Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov is one of the most famous Russian writers of the Soviet period. His work covers the most important events for our country - the revolution of 1917, the Civil War, the formation of a new government and the Great Patriotic War. In this article we will talk a little about the life of this writer and try to consider his works.
Short biography. Childhood and youth
Born May 11, 1905 Sholokhov (a list of the author’s works will be presented below). This significant event took place on the farm Kruzhilin in the family of an employee of a commercial enterprise.
During the Civil War he was with the Reds and rose to the rank of commander. Then, after its graduation, he moved to Moscow. Here he received his first education. After moving to Boguchar, he entered the gymnasium of the Voronezh province. At the end, he returned to the capital again, wanted to get a higher education, but could not enter. To feed himself, he had to get a job. During this short period, he changed several specialties, continuing to engage in self-education and literature.
The first work of the writer was published in 1923. Sholokhov begins to collaborate with newspapers and magazines, writes feuilleton for them. In 1924, the story “Mole,” the first of the Don cycle, was published in Young Leninist.
True glory and the last years of life
The list of works by M. A. Sholokhov should begin with The Quiet Don. It was this epic that brought the author real fame. Gradually, it became popular not only in the USSR, but also in other countries. The second great work of the writer was Raised Virgin Soil, awarded the Lenin Prize.
During the Great Patriotic War, Sholokhov was a war correspondent. At this time he wrote many stories dedicated to this terrible time.
In 1965, it became significant for the writer - he was awarded the Nobel Prize for the novel "The Quiet Don". Since the 60s, Sholokhov almost stopped writing, devoting his free time to fishing and hunting. He gave most of his income to charity and led a calm lifestyle.
The writer died on February 21, 1984. The body was buried on the banks of the Don in the courtyard of his own house.
Interesting Facts
The life that Sholokhov lived is full of unusual and bizarre events. We will present the list of the writer's works below, and now let's talk a little more about the fate of the author:
- Sholokhov was the only writer who received the Nobel Prize with the approval of the authorities. The author was also called the "favorite of Stalin."
- When Sholokhov decided to get married to one of the daughters of Gromoslavsky, the former Cossack chieftain, he proposed to marry the eldest of the girls, Marya. The writer, of course, agreed. The couple lived in marriage for almost 60 years. During this time, they had four children.
- After the release of Quiet Don, critics had doubts that the author of such a large and complex novel is indeed such a young author. By order of Stalin himself, a commission was established that conducted a study of the text and concluded: the epic was really written by Sholokhov.
Features of creativity
Sholokhov’s works are inextricably linked with the image of the Don and the Cossacks (the list, titles and subjects of books are direct proof of this). It is from the life of his native places that he draws images, motives and themes. The writer himself said this: “I was born on the Don, grew up there, studied and formed as a person ...”.
Despite the fact that Sholokhov focuses on describing the life of the Cossacks, his works are not limited to regional and local themes. On the contrary, by their example, the author manages to raise not only the problems of the country, but the universal and philosophical ones. The writer's works reflected deep historical processes. One more distinctive feature of Sholokhov’s work is connected with this - his desire to artistically reflect the turning periods of the life of the USSR and how people who fell into this maelstrom of events felt.
Sholokhov was inclined to monumentalism, he was attracted to issues related to social change and the fate of peoples.
Early works
Very early, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov began to write. His works (prose always remained preferable to him) of those years were dedicated to the Civil War, in which he himself took a direct part, although he was still a very young man.
He mastered Sholokhov's writing skill from a small form, that is, from short stories that were published in three collections:
- "Azure steppe";
- "Don Stories";
- "About Kolchak, nettle and others."
Despite the fact that these works did not go beyond the framework of social realism and in many respects glorified Soviet power, they strongly stood out against the background of other works of contemporary writers Sholokhov. The fact is that already in these years Mikhail Alexandrovich paid special attention to the life of the people and the description of national characters. The writer tried to portray a more realistic and less romanticized picture of the revolution. In the works there is cruelty, blood, betrayal - Sholokhov tries not to smooth out the severity of time.
