Creative and life path of M.A. Sholokhov

Creativity and life path of M.A. Sholokhov

A scientific biography of M. A. Sholokhov has not yet been written. Available research leaves many blank spots in the history of his life. Official Soviet science often kept silent about many of the events that the writer witnessed or participated in, and he himself, judging by the memoirs of his contemporaries, did not like to advertise the details of his life. In addition, in the literature about Sholokhov, attempts were often made to give an unambiguous assessment of his personality and creativity. Moreover, both the canonization of Sholokhov in the Soviet period and the desire to overthrow him from the erected pedestal in the works of the 80-90s led to the fact that in the minds of the mass reader there was a simplified, and most often distorted, idea of ​​​​the author of “Quiet Don” and “Virgin Soil Upturned”. Meanwhile, Sholokhov is an extremely controversial figure. The same age as the first Russian revolution, who began his creative career during the formation of Soviet literature and passed away shortly before the collapse of totalitarianism in Russia, he was truly the son of his century. The contradictions of his personality were in many ways a reflection of the contradictions of the Soviet era itself, the events of which to this day give rise to polar assessments, both in science and in public opinion.
M.A. Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 in the Kruzhilina farm of the village of Veshenskaya, Donetsk District of the Don Army Region, although this date probably needs clarification.
The writer’s father, Alexander Mikhailovich (1865-1925), came from the Ryazan province, repeatedly changed professions: “He was successively a “shibai” (livestock buyer), sowed grain on purchased Cossack land, served as a clerk in a farm-scale commercial enterprise, and was a steam power plant manager. mills, etc.
Mother, Anastasia Danilovna (1871-1942), “half-Cossack, half-peasant,” served as a maid. In her youth, she was married against her will to the Cossack ataman S. Kuznetsov, but, having met A. M. Sholokhov, she left him. Future writer was born illegitimate and until 1912 bore the surname of his mother’s first husband, while having all the Cossack privileges. Only when Alexander Mikhailovich and Anastasia Danilovna got married, and his father adopted him, did Sholokhov find his real name, having lost his belonging to the Cossack class, as the son of a tradesman, that is, a “non-resident”.
To give his son a primary education, the father hires a home teacher T. T. Mrykhin, and in 1912 he sends his son to the Karginsky men's parish school in the second grade. In 1914, he was taken to Moscow for an eye disease (Dr. Snegirev’s clinic, where Sholokhov was treated, will be described in the novel “Quiet Don”) and sent him to the preparatory class of Moscow Gymnasium No. 9 named after. G. Shelaputin. In 1915, Mikhail’s parents transferred him to the Bogucharovsky gymnasium, but his studies there were interrupted. revolutionary events. It was not possible to complete his education at the Veshenskaya mixed gymnasium, where Sholokhov entered in 1918. Due to the hostilities that flared up around the village, he was forced to interrupt his education, completing only four classes.
From 1919 until the end of the Civil War, Sholokhov lived on the Don, in the villages of Elanskaya and Karginskaya, covered by the Verkhnedonsky uprising, that is, he was at the center of those dramatic events that will be described in the final books of “Quiet Don”.
Since 1920, when Soviet power was finally established on the Don, Mikhail Sholokhov, despite his young years, and he was 15 years old, worked as a teacher to eliminate illiteracy.
In May 1922, Sholokhov completed short-term food inspection courses in Rostov and was sent to the village of Bukanovskaya as a tax inspector. He was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal for abuse of power. At a special meeting of the Revolutionary Tribunal, “for a crime in office,” Sholokhov was sentenced to death. For two days he waited for imminent death, but fate was willing to spare Sholokhov. According to some sources, it was then that he indicated 1905 as his year of birth in order to hide his real age and pass himself off as a minor, while in fact he was born a year or two earlier.
In the fall of 1922, Sholokhov came to Moscow with the intention of enrolling in the workers' school. However, he had neither factory experience nor a Komsomol permit, which were required for admission. Getting a job was also not easy, since Sholokhov had not mastered any profession by that time. The labor exchange was unable to provide him with only the most unskilled jobs, so at first he was forced to work as a loader at the Yaroslavl station and pave cobblestone streets. Later he received a referral to the position of accountant at the housing administration on Krasnaya Presnya. All this time, Sholokhov was engaged in self-education and, on the recommendation of the aspiring writer Kudashev, was accepted into the literary group “Young Guard”. On September 19, 1923, Sholokhov’s literary debut took place: his feuilleton “Test” signed by M. Sholokhov appeared in the newspaper.
On January 11, 1924, M. A. Sholokhov married the daughter of the former village ataman Maria Petrovna Gromoslavskaya (1902-1992), linking his fate with her for many sixty years. It was 1924 that can be considered the beginning professional activity Sholokhov the writer. On December 14, the first of Sholokhov’s “Don Stories” “Mole” appeared in the newspaper “Young Sloth”, on February 14 the story “Food Commissar” was published in the same newspaper, after which “Shepherd” (February) and “Shibalkovo Seed” were quickly published one after another. , “Ilyukha”, “Alyoshka” (March), “Bakhchevnik” (April), “Road-path” (April-May), “Nakhalenok” (May-June), “ Family man"," Kolovert" (June), "Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic" (July), "Crooked Stitch" (November) During the same period, Sholokhov became a member of RAPP.
Even while working on “Don Stories,” M. Sholokhov decided to write a story about the chairman of the Don Council of People’s Commissars F. G. Podtelkov and his comrade-in-arms, the secretary of the Don Cossack Military Revolutionary Committee M. V. Kryvoshlykov (it was this unwritten story that he probably wanted to give the name "Donshchina", which many researchers mistakenly took for original title novel "Quiet Don"). Gradually, Sholokhov comes to the idea that “it is not necessary to write a story, but a novel with a broad depiction of the world war, then it will become clear what united the Cossack front-line soldiers with the front-line soldiers.” Only when the writer managed to collect numerous memories of participants in the First World War and rich archival material did he begin work on a novel, which was called “Quiet Don”.
“The work on collecting materials for “Quiet Don,” said Sholokhov, “went in two directions: firstly, collecting memories, stories, facts, details from living participants in the imperialist and Civil wars, conversations, questions, checking all plans and ideas ; secondly, painstaking study specifically military literature, developments of military operations, numerous memoirs. Familiarization with foreign, even White Guard sources.”
The earliest manuscript of the novel dates from the fall of 1925 and tells about the events of the summer of 1917 related to the participation of the Cossacks in Kornilov’s campaign against Petrograd. “I wrote 5-6 printed sheets. When I wrote it, I felt that it was not right,” Sholokhov later said. - It will not be clear to the reader why the Cossacks took part in the suppression of the revolution. What kind of Cossacks are these? What is the Region of the Don Army? Doesn't it appear to be a kind of terra incognito for readers? So I quit the job I started. I started thinking about a broader novel. When the plan was mature, I began collecting material. Knowledge of Cossack life helped.” The chapters written by this time about the Kornilov revolt later became the plot basis for the second volume of the novel. “I started anew and started with Cossack antiquity, from those years that preceded the First World War. He wrote three parts of the novel, which make up the first volume of Quiet Don. And when the first volume was finished, and it was necessary to write further - Petrograd, the Kornilov revolt - I returned to the previous manuscript and used it for the second volume. It was a pity to throw away the work that had already been done.” However, before the writer returned to work on the novel, almost a year passed, filled with both sad (the death of his father at the end of 1925) and joyful events.
In 1925, the publishing house “New Moscow” published a separate book, “Don Stories.” In 1926, a second collection of stories appeared - “Azure Steppe” (in 1931, Sholokhov’s early stories would be published in one book, “Azure Steppe. Don Stories”). In February 1926, the Sholokhovs had a daughter, Svetlana.
At this time, the writer’s thoughts are connected with the “Quiet Don”. One of the few evidence of his work on the novel during this period is a letter to Kharlampy Vasilyevich Ermakov dated April 6, 1926: “Dear comrade. Ermakov! I need to receive additional information from you regarding the era of 1919. I hope that you will not refuse me the courtesy of providing this information upon my arrival from Moscow. I expect to be at your house in May - June this year. This information concerns the details of the V-Donskoy uprising.” Donskoy Kharlampy Ermakov became one of the prototypes of Grigory Melekhov (in the earliest manuscript of the novel the hero is called Abram Ermakov).
In the fall, Sholokhov and his family moved to Veshenskaya, where he plunged into work on a novel. The first lines of the first volume were written on November 8, 1926. Work on the book was surprisingly intense. Having completed the draft version of the first part, Sholokhov began work on the second in November. By the end of summer, work on the first volume was completed, and in the fall Sholokhov took the manuscript to Moscow, to the October magazine and the Moscow Writer publishing house. The magazine recognized the novel as “everyday life” and devoid of political urgency, but thanks to the active intervention of A. Serafimovich, it was already in the first four issues of 1928 that the first book of the novel was published. And in issues 5-10 for the same year there is the second book of “Quiet Don”. In the same 1928, the first book of the novel was published first in Roman-Gazeta, then separate publication in "Moscow Worker". The manuscript of the novel, not yet published in Oktyabr, was recommended for publication by the head of the publishing department, Evgenia Grigorievna Levitskaya. There, in the publishing house, in 1927, a meeting took place between twenty-two-year-old Sholokhov and Levitskaya, who was a quarter of a century older than him. This meeting was destined to become the beginning of a strong friendship. Levitskaya helped Sholokhov more than once in difficult moments of his life. Sholokhov took an active part in her fate and the fate of her loved ones. In 1956, Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man” was published with a dedication: “Evgenia Grigorievna Levitskaya, member of the CPSU since 1903.”
And difficult days began for Sholokhov immediately after the publication of the first volume of the novel. E. G. Levitskaya writes about this in her notes: “T. D." first appeared in the magazine. “October”, and then came out at the end of 1928 as a separate book... My God, what an orgy of slander and fabrications arose about “The Quiet Don” and its author! With serious faces, mysteriously lowering their voices, seemingly quite “decent” people - writers, critics, not to mention the common public, conveyed “reliable” stories: Sholokhov, they say, stole a manuscript from some white officer - the officer’s mother, according to one version, it came to gas. “Pravda”, or the Central Committee, or the RAPP and asked to protect the rights of her son, who wrote such a wonderful book... At all literary crossroads, the author of “Quiet Don” was inked and slandered. Poor author, who was barely 23 years old in 1928! How much courage was needed, how much confidence in one’s strength and in one’s writing talent, to steadfastly endure all the vulgarities, all the malicious advice and “friendly” instructions of “venerable” writers. I once got to one such “venerable” writer - it turned out to be Berezovsky, who thoughtfully said: “I am an old writer, but I could not write such a book as “Quiet Don”... Can you believe that at 23 years old, without having no education, a person could write such a deep, such a psychologically truthful book...
Already during the publication of the first two books of Quiet Flows the Don, numerous responses to the novel appeared in print. Moreover, judgments about him were often very contradictory. The Rostov magazine “On the Rise” called the novel “a whole event in literature” in 1928. A. Lunacharsky wrote in 1929: “Quiet Don” is a work of exceptional power in the breadth of pictures, knowledge of life and people, in the bitterness of its plot... This work is reminiscent of the best phenomena of Russian literature of all times.” In one of his private letters in 1928, Gorky gave his assessment: “Sholokhov, judging by the first volume, is talented... Every year he nominates more and more talented people. This is joy. Rus' is very, anathemically talented.” However, most often positive reviews about the novel were based on the conviction of critics about the inevitability of the protagonist’s coming to the Bolshevik faith. V. Ermilov, for example, wrote: “Sholokhov looks through the eyes of Melekhov - a man gradually moving towards Bolshevism. The author himself has already traveled this path...” But there were also attacks on the novel. According to the critic M. Maisel, Sholokhov “very often seems to admire all this kulak satiety, prosperity, lovingly and sometimes with outright admiration he describes the earnestness and inviolability of a strong peasant order with its ritualism, greed, hoarding and other inevitable accessories of an inert peasant life.” As we can see, the controversy surrounding the novel, which arose immediately after the first publications, was primarily of an ideological nature.
An extremely difficult fate awaited the third book of the novel. Although already in December 1928 the Rostov newspaper “Molot” published an excerpt from it, and from January 1929 the publication of the book was published in the magazine “October” (No. 1 - 3), in April the writer was forced to suspend its publication. From spring to August 29, Sholokhov hardly finds time to study literature, completely immersed in the harsh worries of the first year of collectivization.
In August, the Siberian magazine “Present” publishes an article “Why did the White Guards like “Quiet Don?” “What class of task did the proletarian writer Sholokhov accomplish by obscuring the class struggle in the pre-revolutionary village? The answer to this question must be given with all clarity and certainty. Having the best subjective intentions, Sholokhov objectively completed the kulak’s task... As a result, Sholokhov’s work became acceptable even to the White Guards.”
In the same summer of 1929, another assessment of the novel was made. On July 9, in a letter to the old revolutionary Felix Cohn, Stalin wrote: “The famous writer of our time, Comrade. Sholokhov made a number of gross mistakes and outright incorrect information about Syrtsov, Podtelkov, Krivoshlykov and others in his “Quiet Don”, but does it follow from this that “Quiet Don” is a worthless thing that deserves to be withdrawn from sale?” True, this letter was published only in 1949 in volume 12 of Stalin’s collected works and until that time, apparently, was not known to Sholokhov.
Only in the winter of 1930 did Sholokhov bring the manuscript of the sixth part of “Quiet Don” to Moscow, leaving it for reading and deciding its fate at the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers. At the end of March, Veshenskaya received a response from Fadeev, who then became one of the leaders of RAPP and the head of the magazine “October”. “Fadeev invites me to make changes that are in no way acceptable to me,” Sholokhov says in a letter to Levitskaya. “He says if I don’t make Gregory mine, then the novel cannot be published.” Do you know how I thought about the end of book III? I cannot make Gregory the definitive Bolshevik.” It is not only the image of the novel’s protagonist that is sharply criticized by RAPP. For example, the story of an old Old Believer about the tyranny of Commissar Malkin in the village of Bukanovka (Malkin was alive in 1930 and was in a responsible position) given in Chapter XXXIX of the sixth part was not allowed into print. The most seditious thing, from the point of view of those on whom the fate of the book depended, was the depiction of the Veshensky uprising, an event traditionally hushed up in the official Soviet press (until the 70s, Sholokhov’s novel was practically the only book about this event). The most orthodox Rappov leaders considered that the writer, citing facts of infringement of the Upper Don Cossacks, justified the uprising. In a letter to Gorky dated July 6, 1931, Sholokhov explains the reasons for the uprising by the excesses that were committed in relation to the middle peasant Cossack by representatives of the Soviet government, and reports that in his novel he deliberately omitted cases of the most severe reprisals against the Cossacks, which were the direct impetus for the uprising .

