Mikhail Sholokhov and his heroes “in a tragic search for the truth. Real glory and the last years of life

Today is the birthday of Mikhail Sholokhov (1905-1984). On the portal of the Presidential Library, you can find rare materials that reveal the outstanding personality of the writer, the depth and scale of the problems he raised. The electronic fund of the library contains lifetime editions of the writer's works, literary studies and his photographic portraits.

An electronic copy of Isaiah Lezhnev's book "Mikhail Sholokhov", published in 1941, deserves special attention. It reveals the history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Don", which became the largest Russian literary event of the twentieth century. “Sholokhov decided to write a history of the Cossacks of our era, an artistic encyclopedia of the former Cossack class,” writes Lezhnev.

The reality of the 1920s, in relation to which Mikhail was by no means an outside observer, brought the young Cossack to this idea. A fighter of the red cavalry, chopping off the White Cossacks with his saber, he, like his protagonist Grigory Melekhov, every time asked "damned questions": who needs it for a brother to go against a brother? ..

Sholokhov was born in 1905 in the Kruzhilin farm of the Vyoshenskaya stanitsa of the former Don Cossack Region. When the boy grew up, his father took him to the city to study, and his mother, yearning for her son, learned to read and write herself in order to be able to correspond with him. It is likely that the growing talent of her son, which she intuitively perceived in every line of his letters, pushed her to this.

The future writer studied until 1918, when the Russian lands shook from the fratricidal war. And this war covered the Don Cossack villages in the most merciless way.

In a short autobiography, Mikhail Sholokhov writes: “Since 1920, I served and roamed about the Don land. The gangs were chasing us. I also chased after the gangs that ruled the Don until 1922. I had to be in different bindings ... I published my first book in 1925. Since 1926 I have been writing “Quiet Don” ... ”.

The result of Sholokhov's creative work of that period was six large books: four volumes of The Quiet Don, the first volume of Virgin Soil Upturned and his first work - a collection of Don Stories.

In the literary environment, according to Lezhnev, Sholokhov was greeted unfriendly. The critics of the RAPP era were as ruthless as they were talentless. They wrote, say, about the fact that Sholokhov is obsessed with "the ideology of the vacillating middle peasant." Such an accusation in those years could break anyone, but not Sholokhov, whose truth was the truth of his village, of his whole being. Fortunately, the oldest proletarian writer, Aleksandr Serafimovich, was still alive, and he highly praised the first book of a Don stanitsa resident - "Donskoy Stories". The critic noted the special juiciness of Sholokhov's language, great knowledge of the described reality. And also - a sense of artistic proportion, a keen eye: “Like a steppe flower,” Lezhnev Serafimovich quoted as saying, “Comrade Sholokhov's stories stand out as a living spot. Simple, bright, and you feel what you are telling - it stands before your eyes. "

When the young writer in 1927 sent the first volume of The Quiet Don to the editorial office of the October magazine, they treated the manuscript with a rather reserved attitude. But since the novel was about the Cossacks, and the honorary editors of the magazine were Serafimovich, who came from a Cossack family, for the sake of fidelity the manuscript was handed over to him for final conclusion. All 20 author's sheets.

“It was not easy for the old writer to read it! - Lezhnev writes in his book. - Inexperienced in editorial procedures, Sholokhov presented the manuscript, rewritten on a typewriter - absolutely without intervals! .. Serafimovich read it and saw that it was an artistic masterpiece. And then, in 1928, the publication of The Quiet Don began with the January book of the magazine.

A huge literary event was the sudden appearance of the first two books of such an outstanding work. This gave rise to some brothers in the pen to doubt: a work of such scale and power, in their opinion, could not have been written by a 23-year-old boy from a remote Don village with four grades of gymnasium education. A separate group of scientists and publicists has dealt with and is still engaged in disputes about the authorship of The Quiet Don, which often go beyond the framework of philological science.

“… Some orthodox“ leaders ”of the RAAPA accused me,” Sholokhov complained in a letter to Maxim Gorky, “that I was allegedly justifying the uprising, citing facts of the infringement of the Upper Don Cossacks. Is it so? Without exaggerating colors, I painted the harsh reality that preceded the uprising ... I got sick during these one and a half years for my work and I will be extremely glad to your every word ”.

