Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov (1905-1984) - Soviet writer, one of the classics of Russian literature, Nobel Prize winner and academician. He was born on May 11 (24), 1905 on the Kruzhilin farm, now it is the Sholokhov district of the Rostov region. He spent his whole life in his native village, occasionally moving to other cities for a while.

Childhood and youth

The mother of the future writer, Anastasia Chernikova, was a peasant orphan. Before the wedding, she was a maid for a landowner, after which the girl was forcibly married to the Cossack Kuznetsov. But they did not love each other, soon the peasant woman fled to Alexander Sholokhov. He was born in the Ryazan province, served as a clerk, and was in charge of the procurement office of the Donprodkom. Mikhail was an illegitimate son, according to the documents, his father was Anastasia's husband. And only in 1912, after his death, the lovers got married, then Alexander was able to “adopt” his own child.

In 1910 the family moved to the Kargin farm. There Sholokhov studied at the parochial school, after which he entered the gymnasium. But the young man managed to finish only four classes because of the outbreak of the revolution, he studied from 1914 to 1918. Later he graduated from tax courses, was an inspector. During the civil war, Misha served as a volunteer in the food detachment. He was also appointed teacher for the eradication of illiteracy among adults.

In parallel with the work, Mikhail participated in the creation of the newspaper " New world", played in the performances of the Karginsky People's House. He even composed two plays for this institution, while maintaining anonymity. They were called "Extraordinary Day" and "General Victorious".

Moving to Moscow

When Misha was 17 years old, he decided to move to Moscow. Since 1922, the prose writer lived there, worked as a loader, a bricklayer and an accountant. But he was always drawn to literature, so in his spare time he attended the classes of the Young Guard circle. In the autumn of 1923, Sholokhov's feuilletons "Test" and "Three" were published in the printed edition "Youthful Truth". The following year, readers were able to get acquainted with his story "The Mole".

After a successful debut, the writer published several more of his works, later all of them were included in the collections Don Stories and Azure Steppe. In many ways, he was helped by Alexander Serafimovich, who wrote the preface to one of the books of the prose writer. They met in 1925, until the end of his days Sholokhov was grateful to his friend for his support. He considered him one of the first teachers in his life.

Subsequently, Michael received an education. He graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University and the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Rostov University. At Lomonosov Moscow State University, he met his future wife Maria, the daughter of a Cossack chieftain. She studied philology, after receiving her diploma she became the personal secretary of a prose writer.

Main novel

In 1924, Mikhail Alexandrovich returned to his homeland. There he marries Maria Gromoslavskaya. Their marriage lasted until the death of the writer, four children were born in the family. They lived in the village of Karginskaya, since 1926 they moved to Vyoshenskaya. At the same time, the prose writer begins work on his most famous novel, The Quiet Flows the Don. It described the fate of the Cossacks during the war years, the work consisted of several parts.

In 1928 and 1929 saw the light of the first two books of the epic. They were published in the October edition. The third part appeared only a few years later, since there was a ban on publication by the government. This is due to the fact that the participants in the anti-Bolshevik uprising are sympathetically depicted in the novel. In 1932, readers were able to get acquainted with the third book, two years later Mikhail finished writing the next part. But there was tremendous pressure on him, the work had to be rewritten several times. In 1940, the last part of the fourth book was published.

It was "Quiet Flows the Don" that firmly entrenched itself in the world and Russian classics. It has been translated into many languages. This novel combines several storylines, he is considered one of the most striking examples of socialist realism. Maxim Gorky and Alexander Serafimovich highly appreciated Sholokhov's work, starting from the first book of the epic. They wrote rave reviews, strongly supported a colleague.

Simultaneously with the epic, another important novel by the prose writer was released. It was called "Virgin Soil Upturned", the plot was based on the history of the movement of 25-thousanders. The first volume was published in 1932. The second part was temporarily lost, and only after the war it was possible to publish it. This work is included in school curriculum, his appearance was an important event in literary life countries. Also in the 30s, Sholokhov often wrote articles about culture and literature.

War years

During the Great Patriotic War Mikhail Alexandrovich worked as a war correspondent. He collaborated with the publications Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda. During this period, his stories "The Science of Hatred", "On the Don", "On the Smolensk Direction" were published. In 1941, the prose writer received State Prize, with this money he bought four rocket launchers for the army.

Sholokhov also begins to publish chapters from a new novel called "They Fought for the Motherland." The final version of the book appeared only in 1969. The writer burned the manuscript, so only a few chapters remained for readers. In 1975 the book was filmed by Sergei Bondarchuk.

Social activity

After the end of the war, the writer was intensively engaged in social work. He joined the World Congress of Science and Culture. Sholokhov was also a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in 1934 he was admitted to the Writers' Union. He also participated in the World Peace Council. Thanks to the prose writer, the movement "Union of Cossacks of the Don Army Region" was organized.

In parallel with this, Mikhail continues to write. In 1956, the essay "The Fate of Man" was published. In 1965, the prose writer received the Nobel Prize for the epic "Quiet Flows the Don". He donated these funds to the construction of a school in his native village. He was also awarded in different years Stalin Prize, Lenin Prize, Literary "Sofia" and International Peace Prize. Sholokhov was an honorary doctor of philological sciences at the Leipzig and Rostov universities. In Scotland, he was elected Doctor of Laws.

In the last ten years of his life, the prose writer wrote practically nothing. Visitors from all over the world regularly came to his native village, who wanted to communicate with the writer. He suffered two strokes and diabetes, after which metastases began to appear in his throat. On February 21, 1984, Sholokhov died of cancer of the larynx.

The world that Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov represents is truly the embodiment of such qualities of the Russian people as patriotism, humanity and love for truth. This is clearly seen in the ideas that he conveyed to readers through his literary works. If you suddenly feel like finding out the real and undisguised truth about the Civil War, then you should start reading Quiet Don. And, if you are interested in the whole process of the formation of collectivism in the Soviet state, then, in addition to other literature, it is better to read his “Virgin Soil Upturned”.

And, of course, those who are interested in a period in history Soviet Union- The Great Patriotic War - they like to read his unfinished novel "They fought for the Motherland." All these and other works of Mikhail Alexandrovich are a real reflection of the historical upheavals that the whole country was then experiencing, and which the author himself witnessed, as his biography tells.

Short biography of Sholokhov

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov is a well-known Russian prose writer who, in a fascinating way, revealed to the world the life and culture of the Don Cossacks. The Soviet writer is deservedly twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1967,1980), Laureate of the Stalin Prize (1941), Lenin Prize (1960), and the Nobel Prize (1965). And in 1939, Mikhail Alexandrovich received a degree - Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

Childhood and youth Sholokhov M.A.

Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich was born in 1905 on May 11 (24) on a farm called Kruzhilin of the Vyoshenskaya village, which belonged to the region of the Donskoy army (the modern name is the village of Vyoshenskaya, Rostov region). Sholokhov was born into a family of peasants. His mother, Anastasia Danilovna Kuznetsova, was the wife of a Don Cossack and worked as a maid for the landowner Popov, and Mikhail's father, Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov, was a wealthy clerk. At the beginning of his childhood, Mikhail Aleksandrovich bore the surname of his stepfather Kuznetsov and, by right of inheritance, could have received a land allotment as a “son of a Cossack”. However, after the death of his stepfather, his mother, taking little Mikhail with her, went to live with his own father Sholokhov A.M., who adopted him. And now, instead of the “son of a Cossack”, the young Mikhail Sholokhov became the “son of a tradesman”, he was forced from childhood to endure the obvious ambiguity of the position of his family (mother is a Cossack, and his father is a visitor from Ryazan, the son of a merchant). Perhaps such an atmosphere has been fixed since early years in the character of Mikhail Alexandrovich there is a tendency towards justice, truth and some secrecy about his true origin.

