- August 13, 2019
- Art
- Zakharova Lyalya
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, whose biography is closely connected with the Don Cossacks, is considered the greatest writer of the twentieth century. He is the author of such cult works as “Virgin Soil Upturned” and “Quiet Don”. They were published in large quantities not only in Russia, but also abroad. Mikhail Alexandrovich became a Nobel Prize laureate in literature.
The story of the writer's birth
Mikhail Sholokhov, whose biography is closely connected with literature, was born in mid-May 1905. His homeland was the famous Cossack village of Veshenskaya, comfortably located on the banks of the Don. At first, the family lived in the small village of Kruzhilinsky, Rostov region. Mikhail became the only child of the spouses Alexander Mikhailovich and Anastasia Danilovna.
The father of the future writer was a commoner, so he did not have a permanent job; most often he worked for hire. Because of this, the family had to move a lot from one place to another.
Mikhail's mother, despite the fact that she belonged to a Cossack family, was an orphan. Her life story is tragic. So, her father was a serf peasant of the Chernigov province, who eventually moved to the Don. When Anastasia was twelve years old, she was sent to serve the landowner Popova. The landowner married her to the rich village ataman Kuznetsov, but there was no love in this union. As soon as her daughter was stillborn, Anastasia went to Sholokhov. At that time it was a very brave act.
Anastasia Danilovna had a sharp mind and well-developed intuition, but she only learned to write and read when her son began studying at the gymnasium. She needed this in order not to depend on her husband and write letters to her son on her own.
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, whose biography is eventful, was an illegitimate child, since his parents were not in a legal relationship. Therefore, at first he had the surname Kuznetsov, which gave him the opportunity to obtain a plot of land for the Cossacks. In 1912, when his mother’s legal husband died, the Sholokhovs signed their marriage, and Mikhail finally received his last name and the status of the son of a tradesman.
The biography of Sholokhov Sr. begins in the Ryazan province, where his ancestors belonged to a wealthy dynasty. The grandfather of the famous writer belonged to the third guild of merchants, buying grain, and Mikhail’s father was at one time engaged in buying livestock and also sowed grain in the fields of the Cossacks. Therefore, the family always had money, and they never lived from hand to mouth. In 1910, the writer’s father entered the service of a merchant in the village of Karginskaya, and therefore they were forced to leave the Kruzhilinsky farm.
The shortest biography of M. Sholokhov for a reader's diary
Mikhail Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 in the family of a cattle buyer and the daughter of a peasant. He studied first at home, then at a parochial school, then at several gymnasiums. He began his career as a teacher of illiterate adults. Then he began working as an assistant accountant, and later as a tax inspector. By cunning, his parents free him from punishment for exceeding his authority. Later he engaged in self-education. Marries in 1924. Continues to write. In the period from 1924 to 1965, many of his stories and other works were published. In 1965 he received the Nobel Prize, which he distributed to build schools and support the army. For the last 20 years he has hardly written, but has been busy with housekeeping. February 21, 1984 dies of laryngeal cancer.
This is where M. Sholokhov’s biography ends. But his work can be found on other pages of the site.
Education
Beginning in 1910, Mikhail Sholokhov, whose biography is interesting to readers, began to learn preschool literacy. For this purpose, they hire him a home teacher. Timofey Mrykhin teaches the boy to count, write and read. Mikhail was a diligent student, but he also liked to walk and play mischief on the street. Subsequently, he will describe all the impressions of his childhood years in his stories.
In 1912, Mikhail Sholokhov, whose biography consists of several important stages, entered the Karginsky parish school. His teacher was Mikhail Kopylov, who later became the prototype of one of the characters in the famous novel “Quiet Don”. But an eye disease temporarily takes him away from his studies. Three years later he begins studying at a gymnasium for boys in Boguchar.
Mikhail graduated from four classes. Over the years, he often enjoyed reading the works of Nikolai Gogol and Anton Chekhov. During the revolutionary events, the Sholokhov family moved to the village of Elanskaya, as the father of the future writer became the manager of a steam mill. A few years later, the family moved to Karginskaya, where Mikhail’s father died in 1925. Mikhail himself was completely indifferent to the revolution.
