Interesting Facts. The image of Grigory Melekhov. Tragic fate The image of Grigory Melekhov in the civil war

Vromane " Quiet Don» M. A. Sholokhov poeticizes folk life, gives a deep analysis of its way of life, the origins of its crisis, which largely affected the fate of the heroes of the novel. The author emphasizes the decisive role of the people in history. According to Sholokhov, it is the people that are the driving force of history. One of his representatives in the novel is Grigory Melekhov. Undoubtedly, he main character novel.

Gregory is a simple and illiterate Cossack, but his character is complex and multifaceted. The author endows him with the best features inherent in the people.

At the very beginning of the novel, Sholokhov describes the history of the Melekhov family. The Cossack Prokofy Melekhov returns from the Turkish campaign, brings with him his wife, a Turkish woman. With this begins the "new" history of the Melekh family. Already in it the character of Gregory is laid. It is no coincidence that Gregory is outwardly similar to men of his kind: “... he popped into his father: you are half a head taller than Peter, at least six years younger, the same drooping vulture nose as Bati’s, in slightly slanting cuts blue tonsils of hot eyes, sharp slabs of cheekbones covered with brown ruddy skin. Grigory stooped in the same way as his father, even in a smile both had something in common, animalistic. It is he, and not the elder brother Peter, who is the successor of the Melekhov family.

From the very first pages, Gregory is depicted in everyday peasant life. He, like everyone else on the farm, goes fishing, leads horses to water, falls in love, goes to games, participates in scenes of peasant labor. The character of the hero is clearly revealed in the episode of the meadow mowing. Gregory discovers love for all living things, a keen sense of someone else's pain, the ability to compassion. He is painfully sorry for the duckling accidentally cut with a scythe, he looks at him "with a sudden feeling of acute pity."

Gregory feels nature very well, he is vitally connected with it. “Good, oh, good! ..” he thinks, deftly handling the scythe.

Gregory is a man of strong passions, decisive deeds and actions. Numerous scenes with Aksinya speak eloquently about this. Despite his father's slander, during haymaking, at midnight, he still goes in the direction where Aksinya is. Cruelly punished by Panteley Prokofievich and not afraid of his threats, he still goes to Aksinya from the night and returns only at dawn. In Gregory, already here a desire is manifested in everything to reach the end, not to stop halfway through. Marrying an unloved woman could not make him give up himself, from a natural, sincere feeling. He only slightly reassured his father, who sternly proclaimed to him: “Do not mischief with your neighbor! Do not fear your father! Don't drag around, doggie! ”, But no more than that. Gregory loves passionately and does not tolerate ridicule. Even Peter does not forgive the joke on his feelings and grabs the pitchfork. "You are fool! Damn crazy! Here, the ardent Circassian has degenerated into a batin breed! exclaims Peter, frightened to death.

Gregory is always honest and sincere. “I don’t love you, Natashka, don’t be angry,” he frankly says to his wife.

At first, Grigory protests against fleeing from the farm with Aksinya, but his innate stubbornness and the impossibility of submission still forced him to leave the household, go with his beloved to Listnitsky's estate. Gregory is hired as a groom. But such a life away from his native nest is not for him. “Easy well-fed life spoiled him. He became lazy, put on weight, looked older than his years,” says the author.

Gregory has tremendous inner strength. A vivid evidence of this is the episode of the beating of Listnitsky Jr. by him. Despite the position of Listnitsky, Grigory does not intend to forgive him insults: “Having intercepted the whip, he beat the whip in the face, on the hands, not allowing the centurion to come to his senses.” Melehov is not afraid of punishment for his deed. He treats Aksinya sternly too: when he left, he never looked back. Gregory has a deep sense of self-worth. It is his strength, and she is able to influence other people, regardless of their rank and position. In a duel with a sergeant-major at a watering place, Gregory undoubtedly wins, not allowing the senior in rank to hit himself.

The hero is ready to stand up not only for his own, but also for someone else's dignity. He was the only one of all who stood up for Franya, who was abused by the Cossacks. Being powerless against evil, he "for the first time in a long period of time almost cried."