Mikhail Sholokhov studied first at a parochial school, then, after moving to the Kargin farm (1910), and when he was seven years old, he was admitted to a male one-class school, after which he graduated from four classes of the male Bogucharsky gymnasium. This was the end of his childhood education.

In 1919, Sholokhov witnessed the Upper Don Cossack uprising, which he would later describe in his novel Quiet Flows the Don. And a year later, after this uprising, Mikhail Sholokhov is already going to work: he was a school teacher (the direction is the elimination of illiteracy), he served as the revolutionary committee of the village, he also worked as an accountant and even a journalist. When strife between the “reds” and “whites” began in the country, the young Sholokhov ultimately took the side of the victorious side, which, in his opinion, contributed to the formation of at least relative peace between the brothers. It all seemed to him that it was a great evil to raise a hand against his own fellow villager or brother by blood or spirit - to such an extent he hated the Civil War! Therefore, Sholokhov, when he served in the food detachment as an inspector of the Bukanovskaya village (1921), without the permission of the command, significantly reduced the taxation of people, especially those who were closer to him and the poorest of all. For this he was on trial. new government and was first sentenced to death, but after changing the sentence, supporters of the authorities gave him a small suspended prison sentence.

Arrival in Moscow, marriage, return home and the beginning of a writing career

In 1922 M.A. Sholokhov, whose writer's biography is just beginning here, comes to Moscow to enter the working faculty, but he is not accepted due to the fact that he is not a Komsomol member. Then Mikhail does not despair and still tries to stay in Moscow, while working hard for several years. He had to work at such heavy and small jobs as a loader, a bricklayer, an accountant and other odd jobs. But it is here that he tries to write and publish his essays in magazines and newspapers. He also becomes an active member of the Young Guard literary circle. In Youthful Truth, his feuilletons are published: "Test", "Three" (1923).

A year later, Sholokhov marries Maria Petrovna, with whom he lived until the end of his days. And in 1925 he, together with his wife, returned to his homeland. It was the air of his native farm, spacious beauty and steppe distances, and the peacefully flowing Don that inspired him to write further. At home, he publishes his "Don stories", which immediately attracted the attention of readers. He also begins work on his famous novel The Quiet Flows the Don.

In 1926, the collection "Azure Steppe" was published. In 1928, the first two books of The Quiet Don were published in the October magazine, which immediately caused violent controversy among the opinions of critics and famous writers, such as M. Gorky, because they were, first of all, embarrassed by their young age. Sholokhov is 23 years old, and an incredibly talented novel. Regarding the third book of The Quiet Don, the censorship of the new government found fault with its sentimental display of the Upper Don Cossack uprising, they say, it would be necessary to describe such events dryly and not so sympathetically towards the Cossacks. Apparently, for this reason, Sholokhov temporarily leaves the writing of The Quiet Don and embarks on a new one - Virgin Soil Upturned, where he described with great enthusiasm the formation and collectivization of lands on the Don. The publication of "Virgin Soil Upturned" was in 1932. And in 1940, already completed, by order of I.V. Stalin, the last book of The Quiet Flows the Don, and in the first year of the Great Patriotic War (1941) was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Stalin Prize.

In a rather long period of the Second World War, M.A. Sholokhov enters the service as a war correspondent for the newspapers Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda. And at the end of 1942, he began to write the novel "They Fought for the Motherland", which had to be published in fragments over a long period from 1943 to 1954.

Continuation of creativity, titles, awards and death of the Russian writer Sholokhov M.A.

Like any biography, the biography of Mekhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov is coming to an end, although his creative legacy still lives on. While working as a war correspondent, the writer had to visit five fronts and describe the events taking place there. It was for this kind of military merit that he was awarded the title of Companion of the Order of Glory (1945). And in 1955 he was awarded another Order of Lenin. A couple of years later, Sholokhov wrote the story "The Fate of a Man", and in 1960 he was awarded the Lenin Prize for the second book of Virgin Soil Upturned. In 1965, he was awarded the Nobel Prize, and he was recognized as one of the best Russian literary writers. In the same year, Sholokhov was awarded a degree - Doctor of Philology from Rostov State University, and in Germany, Leipzig University, he was elected an Honorary Doctor. And again, awards - the award of the Order of the Hero of Socialist Labor in 1967 and 1980. In Bulgaria - the Order of Cyril and Methodius, I degree (1973). 1975 - world-class award for an outstanding contribution to reconciliation between peoples in the field of culture in Stockholm. On May 23, 1981, a monument-bust of M.A. was opened in the village of Veshenskaya. Sholokhov.

On February 21, 1984, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov dies in his native land, in the village of Veshenskaya, where he was buried.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov - public figure, famous writer, classic"official" Soviet literature, Hero of Socialist Labor twice, Nobel Prize winner, owner of a unique epic talent, who widely revealed himself in a difficult turning point for Russia. He is known as continuer of the traditions of realism L. N. Tolstoy in new vital material and in historical era countries. Sholokhov received world fame thanks to his main work - the novel The Quiet Flows the Don, which is ranked to the most powerful novels of the 20th century.

In contact with

Mikhail Alexandrovich was born on May 11 (24), 1905 on the Kruzhilin farm of the Donskoy Army in the Veshenskaya region in a Cossack family. Mother comes from a Ukrainian peasant family, served as a maid, who was married against her will to the Cossack-ataman Kuznetsov, but she left him for a rich "out-of-town" clerk, the manager of a steam mill, Sholokhov, a native of the Ryazan province, growing wheat on Cossack land.

Their newborn illegitimate son Mikhail was initially given the surname of the mother's first husband and the boy was considered the "son of a Cossack" for all Cossack privileges, and only in 1912 he began to be called the "son of a tradesman" after Kuznetsov passed away and his real father adopted him.

Sholokhov's childhood and youthful impressions had a great influence on the formation of his personality as a writer. The boundless expanses of his native land, the Don steppes and the verdant banks of the Don won his heart forever. From an early age, he absorbed the daily work on the ground, his native dialect and soulful Cossack songs.

Education in four grades and an uninvited war is the hard fate of a purposeful writer. Later he will say "Poets are born in different ways", or "I, for example, was born out of the Civil War ..."

Before the revolution, the entire Sholokhov family settled in Pleshakovo of the Yelanskaya village on a farm, where the head of the family worked as a mill manager. The father often took his son on trips around the Don and spent a lot of time with him during the holidays. On these trips future writer met the captive Czech Ota Gins and David Mikhailovich Babichev, who many years later entered his novel The Quiet Don under the names of Shtokman and Davydka the Roller. Later, Sholokhov studied at the gymnasium and the parochial school.

Already a high school student, Sholokhov met the Drozdov family and brothers Pavel and Alexei became his good friends. But the friendship turns out to be short-lived due to the tragic circumstances that were associated with the Civil War that unfolded on the Don. The elder brother Pavel Drozdov dies in the first battles when the Red Army enters his native farms. Later Sholokhov would write about him in The Quiet Don under the name of Pyotr Melekhov.

