Mikhail Sholokhov for the first time in literature with such breadth and scope showed the life of the Don Cossacks and the revolution. The best features of the Don Cossack are expressed in the image of Grigory Melekhov. "Grigory firmly protected the Cossack honor." He is a patriot of his land, a man who is completely devoid of the desire to acquire or rule, who has never stooped to robbery. The prototype of Gregory is a Cossack from the village of Bazka, the village of Veshenskaya Kharlampy Vasilyevich Ermakov.
Mikhail Sholokhov for the first time in literature with such breadth and scope showed the life of the Don Cossacks and the revolution.
The best features of the Don Cossack are expressed in the image of Grigory Melekhov. "Grigory firmly protected the Cossack honor." He is a patriot of his land, a man who is completely devoid of the desire to acquire or rule, who has never stooped to robbery. The prototype of Gregory is a Cossack from the village of Bazka, the village of Veshenskaya Kharlampy Vasilyevich Ermakov.
Gregory comes from a middle-class family, which is used to working on its own land. Before the war, we see Gregory thinking little about social issues. The Melekhov family lives in abundance. Grigory loves his farm, his farm, his work. Labor was his need. More than once during the war, with dull anguish, Grigory recalled close people, his native farm, work in the fields: “It would be nice to take hold of the chapigi with your hands and go along the wet furrow behind the plow, greedily absorbing with your nostrils the damp and insipid smell of loosened earth, the bitter aroma of grass cut by a plowshare ".
Grigory Melekhov's deep humanity is revealed in a difficult family drama, in the trials of war. His character is characterized by a heightened sense of justice. During haymaking, Grigory hit the nest with a scythe, cut a wild duckling. With a feeling of acute pity, Grigory looks at the dead lump lying on his palm. In this feeling of pain, that love for all living things, for people, for nature, which distinguished Gregory, was manifested.
Therefore, it is natural that Gregory, thrown into the heat of the war, experiences his first battle hard and painfully, cannot forget the Austrian he killed. “I cut down a man in vain and I’m sick through him, a reptile, with my soul,” he complains to his brother Peter.
During World War I, Gregory fought bravely, he was the first to receive the St. George Cross from the farm, without thinking about why he shed blood.
In the hospital, Gregory met the smart and caustic Bolshevik soldier Garanzha. Under the fiery power of his words, the foundations on which Gregory's consciousness rested began to smoke.
His search for the truth begins, which from the very beginning acquire a clear socio-political connotation, he has to choose between two various forms board. Gregory was tired of the war, of this hostile world, he was seized by a desire to return to a peaceful farm life, to plow the land and take care of the cattle. The obvious nonsense of the war awakens in him restless thoughts, melancholy, acute discontent.
The war did not bring Gregory anything good. Sholokhov, focusing on the internal transformations of the hero, writes the following: “With cold contempt, he played with someone else's life and with his own life ... he knew that he would no longer laugh at him, as before; he knew that his eyes were hollow and his cheekbones were sharp; he knew that it was difficult for him, kissing a child, to openly look into clear eyes; Gregory knew what price he had paid for the full bow of crosses and production.
During the revolution, Gregory's search for truth continues. After a dispute with Kotlyarov and Koshev, where the hero declares that the promotion of equality is just a bait to catch ignorant people, Grigory comes to the conclusion that it is stupid to look for a single universal truth. At different people- their own different truth depending on their aspirations. The war appears to him as a conflict between the truth of the Russian peasants and the truth of the Cossacks. The peasants need the Cossack land, the Cossacks protect it.
Mishka Koshevoy, now his son-in-law (since Dunyashka's husband) and chairman of the revolutionary committee, receives Grigory with blind distrust and says that he should be punished without leniency for fighting the Reds.
The prospect of being shot seems to Grigory an unfair punishment due to his service in the 1st cavalry army of Budyonny (Fought on the side of the Cossacks during the Vyoshensky uprising of 1919, then the Cossacks united with the whites, and after surrendering in Novorossiysk, Grigory was no longer needed), and he decides to get away from arrest . This flight signifies Gregory's final break with the Bolshevik regime. The Bolsheviks did not justify his trust, not taking into account his service in the 1st Cavalry, and they made an enemy out of him with their intention to take his life. The Bolsheviks let him down in a more reprehensible way than the Whites, who did not have enough steamers to evacuate all the troops from Novorossiysk. These two betrayals are the climax of Gregory's political odyssey in book 4. They justify his moral rejection of each of the warring parties and set off his tragic position.
The treacherous attitude towards Gregory on the part of the Whites and Reds is in sharp contrast to the constant loyalty of people close to him. This personal loyalty is not dictated by any political considerations. The epithet “faithful” is often used (Aksinya’s love is “faithful”, Prokhor is a “faithful orderly”, Grigory’s checker served him “correctly”).
The last months of Gregory's life in the novel are distinguished by a complete disconnection of consciousness from everything earthly. The worst thing in life - the death of his beloved - has already happened. All he wants in life is to see once again his native farm and his children. “Then it would be possible to die,” he thinks (at the age of 30) that he has no illusions about what awaits him in Tatarsky. When the desire to see the children becomes irresistible, he goes to his native farm. The last sentence of the novel says that the son and native home- this is "everything that remained in his life, which still made him related to his family and to the whole ... world."
Grigory's love for Aksinya illustrates the author's view of the predominance of natural impulses in man. Sholokhov's attitude to nature clearly shows that he, like Grigory, does not consider war to be the most reasonable way to solve socio-political problems.
Sholokhov's judgments about Grigory, known from the press, differ greatly from each other, since their content depends on the political climate of the time. In 1929, in front of workers from Moscow factories: "Grigory, in my opinion, is a kind of symbol of the middle peasants of the Don Cossacks."
And in 1935: “Melekhov has a very individual destiny, and in him I do not try to personify the middle peasant Cossacks.”
And in 1947, he argued that Grigory personifies the typical features of not only "a well-known layer of the Don, Kuban and all other Cossacks, but also the Russian peasantry as a whole." At the same time, he emphasized the uniqueness of Gregory's fate, calling it "largely individual". Sholokhov thus killed two birds with one stone. He could not be reproached for hinting that the majority of the Cossacks had the same anti-Soviet views as Grigory, and he showed that, first of all, Grigory is a fictional person, and not an exact copy of a certain socio-political type.
In the post-Stalin period, Sholokhov was as sparing in his comments about Grigory as before, but he expressed his understanding of Grigory's tragedy. For him, this is the tragedy of a truth-seeker who is misled by the events of his time and lets the truth elude him. The truth, of course, is on the side of the Bolsheviks. At the same time, Sholokhov clearly expressed his opinion about the purely personal aspects of Grigory's tragedy and spoke out against the crude politicization of the scene from the film by S. Gerasimov (going uphill - son on his shoulder - to the heights of communism). Instead of a picture of a tragedy, you can get a kind of frivolous poster.
Sholokhov's statement about Grigory's tragedy shows that, at least in the press, he speaks of it in the language of politics. The hero's tragic situation is the result of Gregory's failure to get closer to the Bolsheviks, the bearers of the true truth. In Soviet sources, this is the only interpretation of the truth. Someone puts all the blame on Gregory, others emphasize the role of the mistakes of the local Bolsheviks. The central government, of course, is beyond reproach.
