Do you remember the battle under Glubokaya? Do you remember how the officers were shot. They shot at your order! A? Tepericha burps you! Well, do not grieve! You are not the only one to tan someone else's skins! You retired, chairman of the Moscow Council of People's Commissars! You, toadstool, sold the Cossacks to the Jews! " But Grigory Melekhov's anger is cooled by his comrade Khristonya: “Let's go, now, to the horses. Go! You and I have nothing to do here. Lord God, what is done with people !. " The impending execution of Podtyolkov, Krivoshlykov and their comrades also shocks Grigory. Without waiting for its start, he leaves Pona Marev

A farm where the massacre of prisoners is carried out. Gregory himself, too, after the execution by the red of his brother Peter is able to give. the order to exterminate the captured Red Army soldiers. Able to hack countless red sailors in open combat. But he takes such actions in moments of extreme anger or arousal caused by a fight. In quiet moments, he lets go of the captured enemy in peace, but about the same chopped-up sailors, having cooled down, he says with longing “at some moment of monstrous enlightenment”:
“Whom did he chop !. - And for the first time in his life he began to scramble in a grave seizure, shouting, spitting out along with the foam, which even began to swell “to join any military unit,” but a friend and orderly Prokhor Zykov strongly advised against doing this: “You, Grigory Panteleevich, apparently, are completely crazy crazy! - he declared indignantly. - For what the hell are we going there, into this hell? Business is over, you see yourself, why are we going to waste ourselves in vain? Al you think we two will help them! As long as we are not touched and forcibly not taken to the unit, we must, as soon as I can, get away from sin, and you’ll cut the hell out! No, come on, please, peacefully, like an old man, retreat. You and I have already fought a lot in five years, let others try at once! " And Gregory agrees with his arguments. After all, Melekhov is also tired of the war, although he has a military streak, prowess, even some kind of craving for battle. That is why it is boring for Gregory to retreat without a real business. However, he does not consider any of the parties in the civil war to be right, and for this reason he cannot fight for a long time in the same army, he quickly cools down to fight for a cause that he does not consider fair. Melekhov then goes to serve in the Reds in order to atone for past sins, and even fights against the Poles with enthusiasm, almost like against the Germans and Austrians in the First World War. Returning to the Tatarsky farm and having lost his hand, Prokhor Zykov tells Aksinya about Grigory: “Together with him in Novorossiysk we entered the equestrian army of Comrade Budyonny. Our Grigory Pantelevich received a hundred, that is, a squadron, I, of course, and with him I am, and went on marching order near Kiev. Well, girl, and we gave the devils to these Poles! We went there, Grigory Pantelevich and said: “The Germans were chopped, they tried a broadsword on all kinds of Austrians, are the Poles really stronger shards? It seems to me that it will be easier to chop them down than your own Russians, what do you think? " - and winks at me, grins. He changed, as he entered the Red Army, he became cheerful from himself, smooth as a gelding. He says I will serve until I forgive past sins. He will do this - a foolish business is simple. Near one place he led us to the attack. In front of my eyes, I cut down four of their uhlans. He, damned, left-handed from childhood, so he got them from both sides. After the battle, Budyonny himself worked with him in front of the formation, and the squadron was grateful to him as well ”. Nevertheless, the gratitude of the legendary commander of the First Horse Cavalry did not save Melekhov from suspicion. And when the Budennovists were transferred to the Crimea against Wrangel, Grigory had to chop down not the Poles, but his own Russian people. After being wounded on the Wrangel front, Melekhov was demobilized from the Red Army, not relying too much on his reliability. Gregory's words that the Poles have “shards” not stronger than those of the Germans cannot be understood as a joyful readiness to kill people. Melekhov is happy, if I may say so, only that he has to kill foreigners, not compatriots. However, as we see, he later had to kill the Russians, perhaps the same Cossack brothers who fought under the banner of Wrangel.
Gregory, returning to the farm, expects to be left alone: ​​“He has finished fighting. Enough with him. He was driving home in order to finally get to work, live with the children, with Aksinya. " Gregory seems to have found his truth: a quiet family life, with children, with his wife. To his former friend and current son-in-law, he confesses: “I don't want to serve anyone else. I have fought enough in my life and I was terribly worn out in my soul. All to me on -. finished, and the revolution and counter-revolution. Had all this. Let it all go to waste! I want to live with my kids, do the housework, that's all. Believe me, Michael, I say this from the bottom of my heart. " However, Koshevoy does not believe, and Grigory's dreams of a calm, peaceful life are not destined to come true. The threat of arrest forces Grigory to flee from his native farm, the case leads him to Fomin's gang, where he is no longer looking for the truth, but simply hides from persecution. He wants to go with Aksinya to the Kuban and start a new life there, but his beloved dies from a stray bullet. others ”. In the end, Gregory, without waiting for the amnesty, returns home. In the finale, “the little that Grigory dreamed of during his sleepless nights came true. He stood at the gates of his home, holding his son in his arms. This was all that remained in his life, which still made him intimate with the earth and with all this vast world shining under the cold sun. " But the very tone of Sholokhov's narrative makes us suspect that this happiness for Melekhov will not last long, that very soon he will either be shot or in prison. Honest and conscientious people, like Gregory, have no happiness in the era of revolutionary cataclysms.

