Panteley Prokofievich Melekhov and Grigory. Literary language. Examination campaign starts in schools
Planning
Lesson I (lessons 1-2). The originality of the genre of the epic novel. The spiritual world of the Don Cossacks. The character of Grigory Melekhov. Functions of portrait, landscape, mass scenes. The character system of the novel.
Lesson II (3-4 lessons). The search for truth. Concrete-historical and universal in the novel. Deepening ideas about the methods of creating and the meaning of mass scenes in the novel.
Lesson III (lessons 5-6). The problem of "general" and "private" truth. Deepening ideas about the nature and functions of the Sholokhov landscape. The peculiarity of Sholokhov's linguistic manner. Dramaturgical principles in the epic work.
Lesson IV (lessons 7-8). The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov. Deepening ideas about Sholokhov's portrait. "Family Thought" in the novel. Women's images. The theme of motherhood.
Let us dwell in more detail on the proposed system of lessons.
Lesson I
I. introduction teachers
Almost all of M. Sholokhov's work is dedicated to the Don Cossacks. By the 15th - 16th centuries in Moscow Russia, Cossacks were called free people who worked for hire or were determined for military service to protect the borders of the state (serving Cossacks). Border protection was carried out by separate sidings (village villages).
Along with the serving Cossacks in Muscovite Russia of the 15th-16th centuries, there was also a "free" Cossacks or, as it was also called, "walking people", which were characterized by a complete absence of both real estate and a permanent place of residence. People dissatisfied with the existing order, persecuted by the state, adventurers, seekers of profit, and later runaway serfs and schismatics, mixed with the remnants of the serving Cossacks, who actually freed themselves from subordination to the state on the outskirts, and with the local population made up the first Cossack communities on the Don, Terek and the river Yaik (Ural).
In the Cossack communities of Russia, complete equality of members reigned in the communal use of land and the absence of any taxes and taxes.
A feature of the life of the Cossack community was that it was ruled by custom, and not by law, and any violation of custom was severely punished by lynching.
By the middle of the XVII century. Free Cossacks achieved complete political independence. Moscow was unable to curb the "freemen", especially since she herself needed the Cossacks, on the other hand, the Cossack communities, considering themselves Russians by blood and faith, listened to Moscow, received royal ambassadors and did not refuse salaries for service. This determined the main goals of the policy of the Russian state towards the Cossacks during the 16th - 17th centuries: attracting them to public service, subordinating them to their own interests, turning communities into a Cossack army. This policy led to the gradual transformation of free Cossacks into a privileged military class, whose position was determined by the fact that they were allotted land for service to the state.
The domestication of the Cossacks by tsarism was characterized, on the one hand, by limiting their ancient liberty, and, on the other hand, by providing them with economic and social and legal advantages in comparison with the rest of the country's population. The ruling circles of the empire considered the Cossacks as a conservative, "state" element and actively used them in dispersing demonstrations, in conducting punitive expeditions, in escorting prisoners to places of exile, in developing new territories, etc. The Cossacks confirmed their reputation as the backbone of the state system, taking an active part in the suppression of the revolution of 1905-1906.
During the First World War, the Cossack privileges were expanded. It is with the commitment to their privileges that the conservatism of the majority of the Cossacks is primarily associated.
The wealthy Cossacks and the ataman elite were supporters and resolute defenders of class privileges.
The middle-class Cossack also held on to privileges: free medicine and the education of children did not interfere with him, but military service weighed on him, and he would have said goodbye to her if he had been left with a land plot. The middle peasant, tenaciously holding on to his share, always reacted painfully to the ideas of an equalizing redistribution of land, he was characterized by indecision and inconsistency in actions, naivety and inexperience in politics.
Among the poorest Cossacks, income from land shares did not cover all class burdens. To free themselves from them, the poor were ready to sacrifice their allotment, but the Cossack differed from the peasant in that the latter, having lost land, could no longer get it again, and the Cossack lost part of the land or all of it only for a while. The share was assigned to him by law, and he was always sure that he would start managing again. This prevented the Cossack from giving up class privileges.
The class privileges of the Cossacks were ensured by infringing on the interests of the rest of the population of the military regions and, first of all, "out-of-town". The planted payment for outbuildings on the stanitsa land, the payment for grazing on a public pasture in excess of the norm, and other requisitions from the nonresident population of the villages were an inexhaustible source for the stanitsa and military treasury. Thus matured the main contradiction within the village, which determined the forces that formed two irreconcilable camps in the civil war.
M. A. Sholokhovwas born on May 11 (24) in the Kruzhilin village of the Veshenskaya village of the Donetsk District of the Don Cossack Region, although this date probably needs to be clarified. The writer's father, Alexander Mikhailovich (1865 - 1925), a native of the Ryazan province, repeatedly changed professions: “he was consistently a “shibai” (cattle buyer), sowed bread on purchased Cossack land, served as a clerk in a commercial enterprise on a farm scale, managed a steam mill and etc.” Mother, Anastasia Danilovna (1871 - 1942), "half-Cossack, half-peasant", served as a maid. In her youth, she was married against her will to the Cossack-ataman S. Kuznetsov, but, having met with A. M. Sholokhov, she left him. The future writer was born illegitimate and until 1912 bore the name of his mother's first husband, while having all the Cossack privileges. Only when Alexander Mikhailovich and Anastasia Danilovna got married and his father adopted him, Sholokhov acquired his real surname, while losing his belonging to the Cossack class, as the son of a tradesman, that is, “out of town”.
To give his son an initial education, the father hires a home teacher T. T. Mrykhin, in 1912 he sends his son to the Karginsky parochial school for men in the second grade of education, and in 1914 he takes him to Moscow because of an eye disease (Dr. Snegirev's clinic, where Sholokhov was treated , will be described in the novel “Quiet Don”) and gives to the preparatory class of the Moscow gymnasium No. G. Shelaputin. In 1915, his parents transferred Mikhail to the Boguchar gymnasium, but his studies were interrupted by revolutionary events. It was not possible to complete his education at the Veshenskaya mixed gymnasium, where Sholokhov entered in 1918. Due to the outbreak of hostilities around the village, he was forced to interrupt his education, finishing only four classes.
From 1919 until the end of the civil war, Sholokhov lived on the Don, in the villages of Elanskaya and Karginskaya, engulfed by the Upper Don uprising, that is, he was at the center of those dramatic events that will be reproduced in the final books of The Quiet Don.
Since 1920, when Soviet power was finally established on the Don, Mikhail Sholokhov, despite early years(he was then fifteen years old), worked as a teacher for the elimination of illiteracy, serving in the village revolutionary committee, an accountant, an clerical worker, and a journalist.
In May 1922, Sholokhov completed short-term food inspection courses in Rostov and was sent to the village of Bukanovskaya as a tax inspector. “I worked in the tough years, 1921-1922, at the surplus appraisal,” the writer recalled. - I led a cool line, and the time was cool; I was a helluva commissar, I was judged by the Revolutionary Tribunal for abuse of power...”.
In the autumn of 1922, Sholokhov arrived in Moscow with the intention of entering the workers' faculty, where he could be accepted even with four years of education. However, he did not have a factory experience or a Komsomol voucher, which was required upon admission. Getting a job was also not easy, because by that time Sholokhov had not mastered any profession. Sholokhov was forced to work as a loader at the Yaroslavl railway station, paving cobblestone pavements. Only a year later, in August 1923, Sholokhov received on the stock exchange a referral to the position of an accountant in the housing department on Krasnaya Presnya. All this time he was actively engaged in self-education. On the recommendation of his friend, aspiring writer Vasily Kudashev, Sholokhov was accepted into the Young Guard literary group and began attending classes at her literary studio. On September 19, 1923, Sholokhov's literary debut took place: his feuilleton "Test" signed by M. Sholokh appeared in the newspaper "Youthful Truth".
1924 can be considered the beginning of the professional activity of Sholokhov the writer. On December 14, the first of Sholokhov's Don stories, Mole, appeared in the newspaper Molodoy Leninets; seed”, “Ilyukha”, “Alyoshka” (March), “Bakhchevnik” (April), “Way-path” (April-May), “Nahalyonok” (May-June), “Family Man”, “Kolovert” ( June), “Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic” (July), “Crooked Stitch” (November). In the same period, Sholokhov became a member of the RAPP.
Even while working on "Don stories" M. Sholokhov decided to write a story about the chairman of the Don Council of People's Commissars F. G. Podtelkov and his colleague, secretary of the Don Cossack Military Revolutionary Committee M. V. Krivoshlykov. However, as he himself admitted, when he began to write the scene of the execution of his heroes, he thought that it would not be clear to the reader why the front-line Cossacks refused to shoot the podtelkovites. Gradually, Sholokhov comes to the conclusion that “it is not necessary to write a story, but a novel with a wide display of the world war, then it will become clear what united front-line Cossacks with front-line soldiers.” Only when the writer managed to collect numerous memoirs of the participants in the First World War and rich archival material, he began work on a novel, which was called “Quiet Flows the Don”.
The earliest manuscript of the novel dates from the autumn of 1925 and tells about the events of the summer of 1917 related to the participation of the Cossacks in Kornilov's campaign against Petrograd. “I wrote 5-6 printed sheets. When I wrote, I felt that it was not right, - Sholokhov later said. - For the reader it will remain incomprehensible - why did the Cossacks take part in the suppression of the revolution. What are these Cossacks? What is the Don Cossack Region? Doesn't it come out to readers as a kind of terra incognito? So I quit my job. Began to think about a broader novel. When the plan matured, he began to collect material. Knowledge of the Cossack life helped.” The material written by this time about the Kornilov region later became the plot basis for the second volume of the novel. “I started again and started from the Cossack antiquity, from those years that preceded the First World War. He wrote three parts of the novel, which make up the first volume of The Quiet Flows the Don.
The first lines of the first volume were written on November 8, 1926. The work on the book was surprisingly intense. Only on rare days was one page written, more often the writer created at least four pages of text per day, and during periods of the highest creative upsurge, entire chapters. By the end of the summer, work on the first volume was completed, and in the autumn Sholokhov took the manuscript to Moscow, to the October magazine and the Moscow Writer publishing house. And although the novel was recognized in the magazine as “everyday writing” and devoid of political sharpness, thanks to the active intervention of A. Serafimovich, it was in “October” in the first four issues in 1928 that the first book of the novel was published for the first time, and in 5-10 issues for the same year - and the second book. In the same 1928, the first book of the novel was published in Roman-gazeta and as a separate edition in Moskovsky Rabochiy. The manuscript of the novel, not yet published in October, was recommended for publication by the head of the publishing department, Evgenia Grigoryevna Levitskaya. There, in the publishing house, in 1927, the twenty-two-year-old Sholokhov met with Levitskaya, who was a quarter of a century older than him. This meeting was destined to be the beginning of a strong friendship. Levitskaya repeatedly helped Sholokhov in difficult moments of his life. Sholokhov took an active part in her fate and the fate of her loved ones. In 1956, Sholokhov's story "The Fate of a Man" will be published with a dedication: "Evgenia Grigorievna Levitskaya, a member of the CPSU since 1903."