The First World War picked up the fate of Gregory and twisted it in a whirlwind of turbulent historical events. Grigory, like a true Cossack, gives himself over to the battle. He is determined and bold. Easily captures three Germans, deftly beats off the battery from the enemy, saves the officer. Evidence of his courage - St. George's crosses and medals, officer rank.

Melekhov is generous. In battle, he extends a helping hand to his rival Stepan Astakhov, who dreams of killing him. Gregory is shown as a courageous, skillful warrior. But still, killing a person deeply contradicts his humane nature, his life values: “Well, well, I cut down a person in vain and I’m sick through him, a bastard, with my soul,” he says to brother Peter, “... I’m tired of my soul .. It was as if I had been under millstones, they crushed me and spit me out.

Gregory quickly begins to experience incredible fatigue and disappointment. At first, he fights fearlessly and without thinking that sheds his own and other people's blood. But war and life confront Melekhov with many people who have fundamentally different views on the world, on what is happening in it. Communication with them makes the hero think about the war and the life he lives.

Chubaty bears the truth "Cut the man boldly." He easily talks about human death, about the possibility and right to deprive a person of life. Grigory listens attentively to him and understands: such an inhuman position is unacceptable for him, alien.

Garanja sowed the seeds of doubt in Melekhov's soul. He suddenly doubted the previously unshakable values, such as the king and the Cossack military duty. “The tsar is a drunkard, the queen is a whore, the lord's pennies from the war are an increase, and on our necks ..” Garanzha cynically declares. He makes Gregory think about many things. These doubts laid the foundation for Gregory's tragic path to the truth. The hero makes desperate attempts to find the truth and the meaning of life.

The character of Grigory Melekhov is a truly amazing character, truly a folk character.

The birth of the epic novel is connected with the events of Russian history that are of world significance. The first Russian revolution of 1905, the world war of 1914-1918. The October Revolution, the civil war, the period of peaceful construction caused the desire of the artists of the word to create works of wide epic scope. It is characteristic that in the 1920s they began to work almost simultaneously: M. Gorky - on the epic "The Life of Klim Samgin", A. N. Tolstoy - on the epic "Walking through the torments", M. Sholokhov turned to the creation of the epic "Quiet Flows the Don" .

The creators of epic canvases relied on the traditions of Russian classics, on such works about the fate of the people as “The Captain's Daughter”, “Taras Bulba”, “War and Peace”.

The epic novel "Quiet Don" occupies a special place in the history of Russian literature. Sholokhov gave fifteen years of life and hard work to its creation. M. Gorky saw in the novel the embodiment of the enormous talent of the Russian people.

Events in the "Quiet Don" begin in 1912, before the First World War, and end in 1922, when the civil war died down on the Don. Knowing perfectly well the life and way of life of the Cossacks of the Don region, being himself a participant in the severe struggle on the Don in the early 1920s, Sholokhov focused on depicting the Cossacks. The work closely combines document and fiction. There are many original names of farms and villages of the Don region in the “Quiet Don”. The center of events, with which the main action is connected, is the village of Veshenskaya.

Sholokhov portrays the actual participants in the events: this is Ivan Lagutin, chairman of the Cossack department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the first chairman of the Don All-Russian Central Executive Committee Fedor Podtelkov, a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Elan Cossack Mikhail Krivoshlykov. At the same time, the main characters of the story are fictional: the families of the Melekhovs, Astakhovs, Korshunovs, Koshevs, and Listnitskys. The Tatar farm is also fictional.

"Quiet Don" begins with an image of the peaceful pre-war life of the Cossacks. The days of the Tatarsky farm are spent in hard work. The Melekhov family, a typical middle peasant family with patriarchal foundations, is brought to the forefront of the narrative. The war interrupted the working life of the Cossacks.

The First World War is portrayed by Sholokhov as a national disaster, and the old soldier, confessing Christian wisdom, advises the young Cossacks: “Remember one thing: if you want to be alive, get out of a mortal battle alive, you must observe human truth ...”