1. In the presentation of the Institute of World Literature. A.M. Gorky to nominate Sholokhov as a candidate for the JV Stalin on fiction for the novel "Quiet Don" (1940) was given ...
2. In his novel "Virgin Soil Upturned", MA Sholokhov painted a picture of the life of the people in the days of deep radical transformations that affected not only the economic structure and social relations in the countryside, but also consciousness ...
3. The very title of M. A. Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man" indicates that it will deal not only with the life of specific heroes, but also with the fate of a person in general ...
4. Sholokhov's landscapes help not only convey the movement of time. Often they are one of the means of describing the inner world of the heroes, consonant with their moods, experiences. So, the description of the lonely and deserted steppe of the grave ...
5. In the work of M. Sholokhov "Tikiy Don" the moral core is Grigory Melekhov. He is central to the epic. You can understand the tragedy of the hero's life path by tracing his entire history, starting with history ...
6. I remember that in V. Marchenko's article “Our Daily Bread” (“Literary Russia”, October 1990) I read: “Stalin's collectivization. Through the efforts of the leaders of the revolution, she turned the Russian (and not only Russian) peasant into a farm laborer alienated from ...
7. The most important argument against Sholokhov as the author of The Quiet Don in recent years has been the lack of archives, drafts and manuscripts of the novel. However, as it turned out, the drafts of the first book of the novel survived. The journalist Lev found them ...
8. The epic novel by M. A. Sholokhov "And Quiet Don" tells about many tragic moments in the history of Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. As the most terrible evil, the civil war is portrayed here - a brutal massacre, in which ...
9. A special work that raised the problem of personality psychology during the war to a new level is the famous story by M. A. Sholokhov “The Fate of a Man”. The reader is presented with not just the life story of a soldier, but the fate of a person, ...
10. In the epic novel "Quiet Don" M. Sholokhov painted a grandiose picture of the life of the Cossack Don with its primordial traditions, peculiar way of life. The theme of the home and family is one of the central themes in the novel. This theme...
11. Mikhail Sholokhov's inglorious novel "Virgin Soil Upturned" begins with a horseback riding into the Gremyachy Log farm on a January evening. He asks a woman he meets where Yakov Lukich Ostrovnoy lives here. V...
12. In the center of Virgin Soil Upturned are three communists, three comrades. There is much in common in their lives: difficult youth, military service, imperialist war, proletarian revolution, civil war, peaceful labor to strengthen the Soviet ...
13. The novel “Quiet Don” was approached by filmmakers three times: in 1931, 1957-1958 and 1992 (2006). The second adaptation of the novel by the outstanding director Sergei Gerasimov has become a classic of Russian cinema. The main roles in it ...
14. XX century is full of turbulent historical events, which is reflected in literature. Through the numerous works of Russian writers, there is a contrast between the fatal chaos of history and the eternally beautiful love. Heroes of M. Bulgakov, M ....
15. I have always been convinced and not dissuaded that even the smallest storyteller can contain tremendous meaning, excitement and awe of the author. Don Stories was no exception. And here I am ...
In the novel Virgin Soil Upturned, Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov tells the story of collectivization, one of the most dramatic episodes in Russian history. The first book of Virgin Soil Upturned was published in 1932, it was written under ...
16. Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 on the Don, on the Kruzhilin farm, into a working family. He studied first at a parish school, and then, until 1918, at a gymnasium. During the civil ...
17. Grigory Melekhov is the main character of M. Sholokhov's novel “Quiet Don”. His life passes through wars and revolutions. This is one of the most complex characters created by M. Sholokhov, and at the same time one ...