A new shock for the writer was the story of the publication in 1969 of fresh chapters from the novel They Fought for the Motherland. The truth about the repressions of 1937 told in them did not suit the then government. And yet, after the meeting with Leonid Brezhnev, the chapters were published in the newspaper Pravda, the country's main newspaper.

Sholokhov's need for truth, no matter how difficult it may be, the desire to reflect it in all real contradictions was noted by everyone who had the happiness of communicating with the writer. It was a lot of work and great happiness to get grains of this truth on a white sheet of paper. But the response was as follows: “Judging by the first volume, Sholokhov is talented,” wrote Maxim Gorky after his first acquaintance with The Quiet Don. - This is joy. Russia is very anathemically talented. "

From the works of Mikhail Sholokhov

The past is like that distant steppe in the haze.

It doesn’t happen that all your life in the chill is saved.

If there is no sense in death, then it was not in life either.

You have become thin, as if sickness sharpens you. Don't you eat bread, but he eat you.

And what did he, darlings, find good in her? If only there was a woman, otherwise it is. No backside, no belly, no stamina. Our girls walk smoother than her.

The writer must be able to directly tell the reader the truth, no matter how bitter it may be.

Sholokhov's epic novel "Quiet Don" rightly occupies a special place in the history of Russian literature. The author devoted a decade and a half of his life to create a literary masterpiece. The book begins in 1912, before the outbreak of the First World War, and ends in 1922. Knowing the life and life of the Cossacks from the inside, Sholokhov put his main emphasis on describing the Cossacks. The ending of the epic contains a philosophical implication. The author gives the protagonist the right to make an independent decision and pass new life tests.

Characteristics of the heroes of "Quiet Don"

The main characters of "Quiet Don"

Minor characters

The heroes of the second plan appear only by nicknames like an old man from the Tatarsky farm Morechok - a quarrelsome man and Semak - a participant in the Veshensky indignation, in essence a robber. These characters are designated in the list only by nicknames. Sholokhova's novel is a short but complete description of human destinies. All images are taken from the people. The concept found in the epic a deep artistic reflection: in a genuine illustration of the life of the people, their way of life and work, in a brief description of the participation of the masses in the events of history. The list of the main characters of The Quiet Don is the story of the interaction of people in different life situations.

Product test

Literary heroes of the works of M.A. Sholokhov found their embodiment in sculpture during the writer's lifetime.

Model of the sculpture "Grigory Melekhov" (other variants of the name - "Off-road", "Heavy Meditation"). 1941 g.
Sculptor: Sergei G. Korolkov (1905 - 1967).
The fate of this sculpture is unknown. Most likely, she died during the first occupation of Rostov by German troops (from 21 to 29 November 1941).
In one of the letters to V.I. Mikhailov (in the 30s and 40s lived next door to the artist's family) gave a description of this sculpture: “Grigory rides a horse across the steppe. The reins are released, the horse slowly and wearily steps over his legs, and his master sits in the saddle, slouched over and his head down on his chest. The whole pose of Gregory speaks of his deep and gloomy meditation. "

Grandfather Shchukar (detail). 1980 g.
Sculptor:
With N.V. Solodov.
Material: plaster tone.
The size: 1.5 n.v.

Nakhalyonok (fragment). 1980 g.
Sculptor: Nikolay Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of Ukraine, winner of the Sholokhov Prize.
Material: plaster tone.
The size: 1.5 n.v.
Located in the Mozhaevsky Art Museum of the Rostov Region.

Monument to Ermakov Kharlampy Vasilyevich, the prototype of the protagonist of the novel "Quiet Don" by Grigory Melekhov. 1981 year
Ivan Aleksandrovich Kaleganov (born in 1930), a resident of the Gorky Region, a worker at the Gorky Automobile Plant.
Co A.M. Glukhov.
Material: metal (copper), stainless steel. Weight - 87 kg.
The size: height - 1 m; width - 69 cm; stand dimensions - 44x44.5 cm
It was installed by the author in the vicinity of the Kalininsky farm in the Rostov region, then dismantled. Now it is kept in the M.A. Sholokhov.
The inscription on the monument: “Ermakov Kharlampy Vasilievich. The prototype of the protagonist T. Don, a dashing grunt and a desperately brave man. 1893 - 1927 ". At the top there is a five-pointed star, under the inscription - a photograph in an oval frame, crossed pike and saber. On the reverse side there is an inscription: "I bow low and kiss your fresh ground, Don, Cossack stainless blood poured steppe ... Sholokhov MA".