The Soviet critic L. Yakimenko notes that “Grigory's struggle against the people, against the great truth of life, will lead to devastation and an inglorious end. On the ruins of the old world, a tragically broken man will stand before us - he will have no place in the beginning of a new life.
The tragic fault of Gregory was not his political orientation, but his true love for Aksinya. This is how the tragedy is presented in The Quiet Don, according to the later researcher Ermolaev.
Gregory managed to maintain humane qualities. The influence of historical forces on him is frighteningly enormous. They destroy his hopes for a peaceful life, drag him into wars that he considers senseless, make him lose both faith in God and a sense of pity for man, but they are still powerless to destroy the main thing in his soul - his innate decency, his ability to true love.
Grigory remained Grigory Melekhov, a confused man whose life was burned to the ground by the civil war.
Image system
There are a large number of characters in the novel, and many do not have their own names at all, but they act, influence the development of the plot and the relationship of the characters.
The action is centered around Grigory and his inner circle: Aksinya, Panteley Prokofievich and the rest of his family. Acts in the novel and a number of genuine historical characters: Cossack revolutionaries F. Podtelkov, White Guard generals Kaledin, Kornilov.
Critic L. Yakimenko, expressing the Soviet view of the novel, singled out 3 main themes in the novel and, accordingly, 3 large groups of characters: the fate of Grigory Melekhov and the Melekhov family; Don Cossacks and Revolution; party and revolutionary people.
Images of Cossack women
Women, wives and mothers, sisters and loved ones of the Cossacks steadfastly bore their share of the hardships of the civil war. Difficult, turning point in life Don Cossacks shown by the author through the prism of the life of family members, residents of the Tatarsky farm.
The stronghold of this family is the mother of Grigory, Peter and Dunyashka Melekhov - Ilyinichna. Before us is an elderly Cossack woman, who has adult sons, and the youngest daughter, Dunyashka, is already a teenager. One of the main character traits of this woman can be called calm wisdom. Otherwise, she simply could not get along with her emotional and quick-tempered husband. Without any fuss, she runs the household, takes care of children and grandchildren, not forgetting their emotional experiences. Ilyinichna is an economical and prudent hostess. She maintains not only external order in the house, but also monitors the moral atmosphere in the family. She condemns Grigory’s relationship with Aksinya, and, realizing how hard it is for Grigory’s legal wife Natalya to live with her husband, treat her like her own daughter, trying in every possible way to facilitate her work, pity her, sometimes even give her an extra hour to sleep. The fact that Natalya lives in the Melekhovs' house after a suicide attempt says a lot about Ilyinichna's character. So, in this house there was warmth, which the young woman so needed.
In any life situation, Ilyinichna is deeply decent and sincere. She understands Natalya, who was exhausted by her husband's betrayals, lets her cry, and then tries to dissuade her from rash acts. Gently cares for the sick Natalia, for her grandchildren. Condemning Daria for being too free, she nevertheless hides her illness from her husband so that he does not kick her out of the house. There is some greatness in her, the ability not to pay attention to trifles, but to see the main thing in family life. She has wisdom and calmness.
Natalya: The strength of her love for Gregory is evidenced by her suicide attempt. She had to endure too much, her heart is worn out by constant struggle. Only after the death of his wife, Gregory understands how much she meant to him, how strong and handsome man was. He loved his wife through his children.
In the novel, Natalya is opposed by Aksinya, also a deeply unhappy heroine. Her husband often beat her. With all the ardor of her unspent heart, she loves Gregory, is ready to go selflessly with him, wherever he calls her. Aksinya dies in the arms of her beloved, which becomes another terrible blow for Grigory, now the "black sun" shines on Grigory, he was left without the warm, gentle, sunlight - Aksinya's love.
Of course, such love could hardly be happy, because there were too many obstacles in its way. More than once, lovers tried to be together, but in the end they parted. First, the parting happened by the will of Gregory, and then by the will of fate: the heroes were separated for a long time by the First World War, and after that by the Civil War.
During the period " german war» Grigory goes to the front, where he fights bravely and bravely, defending his homeland, and is even awarded the St. George Cross for saving the life of an officer. At first young man it is difficult to get used to the cruelty of the war, and he is hard pressed by the murder of an Austrian committed by him. But, as Grigory gains experience in battles, and especially when he once again breaks up with Aksinya, the man begins to “play with someone else’s life and his life with cold contempt”, as well as “show selfless courage”, unjustifiably risk himself and "go crazy".
One of the most difficult trials for Gregory is the Civil War. The hero for a long time cannot choose the side on which he wants to fight, for which the chairman Podtelkov accuses the man of serving "both ours and yours ... who will give more." But Gregory's doubts have a different basis. The hero sees all the wrongness of this war, since both the Red Army and the Cossacks, who support the White Guards, behave equally cruelly: they act outrageously, brutally crack down on prisoners and their relatives, and also engage in looting.
The war forces Gregory to be away from home for a long time, away from Aksinya. When, finally, the Bolsheviks win, and the hero, tired of constant and senseless battles, decides to flee with his beloved to the Kuban, “the worst thing that could happen in his life” happens - Aksinya dies.
The death of a beloved woman completely devastates Gregory, his life becomes black, "like a steppe scorched by fires." Only with time does the hero begin to be overcome by longing for children, and he nevertheless returns home. But here another heavy blow awaits the man: he learns that his daughter Polyushka died of scarlet fever.
And now, the only thing that remains now with Gregory, the only thing that still makes the hero related to the earth is his little son Mishatka. And it is not clear what the Cossack should do now with his crippled life, where to go and who to become in this new unfamiliar country, in this "huge world shining under the cold sun."
5. Two Grigory Melekhov
Every person is truth to a greater or lesser extent, and truth requires a calm and impartial investigation, requires that its investigation be approached with respect for it, at least without a decision taken in advance to find it a lie.
V. Belinsky. T. 3. S. 374
Quiet Don is one of the most beloved works of the Soviet people. M. Sholokhov in his epic novel deeply truthfully painted the most complex picture of revolutionary transformations in our country. An entire era with its social and psychological conflicts and contradictions has received its vivid and artistic reproduction on the pages of this novel.
Among the most diverse human destinies revealed in The Quiet Don, the attention of readers is attracted by the extraordinary personality of Grigory Melekhov, his complex, contradictory life, and his tragic fate. As if alive, Gregory gets up, with his individual temperament, with his own character, inherent only to him, with all his strong and weak features. With unflagging attention we follow the fate of the hero, we experience a feeling of sympathy, compassion, bitterness, regret. With all the mistakes he makes, with all his contradictions, even at the most critical moments, the spiritual qualities that arouse our sympathy do not dry out in him: honesty, sincerity, courage, truthfulness and directness. Such is the power of the artistic word: a brilliant writer completely and completely captures the heart of the reader and makes him love the one he loves, hate the one he hates, sympathize with the one he sympathizes with.