In 1930, talk about plagiarism began again in literary circles. The reason for them was the book “Requiem” published in Moscow. In memory of L. Andreev", which, in particular, contained a letter dated September 3, 1917, in which Leonid Andreev informs the writer Sergei Goloushev that, as the editor of the newspaper "Russkaya Volya", he rejected his "Quiet Don". And although we were talking about travel notes and everyday essays “From the Quiet Don”, which, having received Andreev’s refusal, S. Goloushev published in the newspaper “Narodny Vestnik” all in the same September 1917 under the pseudonym Sergei Glagol, controversy surrounding the authorship of the Cossack epic flared up With new strength. In those days, Sholokhov wrote to Serafimovich: “... there are rumors again that I stole “Quiet Don” from the critic S. Goloushev, a friend of L. Andreev, and as if there is indisputable evidence of this in the book-requiem in memory of L. Andreev, written by his relatives . The other day I received this book and a letter from E. G. Levitskaya. There really is a place in Andreev’s letter to S. Goloushev, where he says that “Quiet Don” rejected him. “Quiet Don” Goloushev - to my grief and misfortune - called his travel notes and essays where the main attention (judging by the letter) is paid to the political mood of the Donets in 1917. The names of Kornilov and Kaledin are often mentioned. This gave my “friends” a reason to rebel against me new campaign slander. What should I do, Alexander Serafimovich? I'm really tired of being a "thief".
The need to stand up for fellow countrymen who became victims of collectivization, criticism from RAPP, a new wave of accusations of plagiarism - all this was not conducive to creative work. And although already at the beginning of August 1930, when asked about the end of “Quiet Don,” Sholokhov answered: “I have only the rump left,” she intended to bring the seventh part to Moscow at the end of the month, these plans were not destined to come true. Moreover, at that time he was carried away new idea.
The events of today have temporarily overshadowed the era of the Civil War, and Sholokhov has a desire to write “a story of ten pages... from collective farm life.” In 1930, work began on the first book of the novel “With Sweat and Blood,” which later became known as “Virgin Soil Upturned.”
In the fall of the same year, Sholokhov, together with A. Vesely and V. Kudashev, went to Sorrento to meet with Gorky, but after a three-week “sitting” in Berlin awaiting a visa from the Mussolini government, the writer returned to his homeland: “It was interesting to see what was being done now at home, on the Don.” From the end of 1930 to the spring of 1932, Sholokhov worked hard on “Virgin Soil Upturned” and “Quiet Don”, finally leaning towards the idea that the third book of “Quiet Don” would be entirely comprised of the sixth part, which would include the previous ones - the sixth and seventh . In April 1931, the writer met with Gorky, who had returned to his homeland, and gave him the manuscript of the sixth part of “The Quiet Don.” In a letter to Fadeev, Gorky spoke out in favor of publishing the book, although, in his opinion, “it would give the emigrant Cossacks a few pleasant minutes.” At Sholokhov’s request, Gorky, after reading the manuscript, handed it over to Stalin. In July 1931, a meeting between Sholokhov and Stalin took place at Gorky’s dacha. Despite the fact that Stalin was clearly not satisfied with many pages of the novel (for example, the overly “soft” description of General Kornilov), at the end of the conversation he firmly said: “We will publish the third book of The Quiet Don!”
The editors of "October" promised to resume publication of the novel from the November issue of the magazine, but some members of the editorial board strongly protested against the publication, and a sixth of the novel went to the cultural prop of the Central Committee. New chapters began to appear only in November 1932, but the editors made such significant changes to them that Sholokhov himself demanded that printing be suspended. In a double issue of the magazine, the editors were forced to publish fragments removed from already published chapters, accompanying their publication with a very unconvincing explanation: “For technical reasons (the set was scattered), from Nos. 1 and 2 in the novel “Quiet Don” by M. Sholokhov... pieces fell out... "Publication of the third book resumed from the seventh issue and ended in the tenth. The first separate edition of the third book of “Quiet Don” was published at the end of February 1933 by the State Publishing House fiction. While preparing the book for publication, Sholokhov restored all the fragments rejected by the October magazine.
In 1931, directors I. Pravov and O. Preobrazhensky filmed Feature Film based on the novel “Quiet Don” with a magnificent acting duet: A. Abrikosov (Grigory) and E. Tsesarskaya (Aksinya). However, the film did not immediately reach the viewer, accused, like the novel, of “admiring Cossack life” and depicting “Cossack adultery.”
From January to September 1932, in parallel with the release of “Quiet Don,” the first “Virgin Soil Upturned” was published in the magazine “New World.” Once again, the author encountered serious resistance from the editors, who demanded that the chapter on dispossession be removed. And Sholokhov in Once again resorted to the help of Stalin, who, after reading the manuscript, gave the instruction: “The novel must be published.”
In 1932, Sholokhov joined the CPSU(b). the work begun on the second book of “Virgin Soil Upturned” had to be temporarily postponed in order to complete the fourth book of “Quiet Don”. However, life again disrupted the writer’s creative plans - the terrible “Holodomor” of 1933 came. Sholokhov tried to do everything to help his fellow countrymen survive. Understanding. That the local leadership is unable to cope with the impending catastrophe of famine, Sholokhov turns to Stalin with a letter in which, on fifteen pages, he paints a terrifying picture: “T. Stalin! The Veshensky district, along with many other districts of the North Caucasus region, did not fulfill the grain procurement plan and did not supply seeds. In this region, as in other regions, collective farmers and individual farmers are now dying of hunger; adults and children plump up and feed on everything that a person should not eat, starting with carrion and ending with oak bark and all sorts of swamp roots.” The writer gives examples of the criminal actions of the authorities, extorting “surplus” grain from hungry peasants: “In the Grachevsky collective farm, the representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan, during interrogation, hung collective farmers by the neck from the ceiling, continued to interrogate them half strangled, then led them with a belt to the river, kicked them along the way, on the ice on his knees and continued the interrogation.” There are many similar examples in the letter. Sholokhov also gives figures: “Of the 50,000 population, no less than 49,000 are starving. For these 49,000, 22,000 poods were received. This is for three months."
Stalin, whose directives were so zealously carried out by local grain suppliers, nevertheless did not fail to respond to the letter of the 28-year-old writer: “I received your letter on the fifteenth. Thank you for message. We'll do whatever it takes. Name the number. Stalin. 16. IV. '33." Encouraged by the fact that his letter did not go unheeded, Sholokhov writes to Stalin again and not only reports the figure with which he estimated the need for grain in the Veshensky and Verkhne-Donsky regions, but also continues to open the leader’s eyes to the tyranny perpetrated on collective farms and the its culprits, whom I saw not only among the grassroots leadership. Stalin responds with a telegram in which he reports that in addition to the recently released forty thousand poods of rye, the Veshenians will receive an additional eighty thousand poods; forty thousand are being allocated to the Upper Don region. However, in a letter he then wrote to Sholokhov, the “leader” reproached the writer for a one-sided understanding of events, for seeing the grain growers exclusively as victims and ignoring the facts of sabotage on their part.
Only after the difficult year of 1933 does Sholokhov finally have the opportunity to finish the fourth book of “Quiet Don”. The seventh part of the novel was published in Novy Mir at the end of 1937 - early 1938, the eighth and final part appeared in the second and third issues of Novy Mir in 1940. The following year, the novel was published for the first time in its entirety as a separate edition. By this time, the author had already been elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1937) and a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1939).
The position that Sholokhov took in the 30s testifies to the civic courage of the writer. In 1937, he stood up for the leaders of the Veshensky district who were held in Lubyanka, turned to Stalin, and achieved a meeting with the arrested secretary of the district committee, Pyotr Lugovoi. Sholokhov’s efforts were not in vain: the district leaders were released and reinstated in their positions. In 1938, he stood up for the arrested I. T. Kleimenov, Levitskaya’s son-in-law, a former employee of the Soviet trade mission in Berlin, a specialist in rocket technology, one of the creators of the legendary Katyusha. The writer personally met with Beria, but by the time of their meeting Kleimenov had already been shot. In 1955, M. Sholokhov sent a letter to the Party Control Commission under the CPSU Central Committee, in which he pointed out the need to rehabilitate Kleimenov. Through the efforts of Sholokhov, Kleimenov’s wife, Levitskaya’s daughter, Margarita Konstantinovna, was released from prison. Sholokhov also stood up for the writer’s son A. Platonov and Anna Akhmatova’s son Lev Gumilev, who were in the camp, contributed to the publication of Akhmatova’s own collection (it was published in 1940 after the poetess’s eighteen-year forced silence) and proposed to nominate it for the It's time for the Stalin Prize. And all this despite the fact that clouds were constantly gathering over him. Back in 1931, at Gorky’s apartment, the all-powerful G. Yagoda at that time said to the writer: “Misha, but still you are a counter-man! Your “Quiet Don” is closer to the whites than to us!” Judging by anonymous letters received by the secretary of the district committee P. Lugov and Sholokhov himself, in 1938 local security officers tried to threaten people to force the people they arrested to testify against Sholokhov. The leaders of the Rostov NKVD instructed the secretary of the party organization of the Novocherkassk Industrial Institute, Ivan Pogorelov, to expose Sholokhov as an enemy preparing an uprising of the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossacks against Soviet power. An honest man, a fearless intelligence officer in the past, Pogorelov decided to save Sholokhov and informed him and Lugovoy about the task given to him. On the advice of Pogorelov, Sholokhov went to Moscow to see Stalin. Pogorelov himself arrived there secretly. In Stalin’s office, in the presence of his patrons from the Rostov NKVD, he exposed them, presenting as material evidence a note with the address of a safe house, written in the hand of one of the Rostov security officers. In such a difficult situation, balancing between freedom and the threat of physical destruction, Sholokhov had to work on last book"Quiet Don"
After the release of the final chapters of the Cossack epic, the author was nominated for the Stalin Prize. In November 1940, a discussion of the novel took place in the Stalin Prize committee. “All of us,” Alexander Fadeev said then, “are offended by the end of the work in the best Soviet feelings. Because they waited 14 years for the end: and Sholokhov led his beloved hero to moral devastation.” Film director Alexander Dovzhenko echoed him: “I read the book “Quiet Don” with a feeling of deep inner dissatisfaction... The impressions are summarized as follows: the quiet Don lived for centuries, Cossacks and Cossack women lived, rode horses, drank, sang... there was some juicy, fragrant, established, warm life. The revolution came, Soviet power, the Bolsheviks - they ruined the quiet Don, dispersed, set brother against brother, son against father, husband against wife, brought the country to impoverishment... they infected the clap, syphilis, sowed dirt, anger, -they drove strong, temperamental people into bandits... and that was the end of it. This is a huge mistake in the author’s plan.” “The book “Quiet Don” caused both delight and grief among readers,” noted Aleksei Tolstoy. - The end of “Quiet Don” - a plan or a mistake? I think it’s a mistake... Grigory should not leave literature like a bandit. This is wrong in relation to the people and the revolution.”1 Despite negative reviews from authoritative cultural figures, in March 1941 Sholokhov was awarded the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, for his novel “Quiet Don”. On the second day of the Great Patriotic War, the writer transferred his prize to the Defense Fund.
In July 1941, Sholokhov, the regimental commissar of reserves, was drafted into the army, sent to the front, worked in the Sovinformburo, was a special correspondent for Pravda and Red Star, and took part in the battles near Smolensk on Western Front, near Rostov on the Southern Front. In January 1942, he received a serious concussion during an unsuccessful landing of an airplane at the airfield in Kuibyshev, which made itself felt throughout his life.
In the spring of 1942, Sholokhov’s story “The Science of Hatred” appeared, in which the writer created the image of a hero who was captured, despite the fact that on August 16, 1941, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s Headquarters order No. 270 was issued, which equated prisoners with traitors.