Goals and achievements of the writer

In June 1918, young Sholokhov would become a personal witness to an acute class war when the German cavalry entered the county town of Boguchary, located next to his parent's farm. In the summer of the same year, the White Cossacks will occupy the Upper Don, and in the winter of 1919 the Red Army will enter the lands of Pleshakov, and in the spring the Veshensky uprising will break out.

During the uprising, Sholokhov moved to Rubezhnoye and observed the retreat of the rebels and the escape of the White Cossacks. He becomes an eyewitness of how they cross the Don, as he watches everything that happens from the front line.

In 1920, when there was Soviet power on the Don, the Sholokhovs moved to the village of Karginskaya, where later the brave son took Active participation in the rise of power. He enters the Karginsky Primary School and receives knowledge in the class taught by Mikhail Grigorievich Kopylov (whom Sholokhov writes about in the novel Quiet Flows the Don under his own name).

Not graduating from the Karginsky school due to a severe eye inflammation disease, and due to a forced trip to the Moscow eye clinic, which is also mentioned in the future novel, he remains in Moscow. After recovery, he enters the preparatory class of the Shelaputin gymnasium, then studies at the Bogucharov gymnasium. During an exciting study, he is interested in books by foreign and Russian classic writers, especially the works of Leo Tolstoy.

Sholokhov called literature and history his favorite sciences taught at the gymnasium, while giving the greatest preference to literary pursuits; begins to write poems and stories, compose humorous skits. Later, he tries himself in the profession of a teacher of an educational program school, an accountant, a journalist, an employee of the stanitsa revolutionary committee, and others.

In the autumn of 1920, when the borders of the district were crossed by a detachment of Makhno and the bandits plundered and occupied the Karginsky village, Sholokhov was taken prisoner. The interrogation was conducted by Nestor Makhno and threatened with hanging in the event of another meeting with him.

The next year of Sholokhov's life turned out to be even more difficult, local gangs of Melikhov, Makarov Kondratiev, Makarov and Fomin were formed; detachments of Kurochkin, Maslakov and Kolesnikov broke through to the Don. Sholokhov actively participated in the fight against them until their complete disappearance.

In 1922, he again comes to Moscow to enter the workers' faculty, but they do not take him, since he is not a member of the Komsomol. The writer lives by odd jobs, goes to a literary circle called "Young Guard", develops his writing skills, publishes essays and feuilletons in newspapers, and then creates "Don stories", which in 1926 aroused great interest among readers.

In 1925, the writer returns to his native farm and begins his most important work - the novel "Quiet Don", for whose place in literature, he fights until 1940. Due to various kinds of criticism, the book goes a long and difficult way. The description of the events taking place on the Don is called “anathematically talented”, the description of the Cossack uprising of 1919 is not let out into the light, and only after Stalin intervenes in its fate, it becomes fully published and published.

For "Quiet Don" the writer receives the Order of Lenin, and in 1941 the Stalin Prize of the 1st degree.

In 1957 he publishes the story "The Fate of a Man". By the end of his life, he received the Lenin Prize for "Virgin Soil Upturned" and the Nobel Prize for the famous "Quiet Don".

Twice Hero of Labour, Honorary Doctor of European Universities and holder of 6 Orders of Lenin M. A. Sholokhov dies in 1984 due to diseases (diabetes, stroke and throat cancer), however, doctors were surprised at his perseverance and desire to write.

Sholokhov. Interesting facts from life

creative way The writer made a huge contribution to Russian literature. The spirit of the people is felt in the works of Sholokhov, which today is a poetic heritage that reflects the real events of the 19th and 20th centuries. Sholokhov discovered new connections in spiritual and material principles between the world and man. His novels for the first time in the history of literature showed the working people in all their diversity, morality and the emotional nature of life.

Sholokhov's work, along with the famous world classics, is a model of world literature, and testifies to the boundless desire to tell history on the example of the writer's own life at all its stages.

• First printed works are in 1923. After the publication of his feuilletons and poems in newspapers and metropolitan magazines, in the newspaper "Young Leninist" Sholokhov's stories were published under the title "The Mole", later they were all combined into collections: "Don stories", "Azure steppe", "About Kolchak, nettles and other things "(1926-1927).
• The most famous The writer was brought by his novel "Quiet Don", which he wrote from 1928 to 1932. His second famous novel is Virgin Soil Upturned, he worked on it until 1959 of his life.
• During the Second World War Sholokhov published such stories as "The Science of Hatred", "Cossacks", "On the Don", etc. In 1956, he wrote the story "The Fate of a Man" and took up writing the novel "They Fought for the Motherland", which are also known a wide range readers. Towards the end of his life, he retired from literature due to illness, and gave the awards he received to the construction of new schools.

Sholokhov. Chronological table of life and work

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov was born on May 11 (24), 1905. Parents - Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov and Anastasia Danilovna Kuznetsova (nee Chernikova). Place of birth - khutor Kruzhilin of the village of Veshenskaya, Donetsk district, the former Region of the Don Cossacks.

Father - a raznochinets, a native of the Ryazan province, until his death (1925) changed professions. He was consistently: "shibay" (cattle buyer), sowed bread on purchased Cossack land, served as a clerk in a commercial enterprise on a farm scale, as a manager at a steam mill, etc.

Mother - half-Cossack, half-peasant. I learned to read and write when my father took me to the gymnasium, so that, without resorting to my father's help, I could write letters to me on my own. Until 1912, both she and I had land: she, like the widow of a Cossack, and I, like the son of a Cossack ... ”(M. Sholokhov. Autobiography. 1931).

The house in the Kruzhilin farm, where M.A. Sholokhov was born. Photo by V. Temin. 1930s

“From birth, little Misha breathed wonderful steppe air over the endless expanse of the steppe, and the hot sun scorched him, dry winds carried huge dusty clouds and baked his lips. And the quiet Don, along which the skiffs of the Cossack fishermen blackened, was indelibly reflected in his heart. And the mowing in the loan, and the heavy steppe work of plowing, sowing, harvesting wheat - all this put line after line on the appearance of a boy, then a young man, all this molded him into a young working Cossack, mobile, cheerful, ready for a joke, for a kindly one, cheerful smirk. He also molded him outwardly: a broad-shouldered, strongly built Cossack with a strong steppe bronze face, scorched by the sun and winds.

(A.S. Serafimovich)

Having moved to the Kargin farm, Mikhail Sholokhov first studies at home with a teacher T.T. Mrykhin, and then enters the Karginsky parochial one-class school.

Timofei Timofeevich Mrykhin, the first teacher of M. Sholokhov, was not only a born teacher, but also an expert in Russian literature and folk music, knew and sang Don Cossack songs well.

In 1914, Mikhail Sholokhov was taken by his father to Moscow to the eye clinic of Dr. K.V. Snegirev (Kolpachny per., 11). The writer brought here his favorite hero Grigory Melekhov, who arrived in Moscow in a medical train to treat an eye damaged in battle. After the October Revolution, K.V. Snegirev lived in the same house and continued to manage the eye clinic. M. Sholokhov remembered the "handsome, trimmed beard" owner of the hospital and described him on the pages of his novel.

T.T.Mrykhin with his wife Ulyana

The former mansion of K.V. Snegirev in Kolpachny Lane.