The hero of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Flows the Don" - Grigory Melikhov - a simple Cossack from the middle peasants, who fell into the maelstrom of the First World War, revolution and civil war. In this dashing time, he, a skilled warrior, turns out to be needed by everyone - both white and red. In the whirlwind of war, Melekhov finds himself in all the opposing armies of the civil war and tries to understand whose side is the truth. At first he was with the Reds, led by Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov. Here Melekhov's inherent dislike for the noble officers, who are alien to the interests of the people, including the Cossacks, is reflected. However, it is Podtelkov's savage reprisal against the captured White Guard officers that turns Gregory away from the Reds. He angrily throws the leader of the Red Cossacks, who himself is going to be executed with a painful death: "Do you remember under the Deep Battle? Do you remember how the officers were shot ... By your order, they were shooting! Huh? Teperich is burping out for you! Well, do not bother! You are not alone in tanning other people's skins. ! You retreated, chairman of the Moscow Council of People's Commissars! You, toadstool, sold the Cossacks to the Jews! " But the anger of Grigory Melekhov is cooled by his comrade Khristonya: “Let's go, start to be, to the horses. Go! Without waiting for its start, he leaves Ponamarev khutor, where the massacre of the prisoners is carried out. Grigory himself, too, after the execution by the Reds of his brother Peter, is able to give the order to exterminate the captured Red Army soldiers. Able to hack countless red sailors in open combat. But he takes such actions only in moments of extreme anger or arousal caused by a battle. In quiet moments, he lets go of the captured enemy in peace, but about the same chopped up sailors, cooling down, with longing says "at some moment of monstrous enlightenment": "Whom did he chop! .." And for the first time in his life he huddled in a grave seizure , spitting out together with the foam, which even swirls on his lips: - "Brothers, there is no forgiveness for me! .. Cut it to pieces, for God's sake ... mother to God ... Betray death ...! .." He says in almost the same words that the Cossack Yegor Zharkov, who received a mortal wound in the First World War and begs his comrades to end his torment: “Brothers, put to death! Brothers! .. Brothers ... Why are you looking? .. ah! .. Brothers, put to death! .. "Melekhov, unlike Zharkov, whose intestines are falling out of his torn stomach, is not wounded, but experiences almost the same torment that one has to kill compatriots, Russian people, Cossacks, men, sailors ... .. Even killing an opponent in a fair fight, he sometimes experiences moral torment. What can we say about the murder of the unarmed. True, in revenge for Peter, Gregory does such a dirty deed. But the feeling of revenge quickly fades. And having learned that the killers of Peter fell into the hands of the Cossacks, Gregory hurries to his native farm not to hasten their death, but, on the contrary, to save them from death. But he was late: during the lynching, Ivan Alekseevich was killed by Peter's widow Daria. Truly, "what is done to people"! Gregory does not accept the brutality caused by the civil war. And ultimately it turns out to be a stranger in all the warring countries. He begins to doubt whether he is looking for the right truth. Melekhov thinks about the Reds: “They are fighting so that they can live better, but we fought for our good life ... There is no truth in life. It is clear who will defeat whom, he will devour ... And I was looking for a bad truth. I was sick, swaying back and forth ... In the old days, you can hear the Don Tatars offended, they went to take away the land, to be imprisoned. Now - Russia. No! I will not make peace! They are alien to me and to all the Cossacks. " He feels a sense of community only with his fellow Cossacks, especially during the Vyoshensky uprising. He dreams of the Cossacks being independent from both the Bolsheviks and the "Cadets", but quickly realizes that there is no place left for any "third force" in the struggle between the Reds and Whites. In the White Cossack army of Ataman Krasnov, Grigory Melekhov serves without enthusiasm. Here he sees robbery, and violence against prisoners, and the unwillingness of the Cossacks to fight outside the region of the Don Army, and he himself shares their sentiments. And just without enthusiasm, Gregory fights with the Reds after the Vyoshenski rebels unite with the troops of General Denikin. The officers who set the tone in the Volunteer Army are not just strangers for him, but also hostile. It is not for nothing that Esaul Evgeny Listnitsky also becomes an enemy, whom Grigory beats to a pulp for his connection with Aksinya. Melekhov anticipates the defeat of the whites and is not too sad about this. By and large, he was already tired of the war, and the outcome is almost indifferent. Although in the days of the retreat, "at times he had a vague hope that the danger would force the scattered, demoralized and warring forces of the whites to unite, fight back and overturn the victoriously advancing red units." Grigory, "oppressed by idleness," wanted to "join some military unit," but his friend and orderly Prokhor Zykov strongly advised against doing this: "You, Grigory Panteleevich, you must have completely gone mad!" are we going to go there, into this hellish heat? Business is over, you see yourself, why are we going to waste ourselves in vain? Al you think we two will help them! As long as we are not touched and forcibly not taken to the unit, we must, as soon as possible, get away from sin as soon as possible, and you’ll cut the hell out! No, come on, please, peacefully, like an old man, retreat. You and I have already fought enough for five years, let others try! "And Grigory agrees with his arguments. After all, Melekhov is also tired of the war, although he has a military streak, prowess, even some kind of desire for battle. That is why Gregory is bored in retreating without a real cause. However, he does not consider any of the parties in the civil war to be right, and for this reason he quickly cools down to fight for a cause that he does not consider fair. former sins, and even fights against the Poles with enthusiasm, almost like against the Germans and Austrians in the First World War. Returning to the Tatarsky farm and having lost his hand, Prokhor Zykov tells Aksinya about Grigory: “Together with him in Novorossiysk we entered the cavalry army of Comrade Budyonny ... our Grigory Pantelevich a hundred, that is, a squadron, I, of course, am with him, and went on marching order near Kiev. Well, girl, and we gave the devils to these Poles! We went there, Grigory Pantelevich and said: "The Germans were chopped down, they tried a broadsword on all kinds of Austrians, are the Poles really stronger shards? It seems to me that it will be easier to chop them down than your own Russians, what do you think?" - and winks at me, grins. He changed, as he entered the Red Army, he became cheerful from himself, smooth as a gelding ... He says I will serve until I will forgive past sins. He will do this - a foolish thing is simple ... Near one place he led us on the attack. In front of my eyes, I cut down four of their uhlans. He, damned, left-handed from childhood, so he got them from both sides ... After the battle, Budyonny himself handled him in front of the formation, and he was grateful to the squadron. ”Nevertheless, the gratitude of the legendary commander of the First Horse Cavalry did not save Melekhov from suspicion And when the Budennovists were transferred to the Crimea against Wrangel, Grigory had to cut not the Poles, but his own, Russian people. After being wounded on the Wrangel front, Melekhov was demobilized from the Red Army, not relying too much on his reliability. shards "not stronger than those of the Germans, cannot be understood as a joyful readiness to kill people. Melekhov, if I may say so, is happy only that he has to kill foreigners, not compatriots. However, as we see, he later had to kill the Russians, perhaps the same Cossack brothers who fought under the banner of Wrangel. Gregory, returning to the farm, hopes that he will be left alone: ​​"He has finished fighting. Enough with him. He was going home in order, in the end, to take up work, to live with the children, with Aksinya ..." Grigory, it seems , I found my truth: a quiet family life, with children, with my wife. To his former friend and current son-in-law, he confesses: “I don’t want to serve anyone anymore. I have fought enough in my life and I was terribly worn out in my soul. I’m tired of everything - both the revolution and the counter-revolution. near my kids, to do the housework, that's all. Believe me, Mikhail, I say this from the bottom of my heart. " However, Koshevoy does not believe, and Grigory's dreams of a calm, peaceful life are not destined to come true. The threat of arrest forced Gregory to flee his native farm, and the case brought him to Fomin's gang, where he no longer looked for the truth, but simply hid from persecution. He decided to go with Aksinya to the Kuban and start a new life there, but his beloved died from a stray bullet. After that, Melekhov "still frantically clung to the ground, as if in fact his broken life was of some value both for him and for others." In the end, Gregory, without waiting for the amnesty, returned home. In the finale, "the little that Gregory dreamed about on sleepless nights came true. He stood at the gates of his home, holding his son in his arms ... This was all that remained in his life, which still made him related to the earth and to all this. a huge world shining under the cold sun. " Sholokhov led his beloved hero through all the circles of the hell of the civil war, finally, he brought him to a peaceful shore and left him here. And although he himself perfectly understood what awaited Grigory Melekhov ahead, he could not and did not want to say this, and therefore left the appearance of a happy end. In the era of revolutionary cataclysms, honest people cannot be happy.

The hero of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quiet Don" - Grigory Melikhov - a simple Cossack from the middle peasants, who fell into the maelstrom of the First World War, revolution and civil war. In this dashing time, he, a skilled warrior, turns out to be needed by everyone - both white and red. In the whirlwind of war, Melekhov finds himself in all the opposing armies of the civil war and tries to understand whose side is the truth.