On July 6, Sholokhov arrived in Veshenskaya, and two days later German aircraft raided the village. One of the air bombs hit the courtyard of the Sholokhov house, and his mother died before the writer’s eyes. In the fall of 1941, Sholokhov deposited his home archive with the regional department of the NKVD so that, if necessary, it could be taken out along with the documents of the department, however, when German troops quickly reached the Don in 1942, local organizations hastily evacuated , and the writer’s archive, including the manuscript of “The Quiet Don” and the not yet published second book of “Virgin Soil Upturned,” was lost. Only one folder of manuscripts of the Cossack epic was preserved and returned to the writer by the commander of the tank brigade that defended Veshenskaya.
The writer’s activities during the terrible war years were appreciated by the Soviet government: in September 1945, the writer was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Already during the war, when short prose dominated literature, quickly responding to the rapidly changing situation in the country, Sholokhov began work on a novel in which he intended to give a wide coverage of military events. In 1943-1944, the first chapters of this novel, called “They Fought for the Motherland,” were published in Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda. After the war, in 1949, Sholokhov published its continuation.
In the same year, the 12th volume of Stalin’s collected works was published, in which the already mentioned letter to F. Cohn was published for the first time, which spoke of gross mistakes made by the author of “Quiet Don”. The publication of this document in those days could have been regarded by editors as a ban on reprinting the novel. Sholokhov turned to Stalin with a letter in which he asked to explain what these mistakes were. There was no response to the letter. After a long wait, Sholokhov asked Stalin for a personal meeting. This meeting was postponed several times, and when finally a car was sent for Sholokhov to take him to the Kremlin, the writer ordered the driver to stop at the Grand Hotel, where he ordered dinner. When reminded that Stalin was waiting for him, Sholokhov replied that he had waited longer and did not go to the meeting. Since then, relations with Stalin were interrupted, and Sholokhov never appeared in Moscow until the leader’s death.
And although Quiet Don continued to be published, apparently, it was Stalin’s mention of Sholokhov’s “gross mistakes” that allowed Goslitizdat editor K. Potapov to subject the novel to unprecedented censorship edits. In the 1953 edition, entire fragments disappeared from the novel without a trace, relating, for example, to the ideological judgments of Bunchuk and Listnitsky, the portrayal of General Kornilov, Shtokman, the relationship between Bunchuk and Anna Pogudko, the characteristics of the Volunteer Army being created in Rostov, etc. In addition to the cuts, the editor allowed himself to distort the author’s language, replacing Sholokhov’s colorful dialectisms with neutral, commonly used words, and even made his own additions to the text of the novel, including mentions of Stalin1.
In the summer of 1950, Sholokhov completed the first book of the novel “They Fought for the Motherland” and began the second. According to the writer's plan, the novel was to consist of three books. The first was supposed to be dedicated to pre-war life, the second and third - to the events of the war. “I started the novel from the middle. Now he already has a torso. Now I am attaching the head and legs to the body,” the author wrote in 1965. To create a large-scale work about the war, personal front-line impressions and memories of loved ones were certainly not enough, which is why Sholokhov turned to General base with a request to allow him to work in the archives. Having received his request in July 1950, he turned to G.M. Malenkov for help, but had to wait eight months for a response from Him. This reluctance of the authorities to help the artist was one of the reasons why work on the novel was delayed. Only in 1954 were new chapters of the novel about the war completed and published.
In 1954, the oldest Russian writer S. Sergeev-Tsensky received an offer from the Nobel Committee to nominate a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In agreement with the leadership of the Writers' Union and the secretariat of the Central Committee of the party, Sergeev-Tsensky proposed the candidacy of Sholokhov. However, this proposal came late due to the length of approvals, and the committee was forced to refuse to consider Sholokhov’s candidacy.
On New Year's days - December 31, 1956 and January 1, 1957 - Pravda published the story "The Fate of a Man", in which the main character was a captured Soviet soldier. And although Sholokhov did not dare to say what awaited prisoners of war in their homeland during the war, the very choice of the hero became an act civil courage.
Since 1951, Sholokhov has been recreating the second book of “Virgin Soil Upturned” almost anew. On December 26, 1959, he called the editor-in-chief of the Moscow magazine E. Popovkin and said: “Well, I’ve put an end to it... Thirty years of work! I feel very lonely. I became orphaned somehow.”1 The second book of Virgin Soil Upturned was published in 1960. For this novel, Sholokhov was awarded the Lenin Prize.
1 A word about Sholokhov. P. 406.
In the late 50s and early 60s, Sholokhov’s work attracted the close attention of filmmakers. In 1957-1958, director S. Gerasimov made the film “Quiet Don” with a brilliant ensemble of actors. In 1960-1961, A.G. Ivanov filmed “Virgin Soil Upturned”. The film “The Fate of a Man *” (1959), which received the main prize of the Moscow International Film Festival, the Lenin Prize, and made a triumphant march across the screens of many countries around the world, was a particular success among audiences. This film was the directorial debut of S. Bondarchuk, who played in it main role. Bondarchuk more than once turned to Sholokhov’s prose. In 1975, he filmed the novel “They Fought for the Motherland,” and just before his death he completed filming a new film version of “Quiet Don.”
In 1965, Sholokhov received official international recognition: he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel “Quiet Don”.
As for Sholokhov’s civic position, in the post-war decades it became extremely contradictory and increasingly moved away from the position of the author of “Quiet Don”.
Sholokhov listened with interest and genuine attention to A. T. Tvardovsky’s poem “Terkin in the Next World,” rejected in 1954 by party censors, and at the same time in no way recognized the political program of the “New World” magazine, which Tvardovsky led at that time. Sholokhov contributed to the publication of A. Solzhenitsyn’s story “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” but until the end of his life he did not accept Solzhenitsyn’s concept of history and his assessment of Soviet power. Sholokhov “pushed” for the publication of a collection of Russian fairy tales collected and processed by Andrei Platonov, who was in severe disgrace, putting his name on the book as an editor, and in those same years, in fact, took part in the campaign against the “cosmopolitans”, having supported the article by M. Bubennov “Are literary pseudonyms necessary now?” (1951) with his article “With the visor down,” which K. Simonov called “unparalleled in rudeness.” In an interview with a French journalist, Sholokhov, unexpectedly for many, stated: “We should have published Pasternak’s book “Doctor Zhivago” in the Soviet Union, instead of banning it,” and at the same time spoke without respect about the novel itself.
In September 1965, the KGB arrested writers Y. Daniel and A. Sinyavsky, accusing them of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, disseminating anti-Soviet literature. The entire world community was concerned about this fact. Numerous letters were sent to the Writers' Union, the Soviet government, to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and to newspaper editors in defense of illegally persecuted writers. Many cultural figures turned to Sholokhov, who had just been awarded the Nobel Prize and who, according to the world community, had high authority both among readers and the Soviet authorities. One of the first to address Sholokhov in November 1965 was Nobel laureate François Mauriac: “If there is a partnership for the Nobel Prize, I beg my famous brother Sholokhov to convey our request to those on whom the release of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel depends.” The price of a metaphor , or Crime and Punishment. This was followed by telegrams from cultural figures in Italy (15 signatures), Mexico (35 signatures), and Chile (7 signatures). The appeal campaign reached its peak at the time of the award ceremony, which took place on December 10, 1965 in Stockholm. But neither in the press nor at the ceremony did Sholokhov respond in any way to the requests received.
In February 1966, a trial was held, which sentenced Sinyavsky to seven, and Daniel to five years in prison in a maximum security colony. On the eve of the XXIII Party Congress, sixty-two writers addressed the presidium of the congress, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR with a letter in which, standing up for their already convicted fellow writers, they offered to take them on bail. Sholokhov’s name is not among those who signed the letter. But at the congress itself, Sholokhov made a speech in which, in particular, he said: “I am ashamed of those who slandered the Motherland and poured mud on everything that was bright for us. They are immoral. I am ashamed of those who tried and are trying to take them under protection, no matter what this protection is motivated by. It is doubly shameful for those who offer their services and ask for bail for convicted renegades. If these young men with a dark conscience had been caught in the memorable twenties, when they were judged not based on strictly delimited articles of the Criminal Code, but guided by a revolutionary sense of justice,” oh, these werewolves would have received the wrong punishment! And here, you see, they are still talking about the “severity” of the sentence.” The Price of Metaphor, or Crime and Punishment.
The writer's speech caused shock among the Soviet intelligentsia. With an angry open letter Lydia Korneevna Chukovskaya turned to him. “The job of writers,” she wrote, “is not to persecute, but to stand up... This is what great Russian literature, in the person of its best representatives, teaches us. This is what tradition you broke, loudly regretting that the court sentence was not severe enough! A writer, like any Soviet citizen, can and should be tried in a criminal court for any offense - just not for his books. Literature is not within the jurisdiction of a criminal court. Ideas should be opposed by ideas, not by prisons and camps. This is what you should have told your listeners if you had actually stood up to the podium as a representative of Soviet literature. But you held your speech as an apostate... And literature itself will take revenge on you and itself... It will sentence you to the highest punishment that exists for an artist - to creative sterility” Sinyavsky and Daniel. M., 1989. P. 18. (May 25, 1966).
In 1969, Sholokhov transferred chapters from the novel “They Fought for the Motherland” to Pravda. The newspaper's editor-in-chief M. Zimyanin did not dare to publish them himself, since they contained criticism of Stalin. And the manuscript was handed over to Brezhnev. After waiting more than three weeks for a decision, Sholokhov himself sent a letter to the General Secretary, in which he asked to consider the issue of printing new chapters. However, the writer never received an answer or a personal meeting with Brezhnev. And suddenly Pravda published chapters, without the knowledge of the author, removing from them everything that related to Stalin’s terror1. Probably after this, Sholokhov realized that he would not be able to tell the truth about the war that he knew. According to the writer’s daughter, Sholokhov burned the manuscripts of unpublished chapters of the novel. The writer did not turn to fiction anymore, although fate measured out another fifteen years of his life. However, it is unlikely that only the insult inflicted by Pravda is the reason for this. Has struck him in recent decades creative crisis Sholokhov realized it himself. Back in 1954, speaking at the Second Congress of Soviet Writers, he said: “The term “leading” when applied to a person who really leads someone is a good term in itself, but in life it happens that there was the writer is a leader, and now he is no longer a leader, but a standing one. And it costs not a month, not a year, but ten years, or even more, - say, like your humble servant and others like him.”2 M. A. Sholokhov died on February 24, 1984. Even during Sholokhov’s lifetime, in the 70s, a new wave of accusations against the writer of plagiarism arose. Only now it has acquired not the form of rumors, but the form of a scientific discussion.
In 1974, the Paris publishing house YMCA-Press published a study, unfinished due to the death of the author, “The Stirrup of the Quiet Don” (Riddles of the Novel) signed under the pseudonym D* (only in 1990). For the first time, the publication of the restored text of the novel was carried out on the 50th anniversary of the Victory; it became known that the author of this work was the famous literary critic I. N. Medvedeva-Tomashevskaya). The book was published with a foreword by A. I. Solzhenitsyn, which included the following words: “An incident unprecedented in world literature has appeared before the reading public. The 23-year-old debutant created a work on material far superior to his own. life experience and your level of education (4th grade). The author described with vividness and knowledge world war, which he had not been to because he was ten years old, and the Civil War, which ended when he was 14 years old. The book was a success of such artistic power that is only achievable after many trials. experienced craftsman, - but the best 1st volume, begun in 1926, was submitted ready to the editor in 1927; a year later, after the 1st, the magnificent 2nd was ready; and even less than a year after the 2nd, the 3rd was filed, and only pro-letarian censorship delayed this stunning move. Then - an incomparable genius? But the subsequent A 5-year life was never confirmed and repeated either this height or this pace.

