Biography of the writer. Basic summary of the works of M.A. Sholokhov with dough Main features of creativity

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov

Born on May 11, 1905 in the Kruzhilin farmstead (now Rostov region) in the family of an employee of a trading enterprise. He studied at a gymnasium in the Voronezh province in the city of Boguchar. Having arrived in Moscow to continue his education and not being admitted, he was forced to change many working specialties in order to feed himself. Creativity has always played an important role in Sholokhov’s life. In 1923, the newspaper Yunosheskaya Pravda published his first feuilleton, “Test.” After publishing feuilletons in newspapers, the writer publishes his stories in magazines. In 1924, the newspaper “Young Leninist” published the first of Sholokhov’s series of Don stories, “The Birthmark.” Later, all the stories from this cycle were combined into three collections: “Don Stories” (1926), “Azure Steppe” (1926) and “About Kolchak, Nettles and Others” (1927). The pages of “Don Stories” are thickly saturated with blood, and the blood of the closest relatives: “Brother against brother,” “son against father,” “father against son” rebel in the most literal sense. Many of the heroes of the stories are real people, mostly residents of the Kargina farm. “Nakhalenok”, “Mortal Enemy”, “Alyoshka’s Heart”, “Resentment”, “Alien Blood” - all these stories are united by the theme of revolution and civil war.

Telling the reader about the independent, freedom-loving people - the Cossacks and their moral values: Christian faith, family, their own home, peaceful working life in their native land, love for it and readiness to defend it - the writer shows the collapse of the centuries-old foundations of human life, emphasizing the tragic nature of the era . The word “Cossack”, translated from Turkic, means: a tramp, a free person. The novel “Quiet Don” (1928-1932) brought Sholokhov wide fame. Over time, this epic became popular not only in the USSR, but also in Europe and Asia, and was translated into many languages. The epic novel “Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov depicts a wide panorama of the life of the Don Cossacks during the First World War, the revolutionary events of 1917, and the Civil War (from 1912 to 1922).The fate of the people during historical trials is what makes this novel an epic. The author is deeply concerned about the fate of his heroes and does not tolerate senseless cruelty in them. The model for its creation was the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace". Another famous novel by M. Sholokhov is “Virgin Soil Upturned” (1932-1959) about the times of collectivization in two volumes on the Gremyachiy Log farm. In 1960, this novel received the Lenin Prize.

From 1941 to 1945, Sholokhov worked as a war correspondent. During this time, he wrote and published several stories and essays (“The Science of Hate” (1942), “On the Don”, “Cossacks” and others). Sholokhov’s famous works are also: the story “The Fate of a Man” (1956), the unfinished novel “They Fought for the Motherland” (1942-1944, 1949, 1969). It is worth noting that an important event in the biography of Mikhail Sholokhov in 1965 was the receipt of the Nobel Prize in literature for the epic novel “Quiet Don”. The problem of the authorship of his works periodically surfaced around the name of Sholokhov. After the publication of the novel “Quiet Don,” the question arose: how was such a young writer able to create such a voluminous work in such a short period. By order of Joseph Stalin, a commission was even created, which, after studying the writer’s manuscript, confirmed his authorship. Since the 60s, Sholokhov practically stopped studying literature and loved to devote time to hunting and fishing. He donated all his awards for the construction of new schools.

The writer died on February 21, 1984 from cancer and was buried in the courtyard of his house in the village of Veshenskaya on the banks of the Don River. Sholokhov was the only Soviet writer who received the Nobel Prize with the approval of the current government. He was called “Stalin’s favorite,” although Sholokhov is one of the few who was not afraid to tell the truth.

Review of the novel "Quiet Don".

“Quiet Don” is the longest book among the classic Russian novels of the 20th century, it has four volumes and eight parts. Volume 1 is a story about the peaceful life of the Cossacks, the beginning of the First World War. Volume 2 is the events of the 1917 revolution, an unsuccessful attempt to establish the Soviet authorities on the Don. Volume 3 is a depiction of the events of the Upper Don uprising of the Cossacks against the Bolsheviks. Grigory supports this uprising because he was repulsed by the policy of decossackization, carried out with particular cruelty on the Don. Volume 4 is the defeat of the Verkhnedonsky uprising, Melekhov’s service in Budyonny’s cavalry, demobilization, return to the farm, flight to Fomin’s gang, the collapse of the Melekhov family, final return Gregory to his home.

CFrom the first to the last page, the novel is permeated with proverbs and sayings, folk songs, and stable phrases. Donskoy writer M.A. Nikulin says: “I turn over the pages of The Quiet Don with the thought of the novel’s high musicality. Its musical fabric, like its verbal one, is organically connected with oral folk art.”

Most of the action of the novel takes place in the Tatarsky farm of the village of Vyoshenskaya approximately between 1912 and 1922. The plot centers on the life of the Cossack family Melekhov, who went through the First World War and the Civil War. Family is the basis of folk life in the world of “Quiet Don”. Often fellow villagers called the Melekhovs “Turks” because their grandmother was Turkish. At the beginning of the story, the author introduces the reader to the head of the family, Pantelei Prokofievich. The head of the Melekhov family does not tolerate disobedience, but at heart he is kind and sensitive. He is a skillful and hardworking owner, he knows how to manage the household efficiently, and he works from dawn to dusk. Vasilisa Ilyinichna Melekhova, the mother, the keeper of the family hearth, captivates the reader with her hard work, inexhaustible patience, mercy and generosity. She is selflessly generous in her motherhood, which, according to Sholokhov, is the main dignity of a Russian woman. The father passed on the same all-consuming love for his home to his sons. His eldest, already married son Petro resembled his mother: big, snub-nosed, with wild, wheat-colored hair, brown eyes, and the youngest, Gregory, took after his father - “Gregory was just as stooped as his father, even in his smile they both had something in common, bestial." Grigory, like his father, loves his house, where Panteley Prokofievich forced him to nurse his horse, loves his wedge of land behind the farm, which he plowed with his own hands.