Brief biography of Mikhail Sholokhov. The most important
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov - Soviet writer and public figure; twice Hero of Socialist Labor, full member of the Academy of Sciences, and also a Nobel Prize laureate in literature. Sholokhov was born on May 24, 1905 on the Kruzhilinsky farm. Initially, he bore the surname Kuznetsov, but in 1912 he changed it to his father’s surname - Sholokhov. In 1910, his family moved to the Karginovsky farm, where Mikhail studied at home with a local teacher. Then the boy studied for 1 year in Moscow at a men's gymnasium, and for 3 years at a gymnasium in the Voronezh region. He was forced to leave his studies and return home due to the outbreak of the First World War. In 1922, the writer moved to Moscow for the purpose of further education. Here he met many poets of the Young Guard circle. In 1923, his first feuilleton, “Test,” appeared in the Yunosheskaya Pravda newspaper. It was followed by the feuilletons “Three” and “The Inspector General”. A year later, the story “Mole” was published. In 1924, Sholokhov married an elementary school teacher, Maria Gromoslavskaya. In 1925, he met Alexander Serafimovich, whom he later called one of his first teachers. Meanwhile, the young writer’s stories appeared in the magazine, which were later combined into the “Azure Steppe” and “Don Stories” cycles. At the end of 1926, he began working on the book "Quiet Don". In 1932, the first volume of the book “Virgin Soil Upturned” was published, which shocked the country’s literary community. The second volume appeared only in 1959. During the Great Patriotic War, the writer worked as a war correspondent and often visited the front. At the same time, he began publishing parts of his new novel, They Fought for the Motherland. In 1965, Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novel Quiet Don. After the war, he was mainly involved in social activities, and in recent years he became interested in fishing and hunting. The writer died on February 21, 1984 in the village of Vyoshenskaya, Rostov region, at the age of 78 years. He was buried there, in the courtyard of his house on the banks of the Don River.
Party member Sholokhov
Having accepted the victory of the Reds, Mikhail Sholokhov, whose biography has some dark spots, joined the Communist Party in 1930. He had a positive characteristic, since he had not participated in any movements before. But there was one “black” spot in his communist biography. In 1922 he was appointed tax inspector and his duties included collecting hidden grain. One day he could not resist and took a bribe with a horse.
For such an act he was sentenced to death. But his parents were able to give him a false birth certificate, and his sentence was changed to a year of forced labor. But in some strange way he escaped this punishment. After this, Mikhail Alexandrovich had a desire to become a student and get a higher education, but he was not accepted because he did not have the necessary documents.
Essays
A writer who created cult works known throughout the world. Sholokhov, as his biography reports, was similar in character to his heroes - honest, and, let's say briefly, incredibly courageous.
M.A. Sholokhov biography
In the Rostov region in the village of Veshenskaya in May 1905, a boy was born - Mikhail Sholokhov. As his brief biography tells, he inherited his rebellious disposition from his parents. The mother, who was married off against her will, ran away from her husband, the ataman’s son, to Mikhail’s father. My father was not a nobleman; he bought livestock from the population.
In 1910, the family moved to the village of Karginskaya. The boy was taught by a visiting teacher. Then Misha received knowledge at the Moscow men's gymnasium. Afterwards he studied at the Bogucharsky gymnasium near Voronezh. When German troops were about to arrive in the city, he went to his native village, leaving school. After the Bolshevik victory, Mikhail's father became the head of the office of the Don Food Committee. Mikhail worked in the Revolutionary Committee.
A brief biography of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov reports that he worked as a food inspector, and then commanded a food detachment. In 1920, a detachment led by Sholokhov, who was barely 15 years old, was captured by the Makhnovists. He miraculously escaped execution.
He joined the ranks of the Komsomol. During the war years 1941-1945. was a war correspondent. He wrote world-famous literary works, for which he was awarded several prizes.
Laryngeal cancer was the cause of death on February 21, 1984.
Literary creativity
Sholokhov's feuilletons were published in newspapers. In the biography of Sholokhov, printed publications placed his stories on their pages, most importantly, they were remembered by readers, and later became part of the collections “Don Stories” and “Azure Steppe”.
Volumes of "Quiet Don" were published successively from 1928 to 1940. A world-famous novel about the Don Cossacks, the destructive First World War and the Civil War - destroying not only cities, villages, but also families. The main character - Grigory Melekhov - did not take the “right side” - did not come to the ranks of the Bolsheviks. The manuscript was read and approved by Secretary General Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. Quiet Don was read in different countries of the world, where it was also a success.
“Virgin Soil Upturned” is a novel, two volumes of which took 27 years to write, dedicated to the progress of collectivization in the Don lands.
The story “The Fate of a Man” was a success among readers; the author published excerpts from “They Fought for the Motherland” in magazines. Sholokhov, as his biography reports, published briefly written patriotic and journalistic texts of his literary work.
Personal life
He got married to schoolteacher Maria Petrovna Gromoslavskaya, although he was wooing her younger sister. The bride's father, a Cossack ataman, said that he would marry his eldest daughter first. The most important thing is that the couple lived happily; Sholokhov had four children in his marriage: 2 sons and 2 daughters.
