Who is Dr. Ludmila Afanasyevna Dontsova from Cancer Ward and what is their importance?

Dr. Dontsova is a hardworking doctor who has firm beliefs about how to cure her cancer patients. She does not allow any deviation from what she has been taught. Her life is full of drudgery: working at the hospital all day, then shopping for the family, cooking dinner and cleaning. Dontsova represents the Soviet citizen who accepts what has been handed down from the state and lives her life without any hope of change. She does not fight the system, or even understand the people who do fight the system.