Upon recovery, Sholokhov was assigned to the preparatory class of the private men's gymnasium. G. Shelaputin (now per. Viktor Kholzunov, 14). It was well-equipped, provided with highly qualified personnel and used the latest techniques learning private school. (Now - the building of the General Military Prosecutor's Office).

Misha lived in the apartment of a relative on his father's side - A.P. Ermolov, in Dolgoy lane, on Plyushchikha, 20, apartment 7. (the house has been demolished). He made friends with the owner's son, Sasha Yermolov. He was friends with him until his death in 1969. As Maria Sergeevna Ermolova (wife of A.A. Ermolov) recalled, usually, when the writer was visiting, his passenger car, in which he came to Plyushchikha, at that time drove around Moscow the guys who were gathering from all over the yard. They were the same age as Misha Sholokhov when he lived in Dolgoy Lane, in a small Moscow house.

In 1915, the parents transferred M. Sholokhov to study at the Boguchar men's gymnasium in the Voronezh province. Misha Sholokhov lived in the family of the priest Dmitry Ivanovich Tishansky, who taught the Law of God at the gymnasium. The house had a rich library, and Misha was allowed to read books, which and as much as he wanted.

In 1918, the gymnasium was closed, and he had to go home, to the Pleshakov farm. In the fall, Mikhail was sent to a mixed gymnasium that had just opened in Veshenskaya, where he studied for several months.

Fourteen-year-old Mikhail saw with his own eyes many of the tragic events of the Veshensky uprising of 1919: the massacre of captured Red Army soldiers, the murder of I. A. Serdinov by Daria Drozdova, the presentation of awards and cash bonuses to her by General Sidorin, commander of the Don Army. While living in Pleshakovo, he witnessed the death of the commander of the insurgent hundred cornet Pavel Drozdov (the son of the owner of the house in which the Sholokhov family lived). Separate traits of the characters of family members, especially Pavel and Alexei, according to the writer himself, were reflected in the images of Grigory and Peter Melekhov. In late May - early June, visiting relatives, merchants Mokhovs in Veshenskaya, I witnessed the arrival of the Cossack general A. S. Secretev in Veshenskaya.

“Poets are born in different ways,” M.A. Sholokhov said many years later. “For example, I was born out of the civil war on the Don.”

From an autobiography (1934): “... I could not continue my studies, since the Don region became the scene of a fierce civil war. Before the Don region was occupied by the Red Army, he lived on the territory of the White Cossack government” (IMLI Archive, f. 143, op. 1, item 5).

In 1919, the Sholokhov family moved first to the Rubizhny farm, and then to the village of Karginskaya, where the writer's father bought a Cossack farmstead on the outskirts of the village.

In January 1920, Soviet power was established in the village of Karginskaya. Mikhail Sholokhov works as a clerk, teaches adults to read and write, participates in the population census, serves in the food detachment, and along the way, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, participates in an amateur theater and even writes plays for the drama club. “Since 1920, he served and roamed the Don land. For a long time he was a laborer. I was chasing the gangs that ruled the Don until 1922, and the gangs were chasing us. I had to be in different bindings ... "

(Sholokhov. Autobiography 1931).

As one of the fighters of the food detachment, he falls into the hands of Nestor Makhno. For various versions of this meeting, see http://veshki-bazar.narod.ru/makhno.htm

In 1922, he met Maria Petrovna Gromoslavskaya, a school teacher and an employee of the Bukanov Executive Committee.

In December 1923, in the village of Bukanovskaya, on January 11, 1924, he married MP Gromoslavskaya, the daughter of the former village chieftain. Sholokhov was born eldest daughter Svetlana (1926), then sons Alexander (1930, Rostov-on-Don), Mikhail (1935, Moscow), daughter Maria (1938, st. Veshenskaya).

In October 1922, Sholokhov left for Moscow in order to continue his education and try his hand at writing. However, it was not possible to enter the workers' faculty due to the lack of work experience and direction of the Komsomol required for admission. To feed himself, he worked as a loader, handyman, and bricklayer. Then he was sent by the labor exchange to the position of accountant of the housing department No. 803 in Krasnaya Presnya. He got a small eight-meter room in Georgievsky lane No. 2, apt. 5. In January 1924, Mikhail's wife, Maria Petrovna, came to this room.

He was engaged in self-education, took part in the work of the literary group "Young Guard", attended training sessions conducted by V. Shklovsky, O. Brik, N. Aseev. Joined the Komsomol.

On September 19, 1923, the first publication of Mikhail Sholokhov appeared - the feuilleton "Test (an incident from the life of one county in the Dvina region)" in the newspaper "Youthful Truth" (1923, No. 35) signed by M. Sholokh.

In December 1924, in the newspaper Molodoy Leninets, Sholokhov published his first story, Mole, and in the same month became a member of the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP). From this time on, the tense literary activity writer, closely connected with the life of the people and major events in the country.

In 1925, the stories of M. Sholokhov "Aleshkin's Heart" and "Two-husband" were published in separate books in mass circulation.

In 1925 M. Sholokhov met with A. Serafimovich.

In Serafimovich's diary on that day it is written: "And the devil knows how talented! .."

Sholokhov himself later spoke about the role Serafimovich played in his creative destiny: “Serafimovich belongs to the generation of writers from whom we, the youth, studied. Personally, I am truly indebted to Serafimovich, for he was the first to support me at the very beginning of my writing activity, he was the first to say a word of encouragement to me, a word of recognition. This, of course, leaves its mark on our relations. I will never forget the year 1925, when Serafimovich, having familiarized himself with the first collection of my stories, not only wrote a warm introduction to it, but also wanted to see me. Our first meeting took place in the First House of Soviets. Serafimovich assured me that I should continue to write, to study ”(collection“ Word of the Motherland ”. Rostov-on-Don, 1951, p. 84)

Later, at one of the literary evenings of the MAPP, which took place in the building of Proletkult, on Vozdvizhenka, the chairman AS Serafimovich introduced his countryman to the audience. Sholokhov read one of his Don Stories that evening. (Subsequently, he will dedicate the story “Alien Blood” to Serafimovich).

At the very beginning of 1926, the first collection of the writer "Don stories" was published, the preface to which was written by A. Serafimovich. There are 8 stories in the collection, but M. Sholokhov does not stop there, in the same year a new collection is published - “Azure Steppe”, which already includes 12 stories.

In the creative plans of the young writer, the idea of ​​​​creating a large canvas from the life of the Cossacks is born.

“... I took up the Quiet Don when I was twenty years old, in 1925. Interested at first tragic history Russian Revolution, I drew attention to General Kornilov. He led the famous rebellion of 1917. And on his instructions, General Krymov went to Petrograd to overthrow the Provisional Government of Kerensky. For two or one and a half years I wrote 6-8 printed sheets ... then I felt: something was not working out for me. The reader, even the Russian reader, in fact did not know who the Don Cossacks were. There was Tolstoy's story "The Cossacks", but it had the life of the Terek Cossacks as a plot basis. In fact, not a single work was created about the Don Cossacks. Life Don Cossacks differs sharply from the life of the Kuban Cossacks, not to mention the Terek ones, and it seemed to me that I should have started by describing this family way of life of the Don Cossacks, so I left the work I had begun in 1925, began<...>from the description of the Melekhov family, and then it dragged on like that ... ”(From a conversation between M. A. Sholokhov and students of the Faculty of Slavic Studies in Uppsala (Sweden) in December 1965).