Sholokhov with great skill describes the horrors of war, crippling people both physically and morally. Cossack Chubaty teaches Grigory Melekhov: “To kill a man in battle is a sacred thing ... destroy a man. He's a rotten man!" But Chubaty with his animal philosophy scares people away. Death, suffering awaken sympathy and unite soldiers: people cannot get used to war.

Sholokhov writes in the second book that the news of the overthrow of the autocracy did not evoke joyful feelings among the Cossacks, they reacted to it with "restrained anxiety and expectation." The Cossacks are tired of the war. They dream of finishing it. How many of them have already died: not one Cossack widow voted for the dead.

The Cossacks did not immediately understand the historical events. Bitter words in the novel precede the description of the tragic events on the Don, the story of the massacre of the Podtelkov expedition, and the Upper Don uprising.

Having returned from the fronts of the world war, the Cossacks did not yet know what tragedy of the fratricidal war they would have to endure in the near future.

The Upper Don uprising appears in the image of Sholokhov as one of the central events of the civil war on the Don. There were many reasons. The Red Terror, the unjustified cruelty of the representatives of the Soviet authorities on the Don in the novel are shown with great artistic power. Numerous executions of Cossacks carried out in the villages - the murder of Miron Korshunov and grandfather Trishka, who personified the Christian principle, preaching that all power is given by God, the actions of Commissar Malkin, who gave orders to shoot bearded Cossacks.

Sholokhov showed in the novel that the Upper Don uprising reflected a popular protest against the destruction of the foundations of peasant life and the centuries-old traditions of the Cossacks, traditions that became the basis of peasant morality and morality, which developed over the centuries, and passed down from generation to generation.

The writer also showed the doom of the uprising. Already in the course of events, the people understood and felt their fratricidal character. One of the leaders of the uprising, Grigory Melekhov, declares: “But I think that we got lost when we went to the uprising.”

A. Serafimovich wrote about the heroes of "The Quiet Flows the Don": "... his people are not drawn, not written out - this is not on paper." In the images-types created by Sholokhov, the deep and expressive features of the Russian people are summarized. Depicting the thoughts, feelings, actions of the characters, the writer did not break, but exposed the threads leading to the past.

Among the characters of the novel, Grigory Melekhov is attractive, contradictory, reflecting the complexity of the searches and delusions of the Cossacks. There is no doubt that the image of Grigory Melekhov is an artistic discovery of Sholokhov. Creating this image, the writer acted as an innovator, artistically reproducing what in life was the most controversial, the most difficult, the most exciting. Grigory Melekhov is not an isolated character in the epic. He is in the closest unity and is connected both with his family and with the Cossacks of the Tatarsky farm and the entire Don, among whom he grew up and with whom he lived and fought, constantly in search of truth and the meaning of life. Melekhov is not separated from his time. He not only communicates with people and participates in events, but always reflects, evaluates, judges himself and others.

These features help to conclude that Melekhov is depicted in the epic as the son of his people and his time. Gregory's world - people's peace, he never separated himself from his people, from nature. In the fire of battles, in the dust of campaigns, he dreams of working in his native land, of a family. Grigory completes his journey through torment by returning to his native Tatarsky farm. Throwing his weapons into the Don, he hurries back to what he loved so much and from which he was cut off for so long.

The end of the novel has a philosophical sound. Sholokhov left his hero on the threshold of new life trials. What are his paths? How will his life turn out? The writer does not answer these questions, but makes the reader think about the difficult fate of this hero.

Sholokhov refers to the creation of female characters from the very beginning. creative way. But if in the stories the characters of women are only outlined, then in The Quiet Don, Sholokhov creates vivid artistic images. Women are central to the epic; women of different ages, different temperaments, different destinies - the mother of Grigory Ilyinichna, Aksinya, Natalya, Daria, Dunyashka, Anna Pogudko and others.