And difficult days began for Sholokhov immediately after the publication of the first volume of the novel. E. G. Levitskaya writes about this in her notes: “T. D.” first appeared in a magazine. “October”, and then came out at the end of 1928 as a separate book ... My God, what an orgy of slander and fabrications arose about The Quiet Flows the Don and its author! With serious faces, mysteriously lowering their voices, people seemed to be quite “decent” - writers, critics, not to mention the philistine public, transmitted “reliable” stories: Sholokhov, they say, stole the manuscript from some white officer - the officer’s mother, according to one version, it came to gas. Pravda, either the Central Committee or the RAPP, asked for the protection of the rights of her son, who wrote such a wonderful book... At all literary crossroads, the author of The Quiet Flows the Don was inked and slandered. Poor author, who in 1928 was barely 23 years old! How much courage was needed, how much confidence in one's strength and in one's writing talent, in order to endure all the vulgarities, all the malicious advice and "friendly" instructions of the "venerable" writers. I once got to one such “venerable” - it turned out to be Berezovsky, who thoughtfully said: “I am an old writer, but I could not write such a book as“ Quiet Don ”... Can you believe that at 23 years old, not having no education, a person could write such a deep, such a psychologically truthful book ... Something is wrong! It should be noted that Feoktist Berezovsky can hardly be ranked among the camp of Sholokhov's enemies, since he was one of the first editors of his early stories. The slander was all the more painful for the writer because it came from literary circles close to him. Despite the fact that the topic of plagiarism was not raised anywhere in the press, the rumors spread so widely that the writer was forced to appear before a specially created Moscow commission (headed by M. I. Ulyanova) with the manuscripts of the novel (it was these manuscripts that remained in Moscow, and survived when the writer's Veshensky archive perished). In the spring of 1929, the leaders of the RAPP A. Serafimovich, L. Averbakh, V. Kirshon, A. Fadeev, V. Stavsky were forced to speak in Pravda in defense of Sholokhov, after which the rumors of plagiarism stopped for some time. At the same time, this letter legalized the version of plagiarism.
Already during the publication of the first two books of The Quiet Flows the Don, numerous responses to the novel appeared in the press. Moreover, judgments about him often sounded the most opposite. In one of the private letters of 1928, Gorky expressed his assessment: “Sholokhov, judging by the first volume, is talented ... Every year he nominates more and more talented people. Here is joy. Russia is very, anathematically talented.”
II. Quiet Don. The genre of the work.
Poll (d/z): Why can “Quiet Flows the Don” be called an epic novel and what is the difference between Sholokhov’s epic and Tolstoy’s.
Students point to the wide spatial and temporal scope of the narrative, the abundance of characters representing the most diverse strata and categories of the population of Russia and Europe. And although the time frame of Sholokhov's novel is not so long (ten years is a historically short period), they contained events that largely determined the future fate of the world (World War I and Civil War, the February and October revolutions) and the fate of the Cossacks (Kornilov rebellion and rebellion General Kaledin, Upper Don uprising, etc.). But the most important thing is that global events have become an integral part of the destinies of the main characters, and these destinies have merged into the general flow of history.
As for the differences from Tolstoy's epic, students first of all note the lack of philosophical generalizations in Sholokhov, arguments about "what force moves the worlds." Indeed, Sholokhov, unlike the author of War and Peace, does not give a theoretical justification for his historical concept in the novel, despite the fact that his interpretation of historical events often differs from that prevailing in historical science. Another difference is connected with the monocentricity of Sholokhov's epic. The fact that it is the fate of Gregory that is the main core of the story will determine the path of studying the novel. But before talking about his character and fate, let's consider the environment in which this character is formed.
III. Spiritual world of the Don Cossacks.
Let us analyze a number of episodes of Book I, in which the most important components of this world are revealed.
1. Labor on earth.Episode of meadow mowing (book 1, part 1, ch. IX):
“Meadow mowing began with Trinity. From the very morning the place bloomed with festive women's skirts, bright embroidery of curtains, colors of scarves. We went out for mowing with the whole farm at once. Mowers and rowers dressed as if for an annual holiday. That's how it used to be. From the Don to the distant alder thickets, the devastated meadow stirred and sighed under the scythes.
The Melekhovs were late. We left for mowing, when almost half of the farm was already in the meadow.
You are staring for a long time, Pantelei Prokofich! - sweaty mowers rustled.
Not my fault, woman! - the old man grinned and hurried the bulls with a whip woven from mud.
Good health, one sum! Late, brother, late ... - A tall Cossack in a straw hat shook his head, beating off the scythe from the road.
Will the grass dry up?
If you go at a trot - you will have time, otherwise it will dry up. Where is your ulesh?
And under the Red Yar.
Well, drive the pockmarked ones, otherwise you won’t get there.
Aksinya was sitting on the back of the cart, covering her whole face with a kerchief to protect her from the sun. From the narrow slit left for the eyes, she looked at Grigory, who was sitting opposite her, indifferently and sternly. Daria, also bundled up and dressed up, her legs hanging between the ribs of the cart, was feeding the child, who was falling asleep in her arms, with a long, veined breast. Dunyashka was jumping up and down on the bed, looking with happy eyes at the meadow and the people she met along the way. Her face, merry, tanned and freckled at the bridge of the nose, seemed to say: “I am merry and good because the day, blued with a cloudless sky, is also merry and good; because the soul has the same blue peace and purity. I'm happy and I don't want anything else." Panteley Prokofievich, pulling the sleeve of his calico shirt over his palm, wiped the sweat that had risen from under his visor. His bent back, tightly covered with a shirt, darkened with wet spots. The sun pierced through the gray astrakhan clouds, lowered a fan of smoky refracted rays onto the distant silver Obdon mountains, the steppe, the homestead and the farmstead.
The day turned to heat. The clouds, torn by the wind, crawled sluggishly, not overtaking the bulls of Panteley Prokofievich stretching along the road. He himself lifted the whip heavily, waving it, as if in indecision whether to hit the sharp bull rump or not. The bulls, apparently understanding this, did not increase their pace, just as slowly, gropingly rearranged their clawed legs, waving their tails. Dusty gold with an orange tinge, the horsefly circled above them.
The meadow, mowed near the farm humens, brightened with pale green spots; where the grass had not yet been removed, the breeze roughened grass silk green with glossy black.
Here is our allotment. - Pantelei Prokofievich waved his whip.
Will we start from the forest? asked Gregory.
It is possible from this side. Here I cut down the verb with a shovel.
Grigory unharnessed the tired bulls. The old man, flashing his earring, went to look for a mark - a verb carved at the edge.
Get braids! he soon shouted, waving his hand.
Grigory went, cutting down the grass. From the arba, a swaying trail followed him across the grass. Pantelei Prokofievich crossed himself on a little white pod of a distant belfry, took a scythe. His hooked nose shone like freshly varnished, and perspiration languished in the hollows of his black cheeks. He smiled, revealing at once in a black beard an innumerable number of white, frequent teeth moistened with saliva, and lifted his scythe, turning his wrinkled neck to the right. A planted semicircle of swept grass lay under his feet.
Grigory followed him, half-closed his eyes, spreading scythe grass. Ahead, a scattered rainbow of women's hangings bloomed, but he looked for one, white with a stitched border; looked back at Aksinya and, again adjusting to his father's pace, waved his scythe.
- What is the mood of the episode?
- With what artistic means is it created?
- What role do collective and individual portraits play?
- What literary associations does this episode evoke in you?
Bright clothes, smiles, kind, uncomplicated humor of the Cossacks, portraits of heroes and the especially cheerful face of Dunyashka, as if expressing the general mood - all create a sense of celebration. Peasant workers experience joy from communion with the land, from labor on it. The heroes of Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" experience a similar feeling from closeness with nature and with each other in the hunting scene, where the general mood allows you to feel the joyful squeal of Natasha Rostova.
- How is the earth depicted in the read episode?
- What feeling do the Cossacks experience from communicating with the land and with each other?
The relationship of the Cossacks and the land, the feeling of its spirituality is emphasized by the metaphor “the meadow sighed”. In the war, Grigory will yearn for peasant labor: “It would be nice to take up the chapigi and follow the plow along the wet furrow, greedily absorbing with our nostrils the damp and insipid smell of loosened earth, the bitter aroma of grass cut by the plowshare” (4-8-VI; p. 546) .
2. Military duty.However, the Cossacks are not only workers, but also warriors. We will ask students to indicate the episodes of the first book, which, in their opinion, most clearly characterize the attitude of the heroes of the novel to military duty.
Students recall the fees for the service of Peter and Grigory Melekhovs, they also note the fact that among the reasons why Grigory does not agree to leave with Aksinya for the mines, he also names the following: “Again, to serve me for this year” (1-1- XII, p. 66). It is worth dwelling on the figure of Panteley Prokofievich Melekhov, an old Cossack who once received “the first prize for trick riding at the imperial review”. It should be remembered that Pantelei Prokofievich signs his letters to his son for service, filled mainly with everyday content, indicating his military rank: “Your parent, senior constable Pantelei Melekhov” (1-3-I; p. 192). The clearest proof of the pride that the military prowess shown by his son arouses in him is the episode of receiving a letter from which Pantelei Prokofievich learns that Grigory was awarded the St. George Cross and promoted to junior officer:
“It was a pity to look at Panteley Prokofievich, scalded with joy . Having grabbed both letters, he walked around the farm with them, caught the literate and forced them to read - no, not for himself, but the old man boasted of his later joy in front of the whole farm.
Aha! See how my Grishka is? BUT? - He raised his sticking hoofed palm when the reader, stumbling through the warehouses, reached the place where Petro described the feat of Grigory, who dragged six miles of the wounded lieutenant colonel on himself.
He has the first cross from the whole farm, - the old man was proud and, jealously selecting letters, buried them in the lining of his wrinkled cap, went on in search of another literate one ”(1-3-XVII; pp. 277 - 278).
3. Relations in the Cossack family. It is impossible to understand the spiritual world, the way of life of the Cossacks, without referring to their family relations. Already in the first book we will find many episodes that reveal the principles on which the Cossack family is built.
a) Consider one of these episodes:
“Pantelei Prokofievich, gurgling something in his beard, chirped towards the house.
He found Grishka in the upper room. Without saying a word, he took him with a crutch along his back. Grigory, arching, hung on his father's arm.
What for, dad?
Get to work, su-u-u-kin son! ..
For what?
Don't mess with your neighbor! Do not fear your father! Don't move, bitch! Pantelei Prokofievich croaked, dragging Grigory up the room, trying to wrest the crutch.