In October 1927, he met E.G. Levitskaya, head. department of the publishing house of the MK VKP (b) "Moskovsky Rabochiy". Separate editions of "Quiet Don" are published by the publishing house "Moskovsky Rabochiy" in "Roman-gazeta", 1 and 2 books.

In the archives of Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk, the writer went through and studied many orders, reports, appeals, directives, materials of the Soviet and White Guard press (Priyma K. On a par with the century. Articles on the work of M. A. Sholokhov. Rostov n / a , 1981. S. 161-162.) Gets acquainted with the participants of the Veshensky uprising of 1919. For example, with Kharlampy Vasilyevich Ermakov, the prototype of Grigory Melekhov: http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=736522&cid=460

In 1928, he participated in the work of the 1st All-Union Congress of Proletarian Writers as a delegate of the MAPP.

1928, October 1 - the plenum of the board of the RAPP introduced Sholokhov to the editorial board of the magazine "October".

In 1928-1929, articles "for" and "against" the novel appeared.

In Berlin in 1929, the first translation of The Quiet Flows the Don was published (translator O. Halpern). For the fate of M. Sholokhov's books, see http://rslovar.com/ http://litena.ru/books/item/f00/s00/z0000027/st003.shtml

The first foreign response to the novel "Quiet Don" is an article by Bella Illes in the Hungarian newspaper "100%".

From a review in Die Linkskurve, 1929, no. 3 (October):
Weiskopf F.: “Sholokhov’s “Quiet Don” is the fulfillment of the promise that the young Soviet literature gave to the West, which was beginning to listen to it. Quiet Flows the Don testifies to how a new literature is developing, strong in its originality, a literature that is wide and boundless, like the Russian steppe, young and indomitable, like a new generation there, in the Soviet Union. And the fact that in the already well-known works of young Russian prose writers (“The Defeat” by Fadeev, “Bruski” by Panferov, short stories and stories by Babel and Ivanov) was often just outlined, it was still an embryo - a new angle of view, an approach to the problem from a completely unexpected side, strength artistic display- all this in Sholokhov's novel has already received its full development. The grandeur of its idea, the diversity of life, the penetrating incarnation of "Quiet Flows the Don" resembles "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy. See http://feb-web.ru/feb/sholokh/shl-abc/shl/shl-0461.htm?cmd=2&istext=1

1929-1930 - Creation of the film "Quiet Flows the Don"

Quiet Flows the Don is a 1930 silent film produced in the USSR. The film was sounded in 1933. The first film adaptation of the first two completed books of the novel of the same name by Mikhail Sholokhov. Starring A. Abrikosov and E. Tsesarskaya. The premiere of the silent film took place on May 14, 1931, sounded on September 14, 1933.

In one of his private letters in 1928, Gorky gives the following assessment to Sholokhov: “Sholokhov, judging by the first volume, is talented ... Every year he nominates more and more talented people. Here is joy. Rus' is very, anathematically talented.” It is M. Gorky who helps M. Sholokhov meet I. Stalin.

1930, after January 5th. Meeting and conversation between M. Sholokhov and I. V. Stalin. In June 1931, at the dacha of A.M. Gorky in Kraskov, M.A. Sholokhov met with I. Stalin.

Rumors of plagiarism intensified after the publication in 1930 of a collection in memory of Leonid Andreev, which included a letter from Andreev to critic Sergei Goloushev, dated September 3, 1917. In this letter, Andreev mentioned Goloushev's "Quiet Don", which after that became the first contender for the title of a genuine author. Only in 1977 did it become clear that the letter was only about travel notes entitled “From the Quiet Don”, published in a Moscow newspaper.

Sholokhov knew this fact. He wrote to Serafimovich: “I received a number of letters from guys from Moscow and from readers in which they ask me and inform me that there are again rumors that I stole The Quiet Don from the critic Goloushev - a friend of L. Andreev - and as if there is indisputable evidence of this in the book-requiem in memory of L. Andreev, composed by his relatives.

In 1930, having interrupted work on The Quiet Don, M. Sholokhov began writing the novel Virgin Soil Upturned (originally called With Sweat and Blood). In 1932, Novy Mir published 1 book of the novel.

In the novel, M. Sholokhov tells about the resistance of the Russian peasantry to forced collectivization. In letters, including to Stalin, the writer tries to open his eyes to the true state of things: the complete collapse of the economy, lawlessness, and torture applied to collective farmers. In the 40-50s. he subjected the first volume to a significant revision, and in 1960 completed work on the second volume.

In 1933, active work began on the production of the play "Virgin Soil Upturned" at the Leningrad Theater of LOSPS.

Georgian director N.M. Shengelaya begins to work on the filming of the film based on the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned”. M. Sholokhov takes part in writing the script. However, the film was not made. Only in 1938, Y. Raizman, based on the script by M. Sholokhov and S. Yermolinsky, made a film with the participation of artists of the Moscow Art Theater: B. Dobronravov (Davydov), M. Bolduman (Nagulnov), L. Kalyuzhnaya (Lushka), V. Dorofeev (grandfather Shchukar ). The music for the film was written by Georgy Sviridov.

In 1934, August 17 - September 1, M.A. Sholokhov takes part in the work of the 1st All-Union Congress of Writers. Elected to the Presidium of the Congress.

At the end of 1934, M. Sholokhov and his wife went on a business trip to Sweden, Denmark, England, France (which lasted almost 2 months).

In 1934, he met the composer I.I. Dzerzhinsky at the National Hotel in Moscow. The opera Quiet Flows the Don will soon be written. The first production took place on October 22, 1935 in the Leningrad Maly opera house. The libretto is based on freely reworked episodes from the first and second books of Sholokhov's novel (1925-1929). The plot of the opera differs in many respects from the literary source. The changes affected mainly the image of Aksinya, who is shown in the opera not as a "stranger's wife", but as a lonely woman, passionately feeling, deeply experiencing her personal drama. M. Sholokhov expressed his impression of the opera as follows: Maybe your opera will be liked in big cities, but here, on the Don, its music will be alien and incomprehensible. Since you are writing an opera about the Don Cossacks, how can you ignore their songs ... "

Scene from 3 acts of the opera

Nikandr Khanaev as Grigory Melekhov. big theater. 1936.

On June 20, 1936, M. Sholokhov spoke at a funeral meeting in the village of Veshenskaya on the day of the funeral of Maxim Gorky, he spoke about his love for him, about his colossal versatile knowledge and about his amazing writing gift.

In 1936, M. Sholokhov corresponded with Nikolai Ostrovsky and managed to meet him in Moscow at the end of 1936, a month before the death of N.A. Ostrovsky. M. Sholokhov wrote an article on the death of the writer: “Millions will learn to win by his example.” For their relationship, see http://www.sholokhov.ru/museum/collection/books/1299/

M. Sholokhov treated the memory of N. A. Ostrovsky with reverence. In 1973, he gave the Museum of N. A. Ostrovsky in Moscow a copy of “How the Steel Was Tempered” with the inscription: “This book has withstood the test of time, its influence on the youth of the socialist countries is still enormous and unchanged. And this is excellent. M. Sholokhov. 26.2.73. Moscow” (autograph, GCP named after N. A. Ostrovsky), and in 1977 he wrote a preface to a three-volume edition of the works of N. A. Ostrovsky in Ukrainian (Kyiv: publishing house “Molod”, 1977).