Based on the analysis of the text, the author of “Stirrup” comes to the conclusion that there are “two completely different, but coexisting authorial principles” in the novel. A true author, according to the researcher, is characterized by the manifestation of “high humanism and love of the people, which are characteristic of the Russian intelligentsia and Russian literature of the 1st century - 1910”2. It is characterized by a language that organically connects the popular Don dialect with the intellectual speech of the writer. The work of the “co-author” consisted, first of all, in editing the author’s text in accordance with ideological guidelines that completely contradict the author’s. The language of the “co-author” is characterized by “poverty and even helplessness.” D* names in his work the name of the “true author” of the novel. He, in her opinion, is the Cossack writer Fyodor Dmitrievich Kryukov (1870-1920), whose manuscript was transferred to S. Goloushev and is mentioned in a letter from L. Andreev. The publisher of “The Stirrup of the Quiet Don” A. Solzhenitsyn also agrees with this version. Hypothesis D* was also supported by R. A. Medvedev, who in 1975 published abroad in French the book “Who Wrote “Quiet Don”?”, and later in English its updated version “Riddles” literary biography Sholokhov". Since these works were not published in the Soviet Union, although they were well known in certain circles, no serious refutation of the arguments put forward was made in the Soviet press, and attempts were made to defend Sholokhov’s authorship without entering into an open discussion, much less to silence the problem not only did they not lead to the writer’s acquittal, but, on the contrary, often gave rise to doubts even in those readers who were not inclined to deny Sholokhov’s authorship. The problem was treated differently abroad. The American Slavist G. Ermolaev conducted a detailed comparative analysis of the text of “The Quiet Don” with the texts of Sholokhov and Kryukov and came to the conclusion that Sholokhov can with good reason be considered the author of the novel. A group of Norwegian scientists led by G. Hyetso was involved in solving the problem computer equipment and methods of mathematical linguistics. Using quantitative analysis, the researchers tested the hypothesis of Kryukov’s authorship and came to conclusions refuting it. On the contrary, their analysis confirmed that “Sholokhov writes strikingly similar to the author of The Quiet Don.”
New round discussions began after Sholokhov’s death in the 80s and 90s. Among the most significant work This period should be called the study published in Israel by 3. Bar-Sella “Quiet Don” against Sholokhov” (1988-1994). The author, having conducted a thorough study of the text of the novel, its stylistics, discovered numerous errors and inaccuracies, and also called, whole line little-known contenders for the authorship of “The Quiet Don” and announced his discovery of a new name for the author. In the published parts of the study, his name has not yet been given, but BarCella gives some information about him: “Don Cossack by origin, studied at the Moscow Imperial University, author of two books (except for “Quiet Don”), shot by the Reds in January 1920 in city ​​of Rostov-on-Don. At the time of his death he was not yet thirty years old.”1 In 1993, an extensive work by A. G. and S. E. Makarov appeared in the New World magazine. Without setting themselves the goal of naming a specific author of the novel, researchers, with the help of scrupulous analysis, reveal the existence of two different author's editions source text“Quiet Don” and their mechanical, compilative unification by the “co-author” of the text in the absence of visible understanding by him (“co-author”) of the fundamental discrepancies and internal contradictions that arise.
The most important argument against Sholokhov as the author of “Quiet Don” in recent years has been the lack of archives, drafts and manuscripts of the novel. However, as it turned out, drafts of the first book of the novel were preserved. They were found by journalist Lev Kommy, which he reported in his publications in the early 90s. In 1995, his book “Who Wrote “Quiet Don”: Chronicle of a Search” was published in Moscow, and in which the manuscripts were published and commented on, and the author’s edits of parts of the novel were reproduced. The appearance in print of manuscripts dated and edited by the writer himself became a serious argument in favor of Sholokhov’s authorship. However, not being sure that “uninvited guests - collectors, literary scholars, robbers, etc. - will not come to the archive keepers,” Kolodny did not indicate in whose hands these manuscripts are.
At the end of 1999, on the eve of Sholokhov’s anniversary (2000 is the year of the 95th anniversary of his birth), reports appeared in the media that the manuscripts of “Quiet Don”, which had been stored all these years, It turned out that in the family of Vasily Kudashev, a close friend of the writer who died during the Great Patriotic War, wives were discovered by employees of the Institute of World Literature. Gorky, who conducted the search independently of L. Kolodny. In an interview with a correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, the director of the institute, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences F. F. Kuznetsov said the following: “The most important thing for us was to determine how serious what the keepers of manuscripts have is. When we agreed on an acceptable price for both us and them, the photocopier was removed with their consent. Sensation! You won't find another word. 855 pages written by hand - most of them in Sholokhov's hand, the other - in the hand of Maria Petrovna, the writer's wife (at that time the Sholokhovs did not yet have a typewriter). Of these, more than five hundred pages are drafts, variants, phrases crossed out lengthwise and crosswise in search of the desired word - in short, living evidence of the author’s thought, creative quests».
It is difficult to say whether the introduction of these manuscripts into scientific circulation will put an end to the protracted dispute. But one thing is already clear today: great books have the ability to live their own lives, independent of their creators and critics. Time has confirmed that this is precisely the fate destined for the best works of Mikhail Sholokhov.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov was born on the Don in nineteen hundred and five. He witnessed " key points” history of the country and in his work reflected all stages of the struggle and construction of a new state: the civil war, collectivization and the Great Patriotic War. According to Artistic and journalistic works Sholokhov, you can study the history of our state, they are so truthful, monumental and multifaceted. It depicts life as it was.
In the mid-twenties, “Mole”, “Shepherd”, “Food Commissar” began to be published - works later combined by the writer into “Don Stories”.