I won't fight! - Grigory gasped dully and, clenching his jaw, jerked the crutch. On his knee and - grunt! ..
Pantelei Prokofievich - son on the neck with a tight fist.
I’ll screw up at the gathering! .. Oh, you damn seed, damned son! He flailed his legs, intending to kick again. - I'll marry Marfushka the fool! .. I'll emasculate them! .. Look at you! ..
The mother ran to the noise.
Prokofich, Prokofich!.. Chill the crumbs!.. Wait!..
But the old man sold out in earnest: he brought it to his wife once, overturned the table with the sewing machine and, having fought, flew to the base. Before Grigory had time to throw off his shirt with a sleeve torn in a fight, the door slammed hard, and Pantelei Prokofievich again strengthened himself on the threshold like a storm cloud.
Marry the son of a bitch! .. - He thumped his foot like a horse, fixed his gaze on Grigory's muscular back. - Zhenya! .. Tomorrow I'll go to woo! He lived to see his son laughing in the eye!
Give me a shirt to put on, then you marry.
Zhenya! .. Zhenya for a fool! .. - He slammed the door, steps rattled along the porch and subsided ”(1-1-X; p. 62).
- On what principles are relationships built in the Cossack family?
- What ethical norms underlie these relations?
Reading this episode, we are convinced that the concepts of family honor (“Do not fear your father!”), Commonness with fellow countrymen (“Do not mischief with your neighbor!”) Are unshakable for the Cossacks. The “cult of the elderly” reigns in the family: relations here are built on strict obedience to the elders, sometimes inspired with the help of brute force.
- How and why does Grigory react to his father's threats?
- How is the similarity of the characters of the father and son of the Melekhovs revealed in this episode?
- How will Grigory behave when Pantelei Prokofievich fulfills his intention to marry him?
And even if at the first moment Grigory gives a tough rebuff to his father, then later he unquestioningly obeys him, marries Natalya Korshunova. Yes, and the origins of the violent, quick-tempered nature of Gregory should also be sought in the family. It's in him from his father. Genus, family are sacred concepts for the Cossacks. It is no coincidence that the novel begins with the prehistory of the Melekh family, and already in the first chapter the author gives a family portrait.
b). Mastery of portraiture.
“Under the slope of the sliding years, Pantelei Prokofievich squirmed: he was wide, slightly stooped, but still looked like an old man of folding. He was dry in bones, chrome (in his youth, at the imperial review at the races, he broke his left leg), wore a silver crescent-shaped earring in his left ear, until old age his beard and hair did not shed his black suit, in anger he reached unconsciousness and, apparently, this prematurely aged his once beautiful, and now burly wife completely entangled in a web of wrinkles.
His eldest, already married son, Petro, resembled his mother: small, snub-nosed, with lush, wheat-colored hair, brown-eyed; and the youngest, Grigory, stomped on his father: half a head taller than Peter, at least six years younger, the same drooping vulture nose as Bati, blue tonsils of hot eyes in slightly slanting slits, sharp slabs of cheekbones covered with brown, ruddy skin. Grigory stooped in the same way as his father, even in the smile they both had something in common, animalistic.
Dunyashka - her father's weakness - a long-armed, big-eyed teenager, and Peter's wife Daria with a small child - that's the whole Melekhov family ”(1-1-1; p. 31 - 32).
- On what features of the appearance of the characters does the author stop his attention?
In this portrait, Sholokhov emphasizes the features of family resemblance: wheat-colored hair - on the maternal side, a beastly expression of almond-shaped eyes, a kite nose - on the paternal side. One should immediately note the originality of Sholokhov's portrait: it is not only picturesque, but also psychological. In a few details, the author reveals the temperament, type of life behavior of the hero, traits of his character, and sometimes outlines his fate in one phrase (this is exactly the portrait of Ilyinichna).
As for the family, despite strict, sometimes tough relations, it is a single organism. Everyone feels his inseparable connection with her, as well as with the farm, with his native kuren. Even when love for Aksinya drives Grigory from his native places, he does not see the opportunity to leave the farm: “You are a fool, Aksinya, you are a fool! Gutar, but there is nothing to listen to. Well, where will I go from the farm? Again, at my service for this year. The case is not good ... I will not touch the ground anywhere. There is a steppe here, there is something to breathe, but there?<...>I won’t go anywhere from the farm” (1-1-XII; p. 66).
4. Cruel morals of the Cossacks. However, students should not get the impression that Sholokhov idealizes the way of life of the Don Cossacks.
- Find in the first book of the novel examples of cruelty, fanaticism, moral depravity of the Cossacks.
An angry mob of farmers brutally cracks down on the wife of Prokofy Melekhov, Prokofy himself cuts the batteryman Lyushnya (1-1-I) to the waist, Aksinya's fifty-year-old father rapes his daughter, for which his wife and son beat him to death, Stepan Astakhov "deliberately and terribly" beats a young wife the next day after the wedding (1-1-VII), and then again, returning from military training, “guards” her with boots in front of the indifferently smiling Alyoshka Shamil, the Melekhov brothers enter into a fight with Stepan, “peck” him, “like vultures carrion” (1-1-XIV), the Cossacks pounce with wild fury on innocent Taurians who came to the mill (1-2-V). There are many dishonest among the Cossacks, and during the war, theft, looting not only does not bother anyone, but almost becomes a source of pride:
“- Our brother will not be alive, so as not to slam.
Every thing sticks to a Cossack.
Let him not lay badly” (1-3-V; p. 214).
Sholokhov does not hide the savagery of morals, which sometimes reigned in the Cossack environment, but it is not she, according to the writer, that determines the spiritual world of the Cossack. Land and labor on it, military duty, family, farm, chicken - these are its most important components, these are the conditions that shaped the character of Grigory Melekhov (it is necessary, in our opinion, to talk about these fundamental moral values in the first lesson, also because the tragedy , depicted in the novel “Quiet Flows the Don” is the tragedy of rejection from the earth, disappointment in military duty, the collapse of the Family, the destruction of the House).
IV. The character of Grigory Melekhov.
Let's look at a few episodes to get an idea of what features are inherent in the hero, who is on the verge of formidable historical events.
1. First, let's go back to the meadow mowing scene:
“I’ll get out to this bush, I’ll beat off the scythe,” Grigory thought, and felt how the scythe went through something viscous. He bent down to look: from under his feet a small wild duck hobbled into the grass with a squeak. Near the hole where the nest had been, another was lying, cut in two by a scythe, the rest were scattered on the grass with a hoot. Grigory placed the cut duckling in his palm. Yellow-brown, just hatched from an egg the other day, he still hid living warmth in the cannon. On the flat open beak there is a pink vial of blood, the bead of the eye is cunningly closed, a small trembling of still hot paws.
Grigory, with a sudden feeling of acute pity, looked at the dead lump lying in his palm.
What did you find, Grishunka?..
Dunyashka ran along the sloping rows, jumping up and down. Finely braided pigtails darted about her chest. Grimacing, Grigory dropped the duckling and viciously waved his scythe” (1-1-IX, pp. 58-59).
- What role does the image of the duck play in the episode?
- What feeling did Gregory experience when he accidentally killed a living creature?
- How characterizes the hero of his condition in this episode?
- Why does Gregory feel angry at the end of the episode?
Love for all living things, a keen sense of someone else's pain, the ability to compassion, revealed in this episode, constitute the deep essence of the character of Sholokhov's hero and will appear more than once in the novel.
Running a little ahead, let's compare the scene we read with one of the wartime events, when Gregory kills an Austrian soldier (1-3-V). But let's stop our attention not on the episode of the murder itself, but on the experiences of the hero:
“- I, Petro, got tired of my soul. I seem to be unfinished all at once ... As if I had been under the millstones, they crushed me and spat out. - His voice is complaining, cracked, and the furrow (Peter just noticed it with a feeling of inner fear) darkened, flowing obliquely across his forehead, unfamiliar, frightening with some kind of change, alienation.
How is it? asked Petro, pulling off his shirt, revealing a white body with a tan line evenly cut on the neck.
But you see how, - Gregory hurried, and his voice grew stronger in anger, - they set people off, and don't get caught! The people became worse than Biryukov. Evil all around. I immediately think that if I bite a person, he will become mad.
Have you ever... killed?
I had to! .. - Grigory almost shouted and crumpled up and threw his shirt under his feet. Then he kneaded his throat with his fingers for a long time, as if he were pushing through a stuck word, looked to the side.
Speak! - ordered Petro, avoiding and being afraid to meet his brother's eyes.
My conscience is killing me. I stabbed one with a lance near Leshniuv. In the heat of the moment... It was impossible otherwise... And why did I cut down this one?
Well?
So, well, I cut down a man in vain and I'm sick through him, a reptile, with my soul. Dreaming at night, you bastard. Al am I to blame?" (1-3-X; p. 242).
How are the episodes related to each other?
- What personality traits of the hero are revealed in them?
Killing a person, even an enemy in battle, deeply contradicts the humane nature of Gregory. His condition in this episode makes us remember Nikolai Rostov after the Ostrovno case, when the hand of Tolstoy's hero trembled in front of the "room" face of a young Frenchman with a hole in his chin.
- What role do the author's remarks play in the dialogue of the Melekhov brothers?
- How do they reveal the hero's attitude to violence?
- What changes have occurred in the portrait of the hero?
Observing the author's remarks reflecting the psychological state of Gregory in this episode, let's pay special attention to an important portrait detail - a furrow that appeared on his face after this murder: this is how the war leaves an indelible mark on the hero's appearance from the very beginning. In what follows, we will verify that Sholokhov's portrait always captures important changes in the human psyche, turning points in the fate of the characters.
2. Speaking about the character of Grigory Melekhov, one should also note the characteristic of the hero a sense of inextricable connection with the outside world. Let's turn to the episode of bathing the horse:
“Across the Don, obliquely - a wavy, untraveled lunar path. Over the Don - fog, and at the top of the star millet. The horse behind cautiously rearranges its legs. The descent to the water is bad. On the other side, a duck quack, near the shore in the mud, turned up and thumped on the water like an omaha, a catfish hunting for a trifle.
Gregory stood by the water for a long time. The shore breathed damp and insipid Prelu. A fractional drop fell from the horse's lips. Gregory's heart has a light, sweet emptiness. Good and thoughtless. Returning, I looked at the sunrise, the blue semi-darkness had already dissipated there” (1-1-III; p. 39).
- What details of the landscape reveal the originality of the hero's worldview?
- What are the linguistic features of this fragment?
- What trait of the hero's spiritual world is revealed in this episode?
The landscape of a starry, moonlit night, traditional for Russian literature, is given here through the perception of the Don Cossack. Students confirm this with linguistic details (lunar path, star millet, etc.). It is no coincidence that the mention of catfish, which did not escape the attention of Gregory, is not only a farmer, but also a fisherman. The feeling of nature also sounds in the direct speech of the hero. In the next chapter, he says, addressing Aksinya: “Your hair smells like a drunkard. You know, a flower so white...” (1-1-IV; p. 47).