"House" in the novel, it is the center of existence, uniting the heroes, preventing the world, which is collapsing before their eyes, from falling apart. Nature, especially the earth, the Don River, the steppe, the sun, is a kind of hero of the novel, which alone is opposed to hostility, death, bloodshed and symbolizes “triumphant life” and creation. From a strong and prosperous family, by the end of the novel, Grigory Melekhov, his son Misha and sister Dunya remain alive. The historical turning point, which changed the ancient way of life of the Don Cossacks, coincided with a tragic turning point in his personal life.

Grigory rushes between two women: his initially unloved wife Natalya, whose feelings for whom awakened only after the birth of their children, and Aksinya Astakhova, Grigory’s first and strongest love. Natalya is hardworking, kind, beautiful. She loves Gregory very much. When the Melekhovs came to woo the Korshunovs, Natalya really liked Grigory. “I love Grishka, but I won’t marry anyone else!” she declares. But life played a cruel joke on her. She married a man who never loved her. After Gregory leaves for Aksinya, Natalya attempts suicide. After this, she spends seven months on the brink of life and death. Aksinya endured a lot of suffering in her life. She actively strives for her happiness. However, not only cold calculation and intelligence are characteristic of Aksinya. After all, it is she who, after Natalya’s death, takes care of Grigory’s children. The children even start calling her mom. Natalya, long before her death, will want to go to her parents. But Grigory’s mother, Ilyinichna, categorically forbids her to do this. Aksinya loves Gregory very much and agrees to go with him to Kuban. Grigory is hiding from the authorities and they have to flee from a patrol that gets in their way. Then Aksinya dies. Grigory takes her death very hard. Aksinya Astakhova is an image that expresses the idea of ​​sacrificial, all-forgiving and all-enduring love. In his frantic love, Grigory finds both Natalya and Aksinya to suffer, but at the same time he suffers no less.

The son of the “quiet Don” - the central character of the novel - with his whole life affirms the kindness, love, mercy, wisdom characteristic of the Russian people. Grigory Melekhov combines the best generic traits of his fellow countrymen and the uniqueindividual especially, in the tragic life of Grigory Melekhov one can read the fate of the entire Don Cossacks. Grigory cannot understand who he should stay with: the Reds or the Whites. Melekhov rose from ordinary Cossacks to the rank of officer, and then to the position of general (commanding a rebel division in the Civil War), but his military career was not destined to work out. At the end of the book, Gregory gives up everything and returns to his native land, to his son. Creating an epic canvas of folk life, M. A. Sholokhov shows the monstrousnonsense war. The author feels “pain for a person” who is sinking morally, going berserk in war. The main means of revealing the inner world and psychology of the characters in the novel are the experiences of one or another character shown from a third person.

1 option

1. Most of the heroes of M.A Sholokhov’s works belong to the same class. Please indicate which one:

A) merchants B) Cossacks C) peasants D) nobility

2. The main character trait of Grigory Melekhov:

A) selfish and individualist

B) love for all living things, an acute sense of someone else’s pain

C) the need to “understand the confusion of thoughts, think through something, decide”

D) deep attachment to home and agricultural work

A) as a senseless, cruel war

B) as a fair one, carried out for the sake of freedom and equality of all classes

C) as a phenomenon disgusting to the human mind

D) as tragic but inevitable events

4. The novel “Quiet Don” contains many borrowings from folklore. Eliminate unnecessary things:

A) proverbs and sayings B) folk songs

B) stable revolutions D) epics

5. Indicate the years of M.A.’s life. Sholokhov

A) 1905 – 1984 B) 1895 – 1950

B) 1900 – 1985 D) 1905 – 1990

6. How long does the novel “Quiet Don” last?

A) 12 years B) 10 years C) 20 years D) 5 years

7. Name a historical event that was not depicted in the novel “Quiet Don”

A) First World War B) First Russian Revolution of 1905

B Civil War D) Upper Don uprising of the Cossacks against the Bolsheviks

8. In what year did M.A. Was Sholokhov awarded the Lenin Prize?

A) 1933 B) 1965 C) 1940 D) 1960

9. What theme makes the novel “Quiet Don” an epic?

A) the topic of establishing Soviet power on the Don

B) the theme of the First World War

C) the fate of the people during historical trials

D) the theme of the Civil War

10. The word “Cossack” is of Turkic origin. What does it mean translated into Russian?

A) robber B) warrior C) farmer D) free man

11. What position does the author take in the novel?

A) a dispassionate observer

B) a participant in the events taking place

C) a person who deeply experiences the events described

D) the narrator interrupting the story to tell about himself

12. Why were the Melekhovs called “Turks”, “Circassians”?

A) because they had an unbridled, hot-tempered character

B) because they were desperately brave

C) because Grigory Melekhov’s grandmother was Turkish

D) because the mother married a Turk

13. Work of which writer of the 19th century. served as a model for the creation of the novel “Quiet Don”?

A) “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy

B) “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky

B) “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N.S. Leskova

D) “The Captain's Daughter” by A.S. Pushkin

14.What events are reflected in book 1 of the novel “Quiet Don”?

15. Who is the wife of Grigory Melekhov?

A) Aksinya B) Natalya C) Daria D) Dunyasha

16. In 1923, Sholokhov’s first work was published in the newspaper “Youthful Truth”

A) “The Fate of Man” B) “Mole” C) “Alien Blood” D) Test

17.What was Sholokhov’s name?

A) Mikhail Afanasyevich B) Mikhail Alexandrovich

B) Mikhail Alekseevich D) Mikhail Andreevich

18. Which volume shows the depiction of the events of the Upper Don uprising of the Cossacks against the Bolsheviks?

A)1 B)2 C)3 D)4

19. Which of these collections of stories does NOT belong to Sholokhov?

A) The Blue Bowl B) About Kolchak, nettles and other things

B) Azure steppe D) Don stories

A) The question arose: how could a young writer create such a voluminous work in such a short period?

D) The style of “Quiet Don” was significantly different from other works by Sholokhov

Creativity test M.A. Sholokhov

Option 2

1. Which statement about the historical events depicted in the novel “Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov is incorrect?