In the 30s. M. Sholokhov actively "stands up" for many of the repressed and accused of false denunciations (E. Tsesarskaya - the performer of the role of Aksinya, writer E. Permitin - see http://xn--90aefkbacm4aisie.xn--p1ai/content/ya-ne -mogu-umirat, etc.).

In 1940, M. Sholokhov completed the last part of the novel Quiet Flows the Don.

In January 1941, M. Sholokhov was awarded the Stalin Prize for his novel in four books, The Quiet Flows the Don. On June 23, 1941, M. Sholokhov wrote a letter to Marshal S. Timoshenko, in which he asked to transfer the prize awarded to him to the USSR Defense Fund.

"People's Commissar of Defense Tymoshenko. Dear comrade Timoshenko. I ask you to transfer the Stalin Prize awarded to me to the USSR Defense Fund. At your call, at any moment I am ready to join the ranks of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army and defend the socialist Motherland and the great cause of Lenin-Stalin to the last drop of blood. Regimental Commissar of the Red Army Reserve, writer Mikhail Sholokhov.

In 1941-45. serves as a war correspondent for the Soviet Information Bureau. Demobilized in December 1945.

After an accident during a forced landing of a bomber in Kuibyshev, on which M.A. Sholokhov flew on the call of the head of the Sovinformburo, the writer was treated in a hospital for severe concussion and bruises. After treatment, M. A. Sholokhov and the poet E. Dolmatovsky were near Stalingrad. From there they came to the Sholokhov family in Nikolaevsk.

M. A. Sholokhov wrote home about the consequences of the plane crash: “... I underwent an average repair in the Kremlin hospital and now I’m almost in working form, I’m writing, but there was a time when not only to go somewhere, but also not to write could by the prohibition of professors. I almost got disabled, but somehow I got lame, and now I’m already digging the ground with my foot ... ”(Collected works in 9 vols. Vol. 8. S. 322-323).

S. M. Sholokhova recalls that his father had a displacement of all internal organs, but he refused long-term inpatient treatment. He left for Nikolaevka.

The chairman of the collective farm and local fishermen supported the writer, helped with food, brought cream, fish, caviar (From a conversation between N. T. Kuznetsova and S. M. Sholokhova on September 20, 1990).

Learning about all this, Stalin insisted on his vacation. There was a meeting with Stalin.

From Moscow, Sholokhov went to the city of Nikolaevsk, Stalingrad (now Volgograd) region, to move his family to Veshenskaya, as he was convinced that the Germans would not undertake offensive operations in his native places (Mikhail Sholokhov. Chronicle of life and work, 184-185) .

During the war, M. Sholokhov wrote essays “People of the Red Army”, “Prisoners of War”, “In the South”, etc.

During the war, Olga Berggolts remained in besieged Leningrad along with her second husband, Nikolai Molchanov. It was during these difficult blockade days, working in the literary and dramatic editorial office of the Leningrad radio, that she grew from a little-known writer and poetess into a mature author who personified the stamina and courage of the inhabitants of the besieged city.

“In May 1942, at the initiative of Sholokhov, my February Diary was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, and shortly after that, Leningrad Diary. They evoked a warm response from readers on all fronts ... "

She confided: “They don’t know anything about Leningrad. On the radio, before I could open my mouth, they told me: “No mention of hunger!” Everything is hidden ... just like about Yezhov's prison. Censorship of the truth!

He immediately remembered: this was the wife of the poet Boris Kornilov, who was shot “according to politics,” and she herself served time, but she was lucky, she was released ahead of schedule.

In the evening at the hotel, she read her poems to him, and then took away Sholokhov's Letter to the Leningraders. He began heartily, without pathos: “Fellow comrades of Leningrad! We know how hard it is for you to live, work, fight in an enemy environment ... "

British journalist Alexander Werth recalled this time in his book Russia at War. 1941-1945”: “In the summer of 1942, both in literature and in propaganda, only two feelings reigned supreme. One was the same love for the motherland, which permeated everything that was written in the midst of the battle near Moscow - only now it is even more ardent and tender. It was also love for Russia proper. The second emotion was hatred. During all these months, it grew and grew, until it finally poured out in the darkest days of August into a paroxysm of the most real rage. The cry "Kill the German!" became in Russia the expression of all ten commandments, merged into one. Sholokhov's story "The Science of Hate" published on June 23 in many newspapers, the story of a Russian prisoner of war, whom German soldiers subjected to cruel torture, made a deep impression on the Soviet public. Vividly and convincingly written, this story largely set the tone for the hate propaganda that unfolded in the weeks that followed.

On July 8, 1942, the Nazis bombed the village of Veshenskaya. A fragment of one of the bombs that exploded in the Sholokhovs' courtyard killed the writer's mother, Anastasia Danilovna.

The special correspondent of the "Red Star" M. Sholokhov was assigned to the Stalingrad Front for eight months. On December 22, M. Sholokhov was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad". The commander of the 62nd Army, V. I. Chuikov, recalled: “... In the difficult days and nights of the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet soldiers saw in their midst the writers M. Sholokhov, K. Simonov, A. Surkov, E. Dolmatovsky and other fighters of the “literary shelf". Their word can be compared to a live projectile that smashes the most dangerous target in the camp of the enemy ... ”(Mikhail Sholokhov. Chronicle of Life and Work, 194).

At the end of 1942, immediately after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, M. Sholokhov began to write the novel "They Fought for the Motherland", separate chapters of the novel were published in 1943-1944 and 1949-1954. in the newspapers "Pravda" and "Red Star". In 1945, the chapters of the novel were published as a separate edition in Rosizdat.

Jack Lindsay (England) in the article "Sholokhov's Innovation" made an interesting observation: "The interpretation that we gave here to the last pages of The Quiet Flows the Don, the tragic and hopeful meeting of Grigory with his son, apparently finds its confirmation in the amazing story "Destiny of Man". A soldier who has escaped from Hitler's captivity and makes his way to the house feels, like Grigory, just as destitute, completely deprived of everything that is most dear to him, although this is due to completely different reasons. Having met a hungry orphan boy on the way, the soldier adopts him. And gradually, in communion with this little living creature, he begins to regain for himself some kind of purpose and hope in life. Here everything is condensed by Sholokhov to the basic features of a tragedy; and yet here, as it were, finds a simple earthly completion of what remains only a symbol in the last scene of The Quiet Flows the Don. Life, stiff, broken, naked and homeless, takes root again; out of the pitiless and inhuman, human intimacy grows and asserts itself - on a wider, fuller and more reliable basis. (Quoted from: Ognev A. Here he is, a Russian man! // Volga. 1980, No. 5. P. 182).

O. G. Vereisky. Illustration for Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man". 1958

In 1959, Sergei Bondarchuk made a film based on M. Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man". See http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/komrik/post360914827

And 15 years later, Sergei Bondarchuk again turned to the work of his beloved writer. He begins to shoot the film "They fought for the Motherland." Sholokhov for a long time refused to give permission to shoot a film based on an unfinished work, but then he agreed on the condition that he himself choose the place where the film would be shot.

The ensemble cast was superstar: Bondarchuk himself, Vasily Shukshin, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Georgy Burkov, Yuri Nikulin, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Gubenko, Evgeny Samoilov, Andrey Rostotsky, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, Nonna Mordyukova, Irina Skobtseva, Angelina Stepanova, Lidia Fedoseeva-Shukshina...