4. However, being acutely receptive to the beautiful, Gregory remains a man of strong passions, decisive deeds and actions. The scene of the beating of Yevgeny Listnitsky, for example, testifies to what violence, to what wild bitterness the hero can reach, scorched by blind jealousy and hatred:
“Gregory briefly waved his whip, hit the centurion in the face with terrible force. Having intercepted the whip, he beat with a whip on the face, on the hands, not allowing the centurion to come to his senses. A fragment of a broken pince-nez hit him above the eyebrow. Blood streams fell on the eye. The centurion at first covered his face with his hands, but the blows became more frequent. He jumped up, with a face disfigured by smudges and rage, tried to defend himself, but Grigory, retreating, paralyzed his right arm with a blow to the wrist.
For Aksinya! For me! For Aksinya! Isho you for Aksinya! For me!
The whip whistled. The blows were soft. Then, with his fists, he dumped the road on a cruel bumpy road and rolled it on the ground, beat brutally, with the heels of soldiers' boots bound. Weakened, he sat down in a cab, whooped and, destroying the trotter strength, transferred the horse to the bait” (1-3-XXIV; pp. 308 - 309).
- What artistic techniques give expressiveness to the read episode?
- What are the features of syntax, rhythm, vocabulary in this fragment?
- What role do portrait details play?
How is contrast used?
The exceptional expressiveness of this scene is given by short, chopped phrases, elastic, dynamic rhythm, an abundance of verbs, repeated repetition of words. whip,beat, blows, details of the portrait of the helpless centurion, contrasting with the image of the furious Melekhov.
5. But in order to comprehend the true essence of the character of the hero, it is worth dwelling on two more seemingly insignificant, but very revealing episodes. The first of them is the inspection of horses before being called up for military service:
“Grigory fussily turned away the broken corner that covered the twenty-fourth loaf, his fingers, rough and black, lightly touched the white sugary fingers of the bailiff. He pulled his hand, as if pricked, rubbed it on the side of the gray overcoat; wincing in disgust, he put on a glove.
Gregory noticed this; straightening up, he smiled evilly. Their eyes met, and the bailiff, blushing the tops of his cheeks, raised his voice:
Kek you look! What are you looking at, Cossack? - His cheek, with a razor cut dried at the cheekbone, blushed from top to bottom. - Why are the pack buckles not in order? What else is this? Are you a Cossack or a peasant's bast shoe? Where is your father?” (1-2-XXI; p. 190)
- What pissed off the self-confident bailiff?
Great inner strength expressed in the look and evil grin of Melekhov, who did not say a single word.
Here's another episode:
“Five days later, at a watering hole, Grigory dropped a cigarette into a well, the sergeant-major flew at him like a kite, raised his hand.
Don't touch it! .. - Grigory threw dully, looking into the water rippling under the log house.
What? Get down, bastard, take it out! I'll spark my face! ..
I'll take it out, but don't touch it! Without raising his head, Grigory slowly drew out his words.
If there were Cossacks at the well, things would have turned out differently: the sergeant-major would undoubtedly have beaten Grigory, but the groomsmen were at the fence and could not hear the conversation. The sergeant-major, approaching Grigory, looked back at them, wheezed, rolled out predatory eyes, meaningless with anger.
What are you to me? How do you communicate with your superiors?
You, Semyon Yegorov, don't get drunk!
Are you threatening? .. Yes, I’ll wet you! ..
That's what, - Grigory tore his head from the log house, - if when you hit me, I'll kill you all the same! Understood?
The sergeant-major yawned in amazement with his square carp mouth, and could not find an answer. The moment for reprisal was lost. Gregory's lime-coloured gray face did not bode well, and the sergeant-major was at a loss” (1-3-II; pp. 203 - 204).
- What allowed Grigory, junior in rank, to win in a psychological duel?
Comparing the behavior, gestures, facial expressions and intonations of Gregory and the sergeant in this scene, we come to the conclusion that Gregory wins this psychological duel primarily due to the exceptional self-esteem, which becomes a real force and is capable of exerting a powerful influence on other people, regardless of their rank and position.
- What episode of this chapter testifies that Gregory can stand up not only for his own, but also for someone else's dignity?
Gregory's attempt to stand up for Franya, who was abused by the Cossacks. And you should definitely think about why “Melekhov almost cried” when his intercession failed? (Perhaps it was here that he first experienced his own powerlessness in front of the brutal crowd.)
So, blood connected with his native nature, loving all living things, passionate to violence, with a heightened sense of his own dignity - this is how we see Grigory Melekhov by the beginning of the First World War. Now his individual fate, like the fate of all his countrymen, will be taken up by turbulent historical events, although the first phrase of the novel “Melekhovsky yard is on the very edge of the farm” resembles the well-known saying “My hut is on the edge”.
I. World War- the central historical event of the first book of the novel.
1. War episodes are preceded by the next landscape:
“Dry smoldering summer. The Don was shallow opposite the farm, and where a stray stirrup used to speed, a ford formed, bulls crossed to the other bank without wetting their backs. At night, a thick, fluid stuffiness crawled into the farm from the ridge, the wind saturated the air with the spicy smell of scorched herbs. Dead weeds were burning on the allotment, and sweet gauze hung in an invisible canopy over Obdon. At night, clouds thickened behind the Don, dry and rolling thunderclaps burst, but rain did not fall on the ground, bursting with feverish heat, lightning flashed in vain, breaking the sky into sharp-angled blue edges.
At night, an owl roared in the bell tower. Unsteady and terrible screams hung over the farm, and the owl flew from the bell tower to the cemetery, soiled with calves, groaned over the brown, haunted graves ”(1-3-I; p. 194).
- What is the general atmosphere of the landscape?
What parts are used to create it?
- What is the color and sound scale of the landscape?
- What epithets seem to you the most expressive?
Students will find in this landscape a lot of details that prepare the reader for the depiction of a national disaster, and, perhaps, they will remember solar eclipse, which became a formidable omen before the campaign of Prince Igor against the Polovtsians.
- What is the place of this landscape in the text?
- What is its artistic function?
It should be noted that Sholokhov's landscapes are connected with the series of events of the novel according to the principle epic parallelism: events in the life of people and in the life of nature are given in unity, the world of people and the world of nature are comprehended by the author as a single life stream.
2. Continuing the conversation about the war, let us turn to the scene of mobilization (1-3-IV; pp. 208 - 210) and, using its example, we will find out Sholokhov's techniques for constructing mass scenes.
- What kind artistic means uses Sholokhov to create an image of the Cossack masses?
- Find portrait sketches in this fragment. What are the specifics of the portraits included in the episode?
In this episode, Sholokhov creates the image of the masses, united by a common event. The most important means of creating this image is collective portrait: “A gray crowd thickened in the square. In the ranks of the horse, Cossack on the right, uniforms with different numbers of shoulder straps. Head and shoulders above the army Cossacks, like Dutch geese among small-sized poultry, atamans in blue caps paced.<...>Drunk, hot faces. However, the Cossack mass, although it is called the crowd, does not seem homogeneous and faceless to Sholokhov, it consists of individual human characters, therefore, the details of the portraits of individual characters, including episodic ones (a gloomy and preoccupied military bailiff, a hefty black ataman, a short Cossack woman with a sunflower husk in unkempt hair, a sergeant-major in a red-rimmed beard, etc.).
- What is the nature of the dialogue?
- What general principle underlies the creation of a portrait and dialogue?
- What is the artistic function of a polyphonic dialogue, a combination of a collective and an individual portrait?
By the same principle of connecting the general and the particular, the speech characteristic collective hero, the most important form of which is becoming polyphonic dialogue. Giving an idea of the mood of the Cossacks as a whole, he at the same time reveals purely individual views, characters and destinies.
- What characters, in your opinion, are behind this or that replica of non-personalized dialogue?
- Determine how differently the Cossacks relate to the upcoming war.
- Track how the discussion of the main issue is combined with conversations on other topics.
War is the main theme that the characters discuss and revisit throughout the scene. However, the attitude to the impending danger among the Cossacks is different. Someone talks about it with fear (“What about the war?”), Someone - with ease and confidence in their strength (“What power can stand against us?”), Someone is indifferent to the strife of governments (“We they don’t care”), someone is sad only because of the ban on the sale of alcohol introduced during the war (“Monopolka was closed!”). Perhaps only the elderly, who have gone through more than one war, imagine what scale the upcoming events can acquire (“As soon as they begin to chop up the people, they will get to their grandfathers”). And yet, dissatisfaction with the war prevails in the conversation, and it is connected primarily with the fact that the war is tearing the Cossacks off the ground, from fulfilling their main, grain-growing duty:
“- ... Let them go to war, but our bread is not harvested!
This is trouble-ah! Looking at the world they drove, but it’s none - the day feeds the year.
They will poison the mop with cattle.
We have already begun to mow the barley.
And then again:
“ __ ... As soon as I return home, immediately to the fields.
Yes, it's worth it!
Tell me, what do the bosses think? I have more than a hundred acres to sow.”
Note that the Cossacks are used to living in accordance with the cyclical nature of time. historical time invades the habitual cycle of life, disregarding its laws, destroys what is determined by nature itself.
In crowd scenes, the life of the Cossacks appears in an endless variety of colors, and it is no coincidence that talk about the war is interspersed with replicas of an everyday nature, serious and comic. It should also be noted that in this episode, as in most mass scenes, the writer reveals not only the mood of the Cossacks at the moment. Behind the diverse, sometimes unrelated replicas of the polyphonic dialogue, stand the historical fate of the Cossacks, their traditions and way of life. Here is the age-old hatred of non-residents (“I’m fucking them, peasants! Know the Don Cossack!”), And the participation of the Cossacks in the suppression of the revolution (“I, brother, was pacified in 1905. That’s laughter!” ), and unwillingness to again be in the ranks of the suppressors (“Let the police go, but we, kubyt, and ashamed”).
3. Mass scenes are not presented in isolation in the novel; their rhythmic alternation with the narration of individual destinies gives the depicted events an amazing volume, stereoscopicity. Therefore, we will return to the main character and continue to observe his fate. To find out what he saw, what Grigory experienced in the first months of the war, let us again turn to landscape:
“Where the battles were going on, shells blew up the gloomy face of the earth with smallpox: rusted in it, longing for human blood, fragments of iron and steel. At night, beyond the horizon, handy scarlet glows stretched to the sky, villages, towns, towns blazed with lightning. In August, when the fruit ripens and the bread is ripe, the sky, washed by the wind, unsmilingly gray, the rare fine days were tormented by steamy heat.
August was drawing to a close. In the gardens, a leaf turned fat yellow, from a cutting it was filled with a dying crimson, and from a distance it looked like the trees were in torn wounds and were bleeding with ore tree blood” (1-3-X; p. 239).