In them Sholokhov will show the merciless truth civil war, which divided yesterday's friends, even members of the same family, into two irreconcilable camps. Mortal fight between fighters for new life and those who defended the old order, wanted to turn the country back onto the old rails - the main theme of “Don Stories”. In these works of Sholokhov there are no “happy”, “prosperous” endings, since there cannot be happiness and peace, peace of mind in such a bloody whirlwind.
In parallel with his work on the stories, the writer begins to create a broad canvas about the life of the Don Cossacks on the eve of the revolutions and before the civil war. Mikhail Aleksandrovich worked on the epic novel “Quiet Don” until 1940, and turned to it later.
The central place in the novel is occupied by the events of the civil war on the Don, and in particular the history of the Upper Don counter-revolutionary uprising of the Cossacks. This page of the civil war before Sholokhov was poorly studied by historians. The writer did a tremendous job, collecting a large number of original documents, and recreated the actual picture of those tragic events.
With great warmth, Sholokhov paints portraits of persistent fighters for a new life. This is the son of a farm laborer Mikhail Koshevoy, mill driver Ivan Kotlyarov, professional revolutionary Shtokman, loyal soldier of the revolution Bunchuk and many others.
The novel also presents those who wanted to maintain the old order. This is the family of rich farmstead Korshunovs, the merchant Mokhov, the landowner Listnitsky, generals and officers of the White Army, foreign interventionists.
In the novel “Quiet Don” Sholokhov showed the fate of the people during the years of the revolution and civil war. In the vacillations of the Cossacks between revolution and counter-revolution, the dual nature of the psychology of the small owner was revealed.
The writer brilliantly showed all the vicissitudes of a person’s life at a turning point in history using the example of the life of Grigory Melekhov. He says about life: “...I don’t understand anything... It’s difficult for me to figure it out... I wander like a blizzard in the steppe...”
In the novel “Quiet Flows the Don” Sholokhov combines an epic depiction of great historical events with an amazing lyricism of the narrative, the transfer of the most subtle intimate experiences of people, the revelation of their most intimate feelings and thoughts.
In parallel with his work on the final chapters of the novel “Quiet Don,” Sholokhov is working on a novel about collectivization, later called “Virgin Soil Upturned.” Like "Quiet" new novel- about the life of the people during the terrible period of breaking up folk psychology. Only now is this a period of overcoming age-old prejudices and turning ordinary workers to new forms of life. In “Virgin Soil Upturned” the action takes place in the conditions of the strengthened Soviet system, when the consciousness of the core mass of the Cossacks has grown significantly, the understanding of the advantages of the new life more easily penetrates the masses, and the anti-Soviet agitation of the enemies of the people finds fewer and fewer supporters.
The psychology of the Cossacks is depicted most clearly in such mass scenes as a meeting regarding the organization of a collective farm, a “women’s revolt”, Davydov’s arrival in a brigade that refused to work, an open party meeting of collective farmers... Sholokhov wrote a novel based on rich material from the real life around him; the writer showed that the turn in the people's consciousness did not occur immediately and not easily.
The Great Patriotic War began, and the humanist writer did not stay away from the struggle. In military correspondence, essays “On the Don”, “In the South”, “Prisoners of War”, “On Cossack collective farms”, the writer reveals the inhuman nature of the war unleashed by the Nazis. In 1943, Sholokhov began work on the novel “They Fought for the Motherland.” The work tells about the difficult days of retreat under the pressure of the powerful German military machine, about the deadly battle at Stalingrad, which turned the entire course of the war.
The novel “They Fought for the Motherland” deeply reveals the Russian national character, which clearly manifested itself in the days of difficult trials. The heroism of the Russian people in the novel is devoid of outwardly brilliant manifestations and appears before us in everyday military life tragically, and sometimes comically. This depiction of war leads the reader to the conclusion that heroism does not lie in individual exploits. Soviet soldiers, and what about all front life- feat.
After the war, in 1957, when the threat of a new global catastrophe arose over the world, Sholokhov published the story “The Fate of Man” to recall those horrors that should not happen again. In a small work, the reader is shown the life of the hero, incorporating the fate of the country.
Andrei Sokolov is a Soviet man, a peaceful worker who hates the war, which took away his entire family, happiness, and hope for the best. Left alone, Sokolov did not lose his humanity; he was able to see and warm a homeless boy next to him. The writer ends the story with the confidence that a new person, ready to overcome any trials of fate.
Sholokhov's creativity is appreciated. He is a laureate of all possible domestic prizes and awards, and in 1965 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel “Quiet Don”. His works are worthily included in Russian classical literature.