A) the novel covers a ten-year historical period: from 1912 to 1922

B) the first major historical event in the novel was the depiction of the Cossacks in the First World War

C) the first major historical event in the novel was the depiction of the Cossacks during the First Revolution of 1905

D) in addition to other historical events, the novel depicts the Cossacks participating in the Civil War

2. Which female image in the novel “Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov is a symbol of the Cossack house?

A) the image of Aksinya B) the image of Natalya C) the image of Ilyinichna D) the image of Daria

3. The most important symbolic images of the novel “Quiet Don” are...

A) sun, Don, horse, bird B) blizzard, forest, Don, horse

B) cloud, Don, steppe, forest D) Don, house, sun, “triumphant life”

4. Indicate what prize was awarded to M. A. Sholokhov in 1965?

A) Leninist B) Stalinist C) State D) Nobel

5. The first collection of stories that made the name of M.A. Sholokhov famous, was called:

A) “Don Stories” B) “Azure Steppe”

B) “Alien Blood” D) “Science of Hate”

6. What does the author not accept about the characters in the novel?

A) pride B) senseless cruelty C) betrayal D) laziness

7. How does the novel “Quiet Don” end?

A) Grigory Melekhov leaves his native place with Aksinya

B) Grigory Melekhov ends up in exile

B) Grigory Melekhov returns to his native farm to his son

D) Grigory Melekhov dies from a random bullet

8. What image of the novel expresses the idea of ​​sacrificial, all-forgiving and all-enduring love?

A) Daria Melekhova B) Natalya Melekhova

B) Aksinya Astakhova D) Vasilisa Ilyinichna

9. What is Aksinya’s fate in the novel?

A) Petra Melekhova dies from a random bullet during an attempt to escape with Grigory from the farm

B) joins his fate with Gregory

B) shot as an accomplice of the White Guards by Mikhail Koshev

D) committed suicide by drowning in the river

10. Where do the family chapters of the novel take place?

A) on the Tatarsky farm B) in the village of Veshenskaya

C) in the village of Yagodnoe D) on the Gremyachiy Log farm

11. Why does Grigory Melekhov support the Upper Don uprising against the Bolsheviks?

A) was disappointed in the new government

B)could not accept the idea of ​​equality of all classes

C) did not believe the Bolsheviks

D) he was repulsed by the policy of decossackization, carried out with particular cruelty on the Don

12. What is the main means of revealing the inner world, the psychology of the heroes of the novel?

A) portrait characteristic

B) subject detail

C) the experiences of a particular character are shown in third person

D) internal monologue

13. What was the name of the Melekhovs’ eldest son?

A) Gregory B) Mikhail C) Peter D) Mikhail

14. What events are reflected in book 2 of the novel “Quiet Don”?

A) the events of the revolutions of 1917. and an unsuccessful attempt to establish Soviet power on the Don

B) a story about the peaceful life of the Cossacks, the beginning of the First World War

C) the defeat of the Verkhnedonsky uprising, the service of Grigory Melekhov in Budyonny’s cavalry, demobilization, return to the farm, flight to Fomin’s gang, the collapse of the Melekhov family, the final return of Grigory to his home

D) depiction of the events of the Upper Don uprising of the Cossacks against the Bolsheviks

A) The style of “Quiet Don” was significantly different from Sholokhov’s other works

B) Sholokhov himself admitted that he borrowed material for his book from various sources

C) The diaries of a White Guard officer were found, which Sholokhov converted into his book

D) The question arose: how could a young writer create such a voluminous work in such a short period?

16. Which story is not in the collection “Don Stories”?

A) Someone else's blood B) Mole

B) They fought for the Motherland D) Aleshka’s heart

17. The main theme of most of the stories in the collection “Don Stories” is related to the events:

A) October Revolution and Civil War B) Revolution of 1905

B) peaceful labor of the Cossacks D) Great Patriotic War

18. Choose the correct option and continue the phrase: “Quiet Don is the longest

a book among the classic Russian novels of the 20th century, in it...”

A) Four volumes, four parts B) Two volumes, eight parts

B) Four volumes, eight parts D) Four volumes, twelve parts

19 Which volume shows the defeat of the Upper Don uprising and Melekhov’s service in Budyonny’s cavalry?

A) 1 B) 2 C) 3 D) 4

20. Which higher educational institution did Sholokhov graduate from?

A) Moscow University B) Kazan University

C) Leningrad University D) Sholokhov was unable to enter a higher educational institution

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 Sholokhovsky district of the Rostov region).

In 1910, the Sholokhov family moved to the Kargin farm, where at the age of 7 Misha was admitted to a men's parish school. From 1914 to 1918 he studied at men's gymnasiums in Moscow, Boguchar and Vyoshenskaya.

In 1920-1922 works as an employee in the village revolutionary committee, as a teacher to eliminate illiteracy among adults in the village. Latyshev, a clerk in the procurement office of the Donfood Committee in Art. Karginskaya, tax inspector in Art. Bukanovskaya.

In October 1922 he left for Moscow. He works as a loader, mason, and accountant in the housing administration on Krasnaya Presnya. He meets representatives of the literary community, attends classes at the Young Guard literary association. The first writing experiments of the young Sholokhov date back to this time. In the fall of 1923, “Youthful Truth” published two of his feuilletons - “Test” and “Three”.

In December 1923 he returned to the Don. On January 11, 1924, he got married in the Bukanovskaya Church to Maria Petrovna Gromoslavskaya, the daughter of the former village ataman.

Maria Petrovna, having graduated from the Ust-Medveditsk Diocesan School, worked in Art. Bukanovskaya was first a teacher in an elementary school, then a clerk in the executive committee, where Sholokhov was an inspector at that time. Having got married, they were inseparable until the end of their days. The Sholokhovs lived together for 60 years, raising and raising four children.

December 14, 1924 M.A. Sholokhov publishes his first work of fiction - the story “Mole” in the newspaper “Young Leninist”. Becomes a member of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers.

Sholokhov’s stories “The Shepherd”, “Shibalkovo Seed”, “Nakhalyonok”, “Mortal Enemy”, “Alyoshkin’s Heart”, “Two Husband”, “Kolovert”, the story “Path-Road” appeared on the pages of central publications, and in 1926 they published collections “Don Stories” and “Azure Steppe”.