- What is the specificity of this landscape?
- What signs of war are included in the landscape?
- What is the nature of metaphors and personifications?
- How does the figurative structure of the passage reveal the perception of the war by the author and the hero?
- Which of the predecessors, contemporaries or followers of Sholokhov portrayed the war in this way?
Thanks to unexpected metaphors, vivid personifications, one gets the feeling that nature itself is participating in the war. We saw a similar method of depicting the war in Tolstoy (the final scenes of the Battle of Borodino), and in Sholokhov’s contemporaries: Mayakovsky (“Mother and the Evening Killed by the Germans”) and Babel (“Crossing the Zbruch”); from later literature, students may be familiar with the military lyrics of V. Vysotsky (“The Ballad of the Earth”, “We Rotate the Earth”). War for these authors is not a confrontation between armies, but a universal disaster.
But the given landscape not only gives the narrative an epic scope, but also reveals the inner state of people who find themselves in the war. Sholokhov widely uses in the novel psychological parallelism. The changes that take place in nature correspond to what takes place in the soul of each person.
We note that this landscape is immediately followed by brief but expressive portraits of Cossacks, fellow soldiers of Grigory Melekhov: “Prokhor Zykov ... still harbored pain and bewilderment in the corners of his lips”, “Egorka Zharkov ... cursed with heavy obscene curses, was more obscene than before, he cursed everything in the world”, “Emelyan Groshev ... all somehow charred, blackened”. “Changes were taking place on every face, each in his own way nurtured and grew the iron seeds sown by the war, and all together, young Cossacks, just torn out of the villages and farms, in the atmosphere of the mortal horror going on around, resembled the stems of a mowed, withering and changing their outlines of grass” (ibid.). It is noteworthy that, generalizing observations on the psychological changes that occur with Gregory's comrades in a hundred, the writer resorts to a comparison, also drawn from the natural world.
4. Despite the fact that the war in the novel appears in blood and suffering, Sholokhov portrays Grigory Melekhov as a courageous warrior who deservedly received a high award - the St. George Cross. Melekhov fights fearlessly and at the same time thoughtlessly, not knowing why he sheds his own and other people's blood. But the war confronts Grigory with different people, communication with which makes him think, not only about the essence of the war itself, but also about his own life, and about the world in which he lives.
The system of characters in the novel the center of which is Grigory Melekhov, is constructed in such a way that characters appear next to the main character, embodying polar views and life positions. Grigory Chubaty and Garanzh became such poles during the World War.
- What philosophy of life does Chubaty profess?
- How does Gregory feel about his position?
“Chop a man boldly. He is soft, a man, like dough, - Chubaty taught, laughing with his eyes. - You do not think how and what. You are a Cossack, your job is to cut without asking. In battle, killing the enemy is a sacred thing. For each slain, God will give you one sin, just like for a snake. You cannot destroy an animal without need - a heifer, say, or whatever - but destroy a person. He is a filthy man ... Unclean, stinks on the ground, lives like a fungus-toadstool” (1-3-XII; p. 256). Such an inhuman position, even in conditions of war, turns out to be unacceptable for Gregory. That is why he shoots Chubaty when he cut down the captured Magyar for no reason. “...and if I had killed you, there would have been one less sin in my soul,” he would say later. (1-3-XX; p. 287).
- What feelings did Gregory take away from the experience of the war?
Perhaps only fatigue and disappointment. It was at this moment that fate brought him together with Garanzha. Let's find out what Grigory Garanzh is trying to convince and what does the hero experience under his influence? Today's high school students are unlikely to find Garangi's “political” ideas convincing: “Why are we fighting with you, boy?<...>We fought for the bourgeois, do you hear? What is it like - bourgeois? The bird is so alive with hemp.<...>You say - for the king, but what is it like - the king? The tsar is a capplyuga, the queen is a whore, an increase in the lord's pennies from the war, and on our neck ... a noose. Do you hear? Axis! The hvabrykant drink vodka, - the soldier beat the louse, it’s hard for both ... The hvabrykant with a profit, and the worker is naked, it’s all right and plastered ... serve, Cossack, serve! (1-3-XXIII; pp. 299 - 300).
- Why did the instructions of Garangi so sunk into Grigory's soul (why, in general, did Bolshevik ideas spread so rapidly in a country exhausted by war)?
Let the students think about it. Most often, they come to the conclusion that the war brought disappointment in the old values: in the king, in the Cossack military duty. It was on this fertile ground that the seeds of “Bolshevik truth” fell, subverting these previously seemingly unshakable concepts.
Here begins Gregory's attempts to understand the complex structure of life. Here begins his tragic path to the truth, to the people's truth.
The Melekhov family was reduced by half in one year. Pantelei Prokofievich was right when he once said that death loved their chicken. Before they had time to bury Natalya, the smell of incense and cornflowers in the spacious Melekhovskaya room again began to smell. A week and a half after Gregory left for the front, Darya drowned herself in the Don.
On Saturday, having arrived from the field, she and Dunyashka went for a swim. They undressed near the vegetable gardens and sat for a long time on the soft, crushed grass. Even in the morning Darya was not in a good mood, complained of a headache and malaise, wept furtively several times ... Before entering the water, Dunyashka gathered her hair into a knot, tied it with a scarf and, glancing sideways at Darya, said regretfully:
- How thin you have become, Dasha, all the veins are out!
- I'll get better soon!
Has your head stopped hurting?
- Stopped. Well, let's go swimming, otherwise it's not too early. - She was the first to run into the water, plunged headlong and, emerging, snorting, swam to the middle. The fast current picked her up and began to carry her away.
Admiring Darya, waving wide male sazhens, Dunyashka wandered into the water up to her waist, washed herself, moistened her breasts and her strong, feminine, rounded hands warmed by the sun. In the neighboring garden, two daughters-in-law of the Obnizovs were watering cabbages. They heard Dunyashka, laughing, calling Darya.
- Swim back, Dasha! And then the catfish will pull you away!
Darya turned back, swam three fathoms, and then for a moment up to half she jumped out of the water, clasped her hands over her head, shouted: “Farewell, old ladies!” - and went down like a stone.
A quarter of an hour later, pale Dunyashka, wearing only her underskirt, ran home.
- Daria drowned, mother! .. - she barely uttered, panting.
Only the next day in the morning they caught Darya with hooks of rifled tackle.
At dawn, the oldest and most experienced fisherman in Tatarskoye, Arkhip Peskovatskov, set six ends of the rifled downstream below the place where Darya drowned, went to check with Panteley Prokofievich. A crowd of children and women gathered on the shore, Dunyashka was among them. When Arkhip, having picked up the fourth cord with the handle of the oar, rode ten sazhens from the shore, Dunyashka distinctly heard him say in an undertone: “It seems that there is ...” - and began to carefully sort out the tackle, with visible effort he pulled up the cord that went vertically into the depths. Then something turned white near the right bank, both old men bent over the water, the longboat scooped up the edge of the water, and the dull thud of a body thrown into the longboat reached the hushed crowd. The crowd sighed in unison. One of the women sobbed softly. Khristonya, who was standing nearby, rudely shouted at the guys: “Come on, the march of the otsedov!” Through her tears, Dunyashka saw how Arkhip, standing at the stern, deftly and noiselessly lowering the oar, rowed towards the shore. With a rustle and crunch, crushing the coastal chalk scree, the longboat touched the ground. Darya lay with her legs bent lifelessly, her cheek resting against the wet bottom. On her white body, only slightly blue, taking on some bluish-dark hue, deep punctures could be seen - traces of hooks. On his lean, swarthy calf, just below the knee, near the cloth garter, which Darya apparently forgot to take off before bathing, a fresh scratch turned pink and slightly bled. The sting of the rifled hook slid down his leg, furrowing a crooked, jagged line. Convulsively crumpling the curtain, Dunyashka was the first to approach Darya, covering her with a sack torn at the seam. Pantelei Prokofievich rolled up his trousers with businesslike haste and began to haul up the longboat. Soon a cart arrived. Daria was transferred to the Melekhovsky hut.
Having overcome fear and a feeling of disgust, Dunyashka helped her mother wash the cold body of the deceased, which kept the coldness of the deep Don stream.
There was something unfamiliar and stern in Darya's slightly swollen face, in the dull gleam of water-discolored eyes, in her hair the river sand sparkled with silver, on her cheeks a wet thread of adhering mud-mulberry mud turned green, and in her outstretched, limply hanging hands from the bench was such a terrible calmness, that Dunyashka, having looked, hurriedly departed from her, marveling and horrified at how unlike the dead Darya was from the one who so recently joked and laughed and loved life so much. And after a long time, remembering the stony coldness of Darya's breasts and belly, the elasticity of her ossified limbs, Dunyashka shuddered all over and tried to forget all this as soon as possible. She was afraid that the dead Daria would dream of her at night, she slept for a week on the same bed with Ilyinichnaya and, before going to bed, she prayed to God, mentally asked:
"God! Make it so that she does not dream of me! Shut up, sir!"
If not for the stories of the women Obnizovs, who heard Daria shout:
"Goodbye, baboons!" - they would have buried the drowned woman quietly and without noise, but, having learned about this dying exclamation, which clearly indicated that Daria had deliberately taken her own life, priest Vissarion resolutely declared that he would not bury the suicide. Pantelei Prokofievich was indignant:
- How are you not going to sing? She's unbaptized, isn't she?
“I can’t bury suicides, according to the law it’s not supposed to.
“But how do you bury it like a dog, in your opinion?”
- But in my opinion, as you want and where you want, but not in the cemetery where honest Christians are buried.
- No, you have mercy, please! - Pantelei Prokofievich turned to persuasion. “We never had such shame in our family.
- I can not. I respect you, Pantelei Prokofievich, as an exemplary parishioner, but I cannot. They will inform the dean - and I will not escape trouble, - the priest became stubborn.
It was a shame. Pantelei Prokofievich tried in every possible way to persuade the priest who had mastered it, promised to pay more expensively and with reliable Nikolaev money, offered a sheep-flying sheep as a gift, but, seeing in the end that persuasion did not work, he threatened:
“I won’t bury it behind the cemetery. She doesn’t bake on my side, but my daughter-in-law. Her husband died in battle with the Reds and was in the rank of officer, she herself was awarded the Yegoryev medal, and you tell me such crap?!
No, dad, your case will not come out, you will bury it for my respect! Let her lie in the upper room for the time being, and I will immediately report this to the stanish ataman. He will chat with you!
Pantelei Prokofievich left the priest's house without saying goodbye and even slammed the door in a rage. However, the threat had an effect: half an hour later a messenger came from the priest, saying that Father Vissarion would come with the clergy.
Daria was buried, as expected, in the cemetery, next to Peter. When they were digging the grave, Pantelei Prokofievich also took a fancy to a place for himself. Working with a shovel, he looked around, figured that better place not to be found, and there is no need.