Sculptural composition "Grandfather Shchukar". 1982 g.
Sculptor:
So E.M. Mozhaeva.
Architect: IN AND. Voloshin.
Material: concrete, metal (copper).
The size: 1.5 n.v.

Sculptural composition "Nakhalenok". 1982 g.
Sculptor: Nikolai Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, laureate of the Sholokhov Prize.
So E.M. Mozhaeva.
Architect: IN AND. Voloshin.
Material: concrete, metal (copper).
The size: 1.5 n.v.
The monument was erected in Rostov-on-Don, on the embankment near the river station.

Sculptural composition "Nakhalenok with geese".
Sculptor: Nikolai Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, laureate of the Sholokhov Prize.
Material: metal (bronze).
The size: n.v.
The monument was erected in Rostov-on-Don, near the Wedding Palace.

Gregory and Aksinya. 1982 year.
(Working model of monumental and decorative sculpture, Rostov-on-Don).
Sculptor: Nikolay Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of Ukraine, winner of the Sholokhov Prize.
So E.M. Mozhaeva.
Material: plexiglass.
The size: 134x179x53 cm
Located in the Mozhaevsky Art Museum of the Rostov Region.

Gregory and Aksinya. 1982 g.
(Working model, 1st option with the participation of N.V. Solodov).
Sculptor: Nikolay Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of Ukraine, winner of the Sholokhov Prize.
It is located in the Mityakinsky Museum of Local Lore of the Rostov Region.

Memorial sign "Eagle". 1983 year
Sculptor: Nikolai Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, laureate of the Sholokhov Prize.
So E.M. Mozhaeva, architect V.G. Desyatnichuk.
Material: cast iron, bronze, concrete.
Dimensions: height of the sculpture - 3.4 m, with a pedestal made of concrete - 7 m, including a bulk mound - 14 m, wingspan - 7.7 m.Weight - 13.5 tons.
Installed on a chalk mountain, near the Belogorsky farm.
In the image of an eagle, the sculptor reflected the fate of the writer, the inspiration of his talent. On the pedestal - the words of A. Serafimovich about the young Sholokhov: “I rode across the steppe ... On the mound, an eagle was blackened. The dusty road windingly ran up to the mound itself and crept, bending around. Then suddenly the wings widened - I gasped ... Huge wings widened. Eagle softly separated and, barely moving; swam over the steppe.
I remembered the blue-distant when I read "Quiet Don" by Mikhail Sholokhov. A young eagle, yellow-billed, and flapped its wings. "

"Grigory and Aksinya". 1983 year
(Monumental and decorative sculpture based on the works of M.A.Sholokhov).
Sculptor: Nikolai Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, laureate of the Sholokhov Prize.
So E.M. Mozhaeva.
Architects: V.G. Desyatnichuk, V.I. Voloshin, G. Cold.
Material: metal (bronze).
The size: 2 n.v. Height - 6.5 m. Weight - 12 tons.
When the sketches of the compositions "Grigory and Aksinya" were presented by M.A. Sholokhov, he advised to replace cybarks (conical) with buckets (cylindrical), as well as "transplant" Gregory from an Arab horse with a swan neck to a Donchak horse.
Initially, the sculptural composition was installed in 1983 in Rostov-on-Don, in the area of ​​the recreation center and the Priboy shipyard, where it had been for 12 years, then in April 1995 it was transported to Vyoshenskaya.