The ardent, passionate Aksinya, with her “vicious beauty, is opposed by the modest, reserved in feelings worker Natalya. The fate of both Aksinya and Natalya is tragic. There was much hard in their lives, but they also knew real human happiness. The writer shows their diligence, their huge role in family life.

Of great importance are speech characteristics, portrait (Aksinya has a “chiseled neck”, “fluffy curls of hair”, “calling lips”. Natalya has a “smooth white forehead”, “big hands crushed by work”, Daria has “frown arches of eyebrows”, “curly gait”.

The action of the novel "Quiet Don" involves a wide range of people, representatives of various social strata. It begins with a depiction of life in the Tatarsky Cossack farm, captures the Listnitsky landowner's estate, is transferred to the places of the unfolding world war - to Poland, Romania, East Prussia, to Petrograd, Novocherkassk, Novorossiysk, to the villages of the Don.

Sholokhov is an unsurpassed master of the artistic word, he skillfully uses the language that the Cossacks speak. Both the main characters and episodic characters visibly stand before the reader. Landscape sketches testify to the artist's passionate love for the nature of the Don region. The landscape is humanized, it performs a variety of ideological and artistic functions; helps to reveal the feelings, moods of the characters, to convey their attitude to the events. Skillfully used works of folk art: proverbs, sayings, fables, songs. They convey the mood, feelings, experiences of the people, reflect the aesthetic world of the characters. Works of folk art, especially songs, reveal the philosophical depth of the epic. The epigraphs for the first and third books of the novel are old Cossack songs.

Great spiritual meaning lies in the poetic image of the Don, which acts as a symbol of the life of the people. The very name “Quiet Flows the Don” is full of symbolism: it contrasts with the events depicted. There is a special meaning in the image of the steppe, which acts as a symbol of the Motherland: “Dear steppe above the low Don sky!., A barrow in wise silence, protecting the buried Cossack glory... I bow low and kiss your red earth like a son... watered with Don stainless blood steppe...". Only a writer who was passionately in love with the beauty of his native Don nature and his people could find and say such words.

Working on the epic "Quiet Flows the Don", Sholokhov proceeded from philosophical concept that the people are the main driving force of history. This concept received a deep artistic embodiment in the epic: in the image folk life, life and work of the Cossacks, in depicting the participation of the people in historical events.

Sholokhov showed that the path of the people in the revolution and civil war was difficult, tense, tragic. The destruction of the "old world" was associated with the collapse of centuries-old folk traditions, Orthodoxy, the destruction of churches, the rejection of moral precepts that were instilled in people from childhood.

When presenting the Nobel Prize for the novel “Quiet Flows the Don”, Sholokhov spoke about the greatness of the historical path of the Russian people and that “to all that I have written and will write, bow to this people-worker, people-builder, people-hero”.

Grigory Melekhov is the main character of the novel. His fate, the formation and development of character, exploits, disappointments, the search for a path are the basis of the plot of the work. It connects family, love and socio-historical lines of action.

At the beginning of the novel, Gregory is nineteen years old. From his grandfather, he received an independent character, and from a Turkish grandmother - a bright appearance and indefatigable nature. At first, all the actions of Gregory look like ordinary youth. This is how everyone around him and his connection with the married Aksinya explain. Gregory breaks with her by marrying Natalia. But the unusual power of love, which violates all foundations, makes Melekhov go against his father, leave home and live with Aksinya on the Listnitsky estate. Thus begins the special path of the hero.

The "millstones" of the war pass through his soul. In the war, the hero matured, earned four St. George crosses and four medals, became an officer, supported the Cossack "honor and glory", but became "evil". After getting acquainted with the Bolshevik "philosophy", the hero feels "sighted". His return home at the end of the first book reveals the changes that have taken place in Gregory.

In the second book, a number of oppositions to the protagonist arise. First of all, these are ideological opponents and supporters of royal power. Each of them, according to Sholokhov, has its own truth. But the officers are far from the people, their superiority over the soldiers is imaginary, some of them manifest themselves as cowards.