Russian writer Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was born on the Kruzhilin farm in the Cossack village of Veshenskaya in the Rostov region, in southern Russia. In his works, the writer immortalized the Don River and the Cossacks who lived here and defended the interests of the Tsar in pre-revolutionary Russia and opposed the Bolsheviks during the Civil War.

His father, a native of the Ryazan province, sowed grain on rented Cossack land, was a clerk managing a steam mill, and his mother, a Ukrainian, the widow of a Don Cossack, endowed by nature with a lively mind, learned to read and write in order to correspond with her son when he went to study in Voronezh.

Sholokhov's studies were interrupted by the 1917 revolution and civil war. After graduating from four classes of the gymnasium, in 1918 he joined the Red Army - and this despite the fact that many Don Cossacks joined the White Army, which fought against the Bolsheviks. The future writer first served in a logistics support detachment, and then became a machine gunner and took part in bloody battles on the Don. From the first days of the revolution, Sholokhov supported the Bolsheviks and advocated for Soviet power. In 1932 he joined the Communist Party, in 1937 he was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and two years later - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1956, Sholokhov spoke at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, and in 1959 he accompanied Soviet leader N.S. Khrushchev on his trips to Europe and the USA. In 1961, Sholokhov became a member of the CPSU Central Committee.

In 1922, when the Bolsheviks finally took power into their own hands, Sholokhov came to Moscow. Here he took part in the work literary group"Young Guard", worked as a loader, laborer, and clerk. In 1923, his first feuilletons were published in the newspaper "Yunosheskaya Pravda", and in 1924, in the same newspaper, his first story "Mole" was published.

In the summer of 1924, Sholokhov returned to the village of Veshenskaya, where he lived, almost without leaving, for the rest of his life. In 1925, a collection of feuilletons and stories by the writer about the civil war entitled “Don Stories” was published in Moscow. In “The History of Soviet Literature,” critic Vera Aleksandrova writes that the stories in this collection impress with “rich descriptions of nature, rich speech characteristics of characters, lively dialogues,” noting, however, that “already in these early works one can feel that Sholokhov’s “epic talent” is not fits within the narrow framework of the story."

From 1926 to 1940, Sholokhov worked on Quiet Don, a novel that brought the writer world fame. "Quiet Don" was published in the Soviet Union in parts: the first and second volumes were published in 1928...1929, the third in 1932...1933, and the fourth in 1937...1940. In the West, the first two volumes appeared in 1934, and the next two in 1940.

Sholokhov's main, most famous novel "Quiet Don" is an epic story about the First World War, revolution, civil war, and the attitude of the Cossacks to these events. One of the main characters of the novel, Grigory Melekhov, is a hot-tempered, independently-minded Cossack who bravely fought against the Germans on the fronts of the First World War, and then, after the overthrow of the autocracy, faced with the need to choose - he fights first on the side of the Whites, then on the side of the Reds and, In the end, he ends up in the "green" squad. After several years of war, Gregory, like millions of Russian people, found himself spiritually devastated. Melekhov's duality, his inconsistency, and mental turmoil make him one of the most famous tragic heroes of Soviet literature.

Initially, Soviet criticism reacted to the novel rather reservedly. The first volume of “Quiet Don” caused criticism because it described the events of pre-revolutionary life from “alien” positions, as they put it then; the second volume did not suit official critics, since, in their opinion, it was distinguished by an anti-Bolshevik orientation. In a letter to Sholokhov, Stalin wrote that he did not agree with the interpretation of the images of two communists in the novel. However, despite all these criticisms, a number of famous figures Soviet culture, warmly supported the young writer and contributed in every possible way to the completion of the epic.

In the 30s Sholokhov interrupts work on "Quiet Don" and writes a novel about the resistance of the Russian peasantry to forced collectivization, carried out in accordance with the first five-year plan (1928...1933). Entitled “Virgin Soil Upturned,” this novel, like “Quiet Don,” began to appear in parts in periodicals when the first volume was not yet completed. Like "Quiet Don", "Virgin Soil Upturned" was met with hostility by official criticism, but members of the Party's Central Committee considered that the novel gave an objective assessment of collectivization, and in every possible way contributed to the publication of the novel (1932). In the 40s...50s. the writer subjected the first volume to significant revision, and in 1960 he completed work on the second volume.

During the Second World War, Sholokhov was a war correspondent for Pravda, author of articles and reports on the heroism of the Soviet people; After the Battle of Stalingrad, the writer begins work on the third novel - the trilogy “They Fought for the Motherland.” The first chapters of the novel were published on the pages of Pravda already in 1943...1944, as well as in 1949 and 1954, but the first volume of the trilogy was published as a separate edition only in 1958. The trilogy remained unfinished - in post-war years the writer significantly reworks "Quiet Don", softens his juicy tongue, is trying to “whitewash” the carriers of the communist idea.

In the 70s Alexander Solzhenitsyn, condemned by party members (including the Sholokhovs) for criticizing the socialist system, accused Sholokhov of plagiarism, of appropriating the works of another Cossack writer, Fyodor Kryukov, who died in 1920. Thus, Solzhenitsyn gave rise to accusations that had already taken place in the 20s and widespread in the 70s. To date, the authorship of M. A. Sholokhov has been proven, the proof is the found manuscripts, as well as the “Dictionary of the Language of M. A. Sholokhov,” published on the 100th anniversary of the writer’s birth.

Sholokhov's works remain popular among readers. Having reworked "Quiet Don", he earned the approval of Soviet official criticism; As for Western experts, they consider the original version of the novel more successful. Thus, the American critic, a native of Russia, Mark Slonim compares "Quiet Don" with Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace", admitting, however, that Sholokhov's book is "inferior to the brilliant creation of its great predecessor." “Sholokhov, following in the footsteps of his teacher, combines biography with history, battle scenes with everyday ones, the movement of the masses with individual psychology,” writes Slonim, “he shows how social cataclysms influence the destinies of people, how political struggle leads to happiness or collapse ".

According to American researcher Ernest Simmons, the original version of "Quiet Flows the Don" is not a political treatise. “This is a novel not about politics, although it is oversaturated with politics,” wrote Simmons, “but about love. Quiet Don is a great and at the same time touching love story, perhaps the only true love novel in Soviet literature.” Noting that the heroes of the revised version of the novel “react to the events of 1917...1922 in the spirit of the communists of the 50s,” Simmons expresses the opinion that “the tendentiousness of the final version of the novel conflicts with its artistic integrity.”