Sculptural composition "To the Cossacks of the Quiet Don". 1994 year
Sculptor: Nikolai Vasilievich Mozhaev (born in 1928), Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, laureate of the Sholokhov Prize.
Co-authors: EM. Mozhaeva, N.N. Shcherbakov, Honored Art Worker of Ukraine.
Architect: IN AND. Voloshin.
Material: bronze.
Dimensions: 2 n.v., the height of the sculpture is 6 m, the height with a mound is 14 m. Weight is 8 tons.
The monument was erected on a poured hill near the Kruzhilinsky farm for the 89th anniversary of the birth of M.A. Sholokhov.
The inscription on the stone: "To the Cossacks of the Quiet Don".

Sculptural composition "Gregory and Aksinya". 2003 r.
Sculptor: Sergey Pavlovich Kalchenko.
Material:
Dimensions: height - 2.4 m; length - 2.5 m; width - 1.3 m.
Installed in the city of Belaya Kalitva, Rostov region in the park of culture and recreation named after Mayakovsky, st. Embankment.

Sculpture "Shchukar". 2003 r.
Sculptor: Sergey Pavlovich Kalchenko.
Material: iron reinforcement, concrete, paint.
Dimensions: height - 1.5 m; length - 1.1 m; width - 0.7 m.
The monument was erected in the town of Belaya Kalitva, Rostov region, in the park of culture and recreation named after Mayakovsky, st. Embankment.

Mikhail Sholokhov, everyone opens it in their own way. Everyone likes their hero of Sholokhov's stories. This is understandable. After all, the fate of the heroes, the problems raised by Sholokhov, are consonant with our time.
But my Sholokhov is not only the author of works. First of all, he is a man of an interesting, bright destiny. Judge for yourself: at the age of sixteen, young Sholokhov miraculously survived, falling into the hands of the power-hungry Nestor Makhno, in the thirty-seventh he repeatedly rescued his friends from persecution and repression. He was accused of plagiarism, sympathy for the white movement, tried to poison, kill. Yes, many trials fell to the lot of this writer. But he did not become like the grass, which "grows, bowing obediently under the disastrous breath of the storms of life." Despite everything, Sholokhov remained a straightforward, honest, truthful person. One of the manifestations of his veracity was the collection of stories "Don Stories".
In them Sholokhov expressed his attitude to the war, which was a tragedy of the people. It is destructive for both sides, brings irreparable losses, cripples souls. The writer is right: it is unacceptable when people, intelligent beings, come to barbarism and self-destruction.
In "Don Stories" I was attracted by the realism, anti-romanticism of the presentation of the harsh military conditions; the truth of war that spares no one, not even children. There are no superfluous romantic beauties in his stories. Sholokhov said that one should not write too picturesquely, colorfully about death among the "gray feather grass", ascribe to the perishing states when they "died choking on beautiful words." But what about the beauty of the presentation? Sholokhov, which is remarkable, has beauty in the prostate, the nationality of the language.
The very essence of the stories makes you think about life, about modern life. In my opinion, the meaning of the stories is that people, in order to prove their loyalty to their ideals, step over the life and fate of the most dear, close people. A brother must kill a brother, a son - a father.
Class hatred is higher than kindred feelings. In the short story "Bakhchevik" a Cossack rescues his wounded brother, deals with his White Guard father. The story "The Family Man" is even darker: in it the father kills two sons of the Red Guards at once, flinching before the threats of the White Cossacks.
In this sense, the stories are quite modern, the only thing is that ideological hatred is replaced by money. For the sake of money in our time, they can "kill both the father and sell the mother."
Sholokhov's heroes do not reason, but act: without hesitation, at the first call of their hearts they rush into the river to save the foal, save children from gangs. But along with good deeds, without hesitation, they kill their sons, take the last away from the peasants. They make you angry and cry. You read, and "sadness-longing" fills your heart. Why couldn't Sholokhov add a little “smile” and happiness to his works? It seems to me that he wanted us, readers, to bring us a little closer to the reality of war, when there is not a single happy person.
What does Sholokhov give me? Let one critic say for me: “He awakens the fire hidden in our souls, attaching to the great kindness, great mercy and great humanity of the Russian people. He is one of those writers whose art helps everyone to become more human. " This is my Sholokhov. A writer who taught me lessons in courage, decency and honesty. I will try to read and reread Sholokhov, each time amazed at his ability to look into the deep recesses of the human soul. I trust my writer, so I will never have doubts about his veracity. Let the author be accused of having stopped writing in recent years. What was he to write about? About the victories of developed socialism? He saw perfectly well what was happening. Yes, the writer worked on the novel They Fought for the Motherland.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov is the first figure in our post-October literature.