But it is worth getting acquainted with the interpretation of the image of Grigory Melekhov in the critical literature about the "Quiet Don", as the question immediately arises: is this Grigory, whom we just read about in M. Sholokhov's novel? From the pages of books and articles devoted to The Quiet Don, a completely different image of Grigory Melekhov arises, little corresponding to that depicted by Sholokhov. Only from the facts of the external biography and quotations from the novel can one guess that they are talking about Grigory Melekhov from The Quiet Flows the Don. However, this second Grigory Melekhov, constructed by critics, appears before us as a character dominated by negative traits. And in order to debunk it, the author of The Quiet Flows the Don, according to critics, comes up with "Dante's seven circles of hell" ( Lezhnev I. M. Sholokhov. 1948. S. 164), executes, punishes him.
First of all, attention should be paid to the means and techniques by which some critics and researchers prove this thesis. So, arguing that Grigory Melekhov is “pitiful, as only a fratricide rejected by people can be pitiful and contemptible” (Ibid., p. 167), I. Lezhnev refers to the text of the novel, where through the eyes of Aksinya a detailed portrait of Grigory is given. After a long separation, they are together again. Aksinya looks at the sleeping Gregory. “He slept with his lips slightly parted, breathing evenly ... Lowering her eyes, she glanced briefly at his large knotted hands and for some reason sighed.” Having quoted this passage in its entirety, I. Lezhnev concludes: “The eyes of the beloved are the mirror of the soul. Sholokhov's description of Grigory's cruel face and terrible knobby hands ... says: this is the face of a murderer ”( Lezhnev I. Decree. op. P. 160. Here and in the future, M. Sholokhov is quoted from the publication: Sholokhov M.A. Sobr. cit.: In 8 vols. M .: Goslitizdat, 1957). Is this conclusion consistent with the text of the novel? No, Aksinya noticed "something stern, almost cruel in the features of his face, looked at his big knobby hands."
The author of the monograph on The Quiet Don goes further. Analyzing the portrait of Grigory, given in the novel through the perception of a young Cossack woman-podvodnitsa, the researcher comes to the conclusion that Grigory Melekhov, seen through her eyes, “wakes up pity, achingly dreary forebodings” ( Yakimenko L."Quiet Flows the Don" by M. Sholokhov. M., 1954. S. 134). However, the second part of the Cossack woman's thoughts refutes this conclusion. “His eyes are hard. No, he’s a good Cossack, only he’s a wonderful one” (T. 5, p. 356).
Other researchers also process the text of the novel in this way. Is it correct?
In The Quiet Don, M. Sholokhov tells about the Don Cossacks, about the most severe class struggle on the Don, about the difficult and difficult search by the bulk of the Cossacks for the right road to an alliance with the working class. Much was unclear to the labor Cossacks. This predetermined such situations in life, when part of the labor Cossacks took part in the counter-revolution. The clash between the revolutionary people and part of the working peasantry, which found itself in a camp hostile to the proletarian revolution, was tragic. At the same time, a tragic situation arose only at the moment when the working people who found themselves in the counter-revolutionary camp began to understand the fallacy of their path, to look for a way out of the situation, suffering and suffering from the inability to find the right way out. But this part of the working people, too, realizing their mistakes, subsequently comes to an alliance with the working class, with the proletarian revolution. It is in this sense that M.A. himself understands the tragic conflict. Sholokhov. Recalling the events of the civil war on the Don, M. Sholokhov in 1956 said that “in addition to notorious counter-revolutionaries, there were people who accidentally blindly joined the White Guard movement, but later most of them realized their mistakes and became active builders of socialism” (True. 1956. December 27). The writer sees the “dramatic nature of the situation” in the fact that many of those who made a mistake did not see a way out of the situation.
During the period of revolution and civil war, when the history of mankind was making “one of the greatest, most difficult turns”, “when the old breaks and falls apart with terrible noise and crash, and nearby, in indescribable torments, the new is born” ( Lenin V.I. Op. T. 27, p. 133), when the multi-million mass of the peasantry rose to “independent political life” (Ibid., p. 162), when “the novelty and difficulty of change naturally evokes an abundance of steps taken, so to speak mistakes” (Ibid., p. 243), during this period the vacillation of the petty-bourgeois strata is a completely natural, quite natural phenomenon, and to expect that the revolution “does not vacillate - it would be completely unnatural, it would mean completely disregarding the class character coup” (Ibid., p. 252).
Describing the movement populace, IN AND. Lenin constantly notes the independence of their actions. The October Revolution awakened among the people the desire to actively participate in political life and independently resolve social issues. And with their “amazing gullibility and unconsciousness” (Ibid., vol. 25, p. 274), the petty-bourgeois or semi-petty-bourgeois masses, without their own practical experience, which makes it possible to compare the leadership of the bourgeoisie and the leadership of the proletariat, cannot solve the most difficult political question: “to be together with the worker class or with the bourgeoisie” (Ibid., vol. 30, p. 243). IN AND. Lenin repeatedly emphasized that the emergence of vacillations within the peasantry was quite possible, and not only possible, but that it happened very often during the period of the civil war.
At the heart of the tragic conflict in the Quiet Don lies the delusion of a part of the people, which gives rise to the tragic mistake of Grigory Melekhov, who took part in the Veshensky uprising. But even when Grigory Melekhov is in the counter-revolutionary camp, he cannot be identified with outspoken counter-revolutionaries. That is why a clear distinction between the malicious enemies of Soviet power and those who accidentally, blindly adjoin the White Guard movement on the Don, is absolutely necessary as a point of principle in posing and resolving the problem of the tragic in the Quiet Don.
IN AND. Lenin wrote: “The middle peasant is not our enemy. He wavered, wavers, and will waver: the task of influencing the waverers is not the same as the task of overthrowing the exploiter and defeating an active enemy” (Ibid., vol. 28, p. 171). Meanwhile, in the existing studies on the Quiet Don, the line separating Grigory Melekhov from the enemies of Soviet power is lost, which could not but affect the interpretation of the main character.
In the critical literature about the Quiet Don, the opinion was established that in the image of Grigory Melekhov, M. Sholokhov showed those people who, having cut themselves off from the people, turned into renegades and who are denied the right to new life under Soviet rule. I. Lezhnev wrote that "the Melekhovs have no future" ( Lezhnev I. Decree. op. S. 160). Following him, L. Yakimenko makes the following assumption: He (that is, Grigory Melekhov. - V.P.) there will be no place in the beginning of a new life" ( Yakimenko L. Decree. op. S. 77). The analysis of the image is also associated with this conclusion.
The idea that permeates the research on the "Quiet Don" is that Grigory Melekhov, being in a camp hostile to Soviet power, loses his positive human qualities, gradually turns into a miserable and terrible likeness of a person.
Goffenschefer writes about Grigory Melekhov’s “terrible spiritual emptiness”, “terrible spiritual degradation” (Literary critic. 1940. No. 2), Charny mentions Grigory Melekhov’s “pathetic weakness” (October. 1940. No. 9); “a miserable, narrow and self-serving egoist who thinks only of himself” (Krasnaya Nov. 1941, No. 3), Kirpotin calls him, etc.
"The wrong, erroneous path of Gregory in the revolution, which led him to a break with the people, is the path of the loss of many wonderful human properties and qualities" ( Yakimenko L. Decree. op. P. 78), states L. Yakimenko, adding that “from the last pages of the novel, a pitiful and terrible likeness of a man looks at us” (Ibid., p. 143), that “the struggle against the people leads .. to the death of the human in man" (Ibid., p. 144) and that "Gregory...became not a man" (Ibid., p. 100).