At first he was with the Reds, led by Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov. Here Melekhov's inherent dislike for the noble officers, who are alien to the interests of the people, including the Cossacks, is reflected. However, it is Podtelkov's savage reprisal against the captured White Guard officers that turns Gregory away from the Reds. He angrily throws the leader of the Red Cossacks, who himself are going to be executed by a painful death:

“Do you remember the battle under Glubokaya? Do you remember how the officers were shot ... They shot at your order! A? Tepericha burps you! Well, do not grieve! You are not the only one to tan someone else's skins! You retired, chairman of the Moscow Council of People's Commissars! You, toadstool, sold the Cossacks to the Jews! " But the anger of Grigory Melekhov is cooled by his comrade Khristonya: “Come, began to be, to the horses. Go! You and I have nothing to do here. Lord God, what is happening to people! .. ”The impending execution of Podtelkov, Krivoshlykov and their comrades also shocks Grigory. Without waiting for its start, he leaves Ponamarev khutor, where the massacre of the prisoners is carried out.

Grigory himself, too, after the execution by the Reds of his brother Peter, is able to give the order to exterminate the captured Red Army soldiers. Able to hack countless red sailors in open combat. But he takes such actions only in moments of extreme anger or arousal caused by a battle. In quiet moments, he lets go of the captured enemy in peace, but about the same chopped-up sailors, having cooled down, with longing says “at some moment of monstrous enlightenment”:

“Whom did he chop! ..” And for the first time in his life he huddled in a grave seizure, shouting, spitting out together with the foam, which even began to swell on his lips: “Brothers, I have no forgiveness! .. Hack, for God's sake ... mother of God ... Death ... betray! .. "He says almost the same words as the Cossack Yegor Zharkov, who received a mortal wound in the First World War and begs his comrades to end his torment:" Brothers, put to death! Brothers! .. Brothers ... What are you looking at? .. Ahahaa-ah-ah! .. Brothers, put to death! .. ”Melekhov, unlike Zharkov, whose intestines are falling out of his torn stomach, is not wounded , but he experiences almost the same torment that one has to kill compatriots, Russian people, Cossacks, men, sailors ... Even killing an enemy in a fair fight, he sometimes experiences moral torment. What can we say about the murder of the unarmed. True, in revenge for Peter, Gregory does such a dirty deed. But the feeling of revenge quickly fades. And having learned that the killers of Peter fell into the hands of the Cossacks, Gregory hurries to his native farm not to hasten their death, but, on the contrary, to save them from death. But he was late: during the lynching, Ivan Alekseevich was killed by Peter's widow Daria. Truly, “what is done to people”! Gregory does not accept the brutality caused by the civil war. And ultimately it turns out to be a stranger in all the warring countries. He begins to doubt whether he is looking for the right truth. Melekhov thinks about the Reds: “They are fighting so that they can live better, but we fought for our good life ... There is no truth in life. It is evident that whoever overcomes whom will devour ... And I was looking for the bad truth. He was sick with his soul, he swayed back and forth ... In the old days, you can hear the Don Tatars offend, they went to take away the land, to be imprisoned. Now - Russia. No! I will not make up! They are alien to me and to all the Cossacks. " He feels a sense of community only with his fellow Cossacks, especially during the Vyoshensky uprising. He dreams of the Cossacks being independent from both the Bolsheviks and the "Cadets", but quickly realizes that there is no place for any "third force" in the struggle between the Reds and Whites. In the White Cossack army of Ataman Krasnov, Grigory Melekhov serves without enthusiasm. Here he sees robbery, and violence against prisoners, and the unwillingness of the Cossacks to fight outside the region of the Don Army, and he himself shares their sentiments. And just without enthusiasm, Gregory fights with the Reds after the Vyoshenski rebels unite with the troops of General Denikin. The officers who set the tone in the Volunteer Army are not just strangers for him, but also hostile. It is not for nothing that Esaul Evgeny Listnitsky also becomes an enemy, whom Grigory beats to a pulp for his connection with Aksinya. Melekhov anticipates the defeat of the whites and is not too sad about this. By and large, he was already tired of the war, and the outcome is almost indifferent. Although in the days of the retreat, "at times he had a vague hope that the danger would force the scattered, demoralized and warring forces of the whites to unite, fight back and overturn the victoriously advancing red units."

Grigory, “oppressed by idleness,” wanted to “join some military unit,” but his friend and orderly Prokhor Zykov strongly advised against doing this: “You, Grigory Panteleevich, apparently, are completely crazy! - he declared indignantly. - For what the hell are we going there, into this hell? Business is over, you see yourself, why are we going to waste ourselves in vain? Al you think we two will help them! As long as we are not touched and forcibly not taken to the unit, we must, as soon as possible, get away from sin as soon as possible, and you’ll cut the hell out! No, come on, please, peacefully, like an old man, retreat. You and I have already fought a lot in five years, let others try at once! "

And Gregory agrees with his arguments. After all, Melekhov is also tired of the war, although he has a military streak, prowess, even some kind of craving for battle. That is why it is boring for Gregory to retreat without a real business. However, he does not consider any of the parties in the civil war to be right, and for this reason he quickly cools down to fight for a cause that he does not consider fair. Melekhov then goes to serve in the Reds in order to atone for past sins, and even fights against the Poles with enthusiasm, almost like against the Germans and Austrians in the First World War.