Above Peter's grave, a recently planted poplar rustled with its young branches: on its top, the coming autumn had already dyed the leaves in the yellow, bitter color of wilting. Paths were cut through the broken fence, between the graves of the calves; near the fence there was a road to the windmill; trees planted by caring relatives of the dead - maples, poplars, acacia, as well as wild-growing thorns - greened friendly and fresh; beside them the widow twig curled wildly, the late colza turned yellow, wild oats and grainy couch grass were earing. The crosses stood, braided from top to bottom with friendly blue bindweeds. The place was really fun, dry…
The old man dug a grave, often threw a shovel, sat down on the damp clay earth, smoked, thought about death. But, apparently, the time has not come for old people to die quietly in their native huts and rest where their fathers and grandfathers found their last shelter ...
After they buried Daria, it became even quieter in the Melekhov house.
They carried bread, worked at the threshing, harvested a rich crop of melons. They waited for news from Grigory, but nothing was heard about him after his departure to the front. Ilyinichna used to say more than once: “And she won’t send a bow to the kids, accursed one! His wife died, and he no longer needed us all ... ”Then service Cossacks began to visit Tatarsky more often. There were rumors that the Cossacks were shot down on the Balashov Front and they were retreating to the Don in order to defend themselves until winter using a water barrier. And what should have happened in the winter - all the front-line soldiers spoke about this without hiding: “When the Don becomes, the Reds will chase us to the sea!”
Pantelei Prokofievich, diligently working at the threshing machine, did not seem to pay much attention to the rumors circulating around Obdon, but he could not remain indifferent to what was happening. Even more often he began to shout at Ilyinichna and Dunyashka, he became even more irritable when he learned about the approach of the front.
He often made something around the house, but as soon as things did not work out in his hands, he would furiously quit work, spitting and swearing, and ran away to the threshing floor to cool off from indignation there. Dunyashka had witnessed such outbursts more than once. Once he undertook to straighten the yoke, the work did not stick, and for no reason at all, the enraged old man grabbed an ax and chopped the yoke so that only chips were left of it. The same happened with the repair of the collar. In the evening, by the fire, Pantelei Prokofievich twirled the thread, began to sew together the torn yoke; either the threads were rotten, or the old man was nervous, but the fight broke off twice in a row - that was enough: having cursed terribly, Pantelei Prokofievich jumped up, overturned the stool, threw it with his foot to the stove and, growling like a dog, began to tear the leather lining on collar, and then threw the collar on the floor and, jumping like a cock, began to trample it with his feet. Ilyinichna, who had gone to bed early, heard a noise, jumped up in fright, but, having examined what was the matter, could not bear it, reproached the old man:
“Are you crazy, damned, in your old age?! What did the clamp turn out to be to blame for you?
Pantelei Prokofievich looked at his wife with maddened eyes and yelled:
- Shut up-and-and, such-and-such!!! - and, grabbing a piece of the collar, threw it at the old woman.
Choking with laughter, Dunyashka flew into the porch like a bullet. And the old man, having raged a little, calmed down, asked his wife for forgiveness for what was said in the hearts cool words and groaned for a long time and scratched his head, looking at the fragments of the ill-fated collar, wondering in his mind - what can they be used for?
He repeated such fits of rage more than once, but Ilyinichna, taught by bitter experience, chose a different tactic of intervention: as soon as Pantelei Prokofievich, spewing curses, began to crush some household item, the old woman humbly, but loudly enough said:
“Beat, Prokofich! Break! We will make money with you!” And even tried to help in perpetrating the pogrom. Then Pantelei Prokofievich immediately cooled down, looked at his wife with unthinking eyes for a minute, and then with trembling hands he rummaged in his pockets, found a pouch and embarrassedly sat down somewhere on the sidelines to smoke, to calm his divergent nerves, in his soul cursing his temper and counting the losses incurred. A three-month-old pig that climbed into the front garden fell victim to the unbridled old man's anger.
Pantelei Prokofievich broke his spine with a stake, and five minutes later, pulling the bristles from a slaughtered piglet with a nail, he looked guiltily, ingratiatingly at the gloomy Ilyinichna, and said:
- He and the piglet was like that, one grief ... One damn thing he would have died. The plague attacks them exactly at this time; then we’ll eat a hell of a lot, otherwise it would be like that, it was in vain. Right, old lady? Well, why are you standing like a hail cloud? May he be thrice cursed, this little pig! A piglet would be like a piglet, otherwise it’s like that, a piggy mess! It’s not just a stake - the snot could be broken!
And what a scam! Nests forty potatoes rummaged!
“There were no more than thirty nests for her and all the potatoes in the front garden,” Ilyinichna quietly corrected him.
- Well, if it were forty - he would have crossed the line for forty, he is like that! And thank God that they got rid of him, from the enemy! - without hesitation, answered Pantelei Prokofievich.
The kids missed seeing their father. Busy with housework, Ilyinichna could not pay enough attention to them, and they, left to their own devices, played all day long somewhere in the garden or on the threshing floor. One day after dinner Mishatka disappeared and came only at sunset. When asked by Ilyinichna where he was, Mishatka replied that he was playing with the children near the Don, but Polyushka immediately denounced him:
- He's lying, grandma! He was with Aunt Aksinya!
– How do you know? asked Ilyinichna, unpleasantly surprised by the news.
- I saw how he climbed over the wattle fence from their base.
- Was it there? Well, tell me, chad, why are you blushing?
Mishatka looked the grandmother straight in the eyes, answered:
- I, grandmother, deceived ... I really wasn’t at Don’s, but at Aunt Aksinya’s.
- Why did you go there?
She called me, and I went.
- And why did you cheat, as if you were playing with the guys?
Mishatka looked down for a second, but then raised his truthful eyes and whispered:
- I was afraid that you would swear ...
Why would I scold you? No-no ... Why did she call you? What were you doing there?
- Nothing. She saw me, made a noise: “Come to me!”, I approached, she took me to the hut, put me on a chair ...
“Well,” Ilyinichna asked impatiently, skillfully hiding the excitement that had seized her.
- ... fed with cold pancakes, and then gave this. - Mishatka pulled out a piece of sugar from his pocket, proudly showed it and put it back in his pocket.
- What did she tell you? Maybe you asked what?
- She told me to go and visit her, otherwise she was bored alone, she promised to give a present ... She said that I should not say that I was with her. And then, he says, your grandmother will scold.
“Look how…” Ilyinichna said, choking with suppressed indignation. - Well, what did she ask you what?
- She asked.
What did she ask about? Yes, you tell me, dear, do not be afraid!
- She asked: do I miss daddy? I said I miss you. Isho asked when he would arrive and what to hear about him, and I said that I did not know: that he was fighting in the war. And then she sat me on her lap and told me a story. - Mishatka gleamed animatedly with his eyes, smiled. - Good story! About some Vanyushka, how the swan geese carried him on their wings, and about the Baba Yaga.
Ilyinichna, pursing her lips, listened to Mishatka's confession, said sternly:
- More, granddaughters, do not go to her, do not. And don’t take any gifts from her, don’t, otherwise your grandfather will find out and flog you! God forbid your grandfather finds out - he will skin you! Don't go, baby!
But, despite the strict order, two days later Mishatka again visited the Astakhov kuren. Ilyinichna found out about this by glancing at Mishatka's shirt; the torn sleeve, which she had not bothered to sew up in the morning, was skillfully stitched, and a new button was white mother-of-pearl on the collar.
Knowing that Dunyashka, busy with threshing, could not bother with mending children's clothes during the day, Ilyinichna asked reproachfully:
- Did you go to the neighbors again?
“I won’t do it again, grandma, don’t swear…”
Then Ilyinichna decided to talk to Aksinya and firmly tell her to leave Mishatka alone and not ingratiate himself either with gifts or by telling fairy tales. “She brought Natalya out of the world, but at the same time she strives, damned, to get close to the children, so that later Grishka can be entangled through them. Well, a snake! She is aiming for a daughter-in-law with her husband alive ... Only her case will not come out! Will Grishka take her after such a sin? thought the old woman.
Her shrewd and jealous maternal gaze did not hide the fact that Grigory, being at home, avoided meetings with Aksinya. She understood that he did this not out of fear of people's complaints, but because he considered Aksinya guilty of the death of his wife. Secretly, Ilyinichna hoped that Natalya's death would forever separate Grigory from Aksinya and Aksinya would never enter their family.
In the evening of the same day, Ilyinichna saw Aksinya on the pier near the Don, called her:
- Well, come to me for an hour, you need to chat ...
Aksinya put down the buckets, calmly approached and greeted him.
“Here’s the thing, my dear,” began Ilyinichna, looking searchingly into the beautiful, but hateful face of her neighbor. - Why are you luring other people's children? Why do you invite the boy to your place and keep him quiet? Who asked you to sew up his shirt and give him all sorts of goodies? What do you think - without a mother there is no watch over him? What can't do without you? And you have enough conscience, your shameless eyes!
- What did I do wrong? What are you arguing about, grandma? asked Aksinya, flushing.
- How is it - what's wrong? Yes, you have the right to touch Natalya's child, if you yourself brought her to the grave?
- What are you, grandmother! Wake up! Who took her? She did it to herself.
- And not through you?
- Well, I don't know that.
- But I know! Ilyinichna shouted excitedly.
- Do not make noise, grandmother, I'm not your daughter-in-law to make noise at me. I have a husband for this.
- I can see right through you! I see what you breathe! Not a daughter-in-law, but you climb into a daughter-in-law! At first you want to lure the children, and then get close to Grishka?
- I'm not going to go to your daughter-in-law. You are crazy, grandma! My husband is alive.
- That's why you are from him, from a living one, and strive to become attached to another!
Aksinya turned visibly pale, and said:
- I don’t know why you attacked me and shame me ... I have never imposed on anyone and am not going to impose myself, but what did your granddaughter say - what's wrong with that? I don’t have any children, you know, I’m happy with strangers, and even then it’s easier, so I invited him ... Just think, I gave him a gift! She gave a breast of sugar to a child, so this is a gift! Why should I give it to him? So you talk God knows what! ..
- With a living mother, you didn’t invite him for something! And as Natalya died, so you showed up as a good-natured one!
“He used to visit me even with Natalya,” Aksinya said with a slightly perceptible smile.
"Don't make a mistake, shameless one!"
- You ask him, and then ask nonsense.
“Well, anyway, don’t you dare lure the boy to you anymore. And do not think that this will make you nicer to Gregory. You will not be his wife, so you know!
With a face contorted with anger, Aksinya said hoarsely:
- Shut up! He won't ask you! And don't pry into other people's business!
Ilyinichna wanted to say something else, but Aksinya silently turned around, went up to the buckets, jerked the yoke over her shoulders and, splashing water, quickly walked along the stitch.