At the beginning of the third book, the civil war of 1918 is shown, when Melekhov is fighting in a detachment under the command of his older brother Peter. But even now he is experiencing the same "thick longing" for a peaceful life. Now, along with other Cossacks, he is ready to blame the Bolsheviks for dividing the people. Three horses were killed near Gregory, his overcoat was pierced in five places, but heroism turns out to be in vain - "the stream of the Red Army floods" the Don land.

The Melekhov brothers return home, but even there they are overtaken by class enmity. For the new government, Melekhov is a white officer, "contra". The Bolshevik Mishka Koshevoy, with whom they are “roots, studied together at school, ran around the girls,” is ready to stab Grigory. The hero again involuntarily finds himself in a hostile camp.

Cruelty is becoming a terrible norm. Villagers kill each other. So, Koshevoy kills Grigory's older brother - Peter. Melekhov is the commander of the regiment, and on his orders, brutal massacres are committed. But, at the same time, he releases the prisoners in Veshenskaya, pours vodka over melancholy, asks for death. Unable to stand it, the hero returns home again, "half gray".

The fourth book reveals a new feature in Melekhov - the emerging ability to resist the "stream of life". It awakens pity and love as opposed to a merciless war. Despite the defeat of the Volunteer Army, despite his illness (he had been ill with typhus for a month), Grigory “cheered up” and left the thought of death. Craving for something new explains his entry into the Red Army, where he commands a squadron. Ahead of Grigory is persecution by the Reds for his "white" past, the death of Aksinya. The life path of the hero, described in the novel, ends with the return home, an attempt to start life from scratch.

In the image of Grigory Melekhov, the features of a person of a transitional moment in history are typified. In his fate, all the most important directions of the socio-political struggle, the revolutionary era in Russia, are refracted. At the same time, the hero is depicted as a person who comes into conflict with the inevitable fate, seeking to pave his own way in history.

The individual features of the image of Melekhov are deeply peculiar. The hero is shown as a real Don Cossack. A distinctive feature of Gregory is his spiritual quest and the depth of his experiences. He stands out against the background of a simple, illiterate mass of Cossacks living according to grandfather's customs. Melekhov has a need to live in harmony with his heart, to find a fair justification for common actions.

The ability to experience deep feelings is the most important characteristic of a hero. His return to Aksinya is the basis of the plot. This love cannot be obscured by war, jealousy, or suffering. This invincible feeling, which comes into conflict with the foundations of Cossack morality, finds an analogy only in history. It is similar to the love of grandfather Prokofy for his Turkish wife. In this regard, Grigory's feelings for Aksinya bear the imprint of romantic loftiness.

The image of Grigory Melekhov embodies the author's intention. Sholokhov sought to show the collision of history with a person who is trying to preserve humanistic values ​​​​as a legacy of centuries-old folk morality at the turn of epochs. The description of Melekhov's participation in socio-political events and their influence on his fate is painted with tragic pathos. Based on a historically accurate picture of events, the author creates a generalized image of the hero of his time.

Grigory Melekhov

GRIGORY MELEKHOV - the hero of the novel by M.A. Sholokhov "Quiet Flows the Don" (1928-1940). Some literary critics are of the opinion that the true author of The Quiet Flows the Don is the Don writer Fyodor Dmitrievich Kryukov (1870-1920), whose manuscript was subjected to some revision. Doubts about authorship have been raised since the novel's appearance in print. In 1974, in Paris, with a preface by A. Solzhenitsyn, the book of an anonymous author (pseudonym - D *) "The Stirrup of the Quiet Don" was published. In it, the author tries to substantiate this point of view textually. In 1978, at the International Congress of Slavists in Zagreb, the results were reported research work a group of Scandinavian Slavists headed by Professor G. Hoteo: their textual analyzes confirmed the authorship of M.A.