Returning to the Tatarsky farm, Prokhor Zykov, who lost his hand, tells Aksinya about Grigory: “Together with him in Novorossiysk we entered the equestrian army of Comrade Budyonny ... Our Grigory Pantelevich received a hundred, that is, a squadron, I, of course, am with him, and went in marching order near Kiev ... Well, girl, and we gave the devils to these Poles! We went there, Grigory Pantelevich and said: “The Germans were chopped, they tried a broadsword on all kinds of Austrians, are the Poles really stronger shards? It seems to me that it will be easier to chop them down than your own Russians, what do you think? " - and winks at me, grins. He changed, as he entered the Red Army, he became cheerful from himself, smooth as a gelding ... He says I will serve until I will forgive past sins. He will do this - a foolish thing is simple ... Near one place he led us to the attack. In front of my eyes, I cut down four of their uhlans. He, damned, left-handed from childhood, so he got them from both sides ... After the battle, Budyonny himself handled him in front of the formation, and the squadron was grateful to him as well ”. Nevertheless, the gratitude of the legendary commander of the First Horse Cavalry did not save Melekhov from suspicion. And when the Budennovists were transferred to the Crimea against Wrangel, Grigory had to chop down not the Poles, but his own Russian people. After being wounded on the Wrangel front, Melekhov was demobilized from the Red Army, not relying too much on his reliability.

Gregory's words that the Poles have “shards” not stronger than those of the Germans cannot be understood as a joyful readiness to kill people. Melekhov is happy, if I may say so, only that he has to kill foreigners, not compatriots. However, as we see, he later had to kill the Russians, perhaps the same Cossack brothers who fought under the banner of Wrangel.

Gregory, returning to the farm, expects to be left alone: ​​“He has finished fighting. Enough with him. He was driving home in order to finally get to work, live with children, with Aksinya ... ”Grigory, it seems, has found his truth: a quiet family life, with children, with his wife. To his former friend and current son-in-law, he confesses: “I don't want to serve anyone else. I have fought enough in my life and I was terribly worn out in my soul. I'm tired of everything - both the revolution and the counter-revolution. Had all this ... let it all go to waste! I want to live with my kids, do the housework, that's all. Believe me, Michael, I say this from the bottom of my heart. " However, Koshevoy does not believe, and Grigory's dreams of a calm, peaceful life are not destined to come true.

The threat of arrest forced Gregory to flee his native farm, and the case brought him to Fomin's gang, where he no longer looked for the truth, but simply hid from persecution. He decided to go with Aksinya to the Kuban and start a new life there, but his beloved died from a stray bullet.

After that, Melekhov "still frantically clung to the ground, as if in fact his broken life was of some value both for him and for others." In the end, Gregory, without waiting for the amnesty, returned home.

In the finale, “the little that Grigory dreamed of during his sleepless nights came true. He stood at the gates of his home, held his son in his arms ... This was all that remained in his life, which still made him intimate with the earth and with all this huge world shining under the cold sun. "

Sholokhov led his beloved hero through all the circles of the hell of the civil war, finally, he brought him to a peaceful shore and left him here. And although he himself perfectly understood what awaited Grigory Melekhov ahead, he could not and did not want to say this, and therefore left the appearance of a happy end. In the era of revolutionary cataclysms, honest people cannot be happy.

The "Quiet Don" reflects the era of great upheavals at the beginning of the 20th century, which influenced the fate of many people, which also influenced the fate of the Don Cossacks. Oppression by officials, landowners, the more prosperous part of the population, as well as the inability of the authorities to resolve conflict situations and equitably equip the life of the people, led to popular outrage, riots, and a revolution that turned into a civil war. In addition, the Don Cossacks rebelled against the new government, fought with the Red Army. Gangs of Cossacks dealt with the same poor, with the peasants who, like the Cossacks, wanted to work on their land. It was a hard, troubled time when a brother went against a brother, and a father could turn out to be a murderer of his son.

MASholokhov's novel "Quiet Flows the Don" reflects the turning point of wars and revolutions, shows the events that influenced the course of history. The writer reflected the age-old traditions of the Don Cossacks and the peculiarities of their life, the system of their moral principles and work skills that formed the national character, which is most fully embodied by the author in the image of Grigory Melekhov.
The path of Grigory Melekhov is quite special, different from the searches of the heroes of previous eras, since Sholokhov showed, firstly, the history of a simple Cossack, a farm boy with a small education, not wise with experience, not versed in politics. Secondly, the author reflected the hardest time of shocks and storms for the entire European continent and for Russia in particular.

In the image of Grigory Melekhov, a deeply tragic personality is presented, whose fate is entirely connected with the dramatic events taking place in the country. The character of the hero can only be understood by analyzing his life path, starting from the beginning. It must be remembered that the hot blood of a Turkish grandmother was mixed in the genes of the Cossack. The Melekhov family, in this regard, was distinguished by its genetic qualities: along with hard work, perseverance, love for the land, for example, Gregory's proud disposition, courage, and self-will were noticeable. Already in his youth, he convincingly and firmly objected to Aksinya, who called him to foreign lands: “I will not move anywhere from the earth. There is a steppe, there is something to breathe, but there? " Gregory thought that his life was forever connected with the peaceful labor of a farmer on his own farm. The main values ​​for him are land, steppe, Cossack service and family. But he could not even imagine how loyalty to the Cossack cause would turn out for him, when the best years would have to be given to the war, killing people, ordeals on the fronts, and a lot would have to go through, having experienced various shocks.

Gregory was brought up in a spirit of devotion to Cossack traditions, he did not shy away from service, intending to honor his military duty and return to the farm. He, as befits a Cossack, showed courage in battles during the First World War, “took risks, was extravagant,” but very soon realized that it was not easy to get rid of the pain over a person that he sometimes felt. The senseless murder of an Austrian fleeing from him was especially hard for Grigory. He even, "not knowing why, went up to the Austrian soldier he had hacked to death." And then, when he walked away from the corpse, “his step was confused and heavy, as if carrying an overwhelming load over his shoulders; I bend and bewilderment crumpled my soul. "

After the first wound, while in the hospital, Grigory learned new truths, listening to how the wounded soldier of Garanzh "exposed the real reasons for the outbreak of war, caustically ridiculed the autocratic power." It was difficult for the Cossack to accept these new concepts about the tsar, the homeland, about the military duty: "all those foundations on which the consciousness rested were smoked with ashes." But after a visit to his native farm, he again went to the front, remaining a kind Cossack: “Gregory took up the Cossack honor, caught the opportunity to show selfless courage ...”. This was the time when his heart hardened and hardened. However, while remaining courageous and even desperate in battle, Gregory changed internally: he could not laugh carelessly and cheerfully, his eyes sagged, his cheekbones sharpened, and it became difficult to look into the clear eyes of a child. “With cold contempt he played with his own life and that of others, ... four St. George's crosses, four medals,” but he could not avoid the mercilessly devastating impact of the war. However, the personality of Gregory was still not destroyed by the war: his soul did not harden to the end, he could not completely reconcile himself to the need to kill people (even if enemies).