L. Vladimirov writes in the tone of L. Yakimenko. Describing Melekhov, Sholokhov de punishes his hero, taking away "from him courage, honesty, the strength of youth, faith in the future", taking away "his last hope and love - Aksinya" (Don. 1955. No. 2, p. 77). But with the same success it can be said that M. Sholokhov punishes not only Grigory, but also Aksinya, Natalya, Panteley Prokofievich, Ilyinichna and even Polyushka - Grigory's daughter.
This idea was brought to the extreme point in the book by V. Gura. “After Gregory entered a new period of reflection, his spiritual fall deepened. Reason, composure, prudence leave him, only animal instinct, "wild animal excitement" powerfully controls his will" ( Gora V. Life and work of M. Sholokhov. M., 1955. S. 119-120).
Calling the path of Grigory Melekhov through the loss of wonderful human qualities, L. Yakimenko makes an attempt to reveal "the reasons for the inglorious end of this once strong, talented, bright person." By the end of the World War, "Grigory closely converges with Chubaty." “There are no more clashes and quarrels between them. The influence of Chubaty affected the psyche and character of Grigory. “Pity for the man has disappeared,” Grigory’s heart has “hardened, coarsened.” And we suddenly quite clearly feel the terrifying connection that exists between the established Cossack life for centuries and the anti-human, degenerate philosophy of Chubaty. The Melekhov family, the circumstances of their lives, Chubaty touched something very significant in the reader's perception. And much is revealed to us in the future of Gregory" ( Yakimenko L. Decree. op. P. 78) (emphasis mine. - V.P.).
True, in another place in his extensive book, L. Yakimenko claims that between Grigory and Chubaty "there was never a feeling of closeness" ( Yakimenko L. Decree. op. S. 112).
However, the entire pathos of the researcher is aimed at proving that Gregory comes to such an end, to such a physical and moral degeneration, when a person ceases to be a person. And such a path leads him to the same result that the Chernetsovs, Chubaty, Korshunovs came to a little earlier: “Sholokhov shows the complete apostasy of the Chernetsovs, Chubaty, Korshunovs ... They are deprived of the right to be called people.” The same assessment is given to Grigory Melekhov: “In the Fomin gang, Grigory continues the fight against Soviet power. And this means the final fall of Melekhov. He not only broke with the people, he broke away from the Cossack masses, became a renegade” (p. 136).
The image of Grigory Melekhov is the most complex image, and it is impossible to adjust it to a pre-designed scheme, as has been done so far. Considering it as an expression of the essence of a certain social force, mistakenly believe that every act, every action of Gregory exactly corresponds to his spiritual content, his inner impulses, that “the chain of inner feelings, thoughts is inextricably linked with external action(Ibid., p. 93). Perhaps, it was from this identification of the external and internal in a person that many incorrect conclusions were drawn regarding the essence of the image of Grigory Melekhov. Evaluating a person by his external position is the basic principle of studying the image of Grigory Melekhov. In accordance with this, the thesis was established, according to which it follows that the image of the action, the event side of the work, is the most important and defining essence. artistic image. Of course, no one is going to deny that through actions and deeds the character of the human personality is revealed. But the actions that the hero performs do not always coincide with his psychological certainty, participation in this or that event does not always determine the value of the human personality.
In the process of breaking down centuries of established life, such unusual circumstances are often created in which the essence of a person is revealed much faster, more truthfully and deeper than in a familiar environment, where everything has long been formed and strengthened.
It is not by chance that M. Sholokhov chooses the participation of the Don Cossacks in October revolution. Here, on the Don, it was very difficult to find the right path, the instability of the petty-bourgeois masses during the proletarian revolution was very sharply manifested. The complexity and inconsistency of what was happening put the ordinary worker in unusual circumstances, when it was extremely difficult to draw a clear line between truth and untruth. At the same time, in the "Quiet Don" we see a discrepancy internal movements, aspirations, thoughts of Grigory Melekhov to the external forms of his behavior. M. Sholokhov pays great attention to the selection of events, situations, the development of action. But the main thing for him is not the external course and change of events, not the life situation in which the hero finds himself, but the inner spiritual content, often contradicting the external position. actor. And the situation has the significance that it helps to reveal this sharp discrepancy between the external position and the internal content of the hero. Therefore, we cannot judge Grigory Melekhov solely by his actions and deeds, which sometimes arose as a deviation from his original motives and aspirations as a result of a number of accidental collisions for him and circumstances unforeseen by him. When such situations arise, M. Sholokhov carefully motivates the spiritual evolution of the hero, reveals his thoughts and feelings in the process of their emergence and development, depicts the course of the mental process itself, and not its final result, in order to show the need and regularity of a radical change in the external position hero. (Grigory's entry into the First Cavalry, escape from Fomin's gang, return to his native farm from the dugout of deserters, etc.)
The strength of M. Sholokhov as an artist is that, penetrating into the "holy of holies" of Grigory Melekhov, behind the external facts of his life he saw his soul, his inner world, his thoughts and feelings, his inner impulses and aspirations, which sometimes did not coincide with his position and place in the course of fierce class battles. The whole life of Grigory Melekhov takes place in complex clashes and struggles: it is filled with extraordinary episodes and situations. In his fate, two sharply opposite spiritual states can be distinguished: the first, when his external position corresponds to his internal content, and this with irresistible force attracts him to action, because he is clearly aware of his place, his purpose in the events taking place; second, when his position contradicts his inner conviction, and seeing no way out of the situation, he becomes indifferent to life, thinks of death as the only way to resolve this tragic discrepancy.
During the days of the World War, when every Cossack was clear about his task, “Grigory firmly protected the Cossack honor, caught the opportunity to show selfless courage, took risks, went crazy” (T. 3. S. 51). The clarity of purpose gave rise to the activity of his action. With the beginning of the proletarian revolution, Grigory Melekhov began to waver. If in the first months of the establishment of Soviet power on the Don, Grigory fights with the White Guards, participates in the congress of front-line Cossacks in the village of Kamenskaya, then after a while he wants to “turn away from everything seething with hatred, hostile and incomprehensible world”: “There, behind, everything was confused , contradictory. It was difficult to find the right path...” (T. 3. S. 271).
And just when he “did not have confidence” - “whether he was following the right path” Grigory sought to step aside from the bloody struggle, dreamed of the work of a grain grower, wanted “peace and silence”. “Sweet and thick, like hops, life seemed to him at that time here, in the wilderness” (T. 3. S. 271). That is why Grigory so "attentively and joyfully looked around the bases" as soon as he arrived at his native farm. That is why it became so hard and painful for Grigory in his soul when "the beginning ... of a patch" on the Don, which again inexorably demands one solution or another. That is why Grigory blew off at Valeto “anger for his disturbed peace, for the excitement that he experienced when he heard from Ivan Alekseevich about the invasion of the Red Guard detachments into the district” (T. 3. S. 333).
Neither Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov nor Grigory Melekhov went along with Jack and Koshevoy, although “the rightness was on the side of Jack and Koshevoy, it was necessary to leave, not to hesitate” (T. 3. S. 338).