If the enemy attacks our country, we, writers, at the call of the party and government, will put aside our pen and take up another weapon so that with the volley of the rifle corps, which Comrade Voroshilov spoke of, fly and smash the enemy and our lead, heavy and hot, like ...

The fates of the heroes, the problems raised by Sholokhov, are consonant with our time. But my Sholokhov is not only the author of works. First of all, he is a man of an interesting, bright destiny. Judge for yourself: at the age of sixteen, young Sholokhov miraculously survived, falling into the hands ...

Mikhail Sholokhov. Everyone opens it in their own way. One is close to Grigory Melekhov, a daring Cossack from the novel "Quiet Don", another fell in love with grandfather Shchukar, a funny old man from the book "Virgin Land Upturned". This is understandable. After all, the fate of the heroes, the problems raised by Sholokhov, ...

At the end of 56g. MA Sholokhov published his story The Fate of a Man. This is a story about an ordinary man in a big war, who, at the cost of losing loved ones, comrades, with his courage and heroism, gave the right to life and freedom to his homeland. Andrey Sokolov is a modest worker, ...

Once in the library I came across an article on a literary theme purely by chance. She is about Sholokhov, more precisely, against Sholokhov, and more specifically, against "Quiet Don" in school studies.
The main argument "against" is the presence in the novel of many violent scenes with special naturalistic details. And although the statute of limitations has passed since the publication of the article, it touched me for "my soul," and decided to write a response in defense of the writer and his heroes.

There are books that are firmly embedded in the memory, make a strong impression. For me, these are the books of M. Sholokhov.

What conquers me, as a reader, is Sholokhov - a writer? Above all, by the powerful force of depiction. The literary word of the writer possesses some kind of special magic that immediately captures the imagination, touches the "soul I live", awakens the thought.

When does an art book both enlighten and cleanse the soul and make a person better? When it hurts the emotional state of the soul of the reader. For me, the main thing in the writer's books is this aesthetic feeling, which cannot be expressed in words, which enlightens, and purifies, and does better.
Before Sholokhov, I had a vague idea of ​​the Cossacks. And he made it possible to look into this soul, to appreciate the “quiet light” that burns in it, to understand its sorrows and love it. Sholokhov, as a person and a writer, conquers by the fact that he chose a simple laboring peasantry as the main character, whose historical experience is very significant, interesting, complex and instructive for us, who already live in another era, as a reminder that today the peasantry is one of the main working classes. On it, as on the foundations, the whole of Russia.
"The history of the human soul ... is almost more curious and not more useful than the history of an entire people ..." Lermontov's statement.

For me, that is why Sholokhov is a writer, because he sees the soul first of all, and through it - already events.
I live in a village, and although I may not know the deep moral roots of traditional village culture, after reading The Quiet Don, I will say unequivocally: some of the national “roots” that so outraged the author of the article proved to be tenacious for centuries. This is probably the nature of the national character. He is still a lover of "strong words", today there are family "triangles" and they are resolved not "diplomatically", but in such a way that "the feathers fly." And "on the chest" an amateur to accept. But, as the proverb says: "There is a lot of black sheep in the family." After all, the main thing is different - the village worker still remains faithful to the earth, he is a hard worker from dawn to dusk. And the peasant woman - and "galloping horse ...", and into the "burning ... will enter."

Now about cruelty ... And here I would like to make a reservation. Without straining the imagination, we see how much cruelty there is from the screens, we read from the pages of newspapers today. And with such details ...

There are indeed a lot of violence and bloody scenes in Sholokhov's books. The world of the Cossacks, shown by the author, sometimes amazes us with its cruelty and savagery, sometimes primitiveness and rudeness. One can be indignant at the "uncouthness" of Grigory Melekhov, his "vater", "kubyt", "antileria", "dislocation".
But that was the harsh truth of life. Sholokhov does not paint "pink" pictures, does not deceive the reader, always remains true to the truth. Like no other writer, possessing the ability to invade the sphere of our senses, he convinces of the truth of the words he himself wrote: "My book does not belong to the category of books that are read in the afternoon and whose only task is to promote peaceful digestion."