The prototype of G.M., according to Sholokhov, is “hook-nosed”, like G.M., a Cossack from the village of Bazki (village of Veshenskaya) Kharlampy Vasilyevich Ermakov, whose fate is in many ways similar to the fate of G.M. The researchers, noting that “the image of G.M. so typical that in every Don Cossack we can find something from him, ”G.M. one of the Drozdov brothers - Alexei, a resident of the Pleshakov farm. In the early works of Sholokhov, the name Grigory is found - "Shepherd" (1925), "Kolovert" (1925), "Way-path" (1925). These namesakes G.M. are carriers of the ideology of "new life" and are dying at the hands of its enemies.

G.M. - the image of the most typical representative of the social stratum of the Don Cossacks-peasants of the early XX century. The main thing in it is a deep attachment to the house and agricultural work. This is combined with the concept of military honor: G.M. - a brave and skillful warrior who earned the rank of officer during the First World War. He absorbed the best features of the Russian national character: openness, straightforwardness, deep inner morality, the absence of class arrogance and cold calculation. This is an impulsive, noble nature with a heightened sense of honor.

After the release of the novel, some critics condescendingly ranked the creator of the image of G.M. to the writers of the “narrow Cossack theme”, others demanded from G.M. "proletarian consciousness", others accused the author of defending the "kulak way of life". W. Hoffenscherer in 1939 was the first to express the opinion that G.M. - the hero is neither positive nor negative, that in his image the peasant problem is concentrated with the contradictions characteristic of its bearer between the features of the owner and the working man.

G.M. - central character historical epic novel, in which, on the basis as close as possible to the documentary, the events that captured Russian empire at the beginning of XX "Switzerland, - the first world war, the events of 1917, the civil war and the victory of Soviet power. The behavior of G.M., captured by the flow of these events, dictates the socio-psychological image of the environment of which he is a representative. G.M., a native Don Cossack, a grain grower, an ardent patriot of the region, devoid of the desire to conquer and rule, according to the concepts of the time the novel appeared in print, is a “middle peasant”. As a professional warrior, he is of interest to the warring forces, but pursues only his peasant class goals. The concepts of any discipline are alien to him, except for the one that exists in his Cossack military unit. A full Knight of St. George in the First World War, during the Civil War, he rushes from one fighting side to another, eventually coming to the conclusion that "learned people" "confused" the working people. Having lost everything, he cannot leave his native land and comes to the only thing dear to him - father's house finding hope for the continuation of life in his son.

G.M. represents a type noble hero, combining military prowess with spiritual subtlety and the ability to feel deeply. The tragedy of relations with his beloved woman Aksinya lies for him in the impossibility of bringing their union into agreement with the moral and ethical principles adopted in his environment, which makes him an outcast and tears him away from the only way of life acceptable to him. The tragedy of his love is exacerbated by the low social position and ongoing socio-political upheavals. G.M. - the main character of the great literary work about the fate of the farmer, his life, struggle, psychology. The image of G.M., “a farmer in uniform” (in the words of A. Serafimovich), the image of a huge generalizing power with a pronounced integral, deeply positive individuality of the hero, has become one of the most significant in world literature, such as, for example, Andrey Bolkonsky.

Lit .: Dairejiev B.L. About "Quiet Don". M., 1962; Kalinin A.V. Time of the Quiet Don. M., 1975; Semanov S.N. "Quiet Don" - literature and history. M., 1977; Kuznetsova N.T., Bashtannik B.C. At the origins of the "Quiet Don" // "Quiet Don": the lessons of the novel. Rostov-on-Don, 1979; Semanov S.N. In the world of "Quiet Don". M., 1987.

Grigory Panteleevich Melekhov - the protagonist of the epic novel by M. A. Sholokhov "The Quiet Don" (1928-1940), a Don Cossack, an officer who had risen from the ranks. This is a young resident of the village of Tatarskaya, an ordinary farm boy, full of strength and thirst for life. At the beginning of the novel, it is difficult to rank Gregory among the positive or negative characters. He is rather a freedom-loving truth seeker. He lives thoughtlessly, but according to traditional principles. In spite of strong love to Aksinya, allows his father to marry himself to Natalya. Grigory has been torn between two women all his life. In the service, he also finds himself between red and white. This harsh life nevertheless put a saber into his hands and forced him to fight.