Interesting Facts
The writer burned “They Fought for the Motherland.” Therefore, only individual chapters of the novel have survived to our times.
The house in Veshenskaya, in which M.A. Sholokhov lived until his death, as his short biography tells, and became a museum in his memory.
He donated his well-deserved awards to the Defense Fund and for the construction of 2 schools: in Veshenskaya and a new school in the Karginsky district.
Mikhail Sholokhov was buried in the courtyard of his house in the village of Veshenskaya.
Save it to your wall so you don’t lose it!
Writing activity
The creative biography of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov began in 1923. At first he wrote small feuilletons, which were published in the newspaper “Youthful Truth”. He wrote three short satirical stories, which were signed by Mich. Sholokhov. But if “The Inspector General,” “Test,” and “Three” were published, the newspaper did not accept the story “The Beast,” which he wrote in 1924. The work tells about a food commissar who, when returning to his homeland, learns that his father has been declared an enemy of the people.
After the refusal, Mikhail Alexandrovich began to collaborate with the newspaper “Young Leninist”, and he also published his stories in other printed publications. These are, for example, the famous cycle “Don Stories” and the collection “Azure Steppe”.
"Virgin Soil Upturned"
And then came another equally famous literary masterpiece, a two-volume book about the times of collectivization - “Virgin Soil Upturned” (1932-1959). For him the writer received the Lenin Prize.
Sholokhov’s biography briefly tells that during the Second World War he served as a war correspondent and wrote several essays and stories: “The Science of Hate”, “Cossacks”, “On the Don”, etc.
Sholokhov’s very famous works were “The Fate of a Man” (1956) and the novel, which remained unfinished, “They Fought for the Motherland” (1942-1969).
Epic novel "Quiet Don"
A creative biography of Sholokhov would be incomplete if we did not talk about his work “Quiet Don”. This epic novel consists of four volumes. It is still studied in school and is compared in importance to Leo Tolstoy’s greatest work, “War and Peace.” There were many conflicts around the novel “Quiet Don”, as the famous writer Sholokhov was even accused of plagiarism. These debates are still ongoing.
The first two volumes of the novel were first published in 1928 in the magazine “October”, and discussions immediately began about who the author of this text was. Some researchers claim that the writer found the manuscript of the novel in the field bag of a white officer who was shot by the Bolsheviks, and Mikhail Alexandrovich appropriated the manuscript for himself. They say that an elderly woman called the newspaper editor anonymously, claiming that it was her son's manuscript.
But editor Alexander Serafimovich did not pay any attention to such calls, believing that this was just human envy, because Mikhail Sholokhov wrote his wonderful work at the age of 22. After the publication of the novel, fame and popularity immediately came to the young writer. But there is another opinion that Trotsky’s comrades wanted to temporarily stop the printing of the third volume of the novel so that people would not find out about the events of 1919 that took place in the Cossack village of Veshenskaya.
The plot of the novel describes the life of the Don Cossacks. The plot is based on the life of the Melekhov family, where two sons and a daughter are growing up. But as soon as revolutionary events begin in the country, it also affects the Cossack family. Grigory rushes between the whites and the reds, not understanding which side the truth is on. He is also unlucky in love. His father marries him to Natalya, whom he does not love. And soon he and Aksinya, the neighbor’s wife, run away from home. He has to go through a lot. His family does not accept his choice, but Grigory rushes about. And these moral vacillations of the protagonist are well described in the novel.
This whole story, both love and historical, ends tragically. Aksinya and the child die, and gradually all members of Gregory’s family die. At the end of the novel, he remains with the children that Natalya bore to him. They will have to raise the destroyed family and village.
Creation
The creative biography of Mikhail Sholokhov began in 1923, when his first stories entitled “The Inspector General,” “Three,” and “Test” appeared in the Youthful Truth publication.
These satirical works became the young man’s debut in literature. In those years, the writer worked under the name Mikh. Sholokh.
The next story by a young prose writer called “The Beast” was refused publication due to controversial topics that raised questions that were inconvenient for the Bolsheviks.
The main character of the story was the food appropriation commissioner, who himself fell into the millstones of the system he supported.
After this, Mikhail Sholokhov worked for some time with the publication “Young Leninist”. It was here that his stories were published. Although from time to time the writer collaborated with other Komsomol newspapers.
Alexander Ilsky and Mikhail Sholokhov in the editorial office of Roman-Gazeta. Late 1920s
Later, scattered works were included in two collections: “Don Stories” and “Azure Steppe”.