I do not consider myself one of the majority of those who read "over the text" and I learn about books not only from the teacher, but I try to have my own opinion. There is a war going on, but what a war! Brother is against brother. The son is against the father. Five years a Cossack in the saddle, five years in the trenches ... He would “walk along a soft plow furrow with a plower, whistle at bulls, listen to the blue crane trumpet cry ... and constantly drink the wine smell of the ground raised by a plow.

And in exchange for this - bread cut by the blades of the roads ... only one black death stood up to its full height, frightened and compelled, like an animal, to be protected ”.

How not to harden the soul of a Cossack, how not to expose base feelings. And the intelligence of the Cossack sometimes to the level of primitiveness, because he finished his "universities" not within the walls of an educational institution, but in military campaigns, in the economy, in the field, in eternal labor.

And about naturalism, I have my own opinion. Of course, the scene of collective rape of Frani by the Cossacks, wild in its cruelty, is immediately recalled (here, of course, everything envies because of where the reader's imagination will bring; my teeth clench with indignation until it gnashes).

But I think that even here the writer cannot deserve a reproach for the reason that he did not overstep the boundaries between truthful realism and vulgar, cruel naturalism.

The writer simply portrayed the passion of the "feral" Cossacks in its consistent development, but this is by no means a vice of the Cossacks as a whole ...

I agree, there is a lot of negative in the Cossack, but the core is healthy, and how much rational, eternal is concentrated in it. Even in this scene, because the semantic load of the episode is nevertheless transferred by the writer to the “history of the soul.” Remember? One against a band of Cossacks, Grigory rushed to the defense of the girl - a completely stranger to him.

That is why Sholokhov's heroes are so firmly engraved in the memory that they are carriers of healthy principles - reason, experience, hard work, truth-seeking, moral purity.
And most importantly, the writer saw the humanity of an ordinary person. I remember my first acquaintance with Sholokhov, a writer. It began long before the "graduation" - with the story "Foal". She cried, sobbing like a child with tears.

And now I am on the verge of "maturity", I reread it again. The emotional state of the soul is the same.
Two elements collided - war and peace. A living creature was born, a foal was born. But the first feeling he experienced on earth was the feeling of horror from the shrapnel explosion, the howling rumble. The joy of birth, the all-conquering power of life - and its violent destruction. Here it is, a contradiction that you involuntarily think about.

Simply, figuratively, brightly, succinctly the story of the writer sounds, but in this conciseness there is so much life, so much tension and truth. You feel what you are telling - it stands before your eyes. It seems that you hear this inviting cry of a foal over the water, "to cold horror similar to the cry of a child, sonorous and honed like the sting of a saber."
You seem to see how Trofim pulls the foal, taking it "under the cold belly." The shore is close. The denouement is close. And now the pulse of the reader is already beating faster. Spasms catch his breath, tears well up in his eyes.
Here is the last monstrous effort - and Trofim's feet are already scraping the ground. And suddenly ... A lonely shot rang out - from the right bank. The ending of the story is deeply symbolic.

The indifferent, trained movements of the officer - the killer - are on the same bank. And a man struck by a bullet a stone's throw from the rescued foal of a wonderful soul. "Hard, blue lips, five years without kissing children, and smiled in death."

As you read this today, you see not only our past. The thought involuntarily arises in the memory of the cold, soulless indifference of those who even today blow up the subway, schools, kill innocent children, and those who, sacrificing themselves, enter the struggle for life.

The great writer is a humanist ... He put humanity at the head. The heroes of M. Sholokhov also advise us about the rational, the eternal.
Here is Grishak's grandfather, who was in the Turkish campaign, recalls how he took a Turkish officer alive in battle: “I wanted to cut it down, but then I changed my mind. Man it ... "
Here Grigory is flying at full speed to save Koshevoy from death: "Help out ... The blood lay between us, but we are not strangers, are we ?!"