The tragic turning point in his personal life coincided with a sharp turning point in the history of the Don Cossacks. Thanks to his natural abilities, Gregory managed to rise first from an ordinary Cossack to an officer, and then to the commander of the rebel army. However, later it becomes clear that military career Melekhov was not destined to take shape. The civil war threw him into the White formations, then into the Budyonnovsky detachment. He did this not out of thoughtless submission to the way of life, but because of the search for the truth. Being an honest man, he believed in the promised equality to the end, but the conclusions were disappointing. From his marriage with Natalya, Gregory had a son and a daughter, from Aksinya - the daughter died in childhood. At the end of the novel, having lost

Mikhail Sholokhov knew and loved his small homeland and could perfectly describe it. With this, he entered Russian literature. First appeared "Don stories". The then masters drew attention to him (today's reader does not know any of them) and said: “Beautiful! Well done!" Then they forgot... And suddenly saw the light of the first volume of the work, which almost put the author on a par with Homer, Goethe and Leo Tolstoy. In the epic novel The Quiet Flows the Don, Mikhail Aleksandrovich authentically reflected the fate of a great people, the endless search for truth in the chaotic years and the bloody revolution.

Quiet Don in the fate of the writer

The image of Grigory Melikhov captivated the entire reading public. Young talent would develop and develop. But the circumstances did not contribute to the fact that the writer became the conscience of the nation and people. The Cossack nature of Sholokhov did not allow him to rush into the favorites of the rulers, but they did not allow him to become in Russian literature what he was supposed to become.

Many years after the Great Patriotic War and the publication of The Fate of a Man, Mikhail Sholokhov makes a strange, at first glance, entry in his diary: “They all liked my Man. So I lied? Do not know. But I know what I didn't say."

Favorite hero

From the first pages of The Quiet Don, the writer draws a diverse and wide river of Don life Cossack village. And Grigory Melikhov is only one of the many interesting characters in this book, and besides, not the most important one, as it seems at first. His mental outlook is primitive, like a grandfather's saber. He has nothing to become the center of a large artistic canvas, except for a masterful, explosive character. But the reader from the first pages feels the writer's love for this character and begins to follow his fate. What attracts us and Gregory from the very youthful years? Probably, its biology, blood.

Even male readers are partial to him, as if those women from real life who loved Gregory more than life. And he lives like Don. His inner masculine power draws everyone into his orbit. Nowadays, such people are called charismatic personalities.

But there are other forces operating in the world that require reflection and analysis. However, they continue to live in the village, not suspecting anything, thinking that they are protected from the world by their courageous moral virtues: they eat their (!) Bread, serve the Fatherland in the way that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers punished them. It seems to all villagers, including Grigory Melikhov, that a more just and sustainable life does not exist. They sometimes fight among themselves, mostly over women, unaware that it is women who choose, preferring powerful biology. And this is right - mother nature herself ordered so that the human race, including the Cossack, does not dry out on Earth.

War

But civilization has given rise to many injustices, and one of them is a false idea clothed in truthful words. Quiet Don flows truthfully. And the fate of Grigory Melikhov, who was born on its shores, did not portend anything that would make the blood run cold in the veins.

The village of Veshenskaya and the Tatar farmstead were not founded by St. Petersburg and he was not the one who fed them either. But the idea that life itself was almost given to each Cossack personally not by God, but by his father and mother, but by some kind of center, broke into the tough but fair life of the Cossacks with the word “war”. Something similar happened on the other side of Europe. Two large groups of people went to war in an organized and civilized manner against each other in order to flood the earth with blood. And they were inspired by false ideas, dressed in words about love for the Fatherland.

War without embellishment

Sholokhov paints war as it is, showing how it cripples human souls. Sad mothers and young wives remained at home, and the Cossacks with lances went to fight. Grigory's checker tasted human meat for the first time, and in an instant he became a completely different person.