In 1917, after being wounded and in the hospital, while at home on vacation, Gregory felt tired, "acquired by the war." “I wanted to turn my back on the entire seething with hatred, hostile and incomprehensible world. There, behind, everything was confused, contradictory. " There was no solid ground underfoot, and there was no certainty which path to take: "I was drawn to the Bolsheviks - I walked, led others, and then I took thought, my heart grew cold." On the farm, the Cossack wanted to return to household chores and stay with his family. But he will not be allowed to calm down, because for a long time there will be no peace in the country. And Melekhov rushes between "red" and "white". It is difficult for him to find political truth when human values ​​are rapidly changing in the world, and it is difficult for an inexperienced person to understand the essence of events: "Who can I lean against?" Gregory's throwings were not connected with his political moods, but with a lack of understanding of the situation in the country, when power was seized by numerous participants of the warring forces in turn. Melekhov was ready to fight in the ranks of the Red Army, but war is war, it could not do without cruelty, and wealthy Cossacks did not want to voluntarily give the "food" to the Red Army. Melekhov felt the distrust of the Bolsheviks, their dislike for him as a former soldier of the tsarist army. And Grigory himself could not understand the uncompromising and ruthless activity of the food detachments taking away the grain. Especially the fanaticism and anger of Mikhail Koshevoy were repelled from the communist idea, and there was a desire to get away from the unbearable confusion. I wanted to understand and comprehend everything, to find my own, "real truth", but apparently there is no one truth for everyone: "For a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life - people have always fought ...". And Gregory decided that "we must fight with those who want to take away life, the right to it ...".

Cruelty and violence were manifested by all the warring parties: White Guards, insurgent Cossacks, various gangs. Melekhov did not want to join them, but Grigory had to fight against the Bolsheviks. Not out of conviction, but due to forced circumstances, when the Cossacks were gathered in detachments from the farms by the opponents of the new government. He grieved at the atrocities of the Cossacks, their indomitable vindictiveness. While in Fomin's detachment, Grigory witnessed the execution of a young non-partisan Red Army man who faithfully served the people's power. The guy refused to go over to the side of the bandits (as he called the Cossack detachment), and they immediately decided to "use it up". "Is our trial short?" - says Fomin, referring to Grigory, who avoided looking the leader in the eye, because he himself was against such "courts".
And Gregory's parents are in solidarity with their son in matters of rejection of cruelty, enmity between people. Panteley Prokofievich kicks out Mitka Korshunov, because he does not want to see the executioner in his house, who killed a woman with children in order to take revenge on the communist Koshev. Ilyinichna, the mother of Grigory, says to Natalya: "That way, you and me, and Mishatka and Polyushka for Grisha, the Reds could have chopped up, but they didn’t chop it, they had mercy." Wise words are also uttered by the old farmer Chumakov when he asks Melekhov: “Will you soon make peace with Soviet power? We fought with the Circassians, we fought with the Turk, and that reconciliation happened, but all of you are your people, and you can't get along with each other. "

Gregory's life was also complicated by his unstable position everywhere and in everything: he was constantly in a state of search, deciding the question "where to lean against." Even before serving in the Cossack army, Melekhov did not manage to choose a life companion for love, since Aksinya was married, and his father married him to Natalya. And all his short life he was in a position "in between", when he was drawn to the family, to his wife and children, but his heart was also calling for his beloved. The desire to manage the land was no less tore my soul, although no one exempted me from military duty. The position of an honest, decent person between the new and the old, between peace and war, between Bolshevism and Izvarin's populism and, finally, between Natalya and Aksinya only aggravated, increased the intensity of his tossing.

The need to make a choice was very exhausting, and, perhaps, the Cossack's decisions were not always correct, but who could then judge the people, make a fair verdict? G. Melekhov passionately fought in Budyonny's cavalry and thought that with his faithful service he had earned forgiveness from the Bolsheviks for previous deeds, but during the years of the civil war there were cases of quick reprisals against those who either did not show devotion to Soviet power, or rushed from side to side. And in Fomin's gang, already fighting the Bolsheviks, Grigory did not see a way out, how to solve his problem, how to return to a peaceful life and not be an enemy to anyone. Grigory left the Cossack detachment of Fomin, and, fearing punishment from the Soviet authorities, or even lynching from any side, since he seemed to be everyone's enemy, he is trying to hide with Aksinya, to escape somewhere far away from his native farm. However, this attempt did not bring him salvation: an accidental meeting with the Red Army men from the food detachment, flight, pursuit, shots after - and the tragic death of Aksinya stopped Grigory's throwing forever. There was nowhere to rush, no one to rush to.

The author is far from indifferent to the fate of his protagonist. He writes with bitterness that because of homesickness Grigory can no longer wander and, without waiting for the amnesty, risks again, returns to the Tatarsky farm: "He stood at the gate of his home, holding his son in his arms ...". Sholokhov does not end the novel with a message about the future fate of G. Melekhov, probably because he sympathizes with him and would like to finally give a person tired of battles a little peace of mind so that he could live and work on his land, but it is difficult to say whether it is possible this is.
The merit of the writer is that the author's attitude towards heroes, his ability to understand people, appreciate the honesty and decency of those who sincerely sought to understand the confusion of rebellious events and find the truth - this is the author's desire to convey the movement of the human soul against the background of dramatic changes in the country. appreciated by both critics and readers. One of the former leaders of the rebellious Cossacks, the emigrant P. Kudinov wrote to Sholokhovednik K. Prime: "Quiet Don" shook our souls and made everything change our minds, and our longing for Russia became even sharper, and brightened in my head. " And those who, while in exile, read the novel by M. A. Sholokhov "Quiet Don", "who sobbed over its pages and tore their gray hair, these people in 1941 could not fight against Soviet Russia and did not go ". It should be added: not all, of course, but many of them.

