The idea and history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Don"

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The most significant creative work of Mikhail Sholokhov is the novel "Quiet Don". In this work, the writer fully revealed his literary talent and was able to reliably and interestingly describe the life of the Don Cossacks. The manuscript, spanning nine years, overcame many obstacles before it was published. How did the story of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" develop?

Donshchina

While working on the collection Don Stories, Sholokhov came up with the idea to describe the difficult fate of the Don Cossacks in the 1917 revolution. Thus began the history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don". A brief description of Kornilov's campaign against Petrograd with the participation of the Cossacks was called "Donshchina". Having started work and having written several sheets of the work, Sholokhov thought about whether the book would be interesting to readers. The writer himself grew up in a Don farm, so the events described in the manuscript were close and understandable to him. MichaelAleksandrovich thinks about creating a work that will describe not only the revolution, but also the events preceding it. Sholokhov considers the reasons why the Cossacks decided to participate in revolutionary events, and also creates characters whose fates showed the Cossack life of those years especially vividly. As a result, Sholokhov gives the book the name "Quiet Flows the Don" and starts writing the novel.

Collecting materials

The writer was going to convey to the reader the real events of those years, so the history of the creation of the epic novel "Quiet Flows the Don" began with a visit by Sholokhov to the archives of Moscow and Rostov. There he studied old magazines and newspapers, read special military literature and books on the history of the Don Cossacks.

With the help of friends who had access to emigrant literature, Sholokhov got the opportunity to get acquainted with various notes of generals, as well as diaries of officers, which described military events. Selecting material for the book, the writer has done a great historical job. The novel actively uses information from real wartime documents: leaflets, letters, telegrams, orders and resolutions. Sholokhov also added his memoirs to the book - the writer worked in the food detachment and actively participated in the fight against bandits. So, many scenes came from the personal impressions of the author.

Working with material

In order to fully immerse himself in the atmosphere of Cossack life, the writer moved in 1926to the Don and already there he begins to work on the work. Having settled in the village of Veshenskaya, the writer finds himself in his native environment. Mikhail Sholokhov, who grew up among the Cossacks, understands well the psychology of the people around him, knows their way of life and moral values.

In 1927, the story of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" began to develop, a brief description of the events of which the author divided into 4 volumes. It took a lot of time to draw up the structure of the work, since the writer had to keep in mind a lot of facts, events and people. Both new characters and historical figures appear in the novel: Chernetsov, Krasnov, Kornilov. In the work "Quiet Don" there are more than 200 real people, as well as 150 new characters created by the author. Some characters are fully developed along with the plot of the novel, while others appear only in separate scenes.

Novel title

For a Russian person, the Don River has become a symbol of the difficult fate of the Cossacks. The calm current became the image of the peaceful life of the people, and after that it witnessed the changes caused by the revolution. Since ancient times, the Cossacks have been engaged in agriculture. Don farms were no exception - the soil there was fertile, so households were located along the banks of the river.

The life of a farmer is measured and comparable to the calm flow of a river. But the usual existence has changed for the population, and the title of the book has acquired a different meaning: it is no longer a calm stream of the Don, but the land of the Don, which has always been inhabited by Cossacks and notI have seen peace in my lifetime.

The history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Don" shows that the title of the book uses a contradictory combination of words, because in Sholokhov's novel the river is violent, there is a war on it, blood is shed, people are dying. But the generous flow of the quiet Don will not dry up, and the Don Cossacks will not stop. And the warriors will return to their homeland, and will continue to live on their land and plow it.

Composition of the work

The Quiet Flows the Don is an epic novel, as the book displays the main facts of the First World War and the Civil War, as well as a huge number of heroes belonging to different social and political groups. The events of the novel last a huge period - 9 years, describing the events from 1912 to 1921. In the work, all the actions of the protagonist are correlated with the life of the population and nature. The history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" shows the opposition of the composition of the book: on the one hand, it is love and peaceful peasant life, and on the other, cruelty and military events.

Grigory Melekhov

The idea and history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" include heroes whose lives the writer tried to inextricably link with the Don Cossacks. Grigory Melekhov combines both individual traits and national characteristics of his countrymen. The writer shows the main character devoted to family traditions, but able to break any norm in a fit of passion. Grigory excels in battles, but during all the war years he will remember his native land with longing more than once.

Sholokhov creates a hero with great inner strength and self-esteem, and also endows him with a rebellious beginning. The turning point in history, which changed the usual order of the Don Cossacks, coincided with changes in Grigory's private life. The hero cannot figure out with whom he needs to stay - with red or white, and also rushes between two women. At the end of the book, Gregory returns home to his son and native land.

Female images in the novel

The creative history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" tells that the author used the image of an ordinary Russian peasant to describe Grigory Melekhov. Composing the main heroines of the work, Mikhail Sholokhov started from his personal ideas about the fate of Russian women.

This is Grigory's mother - Ilyinichna, who embodies the idea of the unity of all people and motherhood, capable of love and compassion even for people who hurt her.

Grigory's wife is Natalya, who keeps the family hearth, despite spiritual worries because of her husband who does not love her.

Aksinya, on the other hand, stands out for her thirst for freedom and all-consuming love - she believes that a failed marriage relieves her of all guilt for violating norms and prohibitions.

Customs of plagiarism

The first two books published in 1928 brought great success to the writer. Enthusiastic letters and invitations to speak were sent to him, but within a year the attitude of the public had changed. People doubtedthat a young and inexperienced author wrote a work of such great artistic power on his own. At the time of writing The Quiet Flows the Don, the author was 22 years old, and of his literary achievements, he had only one collection of stories. Hesitation was also caused by the fact that the author wrote the first two books in just 2.5 years, and after all, Sholokhov was considered a poorly educated person, since he completed only 4 classes of school.

The history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" also raised doubts about the authorship, a summary of which was allegedly found in a white officer's bag and published by Sholokhov as his work. To prove his innocence, the writer had to assemble a special commission and, with its help, refute the slander. As a result of three examinations - graphological, identification and textological - the authorship was confirmed.

Publication of the novel

The first and second books were a huge success with readers, but there were problems with the publication of the third part. Its first chapters were published in the newspaper, but then these issues ceased. The reason was that Sholokhov was the first of the authors to describe in detail and fully the events of the Civil War. The history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" tells that in the third book, the editors cut out entire chapters. Sholokhov chose not to make changes.

Literary critics demanded that Grigory Melekhov join Bolshevism, but readers gladly accepted the choice of the hero, since this decision was the only right one for him. The full text of the work without edits and additions of the editor was published only in1980.

The creative history of the creation of the epic novel "Quiet Don" was not easy, but despite all the difficulties, the novel gained worldwide fame and earned the love of readers from different countries.