Grigory Melekhov, like many other Cossacks of his farm, takes part in the capture of Podtelkov and his detachment. This struggle is a burden to him, because he doubts, hesitates, he has no confidence in the rightness of his cause. In him, as in other Cossacks, “dissatisfaction, fatigue, embitterment squirmed” (T. 4. P. 96), and this made him indifferent: “Participating in the war, Grigory indifferently watched its course” (T. 4. S. 96).
Gregory appears completely different when the Veshensky uprising begins. He is active, brave, resourceful. Not a trace of the former indifference remained. And he is active because, as it seems to him, he has finally found the right and only fair path: “Everything was decided and weighed in the languid days... struggle” (T. 4. S. 198). By this time, as Grigory thought, the truth of the struggle had been found, and he completely and completely surrendered to the power of that feeling of hatred for the Reds, which had taken possession of him at the very beginning of the uprising. And what was especially clearly reflected in the actions of Gregory is characteristic to a greater or lesser extent for the entire mass of the Upper Don Cossacks. That is why at this moment Gregory is full of desire to put into practice his thoughts, which seem to him fair. But the struggle that has begun seems fair to him because his thoughts revolve only around the qualities and features of the era, prompted and accumulated by himself, only one side stands out in his mind clearly and distinctly: “The paths of the Cossacks crossed with the paths of landless masculine Russia, with the paths of people” (T. 4. S. 198). And when “for a moment a contradiction arose in him: “The rich with the poor, and not the Cossacks with Russia”, “he angrily brushed aside these thoughts.”
But these thoughts could only be brushed aside at first. As soon as new facts appeared, his thought again began its painful work. What was so naturally rejected at the beginning of the insurrection grips him more and more. At first glance, everything seemed to him clear, understandable: to fight to the end with the “factory people”, “to tear from under their feet the fat Don soil, watered with Cossack blood”, but then, as he collided with new phenomena, facts that reveal other aspects of reality, the apparent integrity of his position is gradually shaken. All his thoughts and reflections are concentrated around the most painful question for him: “who is right?” And this question arises again before him only because life itself confronts him with new facts, puts him in exceptional positions, when he has to act out of habit. Great importance in the novel there is an episode when Grigory interrogates a captive Khoper. At first, Grigory is cold, cruel, hypocritical, orders Prokhor to shoot the Cossack, but then “quickly” goes out onto the porch and orders to be released and issued a pass. Having released the Khoper, Grigory experiences conflicting feelings: "slightly annoyed at the feeling of pity" and "at the same time refreshingly joyful." As the plot of the novel develops, Gregory becomes more and more convinced of the wrongness of the case in which he takes part, he begins to think more and more about his position; and Sholokhov transfers the center of gravity to the inner experiences of his hero. The tragic conflict does not begin with external clashes: the internal struggle is the main interest in the tragic hero. The collision of two contradictory streams in the very "soul" of the hero makes a stunning picture of his inner world. An unresolved, irritating contradiction, an insurgent sense of the wrongness of one's cause, firmly enters into his life. Gregory begins to foresee something unkind, but he still has no definite conclusions. It will take clashes with new facts, people, so that he is finally convinced of the wrongness of his case.
Of great importance in the development of the plot and in motivating the internal contradiction of Grigory Melekhov are, on the one hand, his conversation with the messenger of the village of Alekseevskaya, and on the other, the appearance of Georgidze, a lieutenant colonel of the white army, at the headquarters of the rebels. After that, in a conversation with Kudinov, Grigory expresses his cherished thought, which determines his spiritual state for a long time: “But I have a thought ...” Grigory darkened, smiling forcibly. “But I think that we got lost when we went to the uprising ... Did you hear what the Khoperets said?” (T. 4. S. 249).
Confidence that, having raised an uprising, the Cossacks were mistaken, grows more and more in the soul of Gregory, he begins to realize the wrongness of his case and suffer painfully, weighed down by his position in the ongoing events. Gregory found himself in the position of a man who not so long ago thought that he was on the right path, and suddenly, as a result of a new life experience, he realized that it was precisely this path that was erroneous. To think that I have found the truth that I have been searching for so long and painfully, and suddenly realize that the truth lies on a completely different path! Gregory understands the wrongness of his cause and suffers deeply from the inability to reconcile the aspirations of his soul with the inexorable course of real life.
As soon as Grigory understood the contradictory nature of his position, he lost all desire to actively participate in the struggle. “These days, Gregory, moving away from black thoughts, trying to drown out his consciousness, did not think about what was happening around and what he was a prominent participant in - he began to drink” (T. 4. P. 269). This "created the illusion of genuine fun and obscured the sober, fierce reality" (T. 4. p. 270). However, nothing can distract him from the fierce reality, smooth out the aggravated contradictions. In the battle near Klimovka, he sees with his own eyes what the struggle he started leads to - to the destruction of workers like him: “Who did he cut! .. Brothers, there is no forgiveness for me! ..” (T. 4. S. 282 -283).
This episode was, as it were, the final act in that inner drama that played out in Grigory's soul when he began to realize the fallacy of his path.
After that, his “heart was in turmoil”: he “fell ill” with “longing”, because, as he admits to Natalia, “life’s course is wrong, and maybe I’m to blame for this ... I should immediately make peace with the Reds and for the cadets. But as? Who will bring us together with Soviet power? How can we account for our common grievances?” (T. 4. S. 302).
The tragedy of his situation is that, having rejected his old beliefs, he does not find anything positive in their place. But as soon as Gregory realized that the uprising was anti-popular, he lost all interest in it. If earlier, when it seemed to him that he was on the right path, he actively participated in the counter-revolutionary uprising, now, having realized his mistake, he becomes indifferent to the outcome of the uprising: “He did not hurt his soul for the outcome of the uprising. He somehow didn’t care” (T. 4. p. 371). In this regard, the episode is noteworthy when "for the first time Gregory avoided direct participation in the battle": “A strange indifference took possession of him! No, he will not lead the Cossacks under machine-gun fire. No need. Let the officer assault companies go on the attack. Let them take Ust-Medveditskaya... Not cowardice, not fear of death or aimless losses led him at that moment. Recently, he spared neither his own life, nor the life of the Cossacks entrusted to his command. But now it’s as if something has broken ... Never before had he felt with such utmost clarity all the worthlessness of what was happening. And again, with all ruthlessness, the old contradictions arose before him. “Let them fight. I'll look from the side. As soon as they take a division from me, I will ask to be put out of action to the rear ”(T. 4. S. 103 - 104) (emphasis mine. - V.P.). His doubts, hesitations, contradictions, sufferings weaken his will, his activity. It undergoes profound psychological changes. M. Sholokhov focuses his attention on this process of internal transformation: it is impossible to understand a person without understanding his inner content, his thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
Starting from this episode, we never see Gregory in battle with the Reds. The death of Natalya, typhus, retreat in the wagon train, relapsing fever - these are the milestones of Gregory's life before his entry into the First Cavalry. Together with Prokhor, he “peacefully, like an old man” retreats: “What happened on the front that was moving southward did not interest him” (T. 5. S. 267). He knew that the war was coming to an end. And with all evidence, Grigory felt the shame of this end for himself and all the workers who took part in the White Guard movement, when he, again ill with typhus, listened to the old Don song: “Over the black steppe lived and ruled one old song that survived centuries .. And in gloomy silence the descendants of the free Cossacks listened to the mighty song, shamefully retreating, defeated in the inglorious war against the Russian people ”(T. 5. P. 279). As a personal grief, Grigory experiences the shame of this inglorious war, listening to the song. “It was as if something had broken inside Gregory ... Suddenly surging sobs shook his body, a spasm seized his throat” (T. 5. P. 278). Only after the defeat of the White Army, reaching Novorossiysk, most of the Cossacks joined the Red Army. Grigory Melekhov also joined. Here his spiritual mood changes radically. He is active again, brave, energetic. The practical experience he gained in civil war, led him to a clear and firm understanding that the White Guards had “annoyed him enough” and were hostile to the working man. That is why, while in the Red Army, he "twisted" the Kornilov "colonel" with such zeal, when he "had a chance to click in battle" with him, that only "half a head along with half a cap remained" of him. Gregory himself tells Prokhor about this. And Prokhor himself noticed the changes that had taken place with Grigory. “He changed, as he entered the Red Army, he became cheerful of himself, smooth as a gelding” (T. 5. S. 309). This was immediately evident, as soon as Grigory decides not to go anywhere, but to join the Red Army: “Let's go to the apartment, guys, follow me! - ordered cheered up and somehow all crept up Grigory.