Here is Gavril's grandfather ("Another's Blood"), having overcome his hatred of the enemy, the wounded Red Army soldier, pity him, and then he will love him like his own son: "Fuck someone else's blood in you, but your soul hurts for you like for your own"
Here the Knave releases the prisoner: “Run, German! I have no grudge against you. I won't shoot. Why am I going to kill you? " (as the commander-in-chief of the Russian army Kutuzov once called for forgiveness and pity after the victory over the French).

To recognize a person in another means to become one yourself. To have pity on the enemy ... But this is a deep meaning. Love for the enemy, refusal to take revenge is the highest degree of humility before God, "for he commands his sun to rise over the wicked and the good and send rain on the righteous and unrighteous."
After all, why is the soul of a person “dehumanized”? From the nondiscrimination of good and evil, from hatred. And only love, kindness, humanity are creative. Therefore, the heroes of M. Sholokhov convince us, there is nothing more important in life than learning to conquer the spirit of evil in oneself and live in love and harmony.
Sholokhov's heroes ... They are so many-sided, polyphonic, sometimes restrained, sometimes spontaneous, with advantages and disadvantages. But it is with them, ordinary people of labor, that the writer connects the most complex, great, eternal truths.

One of them is the connection between generations, continuity, respect for life experience and the wisdom of “fathers”, a sense of “sonship” and “fatherhood”. Absolute, eternal truth, on the solution of which the course of social development depends and deviation from it threatens with moral savagery.
"Melekhovsky Dvor - on the very edge of the farm ..." - this is how the novel "Quiet Don" begins. Not from historical events, from the history of the Melekhov family, from the story of how, dying, an unfortunate Turkish woman leaves her son.
And here is its finale: “Well, that little has come true, about which sleepless nights dreamed, Grigory. They stand at the gates of their home, holding their son in their arms ... ”A different framing. And this is symbolic. Gregory returned to the walls of his native kuren, to his native land. And he holds in his arms a son - the future successor of the family and the successor of Melekhov's qualities.

Of course, Mishatka, having become an adult, will already live in a different era. Much in his way of life will be different. But I want to believe that he will not forget his national roots.
There is also such a sacred truth - the father's house. "The parental home - the beginning of the beginning and in my life a reliable berth ..." Strong rear. The father's house is like a small church where the foundations of life are laid.
In spite of everything, the Melekhov house survived. He lost a lot and many, but he survived, because he was erected not on sand, but on the “stone of faith” in the tradition of the Orthodox way of life, because in it they respected the life experience and wisdom of the “fathers”, kept the traditions of folk morality.

Dunyasha remains the only one of the Melekhov family to keep family and everyday traditions. And although she creates her future family not by the will of her parents (as was traditionally accepted), but on the basis of personal choice, she considers the parental blessing to be obligatory. With difficulty, but nevertheless he achieves the church consecration of their marriage from her atheist husband.
It is she, Dunyasha, who loves her husband, nevertheless warns her brother about the danger that threatens him, and then, in the absence of Gregory, brings up his children. It is in family, blood ties that the strength of the Melekhov house lies. Only a strong family could survive in that terrible hard times.

And here is another episode, leading to deep thoughts about the eternal "... So the Don nightingales sang to my dear Davydov and Nagulnov, the ripening wheat whispered to them, a nameless river rang out on the stones, flowing from somewhere from the upper reaches of the Gremyachy gully ... That's all!"

Touching, heartbreaking words of the writer for the heroes dear to his heart. Loved and reader. However, I want to stop, look around, think and be horrified by this short writing: "That's all! ..." For some reason, I remember Gorky: "Was there a boy?" or Lermontov's "Why did I live? ... for what purpose was I born?"
"... That's all! .." As a result of life. But folk wisdom says that a person, for his life, must build a house, plant a tree and raise a son. Even “every little bird, and that nest, breeds offspring ...” and “every animal, both the tree and the earth know time, when they need to seed ... "
The basis of the foundations for a person is the family. With what do we pin our hopes for our immortality? - With family and future children.

What is the main meaning of a person's life? - In that, having mastered the business necessary for people,
pass on secrets to his descendants, as the blacksmith Shaly does. Having no children of his own, Shaly teaches his craft to "orphans".