The dying German listened to him, not understanding a word of Russian, but realizing that universal evil is being accomplished - the essence of the image and likeness of God is crippled.

Revolution

Again, not in the village, not on the Tatar farm, but far, far from the banks of the Don, tectonic shifts begin in the depths of society, the waves from which will reach the hardworking Cossacks. The protagonist of the novel returned home. He has many personal problems. He's had his fill of blood and doesn't want to shed any more. But the life of Grigory Melikhov, his personality is of interest to those who with my own hands I have not obtained a piece of bread for my subsistence for decades. And some people bring false ideas into the Cossack environment, clothed in truthful words about equality, brotherhood and justice.

Grigory Melikhov is involved in a struggle that is alien to him by definition. Who started this quarrel in which the Russians began to hate the Russians? The main character does not ask this question. His fate carries through life like a blade of grass. Grigory Melikhov listens with surprise to the friend of his youth, who began to speak incomprehensible words and look at him with suspicion.

And the Don flows calmly and majestically. The fate of Grigory Melikhov is just an episode for him. New people will come to its shores, new life. The writer says almost nothing about the revolution, although everyone talks about it a lot. But nothing is remembered from what they said. The image of Don overshadows everything. And the revolution is also just an episode on its shores.

The tragedy of Grigory Melikhov

The protagonist of Sholokhov's novel began his life simply and clearly. Loved and was loved. He vaguely believed in God, without delving into the details. And in the future he lived as simply and clearly as in childhood. Grigory Melikhov did not deviate for a small step either from his essence, or from the truth that he absorbed into himself along with the water that he drew from the Don. And even his sword did not stick into human bodies with pleasure, although he had an innate ability to kill. The tragedy was precisely that Gregory remained an atom of society, which can be either split into component parts or combined with other atoms by a will alien to him. He did not understand this and strove to remain free, like the majestic Don. On the last pages novel, we see him reassured, hope for happiness glimmers in his soul. Doubtful point of the novel. Will the main character get what he dreams of?

The end of the Cossack way of life

An artist may not understand anything of what is happening around him, but he must feel life. And Mikhail Sholokhov felt it. The tectonic shifts in world history have destroyed the Cossack way of life dear to him, perverted the souls of the Cossacks, turning them into meaningless "atoms" that became suitable for building anything and anyone, but not the Cossacks themselves.

There is a lot of didactic politics in volumes 2, 3, and 4 of the novel, but, describing the path of Grigory Melikhov, the artist involuntarily returned to the truth of life. And false ideas receded into the background and dissolved in the haze of century-old prospects. The triumphant notes of the final part of the novel are drowned out by the reader’s longing for that life that has passed away, which is drawn by the writer with such incredible artistic power in the 1st volume of The Quiet Flows the Don.

The first one is the basis

Sholokhov begins his novel with a description of the appearance of the child who founded the Melikhov family, and ends with a description of the child who should prolong this family. Quiet Don can be called a great work of Russian literature. This work not only opposes everything that was later written by Sholokhov, but is a reflection of that core of the Cossack people, which gives hope to the writer himself that the life of the Cossacks on Earth has not ended.

Two wars and a revolution are just episodes in the life of a people who recognize themselves as Don Cossacks. He will wake up and show the world his beautiful Melikhovo soul.

The life of the Cossack family is immortal

The protagonist of Sholokhov's novel entered the very core of the attitude of the Russian people. Grigory Melikhov (his image) ceased to be a household character back in the 30s of the twentieth century. It cannot be said that the writer endowed the hero with the typical features of a Cossack. Just typical in Grigory Melikhov is not enough. And there is no special beauty in it. It is beautiful with its power, vitality, which is able to overcome all superficial things that come to the banks of the free, quiet Don.

This is an image of hope and faith in the highest meaning of human existence, which is always the basis of everything. In a strange way, those ideas that tore the village of Veshenskaya to pieces, wiped the Tatar farm from the ground, have sunk into oblivion, and the novel "Quiet Don", the fate of Grigory Melikhov, remained in our minds. This proves the immortality of the Cossack blood and family.