| First Aid | |
| Title Orig: | Скорая помощь |
| Genre: | dark humour |
| Published In: | Peterburgskaya Gazeta |
| Publisher: | Adolf Marks, 1899-1901 |
| Pub Date: | 22 June 1887 (old style) |
"First Aid" (Russian: Скорая помощь|Skoraya pomoshch) is an 1887 short story by Anton Chekhov.
According to Mikhail Chekhov, the story was based upon the author's experience during his stay in the village of Babkino.[1] In the 27 June 1884 letter from Voskresensk to Nikolai Leykin, Chekhov related one occasion from his practice as a doctor, several details of which proved to be close to those described in the story.[2]
"First Aid" was first published on 22 June 1887 by Peterburgskaya Gazeta (issue No. 168), signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте). Chekhov revised the text before including the story into the collection Nevinnye rechi (Невинные речи, Innocent Speeches), making the scribe a pathetically pompous figure, and adding more comic elements to an otherwise tragic story. Later he included it into volume one of his Collected Works published by Adolf Marks in 1899-1901.[2]
In the order of appearance:
The (unspecified) religious holiday has started, the villagers are drunk, and there's already been an accident. An old man from the neighbouring area had decided to cut his way short, staggered into the river, got himself into the vortex, started to yell and was rescued by the local man, Anisim. The old man (whom everybody refers to as 'the drowned one') seems to be more or less all right: he sits on the bank, muttering gibberish, being apparently severely intoxicated. The men around him, though, take this for the sign that "the soul half-left his body" and are very keen to bring 'the drowned one' to life, by throwing him up into the air on a burlap, as well as performing the 'artificial respiration' routine (which nobody knows apparently how to do properly). After a prolonged procedure which looks more like torture, the 'drowned one' is pronounced dead.
According to S.T. Semyonov, who wrote a book of memoirs on Leo Tolstoy, the latter, while praising Chekhov the humourist, considered some of his humour difficult to understand, citing "First Aid" as an example.[3]
A. Basargin, reviewing the first volume of Chekhov's Complete Works, mentioned "First Aid" as the story "that depicts the helplessness of our peasants when it comes to all things medical."[4]