In 1925, Mikhail Alexandrovich began creating the novel “Quiet Don”. During these years, the Sholokhov family lived in Karginskaya, then in Bukanovskaya, and since 1926 - in Vyoshenskaya. In 1928, the magazine “October” began publishing “Quiet Don”.

After the publication of the first volume of the novel, difficult days begin for the writer: the success among readers is stunning, but an unfriendly atmosphere reigns in writing circles. Envy of a young writer, who is called a new genius, gives rise to slander and vulgar fabrications. The author's position in describing the Verkhnedon uprising is sharply criticized by RAPP; it is proposed to throw out more than 30 chapters from the book and make the main character a Bolshevik.

Sholokhov is only 23 years old, but he endures attacks steadfastly and courageously. Confidence in his abilities and in his calling helps him. In order to stop malicious slander and rumors of plagiarism, he turns to the executive secretary and member of the editorial board of the Pravda newspaper M.I. Ulyanova with an urgent request to create an expert commission and transfers to her the manuscripts of “Quiet Don”. In the spring of 1929, writers A. Serafimovich, L. Averbakh, V. Kirshon, A. Fadeev, V. Stavsky spoke in Pravda in defense of the young author, based on the conclusions of the commission. The rumors stop. But spiteful critics will more than once make attempts to denigrate Sholokhov, who honestly speaks about the tragic events in the life of the country and does not want to deviate from the historical truth.

The novel was completed in 1940. In the 30s, Sholokhov began work on the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned.”

During the war years, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was a war correspondent for the Sovinformburo, the newspapers Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda. He publishes front-line essays, the story “The Science of Hate,” and the first chapters of the novel “They Fought for the Motherland.” Sholokhov donated the state prize awarded for the novel “Quiet Don” to the USSR Defense Fund, and then purchased four new missile launchers for the front with his own funds.

For participation in the Great Patriotic War he received awards - the 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”, “Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War” Patriotic War."

After the war, the writer finishes the 2nd book of “Virgin Soil Upturned”, works on the novel “They Fought for the Motherland”, writes the story “The Fate of a Man”.

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov - laureate of the Nobel, State and Lenin Prizes in Literature, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, holder of an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Leipzig in Germany, Doctor of Philology from Rostov State University , deputy of the Supreme Council of all convocations. He was awarded six Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and other awards. During his lifetime, a bronze bust was erected in the village of Veshenskaya. And this is not a complete list of prizes, awards, honorary titles and public responsibilities of the writer.

Tomah. T. III. - M., 2006.

In view of the mythical and symbolic complexity of Andreev’s language, we will explain the meaning of some of its semantic images.

Daimons in the understanding of D.L. Andreev are the highest humanity of Shadanakar, the inhabitants of the sakuala of worlds with four spatial coordinates and a different number of time coordinates. Daimons go through a path of formation similar to ours, but they started it earlier and complete it more successfully. They are connected with our humanity by various threads. See: 2, p. 530.

Duggur is one of the layers of demonic elementals that has a special meaning for humanity. Creatures who go through their incarnations in Duggar replenish the loss of their vitality with euphos - the radiation of the lust of humanity.

Drukkarg is the Shrastr of Russian metaculture.

Shrastra are extra-dimensional material layers connected by certain zones in the physical body of the planet Earth, namely with the “compensatory protrusions” of the Continents, overturned with their tips towards the earth’s center. The habitats of anti-humanity, consisting of two races living together - the Igv and the Rarugg. The shrastras have peculiar huge

cities and very high demonic technology. See: 2, pp. 530, 533.

Synclites are hosts of enlightened human souls living in the zatomis of metacultures. Zatomis are the highest layers of all metacultures of humanity, their heavenly countries, the support of the leading forces, the abodes of the Synclites. Together with the Arimoya that is now being created - but the misa of the Rose of the World - their total number reaches thirty-four. See: 2, pp. 530, 532.

3. Gogol, N.V. Dead souls // Gogol N.V. Works in two volumes. T. 2. - M., 1973.

4. Mikushevich, V.V. Messengership and imposture of genius // Daniil Andreev: pro et contra. The personality and creativity of D. L. Andreev as assessed by publicists and researchers. - St. Petersburg, 2010. - (Russian Way).

Krenzolek Olga Stanislavovna, senior lecturer at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce (Poland), member of the Open International Community “Russian Literature: Spiritual-

cultural contexts."

REVIEW

GUIDE TO THE WORK OF MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV

The Sholokhov Encyclopedia, the release of which was announced last year, appeared on the shelves of bookstores. The encyclopedia summarizes many years of Sholokhov research experience, uses new archival data, presenting a palette of views, assessments and judgments about the life and artistic world of M. A. Sholokhov, his everyday and creative environment. It builds a clear research concept that transforms diverse textual material into a body of modern knowledge about the writer and person who has become a cultural symbol of Russian national identity. The advantage of the Sholokhov Encyclopedia is the openness of the authors of the articles and the editorial board,

suggesting the possibility of additions and clarifications.

Literary personal encyclopedias that appeared in the last two decades did not set large-scale goals. The Bulgakov Encyclopedia, the Orenburg biographical reference books, which are dedicated to A. S. Pushkin, L. N. Tolstoy, T. G. Shevchenko, and other modern personal encyclopedias did not declare their goal to present a complete body of knowledge about all the works and ideological and artistic heritage of writers. The compilers of the Sholokhov Encyclopedia are trying to follow a different path, arranging the material in a new way, accompanying dictionary entries

illustrative material, selecting information not only about Sholokhov’s creative, but also everyday surroundings, his relatives, trips around the country, film adaptations of works, etc. The articles in it are built according to a single plan, informative, and for the most part objective. For the first time, an attempt has been made not only to give an idea of ​​the fate of the writer and his works, but also to summarize the results of the study of life and creative heritage, textual and archival searches in encyclopedic coverage.

