sustained by the charity of the Church; though at a slightly increased expense, since the cost of the renovations had to be met.

So much was common knowledge amongst the townsfolk, and more than sufficient to make the newcomer unpopular amongst the poorer citizenry. Only Tolkach’s wife knew that when he had put out the work to tender, he had taken care to be overheard by the less favoured competitor, Tachmanov, to the effect that the price he was looking for was around 800 roubles. It was no surprise, therefore, that this was the exact amount submitted on the builder’s estimate of works. The other competing builder, Belinsky, having a better head for business, had submitted an estimate for only 600 roubles, in addition to which he added a further 75 roubles as a mute ‘contribution to hospital funds’. It was Belinsky who was awarded the contract, but it had been Tachmanov’s estimate that had been forwarded with the annual accounts to Tobolsk.