From that time on, at meetings, she did not greet any of the Melekhovs, with satanic pride, flaring her nostrils, she passed by, but, seeing Mishatka somewhere, looked around fearfully and, if no one was nearby, ran up to him, bending down, pressing him to his chest, and kissing his tanned forehead and gloomy black, Melekhov eyes, laughing and crying, whispered incoherently: “My dear Grigorievich! My dear! That's how I missed you! Your aunt Aksinya is a fool… Oh, what a fool!” And after a long time, a quivering smile did not leave her lips, and moistened eyes shone with happiness, like those of a young girl.
At the end of August, Pantelei Prokofievich was mobilized. At the same time, all the Cossacks capable of carrying weapons left Tatarsky for the front. Of the male population, only disabled people, teenagers, and ancient old people remained in the farm. Mobilization was universal, and no one received exemptions on medical commissions, with the exception of obvious cripples.
Panteley Prokofievich, having received an order from the farm ataman to report to the assembly point, hastily said goodbye to the old woman, to her grandchildren and Dunyashka, groaning, knelt down, made two prostrations, crossed himself on the icons, said:
- Farewell, my dears! It seems that we will not be able to see each other, the last hour must have come. My order to you from me is this: thresh bread day and night, try to finish before the rains. It will be necessary - hire a person to help you. If I don’t return by autumn, manage without me; Plow the plowing as much as you can, sow a tithe of wheat. Look, old woman, do business properly, do not drop your hands! Grigory and I will return, no, but you will need bread the heaviest of all. War is war, but life without bread is also boring. Well, God bless you!
Ilyinichna accompanied the old man to the square, looked for the last time at how he was limping next to Christonya, hurrying for a cart, and then she wiped her swollen eyes with a curtain and, without looking back, went home. An unthreshed planting of wheat was waiting for her on the threshing floor, there was milk in the oven, the children had not been fed since morning, the old woman had a great many troubles, and she hurried home without stopping, silently bowing to the women who occasionally met, not entering into conversations, and only nodded in the affirmative head, when one of the acquaintances asked condolingly: “Did you see off the serviceman, or what?”
A few days later, Ilyinichna, having milked the cows at dawn, drove them out into the alley, and was just about to go into the yard, when some kind of muffled, besieged roar reached her ears. Looking around, she did not find a single cloud in the sky. A little later, the noise was repeated.
- Do you hear, grandma, music? asked the old shepherd, gathering the herd.
- What kind of music?
- And here is what plays on some basses.
“I hear it, but I don’t understand what it is.”
- You'll understand soon enough. Here's how they start throwing around the farm from this side - you'll understand right away! This is from guns. They take out our giblets for our old people ...
Ilyinichna crossed herself and went silently through the gate.
From that day on, the gun rumble sounded non-stop for four days. Dawns were especially audible. But when the northeast wind blew, the thunder of distant battles was heard even in the middle of the day. Work on the threshing floors stopped for a minute, the women crossed themselves, sighed heavily, remembering their relatives, whispering prayers, and then again the stone rollers began to rumble dully on the currents, the chasing boys urged the horses and bulls, the winnowing machines rattled, the labor day entered into its inalienable rights. The end of August was fine and dry to a marvel. The wind carried chaff dust around the farm, there was a sweet smell of threshed rye straw, the sun warmed mercilessly, but the approach of near autumn was already felt in everything. In the pasture, faded gray sagebrush gleamed dully white, the tops of the poplars behind the Don turned yellow, the smell of Antonovka became sharper in the gardens, the distant horizons cleared up like autumn, and the first villages of migrating cranes already appeared on the empty fields.
On the Hetman's Way, from day to day, wagon trains stretched from west to east, bringing military supplies to the crossings across the Don, and refugees appeared in the Obdon farms. They said that the Cossacks were retreating with battles; some assured that this retreat was deliberate, in order to lure the Reds, and then surround them and destroy them. Some of the Tatars slowly began to get ready to leave. They fed bulls and horses, at night they buried bread in pits, chests with the most valuable property.
The roar of guns, which had been silent, resumed on September 5 with renewed vigor and now sounded distinctly and menacingly. The fighting went on forty versts from the Don, in the direction to the northeast from Tatarsky. A day later thundered upstream in the west. The front moved inexorably towards the Don.
Ilyinichna, who knew that most of the farmers were going to retreat, suggested that Dunyashka leave. She experienced a feeling of confusion and bewilderment and did not know what to do with the household, with the house; whether it is necessary to drop all this and leave with people or stay at home. Before leaving for the front, Pantelei Prokofievich talked about threshing, about the fall, about cattle, but did not say a word about how they should be if the front approaches Tatarsky. Just in case, Ilyinichna decided this: to send Dunyashka with the children and the most valuable property with one of the farmsteaders, and to stay on her own, even if the Reds occupied the farmhouse.
On the night of September 17, Pantelei Prokofievich unexpectedly appeared at home. He came on foot from the Kazan village, exhausted, angry. After resting for half an hour, he sat down at the table and began to eat in a way that Ilyinichna had never seen in her entire life; half a bucket of cast-iron lean cabbage soup seemed to have thrown it for itself, and then fell on the millet porridge. Ilyinichna threw up her hands in amazement:
“God, how are you eating, Prokofich!” How, tell me, you haven't eaten for three days!
“And you thought you ate, you old fool!” For three days there was no poppy dew in my mouth!
“Well, they don’t feed you there, do they?”
“Damn them to be fed like that!” - purring like a cat, with a full mouth, answered Pantelei Prokofievich. - What you think is what you pop, but I didn’t learn how to steal isho. This is good for young people, they have no conscience left for semak ... They were so full of theft for this damned war that I was terrified, terrified, and stopped. All that they see - they take, pull, drag ... Not war, but the passion of the Lord!
"You wouldn't eat too much." No matter what you do. Look how bloated you are, pure spider!
- Shut up. Bring some milk, and a bigger crust!
Ilyinichna even began to cry, looking at her starving old man.
“Well, are you really here? she asked after Pantelei Prokofievich fell off the porridge.
“We’ll see…” he answered evasively.
- You old people, therefore, were sent home?
- No one was released. Where to lower, if the Reds are already propping up to the Don?
I myself left.
"But you won't have to answer for it?" Ilyinichna asked apprehensively.
- They will catch it, - maybe they will have to answer.
- Yes, are you going to be buried?
- Did you think that I would run to the games or visit guests? Ugh, you stupid idol! - Pantelei Prokofievich spat heartily, but the old woman did not let up:
- Oh, what a sin! Isho will make troubles, just isho will dare to conceive you ...
“Well, it’s better to be caught here and put in jail than to drag around the steppes with a rifle,” said Pantelei Prokofievich wearily. - I'm not young forty miles a day to wave them off, dig trenches, run into attacks, crawl on the ground, and bury themselves from bullets. Damn them!
A bullet clicked under the left shoulder blade of my single sum from the Krivaya Rechka - and I never dug with my feet. There is also little pleasure in such a thing!
The old man took the rifle and the cartridge pouch and hid it in the chaff, and when Ilyinichna asked where his zipun was, he answered gloomily and reluctantly:
- Lived. Or rather, quit. They pressed us behind the village of Shumilinskaya so that they abandoned everything, ran like crazy. There was no time for a zipun ... Whoever had sheepskin coats, and they left ... And to hell with it, he surrendered to you, zipun, what do you remember about him? If only the zipun was kind, otherwise, the beggar on the right ...
In fact, the zipun was solid, new, but everything that the old man lost, according to him, was worthless. Such was his habit of comforting himself. Ilyinichna knew about this, and therefore did not argue about the quality of the zipun.
At night on family council decided: Ilyinichna and Pantelei Prokofievich with the kids to stay at home until the last, protect their property, bury the threshed bread, and send Dunyashka on a pair of old bulls with chests to relatives, to Chir, to the Latyshev farm.
These plans were not destined to be fully realized. In the morning, Dunyashka was seen off, and at noon a punitive detachment of the Salsk Kalmyk Cossacks drove into Tatarsky. Some of the farmers must have seen Pantelei Prokofievich making his way home; an hour after the punitive detachment entered the farm, four Kalmyks galloped to the Melekhovsky base.
Panteley Prokofievich, seeing the horsemen, climbed up to the attic with surprising speed and dexterity; Ilyinichna came out to meet the guests.
Where is your old man? - asked an elderly stately Kalmyk with shoulder straps of a senior officer, dismounting and walking past Ilyinichna through the gate.
- At the front. Where can he be, - Ilyinichna answered rudely.
- Lead the house, I'll do a search.
- What are you looking for?
- Look for your old man. Hey, shame on you! What an old - nonsense you live! - reproachfully shaking his head, said the dashing officer and bared his thick white teeth.
"Don't be shy, unwashed one!" If you say no, then no!
- Finish the balachka, lead the house! No, we go ourselves,” the offended Kalmyk said sternly and resolutely walked to the porch, placing his legs wide apart.
They carefully examined the rooms, talked to each other in Kalmyk, then two went to inspect the courtyard, and one - short and swarthy to blackness, with a pockmarked face and a flattened nose - pulled up wide trousers decorated with stripes, went out into the vestibule. Through the gap in the open door, Ilyinichna saw how the Kalmyk jumped, clung to the cut with his hands and deftly climbed up. Five minutes later, he deftly jumped out of there, behind him, groaning, carefully climbed down all smeared in clay, with cobwebs on his beard Pantelei Prokofievich. Looking at the old woman's tightly compressed lips, he said:
- Found the damned! So someone has proven...
Panteley Prokofyevich was sent under escort to the village of Karginskaya, where the court-martial was located, and Ilyinichna wept a little and, listening to the renewed thunder of guns and the distinctly audible machine-gun chatter beyond the Don, went to the barn to hide at least some bread.
XXII
Fourteen captured deserters were awaiting trial. The trial was short and merciless. The elderly captain, who presided over the meetings, asked the defendant for his last name, first name, patronymic, rank and unit number, found out how long the defendant had been on the run, then in an undertone exchanged a few phrases with the members of the court - an armless cornet and a mustachioed and plump-faced man who had eaten on light bread sergeant-major - and announced the verdict. Most of the deserters were sentenced to corporal punishment with rods, which was carried out by the Kalmyks in a non-residential house specially designated for this purpose. There were too many deserters in the militant Don army to flog them openly and publicly, as in 1918 ...
Panteley Prokofievich was called the sixth in a row. Excited and pale, he stood in front of the judges' table, holding his hands at his sides.
Introduction
In Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Don", according to researchers of the writer's work, there are more than 880 characters. About 30 of them play a significant role in the narrative. Among the main characters of "The Quiet Flows the Don" by Sholokhov, one can distinguish: Grigory Melekhov, Aksinya Astakhova, Natalya Melekhova, Pyotr Melekhov, Stepan Astakhov, Panteley Prokofievich Melekhov. This list goes on. But we decided to consider only the fate of the heroes listed above.