Sholokhov's encyclopedia goes beyond the boundaries of the genre, which is designed by its nature to be tough in the selection of facts and objective in the presentation of the material. She becomes bright and alive already in “The Lay of the Father” by M.M. Sholokhov, who acts as a preface. It opens the way to understanding the rich inner world of the writer, his mental makeup and strong life-loving feeling, to the richness of natural paintings baptized with a rare artistic gift, to the “charm of man,” to his spiritual beauty, insightful words and deep thoughts.

Entries in the encyclopedia are arranged in alphabetical order. The bulk of the thousand-page book is occupied by short reference articles based on archival funds, little-known or unpublished materials. Sometimes, rereading something that seems familiar for a long time, you suddenly notice how something new is revealed in the biography, in the presentation of the content of the story (V.V. Vasilyev, G.N. Vorontsova, O.V. Bystrova), the history of creation, heroes, chronotopes and textual studies of the novel (“Quiet Don”, “Virgin Soil Upturned”, “They Fought for the Motherland” - Yu. A. Dvoryashin, F. F. Kuznetsov, S. G. Semenova, G. S. Ermolaev, G. N. Vorontsova) , in comments and articles about language and style (L. B. Savenkova), nationality and folklore basis of Sholokhov’s aesthetics (E. A. Kostin), about love and death, folk humor culture and poetics (S. G. Semenova), Cossack song (N.V. Kornienko), a unique ideological code of the writer’s works, Christian motives of the Sholokhov epic (A.A. Dyrdin). Each article is equipped with a bibliography that provides the reader with information about the most significant Sholokhov studies.

Although the emphasis in the personal encyclopedia is shifted towards biography, Sholokhov’s relationships with loved ones, with followers, domestic and foreign writers, journalists and public figures,

who visited him in Veshenskaya, connections with other forms of art (cinema, theater, music), the text of the book is a single whole. The book has become the most complete and objective reflection of modern achievements of science about Sholokhov. It includes a lengthy review of materials on the study of the writer’s work from the late 1920s to the present.

In terms of the level and form of presentation of scientific knowledge, articles of a literary and theoretical nature are somewhat different from biographical information. Therefore, upon first reading, there is a feeling that they fall out of the general reference and information structure of the book. However, this is a superficial feeling. All sections and reference articles, prepared mainly by the employees of the State Museum of M.A. Sholokhov, are valuable for their locational details, permeated with the same general passion for the material and attention to sources, critical perception of guesses and conjectures, as the articles of “theorizing” authors, addressed to the prepared reader.

Noting the merits of the publication - the work under review expands and enriches our ideas about the writer who looked into the very core of the people's soul - at the same time, we will express a number of wishes. Having done a tremendous amount of work, the team of authors created a book, turning the pages of which we become familiar with the new optics of knowledge of Sholokhov’s world. However, the reader, thirsting for a complete picture, lacks a clear idea of ​​the context, the historical and cultural background of the maturation of Sholokhov’s masterpieces. For example, the encyclopedia contains portraits of Russian writers of the 19th - early 20th centuries, A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, and contemporary writers: I. A. Bunin, B.K. Zaitsev, M.M. Prishvin, L.M. Leonov, A.N. Tolstoy, B.A. Pilnyak and others. But there was no place in it for representatives of the Don branch of Russian literature. Remarkable masters of words - R.P. Kumov, F.D. Kryukov, I.A. Rodionov and others - reflected many of the patterns and contradictions of Cossack life, so vividly shown by Sholokhov. Brief characteristics of their artistic and journalistic creativity, as well as books by P. N. Krasnov, ethnographic materials and writings on the history of the Cossacks, if they were placed in the text of the encyclopedia, would remove any reproaches of one-sidedness, bias of the editorial board and authors of the articles.

The encyclopedia genre presupposes the conciseness and simplicity of the information presented. However

However, for a biographical article, not only the exact details of the portrait and the formula of the relationship between predecessor and contemporary follower are important, but also assessments of the artist’s contribution to the arsenal of world literature. Here we can recall the wonderful words of O. Gonchar in his obituary about Sholokhov. “The love of Gregory and Aksinya, lofty in its tragedy, will always sound like an immortal song in the moral greatness of the people’s soul, in the depth and beauty of human feeling. In the world literature of our era it is hardly possible to name images equal in power to these. Sholokhov’s images are capable of truly elevating and ennobling a person” (Family archive

O. Gonchar. Quote by: Kuntsevskaya O. S. Discourse

self-editing of journalistic texts by Oles Gonchar // Journalism and media

education-2008. Belgorod, 2008. T. I. - P. 33).

The encyclopedic publication requires

editorial board of special responsibility. The publishing process is complex and depends on the presence of a good editorial and publishing base.

Today, publishers save on editors and proofreaders. Leafing through the pages of the Sholokhov Encyclopedia, you sometimes feel disappointed. This is not about the completeness of the dictionary or the absence of a name index, an index of authors who are mentioned in articles and

bibliographies. I would like to see in

the upcoming 2nd edition of the encyclopedia, along with additions to the text (for example, articles about the newspaper “Pravda” and the magazine “Don”, about the Rostov regional newspaper “Molot”, etc.) and traces of a more professional preparation of the text for publication. Then in the encyclopedia there will appear not only the reference apparatus of the publication corresponding to its fundamental level, but also a list of noted typos - errata.

It should be noted that there is some negligence in the design of the book, and there are inaccuracies and errors in the main text of the encyclopedia and in the appendices. Thus, an annoying typo crept into the text of the article about the story “Melon Grower” (1925). His appearance on the pages of the Komsomoliya magazine dates back to 1921 (p. 68). In “The main dates of the life and work of M. A. Sholokhov” (p. 1094), as in most other sources, the location of the writer’s family in 1942 is indicated incorrectly: “North-

Kazakhstan region" (Actually - West Kazakhstan). In the same place, the place of death of Rostov writers in October 1941 was named not as Vyazma, but as Vyatka.

Of course, all these comments do not reduce the educational, historical and literary value of the encyclopedia under review. Its publication is a significant result of the productive work of Russian and foreign scientists.