Slonim argued that “Virgin Soil Upturned,” which was considered weaker than “Quiet Don,” “is not an ideological work... it is a lively written novel, traditional in style, in which there is no element of edification.” Simmons disagrees, calling "Virgin Soil Upturned" "skillful Soviet propaganda, carefully disguised in a fictional narrative." Pointing to the role of Sh. as a propagandist and apologist for socialism, the American literary critic Edward Brown, like others modern critics, pays tribute to the extraordinary skill of Sh. - a prose writer, the author of "Quiet Don" in its original version. At the same time, Brown shares the widespread point of view, according to which Sh. “cannot be considered one of the greatest writers, since he wrote too little and little of what he wrote reaches a high level.”

First mention of the manuscript elementary book"Quiet Don" dates back to 1927, when Sholokhov, arriving in Moscow, read some chapters of the novel to his friends. The original plan covered only the Kornilov rebellion and was called “Donshchina”. However, it turned out to be “beyond the power” of the truthful chronicler Sholokhov to explain the reasons for the failure of the uprising without the prehistory of the Cossacks. He shared the idea of ​​the novel with his friends and received advice on how to cope with countless difficulties. One of the main evidence of the claims was the belief that the 23-year-old writer could not master the very material underlying the events of "Quiet Don". The first book was published in 1927 thanks to the intervention of the magazine editor Serafimovich. A little later, in 1928, Evgenia Grigorievna Levitskaya became acquainted with the manuscript of the novel, and it was she who was destined to become true friend and Sholokhov's assistant for many years. It was she who was the first to defend the young author immediately after the publication of the first book of the novel. In 1928, the magazine "October" published the second book of "T. Don", which included chapters of the once postponed "Donshchina". The writer includes in the novel numerous documents, detailed military reports, and along with fictional characters puts real historical figures. The fate of the third book turned out to be especially dramatic. This can be seen from the chronicle of its publication: 1929, October magazine No. 1 - 3; the narrative reaches chapter 12 and suddenly ends - without any explanation from the editors. In 1930 - 31 only isolated excerpts from the third book appear, and only in 1932, “October” resumed publication of the novel without any explanation, subjecting it to severe censorship (chapters were cut out, which, according to the magazine’s editors, were seditious). After Sholokhov’s threat to take the novel away completely, some chapters were reprinted , but in what form!.. However, despite everything, work on the book continued, Sholokhov finished it in 1930, but then a problem arose with printing. Sholokhov turns to Stalin for help, convinces him that the novel is anti-White Guard, because it ends with the complete defeat of the Volunteer Army. And Stalin gave permission for printing. In 1934, Sholokhov finished the 4th book, but decided to rewrite it, but was able to finally finish it only in 1938; the final 8th part of the fourth book appears only in 1940. In 1953, a four-volume set was published under the editorship of Potapov, who made many corrections to the novel. And only in 1980 Sholokhov saw, not distorted by censorship and editorial interference, full text of his work - 50 years after it was written and 4 years before the end of his life.

Sholokhov plunges the reader into the depths folk life, draws his attention to the origins in order to understand the changes taking place in the existence of people and people. Class conflict ceases to be the main thing for the author. It is not only and not so much the struggle between the whites and the reds that interests him now, as it was in “Don Stories,” but the fate of the traditional way of people’s life at the turning point of history. This is how a special genre of work develops - the genre of epic. What are the features of this genre?

• 1. The work shows the life of the people in turning point historical development. Like an ancient epic, Sholokhov’s novel captured the life of the Cossacks in the situation of the “beginning of time,” i.e. not just in difficult historical trials, but during the beginning new history, a new structure of the world, a new state, attempts to create a “new man”. Heroic events of national interest are at the center of the image. The author sought not only to “capture everything,” but also to “get to the root” in depicting and understanding life.
• 2. Hence the scale and depth of the depiction of life, spatiotemporal and social multidimensionality (events cover more than 10 years, in stories about the history of heroes - an even longer period of time). Location: Don, Austria, St. Petersburg, etc. - all of Russia, and traveling around it is a process of learning about the homeland. The main segments of the population, the most important ideological trends, in particular, different plans for resolving the fate of the Don are presented. Historical and family-everyday collisions (clash, struggle of active forces and persons involved in the conflict among themselves).
• 3. The fate of the people is in the center of the image. They play an important role in this crowd scenes, the author relies on the traditions of folklore, starting with epigraphs.
• 4. The writer shows how historical events destroy the traditional foundations of human existence on earth, how there is a breakdown in patriarchal - family life and connections between people based on kinship, community, and joint labor, which are replaced by a different type of community - on class, ideological principles. The heroes act not only with their personal beliefs, but also with a common idea that draws a new divide between them.
• 5. “People’s thought” forms the basis of the author’s position. The novel expresses a variety of points of view, agreement and disagreement with what is happening, philosophical reflections on human destiny. The author’s task is to depict the tragic in the revolution and civil war, the contradictions of the heroes and life itself.
• 6. At the center of the story epic hero- Grigory Melekhov, in whose individual fate the author was able to recreate the whole gamut of contradictions, tossing and conflicts experienced by the people.
• 7. The novel has the features of various genres: historical novel (exact dating of events, real historical persons, introduction of documents), family - everyday novel(scenes of peaceful life), features of a journalistic novel, psychological, philosophical; elements of tragedy, drama, and lyrical beginnings were introduced.
• 8. The fate of a person is “inscribed” in history, in the fate of the people, the country. History concerns people belonging to different social strata, and the fate of each merges into the common fate. This relationship is also conveyed by the composition of the novel, which helps to show the interconnection of everything and affirm the eternal values ​​of life: home, family, son.

III Main part.

War is a national disaster.

It’s not with plows that our glorious land is plowed...

Our land is plowed by horse hooves.

And the glorious land is sown with Cossack heads,

Our quiet Don is decorated with young widows,

Our quiet father the Don is blooming with orphans,

The wave in the quiet Don is filled with paternal and maternal tears.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 in the Kruzhilina farm of the village of Vyoshenskaya, Donetsk district of the Don Army region (now Sholokhov district of the Rostov region).

At the same time, Sholokhov took part in the handwritten newspaper "New World", played in performances of the Karginsky People's House, for which he anonymously composed the plays "General Pobedonostsev" and "An Extraordinary Day".

In October 1922, he moved to Moscow, where he worked as a loader, mason, and accountant in the housing administration on Krasnaya Presnya. At the same time, he attended classes at the Young Guard literary association.

In December 1924, his story “Mole” was published in the newspaper “Young Leninist”, which opened the cycle of Don stories: “Shepherd”, “Ilyukha”, “Foal”, “Azure Steppe”, “Family Man” and others. They were published in Komsomol periodicals, and then compiled three collections, “Don Stories” and “Azure Steppe” (both 1926) and “About Kolchak, Nettles and Others” (1927). “Don Stories” was read in manuscript by Sholokhov’s fellow countryman, writer Alexander Serafimovich, who wrote the preface to the collection.

In 1925, the writer began to create the novel “Quiet Don” about the dramatic fate of the Don Cossacks during the First World War and the Civil War. During these years, he lived with his family in the village of Karginskaya, then in Bukanovskaya, and from 1926 in Vyoshenskaya. In 1928, the first two books of the epic novel were published in the magazine "October". The release of the third book (sixth part) was delayed due to a rather sympathetic portrayal of participants in the anti-Bolshevik Verkhnedon uprising of 1919. To release the book, Sholokhov turned to the writer Maxim Gorky, with the help of whom he obtained permission from Joseph Stalin to publish this part of the novel without cuts in 1932, and in 1934 he basically completed the fourth and final part, but began to rewrite it again, not without toughening ideological pressure. The seventh part of the fourth book was published in 1937-1938, the eighth in 1940.

The work has been translated into many languages.

In 1932, the first book of his novel “Virgin Soil Upturned” about collectivization was published. The work was declared a perfect example of the literature of socialist realism and was soon included in all school programs, becoming a must-learn.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Mikhail Sholokhov worked as a war correspondent for the Sovinformburo, the newspapers Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda. He published front-line essays, the story "The Science of Hate" (1942), as well as the novel "They Fought for the Motherland" (1943-1944), which was conceived as a trilogy, but was not completed.

The writer donated the State Prize, awarded in 1941 for the novel "Quiet Don", to the USSR Defense Fund. own funds purchased four new missile launchers for the front.

In 1956, his story “The Fate of Man” was published.

In 1965, the writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature for artistic power and the integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." Sholokhov donated the prize to the construction of a school in his homeland - in the village of Vyoshenskaya, Rostov region.

In recent years, Mikhail Sholokhov has been working on the novel “They Fought for the Motherland.” At this time, the village of Veshenskaya became a place of pilgrimage. Sholokhov had visitors not only from Russia, but also from various parts of the world.

Sholokhov was studying social activities. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the first through ninth convocations. Since 1934 - member of the board of the Union of Writers of the USSR. Member World Council Mira.

In the last years of his life, Sholokhov was seriously ill. He suffered two strokes, diabetes, then throat cancer.

On February 21, 1984, Mikhail Sholokhov died in the village of Veshenskaya, where he was buried on the banks of the Don.