Characteristics of the main characters of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don"
Aksinya Astakhova
- one of the main characters of "The Quiet Flows the Don", a neighbor and lover of Grigory Melekhov. At eighteen, Aksinya was married to Stepan Astakhov, but the marriage did not bring her happiness. Stepan, having learned that his wife was "unclean", from the first day of marriage began to beat her. In addition, he drank and constantly cheated on a woman. The birth of a baby, it would seem, should have changed Stepan's attitude towards Aksinya, but the child soon dies, and the heroine's torment continues.
Aksinya begins to pursue a neighbor, Grigory Melekhov. At first, the woman does not accept the guy's courtship, but gradually she also becomes imbued with tender feelings for him. The heroes of the novel "Quiet Don" enter into a love affair, which, intermittently, continues throughout the entire work. Aksinya's life ends tragically. On the way to the Kuban, a random bullet overtakes her, and the heroine dies.
Stepan Astakhov
- Husband of Aksinya, neighbor of the Melekhovs. This hero can not be called positive in any way. Although he himself constantly drinks and walks around the "zhelmerki", Stepan regularly beats his wife because she got to him "spoiled". Upon learning of Aksinya's connection with Grigory, Stepan is imbued with hatred for all the Melekhovs. A quarrel with Peter during a trip from the camp develops into a real enmity after the rescue of Aksinya by the Melekhov brothers, whom Stepan beats on the street.
During the First World War, Astakhov is saved from death by Grigory, whom Stepan swore to kill. Subsequently, Stepan talks with Grigory, even sitting at the same table with him. But Astakhov and Melekhov in their hearts never reconcile with each other. Not finding his place on the farm at new government, Stepan leaves for the Crimea.
Grigory Melekhov
- the central character in The Quiet Flows the Don and the most complex character in the novel. It is his fate that captures the attention of the reader. At the beginning of the work, Gregory leads the ordinary life of a farm boy. During the day he helps his father with the housework, and in the evening he goes to the "games". The only thing that breaks the measured course of his life is love for Aksinya Astakhova.
First service in the army changes everything, and then the First World War. Getting to the front, Gregory is faced with violence and injustice that his soul cannot accept. The hero is attracted by the ideas of Garanzhi, and then Chubaty, and he goes over to the side of the Reds. But here, too, he is disappointed. The last straw is the execution of young officers led by Chernetsov. Grigory leaves the Reds and participates in the Cossack uprising, and then ends up in Fomin's gang.
Until the end of the work, Grigory Melekhov is in search of his own path. Tired of the war, he longs for a quiet life. But fate does not give him a chance for happiness. Aksinya, Grigory's beloved, dies, and the hero, completely devastated, without waiting for an amnesty, returns to his native farm to his sister and son.
Natalya Melekhova
– daughter of a wealthy Cossack Miron Grigorievich Korshunov, married to Grigory Melekhov. Natalia fell in love with her husband with all her heart, only he does not reciprocate her love. In The Quiet Don, the characters try several times to improve their lives, but to no avail. Grigory, who married Natalya not out of love, but at the request of his father, cannot forget Aksinya. Natalya even tries to commit suicide, unable to bear the shame and mental anguish.
Only the birth of children gives the heroine strength and fills her life with new meaning. The fate of Natalia, like many other characters in the novel, is tragic. Having learned from Daria that Grigory is dating Aksinya again, she decides to get rid of the pregnancy and dies from blood loss.
Peter Melekhov
– eldest son of Panteley Prkofievich and Vasilisa Ilyinichna, brother of Grigory. In peaceful years, Peter manifests himself as a gentle person who loves his family, especially his younger brother. So, Peter, without hesitation, helps him save Aksinya from the brutalized Stepan Astakhov, warns him about the consequences of communication with Aksinya.
Peter changes dramatically when he goes to war. Unlike Gregory, there is no doubt for him which side he is on. The hero becomes cruel and greedy. Easily kills enemies, does not disdain looting, sending whole carts with looted goods to the farm. Peter's life ends near a ravine, not far from the farm, where he and other fellow villagers enter into battle with the Reds. Peter, captured, is shot by Mikhail Koshevoy.
Panteley Prokofievich Melekhov
- the head of the Melekhov family, the father of Grigory and Peter. Domineering and often unrestrained, he does not tolerate any objections from his family, often "teaching" them not only in word, but also in deed.
Senior Melekhov lives all his life in the interests of the family. It is through his efforts that the Melekhovs' house becomes one of the most prosperous in the farm. He successfully, as it seems to him, marries his sons, rejoices in their successes in military service. Only worries about children undermine his strength, deprive him of his former power in the house. And he dies "having gone into retreat" in a foreign land, far from everything that was dear to him during his lifetime.
Conclusion
As you can see, in the novel "The Quiet Flows the Flows Flows the Don", the characters who play the main role in the story, for the most part, end their lives tragically. Historical events events taking place in the country radically change the fate of people, often breaking it. The heroes of Sholokhov, who have fallen into the maelstrom of history, cannot stand aside either.
Artwork test
Pantelei Prokofievich uses phrases like “there was no poppy dew in your mouth”, “what you think about is what you pop”. What is the name of such figurative folk sayings?
From that day on, the gun rumble sounded non-stop for four days. Dawns were especially audible. But when the northeast wind blew, the thunder of distant battles was heard even in the middle of the day. Work on the threshing floors stopped for a minute, the women crossed themselves, sighed heavily, remembering their relatives, whispering prayers, and then again the stone rollers began to rumble dully on the currents, the chasing boys urged the horses and bulls, the winnowing machines rattled, the labor day entered into its inalienable rights. The end of August was fine and dry to a marvel. The wind carried chaff dust around the farm, the sweet smell of threshed rye straw, the sun warmed mercilessly, but the approach of autumn was already felt in everything. In the pasture, faded gray sagebrush gleamed dully white, the tops of the poplars behind the Don turned yellow, the smell of Antonovka became sharper in the gardens, the distant horizons cleared up like autumn, and the first villages of migratory cranes already appeared on the empty fields.
On the Hetman's Way, from day to day, wagon trains stretched from west to east, bringing military supplies to the crossings across the Don, and refugees appeared in the Obdon farms. They said that the Cossacks were retreating with battles; some assured that this retreat was deliberate, in order to lure the Reds, and then surround them and destroy them. Some of the Tatars slowly began to get ready to leave. They fed bulls and horses, at night they buried bread in pits, chests with the most valuable property. The rumble of guns, which had been silent, resumed on September 5 with renewed vigor and now sounded distinctly and menacingly. The fighting went on forty versts from the Don, in the direction to the northeast from Tatarsky. A day later thundered upstream in the west. The front moved inexorably towards the Don.
Ilyinichna, who knew that most of the farmers were going to retreat, suggested that Dunyashka leave. She experienced a feeling of confusion and bewilderment and did not know what to do with the household, with the house; whether it is necessary to leave all this and leave with people or stay at home. Before leaving for the front, Pantelei Prokofievich talked about threshing, about the fall, about cattle, but did not say a word about how they should be if the front approaches Tatarsky. Just in case, Ilyinichna decided this: to send Dunyashka with the children and the most valuable property with one of the farmsteaders, and to stay on her own, even if the Reds occupied the farmhouse.
On the night of September 17, Pantelei Prokofievich unexpectedly appeared at home. He came on foot from the Kazan village, exhausted, angry. After resting for half an hour, he sat down at the table and began to eat in a way that Ilyinichna had never seen in her entire life; half-bucket iron of lean cabbage soup seemed to have thrown it for itself, and then fell on millet porridge. Ilyinichna threw up her hands in amazement:
Lord, how can you eat, Prokofich! How, tell me, you haven't eaten for three days!
And you thought - ate, you old fool! For three days there was no poppy dew in my mouth!
Well, they don’t feed you there, do they?
Damn they fed them like that! - purring like a cat, with a full mouth, answered Pantelei Prokofievich. - What you think is what you pop, but I didn’t learn how to steal isho. This is good for young people, they don’t have a conscience even for a semak [two kopecks] ... They got so full of theft for this damned war that I was terrified, terrified, and stopped. All that they see - they take, pull, drag ... Not war, but the passion of the Lord!
(M. A. Sholokhov, Quiet Flows the Don)
What kind of literature does “Quiet Flows the Don” by M. A. Sholokhov belong to?
Explanation.
Epos is a kind of literature (along with lyrics and drama), a narrative about events assumed in the past (as if accomplished and remembered by the narrator). Epic works are characterized by the breadth of coverage of reality: they fully reflect both the private life of individuals and the public life of the people.
Answer: epic.
Answer: epic
Name the novel by A. S. Pushkin about the Pugachev uprising, in which, like in The Quiet Don, the elements of the Russian rebellion are depicted.
Explanation.
The element of the Russian rebellion is depicted in the historical novel by A.S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter"
Answer: Captain's daughter.
Answer: captain's daughter|Captain's daughter
Source: USE - 2017. Early wave
Establish a correspondence between the characters appearing in this novel and the facts of their future fate: for each position of the first column, select the corresponding position from the second column.
Write down the numbers in response, arranging them in the order corresponding to the letters:
A | B | AT |
Explanation.
Set up matches:
A) Dunyasha - will create a family with Koshev;
B) Natalya - will die, leaving children orphans;
C) Aksinya - will die from a stray bullet.
Answer: 214.
Answer: 214
Source: USE - 2017. Early wave
Indicate the surname of Panteley Prokofievich and his sons.
Explanation.
In the novel by M. Sholokhov "Quiet Flows the Don", the Melekhov family is represented, whose representatives are Pantelei Prokofievich and his sons.
From that day on, the gun rumble sounded non-stop for four days. Dawns were especially audible. But when the northeast wind blew, the thunder of distant battles was heard even in the middle of the day. Work on the threshing floors stopped for a minute, the women crossed themselves, sighed heavily, remembering their relatives, whispering prayers, and then again the stone rollers began to rumble dully on the currents, the chasing boys urged the horses and bulls. winnowing machines rattled, the labor day entered into its inalienable rights. The end of August was fine and dry to a marvel. The wind carried chaff dust around the farm, the sweet smell of threshed rye straw, the sun warmed mercilessly, but the approach of autumn was already felt in everything. In the pasture, faded gray sagebrush gleamed dully white, the tops of the poplars behind the Don turned yellow, the smell of Antonovka became sharper in the gardens, the distant horizons cleared up like autumn, and the first villages of migratory cranes already appeared on the empty fields.
Examples.
What term denotes a significant detail that carries an artistic function (for example, a half-bucket cast iron of lean cabbage soup, which the hungry Pantelei Prokofievich attacked)?
Pantelei Prokofievich uses phrases like “there was no poppy dew in your mouth”, “what you think about is what you pop”. What is the name of such figurative folk sayings?
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