The book, designed for the widest readership - high school students and students, librarians and journalists - will, without a doubt, become a sought-after reference not only for literature teachers and university professors, but also for those who want to receive detailed information about the life and work of the classic post-revolutionary Russian literature, creator of the folk epic "Quiet Don".

A. P. Rassadin,

Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Literature, Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov - Russian writer; the largest Russian prose writer, the most brilliant Soviet non-intellectual writer, who made the life of the Don Cossacks the subject of close reader interest; Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences ( 1939 ), twice Hero of Socialist Labor ( 1967, 1980 ). Laureate of Stalin ( 1941 ), Leninskaya ( 1960 ) and Nobel Prize ( 1965 ) bonuses.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov was born May 11 (24), 1905 on the Kruzhilin farmstead of the Veshenskaya region of the Don Army.

Illegitimate son of a Ukrainian woman, wife of Don Cossack A.D. Kuznetsova and a rich clerk (the son of a merchant, a native of the Ryazan region) A.M. Sholokhov. In early childhood he bore the surname Kuznetsov and received a plot of land as a “Cossack son.” In 1913, after being adopted by his own father, lost his Cossack privileges, becoming the “son of a tradesman.”

He grew up in an atmosphere of obvious ambiguity, which obviously gave rise to a craving for truth and justice in Sholokhov’s character, but also at the same time the habit of hiding as much as possible about himself. Numerous legends were spread about Sholokhov’s youth during his lifetime, which were not confirmed by anything, contradicted historical facts and elementary logic, but the writer never refuted them. He graduated from four classes of the gymnasium. During the Civil War, the Sholokhov family could have been under attack from two sides: for the white Cossacks they were “non-residents”, for the red ones they were “exploiters”. Young Sholokhov had no passion for hoarding (like his hero, the son of a wealthy Cossack Makar Nagulnov) and took the side of the victorious force, which established at least relative peace, served in a food detachment, but arbitrarily reduced the taxation of people in his circle; was on trial.

His elder friend and mentor (“mama” in letters addressed to her), member of the RSDLP (b) since 1903 E.G. Levitskaya (Sholokhov himself joined the party in 1932 ), to whom the story “The Fate of a Man” was later dedicated, believed that there was a lot of autobiography in the “vacillations” of Grigory Melekhov in “Quiet Don”. Sholokhov changed many professions, especially in Moscow, where he lived for a long time from late 1922 to 1926. Then, after gaining a foothold in literature, he settled in the village of Veshenskaya.

In 1923 Sholokhov published feuilletons, from the end of 1923- stories in which he immediately switched from feuilleton comedy to sharp drama, reaching the point of tragedy. At the same time, the stories were not without elements of melodrama. Most of these works were collected in the collections “Don Stories” ( 1925 ) and "Azure Steppe" ( 1926, expanded previous collection). With the exception of the story “Alien Blood” ( 1926) , where the old man Gavrila and his wife, who have lost their son, a white Cossack, nurse a communist food detachment worker and begin to love him like a son, and he leaves them, in Sholokhov’s early works the heroes are mainly sharply divided into positive ones (red fighters, Soviet activists) and negative, sometimes pure villains (whites, “bandits”, kulaks and kulak podkulakniks). Many characters have real prototypes, but Sholokhov sharpens and exaggerates almost everything: death, blood, torture, hunger pangs are deliberately naturalistic. The young writer’s favorite plot, starting with “The Birthmark” (1923 ), - a deadly collision of close relatives: father and son, siblings.

Sholokhov clumsily confirms his loyalty to the communist idea by emphasizing the priority of social choice in relation to any other human relationships, including family ones. In 1931 he republished “Don Stories”, adding new ones that emphasized the comic in the behavior of the heroes (later in “Virgin Soil Upturned” he combined comedy with drama, sometimes quite effectively). Then, for almost a quarter of a century, the stories were not republished; the author rated them very low and returned them to the reader when, for lack of something new, he had to remember the forgotten old.

In 1925 Sholokhov began a work about the Cossacks in 1917, during the Kornilov rebellion, called “Quiet Don” (and not “Donshchina”, according to legend). However, this plan was abandoned, but a year later the writer took up “Quiet Don” again, widely unfolding pictures of the pre-war life of the Cossacks and the events of the First World War. The first two books of the epic novel are published in 1928 in the magazine "October". Almost immediately doubts arise about their authorship; a work of such magnitude required too much knowledge and experience. Sholokhov brings the manuscripts to Moscow for examination (in the 1990s, Moscow journalist L.E. Kolodny gave their description, although not strictly scientific, and comments on them). The young writer was full of energy, had a phenomenal memory, read a lot (in the 1920s, even the memoirs of white generals were available), asked Cossacks in Don farms about the “German” and civil wars, and knew the life and customs of his native Don like no one else .

The events of collectivization (and those preceding it) delayed work on the epic novel. In letters, including to I.V. Stalin, Sholokhov tried to open his eyes to the true state of things: the complete collapse of the economy, lawlessness, torture applied to collective farmers. However, he accepted the very idea of ​​collectivization in a softened form, with undeniable sympathy for the main communist characters, and showed it using the example of the Gremyachiy Log farm in the first book of the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned” ( 1932 ). Even a very smooth depiction of dispossession (the “right draft dodger” Razmetny and others) was very suspicious for the authorities and official writers; in particular, the magazine “New World” rejected the author’s title of the novel “With Blood and Sweat.” But in many ways the work suited Stalin. The high artistic level of the book seemed to prove the fruitfulness of communist ideas for art, and its courage within the limits of what was permitted created the illusion of freedom of creativity in the USSR. “Virgin Soil Upturned” was declared a perfect example of the literature of socialist realism and was soon included in all school curricula, becoming a required work for study.