How much wisdom is in his words: "That is why I am proud that I will die, and there will be more than a dozen heirs to my skill in this world."
To leave your mark on the Earth is the wisdom of life. This is what is universal and eternal in Sholokhov's heroes.
A bitter, but valuable lesson for us is also taught by the Gremyachensky communists, forcing us to think about the question: why?

Why were the heroes of Virgin Soil Upturned unable to create their own home, their own family, and raise their children? Why is the writer, having endowed his heroes with the happiness of love,
didn’t let them experience the happiness of fatherhood?

Probably, the blame for everything is the call of their hearts, which, unfortunately, belong only to the party.
Obsessed with the idea of ​​the party, they turned out to be wordless performers due to tragic events, rejected the great and eternal laws that their ancestors followed. They "no longer believe in God, but in the Communist Party, which is leading the working people of the whole world to a blue, bright future." The ideals of family happiness are too shallow for them, inspired by the dream of universal happiness.
Or maybe this is the creative will of the writer. What spiritual heritage could the founders of the new life pass on to their children?

And yet, it is a human pity. Two people died, honest, devoted to the idea. It is a pity that "that's all ..." Who will remember? Who will come to the grave, who will remember?
Bitter, but a lesson, and with a philosophical - why? Why, I ask myself, does each new generation destroy the outlook of the previous generation? Why does what seemed irrefutable yesterday collapse today? Why do we question the respect for life experience and the wisdom of the "fathers"? Why, having destroyed, then revive the lost?

Isn't it better not to forget about the power of traditions, about the dependence of man on the historical past?
There are hundreds of thousands of words in our Russian language. And for the heroes of Sholokhov, the most important and sacred are three words: land, bread, people. These are the three roots on which our state rests. This is the very essence of the Cossacks.
Sholokhov's heroes are great workers. The most precious quality of a person in the eyes of the Cossacks was called the epithet "hard-working". Yakov Lukich Ostrovnov is working in the sweat of his brow. Alone, with a family of three, hardly hiring workers, sowed 28 hectares, "he worked the land and fed others", handed over to the state "bread, meat, butter, skins, wool, and poultry ..."

An excellent farmer, economic, working for our times.
Ilyinichna, who has become "hunchbacked from work", does not straighten up. Always in business the most industrious Cossack - the peasant Panteley Prokofievich. We see Natalia's big hands, crushed by the work. We rejoice for Davydov - plowed - one tithe in a day ...

And together with him we see how “... furrow after furrow - the soil, cut by the furrow and the ploughshare, is falling, the soil that has been pressed down for centuries, the overturned, deadly twisted rhizomes of grasses stretch to the sky, the crushed, soddy top hides in the black shafts ... the insipid smell of black earth is life-giving and sweet ... "
The smell of black earth ... The smell of the earth ... Probably, it cannot be translated into the language of concepts. This smell can only be grasped by feeling. Only those who wear blouses for work on the earth, whose life from childhood is connected with its cultivation, is familiar with this smell.

He is known to the Cossack, because in work is his vocation, joy, meaning and beauty of life. That is why the main thing in a Cossack is his thoughts about the land. That is why, during the campaign, the Cossack took with him a bundle with a pinch of his native land. Longing for home, "they walked past the plowing field, and everyone bent down, took a dry lump of earth that smelled of the spring sun, rubbed it in his palms, and squeezed a sigh."

"Steppe - mother", "Don - father" - so the Cossacks said.
“Bread is the head of everything,” “There will be bread - there will be a song ...” Since childhood, the truth instilled in us. But how often do we remember those and pay tribute to those who earn bread in the sweat of their brow, who have calloused hands and sleepless nights?
And in Sholokhov's way I want to exclaim: "Dear steppe under the low Don sky! Vilyuzhin gullies, dry lands, red-loamy springs, feather-grass space with a harried nesting trail of a horse's hoof, mounds in wise silence ... I bow low and kiss your fresh ground, Don Cossack steppe that does not rust with blood! "

This is how Sholokhov, a writer and a person, perceives his native land. He lives with one feeling with his heroes - the feeling of holy love for the land, bequeathing it to us as the highest value.
"The history of the human soul ..." I wonder what it will be like, the history of the soul of the 21st century? What will we leave to the descendants? ..