“M. Sholokhov appreciated the talents of his colleagues and was not afraid to support them. He nominates the disgraced Anna Akhmatova for the highest award in the country, rescues her son, scientist Lev Gumilyov, from prison, seeks the publication of the recent prisoner of the NKVD Olga Berggolts, the outcast writer Andrei Platonov and the release of his son from the camp, signs a letter in defense of Korney Chukovsky, praises prose apolitical Konstantin Paustovsky, the future political emigrant Viktor Nekrasov. He also supported the idea of ​​publishing “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by A. Solzhenitsyn with a forbidden camp theme” (V.O. Osipov).

In Veshenskaya, M. Sholokhov constantly meets with young writers, helps them in the publication of their works, shares the secrets of mastery. In the 1950-80s. actively involved social activities. There are numerous memoirs of contemporaries - doctors, teachers, ordinary collective farmers, students - whom M. Sholokhov helped in difficult everyday situations.

The decision of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to award the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1965 to the Soviet writer M. A. Sholokhov.

According to TASS reports from Sweden, Eric Blomberg, a well-known Swedish poet and publicist, expressing the opinion of the radical circles in Sweden, again nominated Mikhail Sholokhov as a candidate and appeared in Nu Dag with a series of articles devoted to his work.

E. Blomberg's statement in 1935 is well-known: in his opinion, M. A. Sholokhov "like no other, deserves the Nobel Prize, which should be awarded both for artistic merit and for high ideological content." These words of E. Blomberg were cited in the newspapers Social-Democratic and Niu Dag (Pravda, 1965, October 18.) (Mikhail Sholokhov, Chronicle of Life and Work, 373-374).

“He passionately loves his steppe, with its dry winds, sometimes hot, sometimes gentle sun, with its ravines, copses, with its animals, birds. He passionately loves his quiet Don, which, gently bending, so softly, gently hugging the village with green banks, created a surprisingly cozy, sincere, quiet, slightly thoughtful corner. And in the Don there is a fish, a rich, sharp-nosed sterlet, and Sholokhov devotes himself entirely to fishing.

(A. Serafimovich)

In 1984, on January 18, M. Sholokhov wrote from the Central Clinical Hospital to the artist Yu.P. Rebrov: “I received my portrait - your gift, the work that you created. Thank you very much, dear Yuri Petrovich. I remember well how you worked on the illustrations for The Quiet Flows the Don. M.A. Sholokhov.

January 21, 1984 M.A. Sholokhov returns from Moscow to Veshenskaya. The attending physician A.P. Antonova will write later: “It is impossible to operate, it is impossible to save. The ongoing treatment, including repeated laser therapy, extended life by more than two years. Alleviate suffering. And the suffering was severe. Mikhail Alexandrovich was very patient, courageously endured them. And when I realized that a serious illness, a long-term illness was progressing uncontrollably, I made a firm decision to return to Veshenskaya. During the last week of his stay in the hospital, he slept very little at night, he went into himself. He told me, the attending physician, in private: “I made a decision ... to go home. I ask you to cancel all treatment ... nothing else is needed ... Ask Maria Petrovna here ... ”- and fell silent. They called Maria Petrovna. She sat down next to the bed, close. Mikhail Alexandrovich put his weakened hand on her arm and said and asked: “Marusya! Let's go home ... I want homemade food. Feed me at home… As before…”.

MIKHAIL ALEKSANDROVICH SHOLOKHOV

Life dates: May 24, 1905 - February 21, 1984
Place of Birth: farm Kruzhilinsky, village Vyoshenskaya, Rostov region, Russia
Russian Soviet writer and screenwriter, journalist. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1965).
Notable works: "Don Stories", "Azure Steppe", "Quiet Don", "Virgin Soil Upturned", "They Fought for the Motherland", "The Science of Hatred", "The Fate of a Man", "Nakhalyonok", "Fedotka"

Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 in the north of the Rostov region, in the picturesque village of Veshenskaya.
The future writer grew up and was brought up as an only child in a family in a small house in the Kruzhilinsky farm, in which Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov, a raznochinets, and his wife Anastasia Danilovna lived. Due to the fact that Sholokhov's father worked for hire and had no official income, the family often traveled from place to place.
Anastasia Danilovna is an orphan. Her mother came from a Cossack family, and her father was a native of the serfs of the Chernigov province, later moved to the Don. At the age of 12, she went to serve to a certain landowner Popova and was married not out of love, but out of calculation for the rich stanitsa ataman Kuznetsov. After a dead daughter was born to a woman, she did an extraordinary act for those times - she went to Sholokhov.
Anastasia Danilovna was an interesting young lady: she was original and illiterate, but at the same time she was naturally endowed with a sharp mind and insight. The writer's mother learned to read and write only when her son entered the gymnasium in order to write letters to her child on her own, without resorting to the help of her husband.
Mikhail Alexandrovich was considered an illegitimate child (on the Don such children were called “sassy”, and, it’s worth saying, the Cossack guys did not like them), initially had the surname Kuznetsov and thanks to this he had the privilege: he received a “Cossack” land plot. But after the death of the previous spouse Anastasia Danilovna in 1912, the lovers were able to legalize their relationship, and Mikhail became Sholokhov, the son of a tradesman.
The homeland of Alexander Mikhailovich is the Ryazan province, he comes from a wealthy dynasty: his grandfather was a merchant of the third guild, he was engaged in buying up grain. Sholokhov Sr. worked as a buyer of cattle, and also sowed bread on the Cossack lands. Therefore, there was enough money in the family, at least the future writer and his parents did not live from hand to mouth.

The house where Mikhail Sholokhov was born

In 1910, the Sholokhovs left the Kruzhilinsky farm due to the fact that Alexander Mikhailovich went to serve a merchant in the village of Karginskaya, which is located in the Bokovsky district of the Rostov region. At the same time, the future writer studied preschool literacy, for these purposes a home teacher Timofey Mrykhin was invited. The boy liked to pore over textbooks, he studied writing and learned to count.
Despite diligence in his studies, Misha was a mischievous person and loved to play outside with the neighboring boys from morning to evening. However, Sholokhov's childhood and youth are reflected in his stories. He scrupulously described what he had observed, and what gave inspiration and endlessly pleasant memories: fields with golden rye, a breath of cool breeze, the smell of freshly cut grass, the azure banks of the Don and much more - all this gave background to creativity.
Mikhail Alexandrovich entered the Karginsky parish school in 1912. It is noteworthy that the young man's teacher was Mikhail Grigoryevich Kopylov, who became the prototype of the hero from the world-famous "Quiet Flows the Don". In 1914, he fell ill with eye inflammation, after which he went to the capital for treatment.
Three years later, he was transferred to the Boguchar gymnasium for boys. Finished four classes. During his studies, the young man read the works of the great classics, especially adored the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.

In 1917, the seeds of a revolution began to appear. In 1917, Alexander Mikhailovich became the manager of a steam mill in the village of Elanskaya, in the Rostov region. In 1920, the family moved to the village of Karginskaya. It was there that Alexander Mikhailovich died in 1925.
As for the revolution, Sholokhov did not take part in it. He was not for the Reds and was indifferent to the Whites. Took the side of the winner. In 1930, Sholokhov received a party card, became a member of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks.
He showed himself from the best side: he did not participate in counter-revolutionary movements, he had no deviations from the ideology of the party. Although there is a “black spot” in Sholokhov’s biography, at least the writer did not refute this fact: in 1922, Mikhail Alexandrovich, being a tax inspector, was sentenced to death for exceeding his official powers.
Later, the punishment was changed to a year of compulsory labor thanks to the cunning of the parents, who brought a fake birth certificate to the court so that Sholokhov was tried as a minor. After that, Mikhail Alexandrovich wanted to become a student again and get a higher education. But the young man was not accepted to the preparatory courses of the workers' faculty, since he did not have the appropriate papers. Therefore, the fate of the future Nobel Prize winner was such that he earned his living by hard physical labor.