At the end of the 1920s, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov was a fairly well-known figure in narrow circles. But the real popularity of the writer came after the publication of a novel in four volumes entitled “Quiet Don”.
Now this work is included in the curriculum for schoolchildren and even students. It is seriously compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. However, the novel has a rather difficult fate. And its history is covered with a veil of myths. One of these concerns the authorship of the work.
Alexei Tolstoy and Mikhail Sholokhov 1930s
Oddly enough, Sholokhov was repeatedly suspected of plagiarism. This story began back in 1928, when the first two volumes of the work were published in the October magazine.
Literary scholars almost immediately began to argue whether the writer was really the author of this novel. As a version, they assumed that Sholokhov took the finished manuscript from the bag of one of the killed White Guards.
Immediately there were imaginary witnesses. There were a lot of calls from “concerned” people who said that they could confirm this fact. And one elderly woman seriously stated that the novel belonged to her executed son.
The editor of the magazine did not take these accusations seriously, attributing everything to ordinary envy and the desire to become famous in someone else's name. Although there were also opposing assessments.
Working on the manuscript. M. A. Sholokhov with the editor of the novel Quiet Don Yu. B. Lukin
For example, one journalist, Joseph Gerasimov, took the view that the editor did not want to put himself at risk and stir up a huge scandal.
At the end of the 20s, this dirty story reached Stalin himself. He ordered the formation of a commission that could verify the accuracy of the facts and also establish the truth. It was headed by M. Ulyanov. Mikhail provided the manuscript of the novel without any problems, after which all suspicions about him disappeared.
But this did not reassure critics of Sholokhov’s work. The question of his authorship has been raised many times. Even after the death of a famous writer.
The issue was put to rest already in the 2000s, in the new millennium. Numerous biographers and literary scholars analyzed the writer’s novel and came to the final conclusion that he himself was indeed the author of the work.
A. Sofronov, A. Perventsev, M. Sholokhov in the guard of honor at Stalin’s tomb. Moscow. 1953
In 1950, two decades after the start of work on “Quiet Don,” the already eminent writer published the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned.”
However, the author is known not only for these works. His creative portfolio included prose about war. It includes the novels “They Fought for the Motherland” and “The Fate of a Man.”
The first has come down to us in the form of scattered fragments, since before his death Mikhail Sholokhov burned most of the work.
The Fate of a Man (drama, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, 1959)
During the war, the man worked as a correspondent. He often found himself in the hottest spots, but showed great fortitude and courage.
Mikhail Sholokhov at the front as a correspondent
For honest work on the battlefield, he was awarded medals and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
Nobel Prize
In 1958, Boris Pasternak was once again nominated for the prestigious Nobel Prize. But members of the Writers' Union were in Sweden and learned that other authors were being nominated, including Sholokhov. Soon a telegram was sent to the Swedish Ambassador, where it was said that the Soviet Union would joyfully accept the news that the prize would be awarded to Mikhail Alexandrovich.
However, the prize was still awarded to Pasternak, who at that time was not in the favor of the Soviet regime. He was forced to refuse the award. And in 1965 this prize went to the writer Sholokhov. It became known that when presenting the award, Sholokhov did not bow to the Swedish king, as was customary.
Interesting Facts
- When Sholokhov came to woo one of the daughters of P. Ya. Gromoslavsky, the former Cossack ataman offered to marry his other daughter, the eldest Maria. In 1924 they got married. They lived in marriage for 60 years, and four children were born into the family.
- Sholokhov was the only Soviet writer who received the Nobel Prize with the approval of the current government. He was called “Stalin’s favorite,” although Sholokhov was one of the few who was not afraid to tell the leader the truth.
- The problem of the authorship of his works periodically surfaced around the name of Sholokhov. After the publication of the novel “Quiet Don,” the question arose: how was such a young writer able to create such a voluminous work in such a short period. By order of Joseph Stalin, a commission was even created, which, after studying the writer’s manuscript, confirmed his authorship.
- In 1958, Boris Pasternak was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature along with Sholokhov, and he won this year's prize.
All interesting facts from the life of Sholokhov
Personal life
The biography of M. A. Sholokhov would be incomplete if we did not turn to the writer’s personal life. In 1924 he married Maria Gromoslavskaya. It is known that the writer himself first wooed Lydia’s younger sister, but then the girls’ father intervened. The village ataman Gromoslavsky insisted that Mikhail marry his eldest daughter.
Two years later, the couple had their first child, daughter Svetlana, and four years later, son Alexander. In 1935, son Mikhail was born, and three years later daughter Maria.