Sholokhov's skill as an artist is also difficult to overestimate: we have a rare specimen, almost a historical document, depicting the culture of the Cossacks, everyday life, traditions and peculiarities of speech. It would be impossible to create vivid images (and to the reader - to present them) if Grigory, Aksinya and other heroes spoke neutrally, in a stylized language close to literary. It would no longer be the Don Cossacks, if we remove their centuries-old peculiarities of speech, their own dialect: "vilyuzhinki", "hide", "you are my good-looking." At the same time, representatives of the command staff of the Cossack troops, who have education and experience in communicating with people from other territories of Russia, speak the language familiar to Russians. And Sholokhov objectively shows this difference, so the picture turns out to be reliable.

It should be noted the author's ability to combine the epic depiction of historical events with the lyricism of the narrative, especially those moments in which the personal experiences of the heroes are reported. The writer uses the technique of psychologism, revealing the inner state of a person, showing the spiritual movements of the personality. One of the features of this technique is the ability to give an individual characterization of the hero, combining with external data, with a portrait. So, for example, the changes that happened to Gregory as a result of his service, participation in battles look very memorable: “... he knew that he would no longer laugh at him as before; I knew that his eyes had sunk in and his cheekbones protruded sharply ... ”.
The author's empathy for the heroes of the work is felt in everything, and the reader's opinion coincides with the words of Y. Ivashkevich that MASholokhov's novel "Quiet Don" has "a deep inner content - and its content is love for a person."

Reviews

It's amazing how this novel (certainly not socialist realism) was not banned in Soviet times. For the Melekhs did not find the truth either among the Reds or the Whites.
There were many pseudo-innovative fabrications about this, like "Cossack Hamlet". But Chekhov says it right: no one knows the real truth.
The best that I have read on the Civil War is Veresaev's "At a Dead End". There, too, "not for the reds and not for the whites." An honest and objective understanding of that time (the novel was written in 1923).

I do not accept extreme points of view in assessing such a global event as the Civil War. Dovlatov was right: after the communists, I hate anti-communists most of all.

Thanks for posting, Zoya. Make you think about real literature. Do not forget to write about the work of worthy authors. And then many on the site are all about themselves, but about themselves. Yes about their imperishable.
My respect.
03.03.2018 21:03 contact the administration.

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The hero of Mikhail Sholokhov's novel "And Quiet Don" - Grigory Melikhov - a simple Cossack from the middle peasants, who fell into the maelstrom of the First World War, revolution and civil war. In this dashing time, he, a skilled warrior, turns out to be needed by everyone - both white and red. In the whirlwind of war, Melekhov finds himself in all the opposing armies of the civil war and tries to understand whose side is the truth.
At first he was with the Reds, led by Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov. Here Melekhov's inherent dislike for the officers-nobles, who are alien to