The writer was an honorary doctor of philological sciences from the Universities of Rostov and Leipzig, and an honorary doctor of law from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Since 1939 - full academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Mikhail Sholokhov was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (1967, 1980). Laureate State Prize USSR (1941), Lenin Prize(1960), as well as the Nobel Prize (1965). Among his awards are six Orders of Lenin, the Order October revolution, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, medals “For the Defense of Moscow”, “For the Defense of Stalingrad”, “For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”.

In 1984, in his homeland in the village of Vyoshenskaya, Rostov region, it was formed State Museum-Reserve M.A. Sholokhov.

Since 1985, the Sholokhov Spring, an All-Russian literary and folklore festival, has been held annually in the village of Veshenskaya. dedicated to the day writer's birth.

Since 1924, Mikhail Sholokhov was married to the daughter of the former Cossack ataman Maria Gromoslavskaya (1902-1992), who after her marriage worked as the writer’s personal secretary. The family had four children - Svetlana (born in 1926), Alexander (1930-1992), Mikhail (1935-2013) and Maria (born in 1938).

Svetlana is the scientific secretary of the M.A. Museum-Reserve. Sholokhova, after graduating from Leningrad University, she worked as a journalist in the magazine “Rabotnitsa” and other printed publications.

After graduating from the Timiryazev Academy, Alexander worked at the Nikitsky Botanical Garden in Yalta.

Graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Rostov State University. For most of his life he was engaged in public activities, headed the Public Council under the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Rostov Region, organized the social-patriotic movement “Union of Cossacks of the Don Army Region” and was its first chieftain.

Maria graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, worked as a journalist in various print publications.

The writer’s grandson Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov is the director of the M.A. Museum-Reserve. Sholokhov.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

In the 30s, M. Sholokhov’s world-famous novels “Quiet Don” and “Virgin Soil Upturned” (1st book) were published. Sholokhov is an outstanding writer of our country, a major master artistic word. His works are widely known both here and far beyond the borders of the Soviet Union.

“...A wonderful phenomenon of our literature is Mikhail Sholokhov,” said A. Tolstoy... “He came to literature with the theme of the birth of a new society in the throes and tragedies of social struggle. In “Quiet Don” he unfolded an epic, rich in the smells of the earth, picturesque canvas from the life of the Don Cossacks. But that doesn't limit big topic novel:

“Quiet Don” in terms of language, warmth, humanity, plasticity is an all-Russian, national, folk work.”

“Sholokhov’s work is masterful,” wrote A.V. Lunacharsky about “Virgin Soil Upturned.” “A very large, complex, full of contradictions and rushing forward content is dressed here in a beautiful verbal figurative form...”

Biography

Ikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 on the Don, on the Kruzhilin farm, into a working family. He studied first at a parish school, and then, until 1918, at a gymnasium. During the Civil War, Sholokhov lived on the Don, served in a food detachment, and participated in the fight against white gangs. In 1920, he created a Komsomol cell in one

from the villages. At the end of the war, Sholokhov worked as a mason, laborer, and accountant. The writer's literary activity began in 1923. In 1925, his first book, “Don Stories,” was published.

Sholokhov belongs to that generation Soviet writers, which were shaped by revolution, civil war, socialist construction.

A. Fadeev said this well: “When, after the end of the civil war, we began to converge from different parts of our vast Motherland - party, and even more non-party young people - we were amazed at how common our biographies were despite the difference in individual destinies. Such was the path of Furmanov, the author of the book “Chapaev”... Such was the path of the younger and, perhaps, more talented Sholokhov among us... We entered literature wave after wave, there were many of us. We brought ours personal experience life, your individuality. We were united by the feeling of the new world as our own and the love for it.”

After the publication of his first stories, Sholokhov returned to the Don, to his native village. “I wanted to write about the people among whom I was born and whom I knew,” he recalled.

In 1926, Sholokhov began working on Quiet Don. The first book of the novel was published in 1928, the second in 1929, the third in 1933, and the fourth in 1940. Already the first books of “Quiet Don” made the name of Sholokhov widely known.

Gorky and Serafimovich took an active part in Sholokhov’s literary fate. Serafimovich wrote a preface to “Don Stories”. He was the first to note in the author the extraordinary talent, knowledge of life, great visual power, and vivid imagery of language. Gorky helped the writer publish the third book of “The Quiet Don,” which some critics tried to discredit.

During the Great Patriotic War, Sholokhov - active participant the struggle of the Soviet people against the fascist invaders. He wrote a number of essays and the short story "The Science of Hate" (1942). At the same time, Sholokhov began work on a novel about the Great Patriotic War, “They Fought for the Motherland.” Individual chapters were printed in 1943-1944 and in 1949. They depict the difficult heroic battles waged by the Soviet Army in the summer of 1942 on the distant approaches to Stalingrad.

A significant artistic achievement of the writer was the story “The Fate of Man,” published on the pages

"Pravda" in 1957. The story quickly became known throughout the world. Based on it, the talented Soviet film director and actor S. Bondarchuk created a wonderful film under the same name.

In 1959, Sholokhov completed the second book of Virgin Soil Upturned, thereby completing the entire novel as a whole.

For the first and second books of Virgin Soil Upturned, the writer was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1960. In 1965, Sholokhov was awarded the international Nobel Prize.

Currently, Sholokhov continues to work on the novel “They Fought for the Motherland.”

The main features of creativity.

Sholokhov’s entire life and literary activity is connected with the Don. The writer passionately loves his native places; In the life of the Don Cossacks, he draws themes, images, and material for his artistic works.

Sholokhov himself emphasized: “I was born on the Don, grew up there, studied, was formed as a person and a writer and was brought up as a member of our great Communist Party and am a patriot of my great powerful Motherland. I proudly say that I am also a patriot of my native Don region.”

The artistic depiction of the life of the Don Cossacks, remarkable in its brightness and strength, is an important feature of Sholokhov’s creative activity.

This does not mean at all that Sholokhov is a writer of some purely local, regional theme. On the contrary, using the material of the life and everyday life of the Don Cossacks, he was able to reveal deep processes of broad historical significance. And here it should be noted the second most important feature of his work - the desire to artistically capture turning points, milestone periods in the life of our country, when the struggle of the new, socialist world against the old, bourgeois one appears in the most acute, fierce and dramatic form. The Civil War (“Quiet Don”), collectivization (“Virgin Soil Upturned”) and the Great Patriotic War (“They Fought for the Motherland,” “The Fate of Man”) are three periods in the life of our people on which the artist’s attention is focused.

Connected with this is the third feature of Sholokhov’s talent - epic breadth, a penchant for monumental artistic canvases, to deep social generalizations, to posing big questions about historical destinies people.

The heroes of Sholokhov's works are simple working people. Their thoughts, sorrows and joys, their desire for happiness and justice, their struggle for a new life invariably interest the artist.

And finally, it is necessary to note an essential feature of the writer’s creative method—his dislike for any idealization of reality. To unswervingly follow the harsh truth of life, to embody reality in all its contradictions, in all its complexity and diversity, in all its contrasts, without in any way smoothing out the intense severity of the conflicts that arise in the difficult and complex process of the birth of a new, communist world, such. The artistic starting principle that Sholokhov invariably adheres to.

"Quiet Don"

These principles, most fully manifested in the novel “Quiet Don,” were already reflected in the writer’s first book, “Don Stories.” The main theme of the stories is the class struggle on the Don. It is not family ties and feelings, but the place of people in the cruel struggle of classes that determines their relationships with each other. Often even fathers and sons and siblings become mortal enemies. In the story “Kolovert”, the old Cossack Kramskov and his two sons, who went to the Reds, are captured by the White Guards. They are shot by their youngest son, Mikhail, a white officer. In the story “Bakhchevnik” the father is the commandant of the White Guard military court, an executioner and torturer, and his son Fyodor is a Red Army soldier. Fyodor, wounded in the leg, is pursued by the whites. His father discovers him in the melon grove and plans to deal with him. Then the youngest son Mitya, in order to save his brother, kills his father. In the story “Wormhole,” Komsomol member Stepka hates with burning hatred his father Yakov Alekseevich the kulak and world-eater. As punishment for the fact that the bulls allegedly disappeared due to Stepka’s fault, Yakov Alekseevich and his eldest son brutally kill the Komsomol member.

Depicting the furious anger of the enemies of the revolution, their bloody deeds, Sholokhov proves that, on the contrary, among the revolutionary Cossacks, who were forced to defend a new life in fierce battles, high and noble qualities manifested themselves - readiness for self-sacrifice, heroic courage and true humanity.

If in “Don Stories” the class struggle was depicted mainly within the narrow confines of a Cossack family, then this theme was developed in a completely different way in “Quiet Don”. "Quiet Don" is one of the most outstanding works Soviet literary prose. M.I. Kalinin, in a conversation with young writers in 1934, said: “Quiet Don” I consider our “best work of art. Certain passages are written with exceptional power.”

A. M. Gorky attributed “Quiet Don” to the books that “gave a broad, truthful and talented picture of the civil war.”

Relying on the best achievements of Soviet literature in depicting the civil war, Sholokhov managed to create a deeply innovative and original work.

In "Quiet Don" Sholokhov, first of all, appears to us as a master of epic storytelling. The artist broadly and freely unfolds a huge historical panorama of turbulent dramatic events. "Quiet Don" covers a period of ten years, from 1912 to 1922.