This directly or indirectly helped Sholokhov continue work on “The Quiet Don,” the release of the third book (sixth part) of which was delayed due to a rather sympathetic depiction of participants in the anti-Bolshevik Verkhnedon uprising of 1919. Sholokhov turned to Gorky and with his help obtained permission from Stalin for publication this book without cuts ( 1932 ), A in 1934 basically completed the fourth and last one, but began to rewrite it again, probably not without tightening ideological pressure. In the last two books of "Quiet Don" (the seventh part of the fourth book was published in 1937-1938, eighth - in 1940) a lot of journalistic, often didactic, unequivocally pro-Bolshevik declarations appeared, often contradicting the plot and figurative structure of the epic novel. But this does not add arguments to the theory of “two authors” or “author” and “co-author”, developed by skeptics who irrevocably do not believe in Sholokhov’s authorship (among them A.I. Solzhenitsyn, I.B. Tomashevskaya).

In 1935 the already mentioned Levitskaya admired Sholokhov, finding that he had turned “from a “doubting”, wavering one - into a firm communist who knows where he is going, clearly seeing both the goal and the means to achieve it.” Undoubtedly, the writer convinced himself of this and, although in 1938 Almost fell victim to false political accusations, he found the courage to end “Quiet Don” with the complete collapse in life of his beloved hero Grigory Melekhov, crushed by the wheel of cruel history.

There are more than 600 characters in the epic novel, and most of them perish or die from grief, deprivation, absurdities and unsettled life. The civil war, although at first it seems like a “toy” to the “German” veterans, takes the lives of almost all the memorable, beloved heroes of the reader, and the bright life for which it was supposedly worth making such sacrifices never comes.

The epic content in “Quiet Don” did not supplant the novelistic, personal content. Sholokhov, like no one else, managed to show the complexity of a simple person (intellectuals do not inspire sympathy in him; in “Quiet Don” they are mostly in the background and invariably speak bookish language even with Cossacks who do not understand them). The passionate love of Grigory and Aksinya, the faithful love of Natalya, the dissipation of Daria, the absurd mistakes of the aging Pantelei Prokofich, the mother’s mortal longing for her son who is not returning from the war (Ilinichny’s version of Grigory) and other tragic life intertwinings make up a rich range of characters and situations. The life and nature of the Don are meticulously and, of course, lovingly depicted. The author conveys sensations experienced by all human senses. The intellectual limitations of many heroes are compensated by the depth and severity of their experiences.

In "Quiet Flows the Flow" the writer's talent splashed out in full force - and was almost exhausted. This was probably facilitated not only by the social situation, but also by the writer’s increasing addiction to alcohol. Story "The Science of Hate" ( 1942) , which campaigned for hatred of the fascists, was below average in artistic quality from the Don Stories. The level of those published was somewhat higher in 1943-1944 chapters from the novel “They Fought for the Motherland,” conceived as a trilogy, but never completed ( in the 1960s. Sholokhov attributed the “pre-war” chapters with conversations about Stalin and the repressions of 1937 in the spirit of the already ended “thaw”; they were printed with banknotes, which completely deprived the writer of creative inspiration). The work consists mainly of soldiers' conversations and tales, oversaturated with jokes. In general, Sholokhov’s failure in comparison not only with the first, but also with the second novel is obvious.

After the war, Sholokhov the publicist paid a generous tribute to the official state ideology, but he marked the “thaw” with a work of rather high merit - the story “The Fate of a Man” ( 1956 ). An ordinary person, a typical Sholokhov hero, appeared in genuine moral greatness that he himself did not realize. Such a plot could not have appeared in the “first post-war spring”, which coincided with the meeting of the author and Andrei Sokolov: the hero was in captivity, drank vodka without a snack, so as not to humiliate himself in front of the German officers - this, like the humanistic spirit of the story itself, was by no means not in line with the official literature nurtured by Stalinism. “The Fate of Man” turned out to be at the origins of a new concept of personality, and more broadly, of a new big stage in the development of literature.

The second book of “Virgin Soil Upturned”, completed with the publication in 1960, remained basically just a sign of the transition period, when humanism was emphasized in every possible way, but thereby what was desired was passed off as reality. “Warming” of the images of Davydov (sudden love for “Varyukha-goryukha”), Nagulnov (listening to a rooster crowing, hidden love for Lushka, etc.), Razmetnov (shooting cats in the name of saving pigeons - popular at the turn of the 1950s-1960s "Birds of the World"), etc. was emphatically "modern" and did not fit in with the harsh realities of 1930, which formally remained the basis of the plot.

Writer L.K. Chukovskaya, in her letter to Sholokhov, predicted creative infertility after his speech at the XXIII Congress of the CPSU (1966) with the defamation of those convicted of publishing works abroad (the first trial of the Brezhnev era against writers) A.D. Sinyavsky and Yu. M. Daniel. The prediction came true completely.

Keywords: Mikhail Sholokhov, biography of Mikhail Sholokhov, download detailed biography, download for free, Russian literature of the 20th century, Russian writers of the 20th century, life and work of Mikhail Sholokhov, Nobel Prize in Literature

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov is the largest Soviet prose writer, laureate of the Stalin (1941), Lenin (1960) and Nobel (1965) prizes. His great artistic talent, which gradually faded under the influence of Soviet ideological dogmas, manifested itself primarily in the epic novel “Quiet Don” - one of the pinnacle phenomena of literature of the 20th century.

Sholokhov was born on the Don, the illegitimate son of a Ukrainian woman, the wife of the Don Cossack A.D. Kuznetsova and a rich clerk (the son of a merchant, a native of the Ryazan region) A.M. Sholokhov. In early childhood he bore the surname Kuznetsov and received an allotment of land as a “Cossack son.” In 1913, after being adopted by his own father, he lost his Cossack privileges, becoming the “son of a tradesman”; graduated from four classes of the gymnasium (which is more than the first Russian Nobel laureate in the field of literature I.A. Bunin).

During the Civil War, the Sholokhov family could have been under attack from two sides: for the white Cossacks they were “non-residents”, for the red ones they were “exploiters”. Young Mikhail was not distinguished by a passion for hoarding (like one of his future heroes, the son of a wealthy Cossack Makar Nagulnov) and took the side of the victorious force, which established at least relative peace. He served in the food detachment, but arbitrarily reduced the taxes of people in his circle, for which he was put on trial. His elder friend and mentor (“Mamunya” in letters addressed to her), party member since 1903 (Sholokhov - since 1932) E.G. Levitskaya, to whom “The Fate of Man” was later dedicated, believed that there was a lot of autobiography in the “vacillations” of Grigory Melekhov in “Quiet Don” 11, p. 128]. The young man changed a large number of professions, especially in Moscow, where he lived for a long time from the end of 1922 to 1926. Having established himself in literature, he settled on the Don in the village of Veshenskaya.

