Presidential Library marks 120th anniversary of Mikhail Sholokhov

24 May 2025 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Soviet writer Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (1905-1984). The Presidential Library's portal presents various materials related to his work, including lifetime editions of his works, audio recordings of his speeches, literary studies and photographic portraits.

The main milestones of the writer's biography and creative destiny can be learnt from the biographical essay Mikhail Sholokhov (1941). The book reveals the history of the creation of the novel-epic "The Quiet Don", which became one of the greatest literary events of the twentieth century. For "The Quiet Don" Mikhail Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in 1965.

The theme of Cossacks was close to Sholokhov. He was born in 1905 on the farm Kruzhilin (now Kruzhilinsky) of Vyoshenskaya stanitsa of the former region of the Army of the Don. Until 1918, the future writer studied in a gymnasium. His studies were interrupted by the military events that unfolded on the Don.

At the beginning of his literary activity as an 18-year-old young man Sholokhov came to Moscow. He had no writing skills at that time. To earn a livelihood, he had to work as a labourer, loader, bricklayer and clerk.

The first collection of stories appeared in print in 1925, after which Sholokhov conceived the idea of creating a great epic of the life of the Cossacks, the work that later took shape in the novel "The Quiet Don". To do this, Mikhail Sholokhov returned to his native place, where he was surrounded by familiar, native environment and characters of his future epic.

The literary community was not very friendly to Sholokhov. He received support from the Soviet writer, journalist, and war correspondent Alexander Serafimovich, who noted "the colourfulness of Sholokhov's language, a great knowledge of the reality he describes, a sense of artistic proportion, and a keen eye". Sholokhov's work was also highly appreciated by Maxim Gorky, who called the third volume of The Quiet Don "a work of high dignity".

Sholokhov's stories, novellas and novels are a single epic canvas about the fate of the people. After Don Stories, The Quiet Don became the centrepiece, and Virgin Soil Upturned was its sequel.

In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, the world-famous writer became a war correspondent of the newspaper Pravda. The success of his novel They Fought for the Motherland is explained by the fact that Sholokhov was at the centre of events, together with the people. In every line, the author tells us at the cost of what suffering, labour, courage and patience the Russian people got a peaceful life.

The years of Mikhail Sholokhov's life in his native village of Vyoshenskaya were the time when his talent as a writer and public figure flourished. Here he worked, received numerous guests and participated in various events.

In the collection of the Presidential Library there is a unique record of Mikhail Aleksandrovich's welcome speech at the international writers' meeting held in Leningrad in August 1963. Sholokhov greeted the famous writers of Europe with these words: "The leaders of the USSR Writers' Union know me as a bully polemicist. So they decided to give Sholokhov the floor as the first Soviet writer to greet the dear guests, and then it would be inconvenient for him to criticise their speeches. Diplomacy worked. It is much easier to say pleasant things to a person than unpleasant things...".

In his native village Vyoshenskaya Mikhail Sholokhov lived about 60 years and called himself "a patriot of his native Don region". From here, from his native steppes, his creative path began, and here, on the high bank of the Don, Mikhail Aleksandrovich was buried in 1984.