The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin. Short summary

5 seconds

Dr. Garin travels to the middle of nowhere to vaccinate the inhabitants. In a snowstorm, various adventures happen to him and his charioteer, Perkhusha. The doctor with frostbitten limbs is saved by a Chinese train, Perhusha is frozen.

1 minute

Russia with a touch of sci-fi, winter. District doctor Platon Garin goes to the village of Dolgoye to vaccinate the inhabitants against the Bolivian nigra. The disease manifests itself in the fact that the infected turn into zombies.

At the station, the doctor hires a half-drunk Perhusha, who drives a sled pulled by 50 horses the size of partridges. On the way, the sled breaks down. The doctor’s efforts to bind the axle with elastic bandages have little effect. The travelers stop at the miller’s. The latter’s wife gives herself to Garin at night.

In the morning, again in a snowstorm, the doctor and the charioteer stop by the vitamins. As a reward for helping one of them, the vitaminders (drug manufacturers) give him a taste of their product.

The travelers drive on. The snowstorm does not stop. The doctor decides to walk, but after wandering around, he returns to Perkhusha. He and his horses, the hens, cover themselves with a bast mat to survive the night.

In the morning, the doctor with frostbitten limbs and the horses were picked up by a Chinese sleigh train. Perhusha was already dead.