Returning from the Red Army, he "dreamed with pleasure about how ... he would go to the field." He dreamed of a quiet, peaceful life, and was ready for anything, "just to live in peace." If earlier Gregory actively participated in all the major events of his time, now he is trying to completely distance himself from public life: and his "earth called to itself, called tirelessly day and night" (T. 4. S. 293). But the very first conversation with Koshev convinces him that life is not so simple, “as it seemed to him recently. In stupid, childish naivety, he assumed that it was enough to return home, change his overcoat to a zipun, and everything would go as written: no one would say a word to him, no one would reproach him, everything would work out by itself, and he would live and live as a peaceful grain grower and an exemplary family man. No, this is not how it simply looks in reality” (T. 5, p. 374). And this period of Gregory's life, in the interpretation of some researchers, accepted a one-sided interpretation. In an effort to prove at all costs that Gregory is losing positive qualities of his character, V. Gura wrote that "Grigory Melekhov is afraid of retribution for his crimes against the people, loses courage when he learns about the execution of Platon Ryabchikov" ( Gora V. Decree. op. S. 123). V. Gura mentions at the same time only that he "shuddered with fright and disgust" towards himself, going to register with the Cheka. But this is only one side of his feelings and thoughts, which really could present Melekhov as weak and cowardly! But Grigory Melekhov is not like that. When he went to register, he was met by Fomin, who said, "that the Politburo of officers is starting to arrest," and advised: "It would be better for you, lad, to get out of here, and live faster." Meanwhile, Grigory firmly decided not to go anywhere: “Climbing the stone steps of the two-story building of the Politburo, he thought: “Finish - so quickly, there is nothing to pull! He knew how, Grigory, to misbehave - be able to keep the answer! (T. 5. S. 384).
In Grigory's experiences, there is both fear and fear of prison (“I haven’t been in prison for a long time and I’m afraid of prison worse than death”), and disgust for this fear, which is replaced by a firm decision to appear in the Cheka and answer, and when he returned home, he felt annoyed, contempt for himself for “that there, in Veshenskaya, he was afraid and was unable to overcome the fear that gripped him” (T. 5. S. 368), and, telling Aksinya about this, he ridiculed himself and somewhat exaggerated “the experienced experiences” (T. 5. S. 388). That is why he “contemptuously, as if talking about an outsider, said: “It turned out to be thin for retribution ... Srobel.”
As was clear from those confessions and reflections of Grigory, which he shared with Koshev, with Prokhor, with himself, he did not at all intend to take part in speeches against Soviet power. And he found himself in Fomin's gang by accident, as a result of a combination of circumstances that he did not foresee, and was temporarily in it simply because "there was nowhere to go." Such an accumulation of accidents does not contradict the tragic. It is unlikely that V. Ermilov is right when he asserts that by the accumulation of accidents, M. Sholokhov “as if emphasizes that the novel ceases to develop as a tragedy.” Another thing is his position that " tragic hero has no freedom of choice”: he can only act as he does, because he “has nowhere to go”, but V. Ermilov is far from the truth when he suggests that “Melekhov in the eighth part could have been registered, he might not have passed, he could to be in Fomin's gang, but he might not have been, etc. ” (Literary newspaper. 1940. August 11). Such a solution to the question of the place of chance in the fate of Grigory Melekhov is incorrect, and primarily because it makes it possible to consider his fate as exceptional, but which could have turned out differently. Indeed, in the fate of Gregory there are many accidents, just like those that often happen in a person’s life. If they were not there at all, his fate would not seem so true and convincing. Just at the moment when Grigory Melekhov returned from the First Cavalry, anti-Soviet uprisings began. And this complicated his situation: if there had been no uprisings, then there would not have been such a strict attitude towards those who participated in the Veshensky rebellion. It is no coincidence that when Prokhor reported on the uprising in the Voronezh province, Grigory "gloomed", "was clearly alarmed", since this is really " bad news”: “If the district authorities have the same opinion about me as Koshevoy, then I can’t escape Tigulevka. There is an uprising in the neighborhood, and I am a former officer and isho a rebel ... ”(T. 5. S. 378). But these events are not accidental in themselves: they act in the novel as an objective factor, independent of the intentions and aspirations of the hero, although his personal fate, his actions and deeds are determined entirely by the objective course of events. Thus, the novel establishes an organic connection between individual human destiny and the objective conditions of social development, the dependence of its personal destiny on the conditions of place and time. That is why M. Sholokhov does not have a single episode in which chance would be presented as a whim of history or as a whimsical fate. Chance in the novel is a combination of circumstances that inexorably determine the life path of the hero. And such an accident does not contradict the aesthetics of the tragic. Indeed, after all, Dunyashka accidentally heard that Koshevoy insisted on the immediate arrest of Grigory, and immediately ran to him to report this. And Gregory managed to avoid arrest. He hid for two weeks, and during the transition from one shelter to another, bandits accidentally stumbled upon him and, under escort, took him to Fomin. Meanwhile, it is clear that he could not help but run into bandits, since before showing that Grigory falls into a gang, M. Sholokhov depicts a riot in Veshenskaya. Here the accident in the life of the tragic hero is comprehended, prepared by the whole course of development historical events. Such accidents are in conflict with the desires and aspirations of Gregory, are unexpected and unforeseen for him, but do not cease to be natural and conditioned by the entire course of the objective historical process.
But some researchers are trying to convince the reader that the arrival of Grigory in the Fomin gang is natural and logical, that, being in a gang, "Grigory Melekhov becomes a stranger to the Cossack masses" ( Yakimenko L. Decree. op. S. 140).