The interests of the people, including the Cossacks. However, it is Podtelkov's savage reprisal against the captured White Guard officers that turns Gregory away from the Reds. He angrily throws the leader of the Red Cossacks, who himself are going to be executed by a painful death:
“Do you remember the battle under Glubokaya? Do you remember how the officers were shot ... They shot at your order! A? Tepericha burps you! Well, do not grieve! You are not the only one to tan someone else's skins! You retired, chairman of the Moscow Council of People's Commissars! You, toadstool, sold the Cossacks to the Jews! " But the anger of Grigory Melekhov is cooled by his comrade Khristonya: “Come, began to be, to the horses. Go! You and I have nothing to do here. Lord God, what is happening to people! .. ”The impending execution of Podtelkov, Krivoshlykov and their comrades also shocks Grigory. Without waiting for its start, he leaves Ponamarev khutor, where the massacre of the prisoners is carried out.
Grigory himself, too, after the execution by the Reds of his brother Peter, is able to give the order to exterminate the captured Red Army soldiers. Able to hack countless red sailors in open combat. But he takes such actions only in moments of extreme anger or arousal caused by a battle. In quiet moments, he lets go of the captured enemy in peace, but about the same chopped-up sailors, having cooled down, with longing says “at some moment of monstrous enlightenment”:
“Whom did he chop! ..” And for the first time in his life he huddled in a grave seizure, shouting, spitting out together with the foam, which even began to swell on his lips: “Brothers, I have no forgiveness! .. Hack, for God's sake ... mother of God ... Death ... betray! .. "He says almost the same words as the Cossack Yegor Zharkov, who received a mortal wound in the First World War and begs his comrades to end his torment:" Brothers, put to death! Brothers! .. Brothers ... What are you looking at? .. Ahahaa-ah-ah! .. Brothers, put to death! .. ”Melekhov, unlike Zharkov, whose intestines are falling out of his torn stomach, is not wounded , but he experiences almost the same torment that one has to kill compatriots, Russian people, Cossacks, men, sailors ... Even killing an enemy in a fair fight, he sometimes experiences moral torment. What can we say about the murder of the unarmed. True, in revenge for Peter, Gregory does such a dirty deed. But the feeling of revenge quickly fades. And having learned that the killers of Peter fell into the hands of the Cossacks, Gregory hurries to his native farm not to hasten their death, but, on the contrary, to save them from death. But he was late: during the lynching, Ivan Alekseevich was killed by Peter's widow Daria. Truly, “what is done to people”! Gregory does not accept the brutality caused by the civil war. And ultimately it turns out to be a stranger in all the warring countries. He begins to doubt whether he is looking for the right truth. Melekhov thinks about the Reds: “They are fighting so that they can live better, but we fought for our good life ... There is no truth in life. It is evident that whoever overcomes whom will devour ... And I was looking for the bad truth. He was sick with his soul, he swayed back and forth ... In the old days, you can hear the Don Tatars offend, they went to take away the land, to be imprisoned. Now - Russia. No! I will not make up! They are alien to me and to all the Cossacks. " He feels a sense of community only with his fellow countrymen, the Cossacks, especially at the time of the Veshensky uprising. He dreams of the Cossacks being independent from both the Bolsheviks and the "Cadets", but quickly realizes that there is no room left for any "third force" in the struggle between the Reds and Whites. In the White Cossack army of Ataman Krasnov, Grigory Melekhov serves without enthusiasm. Here he sees robbery, and violence against prisoners, and the unwillingness of the Cossacks to fight outside the region of the Don Army, and he himself shares their sentiments. And in the same way, without enthusiasm, Gregory fights with the Reds after the connection of the Veshensky rebels with the troops of General Denikin. The officers who set the tone in the Volunteer Army are not just strangers for him, but also hostile. It is not for nothing that Esaul Evgeny Listnitsky also becomes an enemy, whom Grigory beats to a pulp for his connection with Aksinya. Melekhov anticipates the defeat of the whites and is not too sad about this. By and large, he was already tired of the war, and the outcome is almost indifferent. Although in the days of the retreat, "at times he had a vague hope that the danger would force the scattered, demoralized and warring forces of the whites to unite, fight back and overturn the victoriously advancing red units."
Grigory, “oppressed by idleness,” wanted to “join some military unit,” but his friend and orderly Prokhor Zykov strongly advised against doing this: “You, Grigory Panteleevich, apparently, are completely crazy! - he declared indignantly. - For what the hell are we going there, into this hell? Business is over, you see yourself, why are we going to waste ourselves in vain? Al you think we two will help them! As long as we are not touched and forcibly not taken to the unit, we must, as soon as possible, get away from sin as soon as possible, and you’ll cut the hell out! No, come on, please, peacefully, like an old man, retreat. You and I have already fought a lot in five years, let others try at once! "
And Gregory agrees with his arguments. After all, Melekhov is also tired of the war, although he has a military streak, prowess, even some kind of craving for battle. That is why it is boring for Gregory to retreat without a real business. However, he does not consider any of the parties in the civil war to be right, and for this reason he quickly cools down to fight for a cause that he does not consider fair. Melekhov then goes to serve in the Reds in order to atone for past sins, and even fights against the Poles with enthusiasm, almost like against the Germans and Austrians in the First World War.
Returning to the Tatarsky farm, Prokhor Zykov, who lost his hand, tells Aksinya about Grigory: “Together with him in Novorossiysk we entered the equestrian army of Comrade Budyonny ... Our Grigory Pantelevich received a hundred, that is, a squadron, I, of course, am with him, and went in marching order near Kiev ... Well, girl, and we gave the devils to these Poles! We went there, Grigory Pantelevich and said: “The Germans were chopped, they tried a broadsword on all kinds of Austrians, are the Poles really stronger shards? It seems to me that it will be easier to chop them down than your own Russians, what do you think? " - and winks at me, grins. He changed, as he entered the Red Army, he became cheerful from himself, smooth as a gelding ... He says I will serve until I will forgive past sins. He will do this - a foolish thing is simple ... Near one place he led us to the attack. In front of my eyes, I cut down four of their uhlans. He, damned, left-handed from childhood, so he got them from both sides ... After the battle, Budyonny himself handled him in front of the formation, and the squadron was grateful to him as well ”. Nevertheless, the gratitude of the legendary commander of the First Horse Cavalry did not save Melekhov from suspicion. And when the Budennovists were transferred to the Crimea against Wrangel, Grigory had to chop down not the Poles, but his own Russian people. After being wounded on the Wrangel front, Melekhov was demobilized from the Red Army, not relying too much on his reliability.
Gregory's words that the Poles have “shards” not stronger than those of the Germans cannot be understood as a joyful readiness to kill people. Melekhov is happy, if I may say so, only that he has to kill foreigners, not compatriots. However, as we see, he later had to kill the Russians, perhaps the same Cossack brothers who fought under the banner of Wrangel.
Gregory, returning to the farm, expects to be left alone: ​​“He has finished fighting. Enough with him. He drove home to eventually get to work, live with children, with Aksinya ... ”Gregory, it seems, has found his truth: a quiet family life, with children, with his wife. To his former friend and current son-in-law, he confesses: “I don't want to serve anyone else. I have fought enough in my life and I was terribly worn out in my soul. I'm tired of everything - both the revolution and the counter-revolution. Had all this ... let it all go to waste! I want to live with my kids, do the housework, that's all. Believe me, Michael, I say this from the bottom of my heart. " However, Koshevoy does not believe, and Grigory's dreams of a calm, peaceful life are not destined to come true.
The threat of arrest forced Grigory to flee his native farm, and the chance brought him to Fomin's gang, where he no longer looked for the truth, but simply hid from persecution. He decided to go with Aksinya to the Kuban and start a new life there, but his beloved died from a stray bullet.
After that, Melekhov "still frantically clung to the ground, as if in fact his broken life was of some value both for him and for others." In the end, Gregory, without waiting for the amnesty, returned home.
In the finale, “the little that Grigory dreamed of during his sleepless nights came true. He stood at the gates of his home, held his son in his arms ... This was all that remained in his life, which still made him intimate with the earth and with all this huge world shining under the cold sun. "
Sholokhov led his beloved hero through all the circles of the hell of the civil war, finally, he brought him to a peaceful shore and left him here. And although he himself perfectly understood what awaited Grigory Melekhov ahead, he could not and did not want to say this, and therefore left the appearance of a happy end. In the era of revolutionary cataclysms, honest people cannot be happy.

You read at once: Grigory Melekhov - the seeker of truth (novel by M. A. Sholokhov "Quiet Don")