In 1923, Sholokhov published feuilletons, and from the end of 1923 - stories, no longer saturated with superficial feuilletonism, but with acute drama and tragedy with a touch of melodrama. Most of these works were collected in the collections “Don Stories” (1925) and “Azure Steppe” (1926). With the exception of the story “Alien Blood” (1926), where the old man Gavrila and his wife, having lost their son, a white Cossack, nurse a hacked communist food contractor, begin to love him like a son, and he leaves them, in Sholokhov’s early works the characters are mostly harsh are divided into positive (red fighters, Soviet activists) and negative, sometimes “pure” villains (whites, “bandits”, kulaks and kulak members). Many characters have real prototypes, but Sholokhov sharpens and exaggerates almost everything; He presents death, blood, torture, and the pangs of hunger in a deliberately naturalistic manner. The young writer’s favorite plot, starting with “The Birthmark” (1923), is a deadly clash between close relatives: father and son, siblings. The neophyte Sholokhov invariably confirms his loyalty to the communist idea, emphasizing the priority of social choice over any human relationships, including family ones. In 1931, he republished “Don Stories,” supplementing the earlier collection with new ones in which comedy prevailed; At the same time, in “Virgin Soil Upturned” he combined comedy with drama, sometimes quite effectively. Then, for a quarter of a century, the stories were not reprinted; the author himself rated them low and returned them to the reader when, for lack of anything new, he had to remember the well-forgotten old ones.

In 1925, Sholokhov began a work about the fate of the Cossacks in 1917, during the Kornilov rebellion, called “Quiet Don” (and not “Donshchina,” according to a common legend). He quickly abandoned this idea, but a year later he began anew to “Quiet Don”, widely developing pictures of the pre-war life of the Cossacks and the events of the World War. The first two books of the epic novel were published in 1928. The young writer was full of energy, had a phenomenal memory, read a lot (in the 20s even the memoirs of white generals were available), asked Cossacks in the Don farms about the “German” and Civil Wars , and knew the life and customs of his native Don like no one else.

The events of collectivization (and those immediately preceding it) delayed work on the epic novel. In letters, including to I.V. Stalin, Sholokhov tried to reveal the true state of affairs in the new society: the complete collapse of the economy, lawlessness, torture applied to collective farmers. But he accepted the very idea of ​​collectivization and in a softened form, with undeniable sympathy for the main characters - the communists, he showed the processes of collectivization using the example of the Gremyachiy Log farm in the first book of “Virgin Soil Upturned” (1932). Even a very smooth image of dispossession, the figure of the “right draft dodger” Razmetnov, etc. were very suspicious to the authorities and official writers; in particular, the magazine “New World” rejected the author’s title of the novel “With Blood and Sweat.” But on the whole the work suited Stalin. The high artistic level of the book seemed to prove the fruitfulness of communist ideas for art and created the illusion of freedom of creativity in the USSR. “Virgin Soil Upturned” was declared a perfect example of the literature of socialist realism.

The success of “Virgin Soil Upturned” directly or indirectly helped Sholokhov to continue work on “Quiet Don”, the printing of the third book (sixth part) of which was delayed due to a very sympathetic depiction of participants in the anti-Bolshevik Verkhnedonsky uprising of 1919. With the help of M. Gorky, Sholokhov obtained permission from Stalin to publish this book in its entirety (1932) and in 1934 he basically completed the fourth and last one, but began to rewrite it again, probably not without the influence of the tightened political atmosphere. In the last two books of “Quiet Don” (the seventh part of the fourth book was published in 1937-1938, the eighth in 1940) many journalistic, often didactically unambiguous pro-Bolshevik declarations appeared, often contradicting the plot and figurative structure of the epic novel. But this does not at all confirm the theory of “two authors” or “author” and “co-author”, developed by skeptics who do not believe in Sholokhov’s authorship (among them A.I. Solzhenitsyn). In all likelihood, Sholokhov himself was his own “co-author,” preserving mainly the artistic world he created in the early 30s. Although in 1938 the writer almost fell victim to a false political accusation, he nevertheless found the courage to end “Quiet Don” with the complete collapse of his beloved hero Grigory Melekhov, a truth-seeker crushed by the wheel of cruel history.

In “Quiet Don” Sholokhov’s talent splashed out in full force - and was largely exhausted. The story “The Science of Hatred” (1942), imbued with hatred of the fascists, was below average in artistic quality from the “Don Stories.” The level of those published in 1943-1944 was higher. chapters from the novel “They Fought for the Motherland,” conceived as a trilogy, but never completed (in the 60s, Sholokhov wrote “pre-war” chapters with conversations about Stalin and the repressions of 1937 in the spirit of the already ended “thaw”, they were printed with banknotes). The work consists mainly of soldier conversations, oversaturated with jokes. In general, Sholokhov’s failure in comparison not only with the first, but also with the second novel is obvious.

During the “thaw” period, Sholokhov created a work of high artistic merit - the story “The Fate of a Man” (1956). The second book, “Virgin Soil Upturned,” published in 1960, remained basically just a sign of the transitional historical period. The “warming” of the images of Davydov (sudden love for Varyukha-goryukha), Nagulnov (listening to a rooster crowing, etc.), Razmetnov (shooting cats in the name of saving pigeons) and others was emphasized “modern” and did not fit in with the harsh realities of 1930 ., remaining the basis of the plot.

Human rights activist L.K. Chukovskaya predicted creative sterility for Sholokhov after his speech at the XXIII Congress of the CPSU (1966) with the defamation of those convicted for literary works (the first trial of the Brezhnev era against writers) A.D. Sinyavsky and Yu.M. Daniel. But what Sholokhov wrote in his best time is a high classic of 20th century literature.