Is it so? Already at the very beginning of his stay in the gang, Grigory felt disgust and contempt for the bandits, which intensified and grew as he got to know them. He immediately began to think about leaving the gang. When Kaparin offered him to "take command," Grigory refused: "I don't need it, I'm your short visitor" (T. 5. S. 435). The affairs and fates of the people gathered in the gang do not interest him. He stranger in a gang. It is no coincidence that Fomin tells him: “I see you through and through! Do you bury everything in the cold? Do you want to stay in the shadows? (T. 5. S. 471).
Gregory is full of contempt for those with whom he is temporarily together. Observing the well-known scene with the holy fool Pasha, “Gregory shuddered,” “it was all so disgusting,” “hurriedly walked away: “And it’s with such people that I connected my fate ...” he thought, overcome by longing, bitterness and anger at himself yourself, for all this hateful life...” (T. 5. S. 475). And I firmly decided: “Tomorrow I will leave. It's time!"
Grigory “has long seen the mood with which they are met by the inhabitants of the farms: “They reason correctly ... we interfere with everyone to live and work peacefully” (T. 5. P. 476). Deep melancholy seized Gregory at the sight of an empty, as if extinct farm. Everything reminded him that it was time to finish: the cart abandoned on the alley, and the unfinished boards, and the lumberjack in the yard with an ax hastily thrust into it, and the overturned bucket. This picture of desolation, devastation reminded him of "the same desertion and the same traces of a hasty flight", as then, "when the Cossack regiments walked along East Prussia. Now he happened to see the same in native land"(T. 5. S. 477). And from this "the cursed pain again came to the heart." That is why “Grigory looked with misty eyes” “at the yard overgrown with curly plantains, at the thatched hut with yellow shutters, at the tall crane in the well” (T. 5. S. 477). All this is near and dear to him. But he was among people who interfere with the peaceful flow of people's life. These people, with whom he was, are profoundly alien to him; apart from contempt, disgust and disgust, he feels nothing for them. And only after leaving these people, Grigory “sighed with relief, with a full chest ...” (T. 5. P. 478).
Grigory himself has long been striving for a peaceful life, for children, for Aksinya. His thoughts and feelings coincide with the thoughts and feelings of the Cossacks. And now it seems to him that he is close to the realization of his long-standing dreams - he will leave for the Kuban with Aksinya: “I do not disdain any work. My hands need to work, not fight. My whole soul has been sick for these months ... ”(T. 5. S. 480).
And only with the death of Aksinya, he, “dead with horror, realized that everything was over, that the worst thing that could have happened in his life had already happened” (T. 5. S. 489).
Some researchers, citing the passage in the novel that speaks of his morale after Aksinya's death, they come to the conclusion that Grigory's "spiritual death" is revealed at the end of the novel (Gura V. Decree. op. S. 124).
With the death of Aksinya, all the hopes and dreams of Grigory collapsed, and this blow had a heavy effect on his inner content, temporarily put him out of action, and gave his worldview a pessimistic character. But this does not at all lead to the conclusion about his final spiritual death.
The ending of the novel is truly tragic. But if he were prosperous, if in the end it became clear to us that Grigory was saving himself from death and achieving what he aspired to, that is, to the peaceful work of a farmer, then the Quiet Don, without losing at all his high artistic qualities, however, would not produce such a tragic impression: in the case when a happy outcome becomes more or less likely, the tragic disappears at the moment when there is a turn towards the well-being of the hero. There is nothing of the kind here. Just as there is no reason to assume a pessimistic end. We are still worried, worried, we sympathize with Grigory Melekhov. The outcome of the struggle is natural and fair.
How do the unrest, doubts, hesitation, delusions of Grigory Melekhov end? Do people like Grigory Melekhov finally find the right path in life?
Answering the question of Bulgarian readers, what is the further fate of people like Grigory Melekhov, Sholokhov said: “People like Grigory Melekhov went to the Soviet power in a very tortuous way. Some of them came to a final break with Soviet power. The majority became close to the Soviet government, took part in the construction and strengthening of our state, participated in the Great Patriotic War while in the ranks of the Red Army ”(Literary Front. Sofia. 1951. July 12). Tracing the fate of Grigory Melekhov to the end, Sholokhov shows that the complex and painful paths of his life did not erase noble human qualities from him - and this is, as it were, a guarantee that people like Grigory Melekhov can find, and most of them really found, their place among the builders of the Soviet state.
IN AND. Lenin, describing the essence of the peasant in the post-war period, wrote: “He survived all these six years, painful and difficult, not without reason. He does not look like a pre-war man. He suffered greatly, he thought a lot and endured a lot of political and economic hardships that made him forget a lot of the past. I think that he himself already understands that it is impossible to live in the old way, that one must live differently. (Lenin V.I. Op. T. 31. S. 473).
M. Sholokhov showed, in the image of Grigory Melekhov, difficult, painful experiences, revealed the complexity and inconsistency of the thoughts and actions of an individual peasant, who in the end understood "that it is impossible to live in the old way." And such an image of the fate of Gregory makes it possible to see the typicality of this image in accordance with the general course of life on the Don - this is its depth, specificity and content.
And if this is so, if the fate of Gregory is shown not as an exceptional case, not as a strange accident that might not have happened, but as a typical phenomenon in the most difficult period of revolutionary transformations, then this proves that in the course of the struggle the revolutionary people, rallied around The Communist Party, wins not "individual natives", whose life develops tragically.
The fact of the matter is that not individual people who came from the people, but certain sections of the working people, by virtue of their irresponsibility and detachment from the democratic movement, temporarily supported their exploiters. This is the tragedy of entire sections of the people, and not of its individual descendants. But the result was the same everywhere: most of those who supported the whites realized their mistake and came to the inexorable conclusion that only the Communist Party, the working class, defended the interests of the working people.
So it is in the novel Quiet Flows the Don. Thoughts and feelings, deeds and actions of Grigory Melekhov come up against a force that eventually defeats him, subjugates him, and he rather feels than realizes that the truth of the whole people has been found by the revolutionary people, who have crushed all the counter-revolutionaries.
That is why a tragic denouement is not necessary for the hero in the new, socialist conditions of life. This question was first raised by V. Ermilov. In his opinion, there can be no tragic denouement “for those who understand the wrongness and futility of the struggle against the working class”: “According to classical teaching, a tragic denouement inevitably awaits a tragic hero. In the same reality, which for the first time is friendly to man and his happiness, there is no such fatal inevitability. (Ermilov V. About the "Quiet Don" and the tragedy // Literary newspaper. 1940. August 11).
And this true thought could lead him to a correct understanding of the essence of the tragic in The Quiet Flows the Don. But V. Ermilov, like many critics of that time, comes to the conclusion that in the final part of the novel “Grigory Melekhov receives a new quality, social and artistic, embarks on the path of renegade”, “comes to complete desolation”, “a new one begins, not that Melekhov, who finally lost face”; and on this basis he comes to the conclusion that “there is no love for Gregory—his love perishes—there is no life for him, and therefore “the black sun shines for him.” That is why this "new" Gregory "has no right to tragedy" (Ibid.).