At the same time, the author does not romanticize death at all and does not poetize cruelty. He puts emphasis differently. The main thing is kindness and the ability to preserve humanity. Sholokhov wanted to show how "Don Cossacks simply died in the steppes ugly." The originality of the writer's work lies in the fact that he raised the problem of revolution and humanism, interpreting actions from the point of view of morality. And most of all, Sholokhov was worried about the fratricide that accompanies any civil war. The tragedy of many of his heroes was that they had to shed their own blood.
The Quiet Don
Perhaps the most famous book that Sholokhov wrote. We will continue the list of works with it, since the novel opens the next stage of the writer's work. The author began writing the epic in 1925, immediately after the publication of the stories. Initially, he did not plan such a large-scale work, wishing only to depict the fate of the Cossacks in revolutionary time and his participation in the "suppression of the revolution." Then the book was called "Don". But Sholokhov did not like the first pages he wrote, since the ordinary reader would not understand the motives of the Cossacks. Then the writer decided to start his story in 1912, and finish 1922. The meaning of the novel has changed, as has the name. Work on the work took 15 years. The final version of the book was published in 1940.
"Virgin Soil Upturned"
Another novel that M. Sholokhov created for several decades. The list of the writer's works is impossible without mentioning this book, as it is considered the second most popular after The Quiet Don. "Virgin Soil Upturned" consists of two books, the first was finished in 1932, and the second in the late 50s.
The work describes the process of collectivization in the Don, witnessed by Sholokhov himself. The first book can generally be called reporting from the scene. The author very realistically and colorfully recreates the drama of this time. Here there is dispossession, and gatherings of farmers, and the killing of people, and the slaughter of cattle, and the theft of collective farm grain, and the woman’s riot.
The plot of both parts is based on the confrontation of class enemies. The action begins with a double tie - the secret arrival of Polovtsev and the arrival of Davydov, and also ends with a double denouement. The whole book is based on the opposition of red and white.
Sholokhov, works of war: list
Books dedicated to World War II:
- The novel "They Fought for the Homeland";
- The stories "The Science of Hate", "The Fate of Man";
- Essays “In the South”, “In the Don”, “Cossacks”, “In Cossack Collective Farms”, “Infamy”, “Prisoners of War”, “In the South”;
- Journalism - “The struggle continues”, “Word about the Motherland”, “Do not escape the executioners from the court of nations!”, “Light and gloom”.
During the war, Sholokhov worked as a war correspondent for Pravda. The stories and essays describing these terrible events had some distinctive features that identified Sholokhov as a battle writer and even survived in his post-war prose.
The author's essays can be called the annals of the war. Unlike other writers working in the same direction, Sholokhov never directly expressed his view of events, the heroes spoke for him. Only at the end did the writer allow himself to summarize.
Sholokhov's works, despite the theme, retain a humanistic orientation. In this case, the main character changes a little. It becomes a person who is able to realize the importance of his place in the world struggle and to understand that he is responsible to his comrades-in-arms, relatives, children, life itself and history.
“They fought for their homeland”
We continue to analyze the creative heritage that Sholokhov left (list of works). The writer perceives the war not as a fatal inevitability, but as a socio-historical phenomenon that experiences the moral and ideological qualities of people. From the fate of individual characters, a picture of a landmark event is formed. Such principles formed the basis of the novel "They Fought for Their Homeland," which, unfortunately, was never completed.
According to Sholokhov, the work was to consist of three parts. The first was to describe the pre-war events and the struggle of the Spaniards with the Nazis. And already in the second and third, the struggle of the Soviet people with the invaders would be described. However, no part of the novel was ever published. Only a few chapters came out.
A distinctive feature of the novel is the presence of not only large-scale battle scenes, but also sketches of everyday soldier's life, which often have a humorous color. At the same time, soldiers are well aware of their responsibility to the people and the country. Their thoughts about home and homeland become tragic as their regiment retreats. Therefore, they cannot justify the trust placed in them.
To summarize
A tremendous career has passed Sholokhov Mikhail Alexandrovich. All the works of the author, especially if we consider them in chronological order, confirm this. If we take early and later stories, the reader will see how much the writer's skill has grown. At the same time, he managed to maintain many motives, such as loyalty to his duty, humanity, devotion to family and country, etc.
But the writer's works have not only artistic and aesthetic value. First of all, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov strove to be a chronicler (biography, list of books and diary entries confirm this).