Mikhail Alexandrovich began to seriously engage in writing in 1923, his creative career began with small feuilletons in the newspaper Yunosheskaya Pravda. At that time, three satirical stories were published under the signature Mikh. Sholokhov: "Test", "Three", "Inspector". The story of Mikhail Sholokhov called "The Beast" tells about the fate of the food commissar Bodyagin, who, upon returning to his homeland, found out that his father was an enemy of the people. This manuscript was being prepared for publication in 1924, but the Molodogvardeets almanac did not consider it necessary to print this work on the pages of the publication.
Therefore, Mikhail Alexandrovich began to cooperate with the newspaper "Young Leninist". He also published in other Komsomol newspapers, where stories were sent that were included in the Donskoy cycle and the Azure Steppe collection.
In December 1923 he returned to the Don. On January 11, 1924, she gets married in the Bukanovskaya Church with Maria Petrovna Gromoslavskaya, the daughter of the former stanitsa ataman.
Maria Petrovna, having graduated from the Ust-Medveditsky diocesan school, worked in Art. Bukanovskaya was first a teacher in primary school, then a clerk in the executive committee, where Sholokhov was an inspector at that time. Having 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 the first piece of art- the story "Birthmark" in the newspaper "Young Leninist". Joins the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers.

Family of Mikhail Sholokhov

In 1925, Mikhail Alexandrovich begins to create the novel Quiet Flows the Don. During these years, the Sholokhov family lived in Karginskaya, then in Bukanovskaya, and since 1926 in Vyoshenskaya. In 1928, the Oktyabr magazine began publishing Quiet Don.
After the publication of the first volume of the novel, difficult days come for the writer: success with readers is overwhelming, but an unfriendly atmosphere reigns in writers' circles. Envy of a young writer, who is called a new genius, gives rise to slander, vulgar fabrications. The position of the author in describing the Upper Don uprising is sharply criticized by the RAPP, it is proposed to throw out more than 30 chapters from the book, to make the main character a Bolshevik.
Sholokhov is only 23 years old, but he steadfastly and courageously endures attacks. He is helped by confidence in his abilities, in his vocation. To stop malicious slander, 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 give her the manuscripts of The Quiet Don. In the spring of 1929, the writers A. Serafimovich, L. Averbakh, V. Kirshon, A. Fadeev, V. Stavsky spoke in Pravda in defense of the young author, relying on the conclusions of the commission. The rumors stop. But spiteful critics will more than once attempt to denigrate Sholokhov, who speaks honestly about the tragic events in the life of the country, does not want to deviate from historical truth.
The novel was finished in 1940. In the 1930s, Sholokhov began work on the novel Virgin Soil Upturned.

During the war, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was a war correspondent for the Soviet Information Bureau, the Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda newspapers. He publishes front-line essays, the story "The Science of Hatred", the first chapters of the novel "They Fought for the Motherland." The State Prize awarded for the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Sholokhov transfers to the USSR Defense Fund, and then acquires four new rocket launchers for the front at his own expense.
For participation in the Great Patriotic War, he has awards - the Order of the Patriotic War of the 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".
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 Alexandrovich Sholokhov - Nobel, State and Lenin Prizes in literature, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, holder of an honorary doctorate in law from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, PhD 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. In the village of Vyoshenskaya, a bronze bust was erected to him during his lifetime. And this is not a complete list of prizes, awards, honorary titles and public duties of the writer.

Mikhail Sholokhov at the Nobel Prize ceremony

The works of M.A. Sholokhov were published 1408 times with a total circulation of 105,349,943 copies in more than 90 languages ​​of the world.
Until the end of his days he lived in his house in Vyoshenskaya (nowadays a museum). He transferred the Stalin Prize to the Defense Fund, the Lenin Prize for the novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" was transferred to the disposal of the Karginsky Village Council of the Bazkovo District of the Rostov Region for the construction of a new school, the Nobel Prize - for the construction of a school in Vyoshenskaya.
He was fond of hunting and fishing. Since the 1960s, he has actually moved away from literature.
Died M.A. Sholokhov February 21, 1984. Mikhail Sholokhov was buried in the village of Vyoshenskaya on the banks of the Don, but not in the cemetery, but in the courtyard of the house in which he lived.
In the year of the death of the writer in his homeland, the State Museum-Reserve M.A. Sholokhov.

MIKHAIL ALEKSANDROVICH SHOLOKHOV
(1905-1984)

The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Sholokhov "for the artistic power and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia." We are talking about an epic novel (a major work about significant historical events) “Quiet Flows the Don”, which the writer created as a very young man - he was not even 30. Only thanks to this work, Sholokhov could enter the history of Russian and world literature. But for my creative life he created many brilliant stories (“The Fate of a Man”, “Nakhalenok”, “Mole”) and the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned”, began work on the novel “They Fought for the Motherland”, which was later skillfully filmed by director S.F. Bondarchuk.
Most of the writer's works are devoted to the life of the Don Cossacks. Sholokhov's debut collection "Don Stories" impressed readers with the imagery of the language spoken by the Cossacks and simple but intense plots. These are stories about the clash of the White Cossacks with the Red revolutionaries, about the fratricidal struggle on the Don. The author did not justify violence - he brought the harsh, cruel truth about the Civil War to literature. In his image, this is a massacre of one's own against one's own, it destroys families, separates fathers and children. The story "Birthmark" is about one of these episodes. In the turmoil of the war, the father unknowingly kills his revolutionary son, whom he has not seen for many years, but the next minute he recognizes him by a noticeable mole on his leg - his father has the same one. From despair and inescapable grief, he puts a bullet in his mouth.
But there are also bright moments in the years of difficult clashes. The seven-year-old boy Misha from the story "Nakhalenok", a mischievous and reckless man, meets his father who has returned from the Civil War. From that day on, the old pranks do not occupy Misha: his father tells him about the struggle against poverty, injustice, oppression - against the old world with which he fought. And the boy has a new, albeit not yet conscious goal in life - to stand for justice, for human dignity.
The image of a man who rose to defend his homeland appears in Sholokhov's articles and essays during the Great Patriotic War. Yes, hero short story"The Destiny of Man" received worldwide fame. Driver Andrei Sokolov tells the story of his life: the horrors of captivity, the loss of all loved ones. But severe trials did not break Andrei: he retained a wide, open soul of love and kindness. At the end of the story, he goes along with the six-year-old orphan Vanyushka, adopted by him, forward into the future.
Sholokhov's work attracts many representatives of art. Drama performances and operas are based on his works. The heroes of "The Quiet Flows the Don", "Virgin Soil Upturned", "The Fate of a Man", the early stories of the writer, the audience saw on the screen.

The drawing is based on a photograph by M. A. Sholokhov, 1970.

Russian writers and poets of the twentieth century: a set of visual aids "Great Literature" / ed. project T.V. Tsvetkova.- M.: TC Sphere, 2015.- 12 p., ill.

Monuments to Mikhail Sholokhov

Monuments to the literary heroes of Mikhail Sholokhov