A similar point of view is shared by many modern researchers. Only in contrast to V. Ermilov, L. Yakimenko, V. Gur and others recognize Grigory Melekhov as a tragic hero, at the same time believing that the tragic hero loses his noble human qualities by the end of the novel, turns "into a terrible and pathetic likeness of a person." Tragic, in their opinion, is the spiritual and physical degradation of a once strong and talented personality. Against such a consideration of the image of Grigory Melekhov in the discussion about the "Quiet Don" in 1940-1941. B.S. Emelyanov: “The whole meaning of the novel, the whole tragedy of the eighth part of it is that Grigory in his essence remains the same as he was ...
To present Gregory as a moral degenerate, causing only disgust, means really to completely cross out everything that Sholokhov did in his novel, to destroy the tragedy, reducing it to a miserable melodrama ... ”(Literary critic. 1940. No. 11 - 12. P. 199 - 200 ).
There is no Grigory Melekhov in the novel, devoid of noble feelings and thoughts. At the end of the novel, during the period of the most excruciating moral suffering, we never hear complaints from Gregory, he does not try to explain his actions and justify himself. Only at night, in his sleep, did he burst into tears. The more intense Gregory's suffering, the richer and more meaningful his spiritual life: in these sufferings the nobility of the hero's soul is revealed. The strength of the tragic personality is revealed primarily in the way she endures the suffering generated by fallibility. life path, delusions, tragic mistakes cause discord in the soul of the hero, internal contradictions, which ultimately lead to mental anguish.
At the same time, the height of the character of a tragic person manifests itself not only before a tragic mistake, which leads him to severe suffering, but also during a period of painful experiences, mental discord, and internal contradictions. If Grigory Melekhov, under the yoke of the extraordinary suffering that fell to his lot, lost his positive human qualities and fell into cowardice, despair, cowardice, then there would be nothing tragic in this person. But the real tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is that it arises when there is an acute discrepancy between the nobility of the human person and the anti-people uprising in which Grigory takes part. That is why it becomes bitter for the author, and after him for the reader, that such a strong, talented representative of the working people finds himself in a camp hostile to the people's revolution, sheds the blood of his brothers.
This text is an introductory piece.Introduction
The fate of Grigory Melekhov in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" by Sholokhov is in the center of the reader's attention. This hero, who, by the will of fate, fell into the thick of complex historical events, has been forced to search for his life path for many years.
Description Grigory Melekhov
Already from the first pages of the novel, Sholokhov introduces us to the unusual fate of grandfather Grigory, explaining why the Melekhovs outwardly differ from the rest of the inhabitants of the farm. Grigory, like his father, had "a drooping vulture nose, blue tonsils of hot eyes in slightly oblique slits, sharp cheekbones." Remembering the origin of Panteley Prokofievich, everyone in the farm called the Melekhovs "Turks".
Life changes the inner world of Gregory. His appearance also changes. From a carefree cheerful guy, he turns into a stern warrior whose heart is hardened. Grigory “knew that he would no longer laugh as before; He knew that his eyes were hollow and his cheekbones were sticking out sharply, ”and in his eyes“ the light of senseless cruelty began to shine through more and more often.
At the end of the novel, a completely different Gregory appears before us. This is a mature man tired of life "with a tired squint of eyes, with reddish tips of a black mustache, with premature gray hair at the temples and hard wrinkles on the forehead."
Characteristics of Gregory
At the beginning of the work, Grigory Melekhov is a young Cossack living according to the laws of his ancestors. The main thing for him is the household and the family. He enthusiastically helps his father with mowing and fishing. Unable to argue with his parents when they marry him to the unloved Natalya Korshunova.
But, for all that, Gregory is a passionate, addicted nature. Despite the prohibitions of his father, he continues to go to night games. Meets with Aksinya Astakhova, the neighbor's wife, and then leaves her home with her.
Gregory, like most Cossacks, is inherent in courage, sometimes reaching recklessness. He behaves heroically at the front, participates in the most dangerous sorties. At the same time, the hero is not alien to humanity. He is worried about a gosling that he accidentally slaughtered while mowing. For a long time he suffers because of the murdered unarmed Austrian. “Subjecting to the heart”, Gregory saves his sworn enemy Stepan from death. Goes against a whole platoon of Cossacks, protecting Franya.
In Gregory, passion and obedience, madness and gentleness, kindness and hatred coexist at the same time.
The fate of Grigory Melekhov and his path of quest
The fate of Melekhov in the novel "Quiet Don" is tragic. He is constantly forced to look for a "way out", the right path. It is not easy for him in the war. His personal life is also complicated.
Like the favorite heroes of L.N. Tolstoy, Grigory passes hard way life quests. In the beginning, everything seemed clear to him. Like other Cossacks, he is called to war. For him there is no doubt that he must defend the Fatherland. But, getting to the front, the hero realizes that his whole nature resists the murder.
Gregory goes from white to red, but here he will be disappointed. Seeing how Podtelkov dealt with the captured young officers, he loses faith in this government and the next year he again finds himself in the white army.
Tossing between the whites and the reds, the hero himself becomes hardened. He loots and kills. Tries to forget himself in drunkenness and fornication. In the end, fleeing from the persecution of the new government, he finds himself among the bandits. Then he becomes a deserter.
Grigory is exhausted by throwing. He wants to live on his own land, raise bread and children. Although life hardens the hero, gives his features something "wolf", in fact, he is not a killer. Having lost everything and never found his way, Grigory returns to his native farm, realizing that, most likely, death awaits him here. But, the son and the house is the only thing that keeps the hero in the world.
Grigory's relationship with Aksinya and Natalya
Fate sends the hero two passionately loving women. But, relations with them are not easy for Gregory. While still single, Grigory falls in love with Aksinya, the wife of Stepan Astakhov, his neighbor. Over time, the woman reciprocates his feelings, and their relationship develops into unbridled passion. “So unusual and obvious was their crazy connection, so frenziedly they burned with one shameless fire, people without conscience and without hiding, losing weight and turning black in their faces in front of their neighbors, that now people were ashamed to look at them when they met for some reason.”
Despite this, he cannot resist the will of his father and marries Natalya Korshunova, promising himself to forget Aksinya and settle down. But, Gregory is not able to keep the oath given to himself. Although Natalya is beautiful and selflessly loves her husband, he again converges with Aksinya and leaves his wife and parental home.
After Aksinya's betrayal, Grigory returns to his wife again. She accepts him and forgives past wrongs. But he was not destined for a quiet family life. The image of Aksinya haunts him. Once again fate brings them together. Unable to bear the shame and betrayal, Natalia has an abortion and dies. Gregory blames himself for the death of his wife, severely experiences this loss.
Now, it would seem, nothing can prevent him from finding happiness with his beloved woman. But, circumstances force him to leave the place and, together with Aksinya, again set off on the road, the last for his beloved.
With the death of Aksinya, Grigory's life loses all meaning. The hero no longer has even an illusory hope for happiness. “And Gregory, dying of horror, realized that it was all over, that the worst thing that could have happened in his life had already happened.”
Conclusion
In conclusion of my essay on the topic “The Fate of Grigory Melekhov in the Novel “Quiet Flows the Don””, I want to fully agree with the critics who believe that in “The Quiet Don” the fate of Grigory Melekhov is the most difficult and one of the most tragic. Using the example of Grigory Sholokhov, he showed how the whirlpool of political events breaks human destiny. And the one who sees his destiny in peaceful labor suddenly becomes a cruel killer with a devastated soul.
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