She was called Brezhnev's favorite granddaughter. The birth in the family of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU seemed to guarantee a comfortable life and a happy fate. But it turned out differently ... Victoria Filippova died

January 5, 2018 at the age of 65 from cancer. The granddaughter of the Secretary General lived modestly and did not tell anyone that she had the last stage of the disease. Before the New Year, she asked to bring her daughter Galya to her, with whom she had not talked for a long time, she said that she wanted to make peace with her. And it turned out - said goodbye ... Meanwhile, the death of Brezhnev's granddaughter gave rise to an unexpected scandal, as familiar families told us about.

From the funeral made exclusive

Vika, the granddaughter of Leonid Ilyich, was born in the family of Galina Brezhneva and her first husband, circus artist Yevgeny Milayev, who had two children from a previous marriage, Natasha and Alexander Milayev, Igor Shchelokov, the son of the former Soviet Interior Minister and friend, told KP the Brezhnev family of Nikolai Shchelokov. - Brother and sister Vicki decided not to tell anyone about her death. They buried her quietly. None of her friends knew that she had died. And I would certainly come to say goodbye to Vitusya.

I am outraged by what happened, ”actress Victoria Lazich told KP. - I was friends with Galina Brezhneva, I have great respect for the family of Leonid Ilyich and his granddaughter Victoria. I and many of my friends would definitely come to the funeral. But the Milayevs, by their silence, actually forbade everyone who loved Brezhnev and his family to see his granddaughter on their last journey! I was shocked when I saw the funeral service in the church on TV. There are only three people at the coffin - Sasha and Natasha Milaev and Victoria's own daughter Galochka. Excuse me, only the homeless or criminals are buried like that! The Milayevs gave this exclusive farewell to the TV channel, not for free, of course. They called the television and asked to help them with the funeral. We learned in fact - everything is buried! These are the new realities of our time, when even death can be sold. I have no questions for Victoria's daughter Galina, she is inadequate, she has not yet recovered from the alcohol syndrome. The same Milayevs sold an interview of Galina Brezhneva to the BBC channel many years ago, exposing her to ridicule when she danced the cancan drunk on the table. Victoria was offended by her mother and did not speak to them for many years.

The BBC channel then went out to Alexander Milaev, Igor Shchelokov assures. - They gave him and his sister a thousand dollars, bought a box of champagne and without warning came home to Galina Leonidovna. Then the Milayevs left, supposedly they had business. Galina Leonidovna drank with the reporters for the meeting, then another. And then they start filming the drunk woman. Naturally, after this, Victoria did not communicate with her brother and sister for a long time.

"Drank, and very hard"

Shortly before her death, Victoria Filippova gave an interview, which, after her funeral, was shown in the program "Let them talk." The Secretary General's granddaughter spoke about her relationship with her grandfather, family problems, and why she sent her mother Galina Brezhnev and her daughter Galya to a mental hospital.

From my seven months I lived with my grandparents in the country, - said Victoria Evgenievna. - Grandpa was a very affectionate person. If he did not occupy this difficult post and did not devote all his time to work, then he would constantly take care of his grandchildren ... I do not like it when they say "the last days of Leonid Ilyich." He just fell asleep - and he was gone. And the day before was cheerful, as on all other days. I remember how on that last evening he wanted to listen to the record, I sat on the bed next to him, and we listened to the songs of the war years for a very long time. I kissed him goodnight and he went to bed. He didn't wake up in the morning...

The girl was actually raised by her grandmother - the wife of Secretary General Victoria Brezhnev. Vicki's mother was busy organizing her turbulent personal life. With Vika's father, circus performer Yevgeny Milayev, Galina Brezhneva lived for five years and divorced because of his betrayal. This was followed by a series of stormy novels - with magician Igor Kio, ballet star Maris Liepa ...

Mom had real relationships and feelings with two men - my dad and Liepa. Mom was an ideal wife under my father: she cooked and cleaned herself. There was not a single housekeeper then. She did all the housework herself, because my father ordered so, - Filippova said in a television interview. - Mom was a smart woman until she started drinking. It happened early, when she began a relationship with Maris Liepa, she began to take alcohol. He didn't like it very much. It did not work out for them, because Maris Eduardovich was not going to leave the family.

Then my mother drank. I drank very hard. Something had to be done about it, otherwise it would have ended badly. I sent her to a psychiatric hospital - I couldn't let her die under the fence. She didn't want to live with me. I was called to the house where she lived, and they said: take her away from here or we will evict her. She was not alone for a single day: all the time her friends were in the apartment, who flocked from everywhere, and there were strangers from the street ... Therefore, they disappeared, jewelry was stolen ...

When asked if she loved her mother Galina Brezhneva, Victoria Filippova replied: "I loved my childhood idea of ​​her. My mother and I were strangers, we rarely saw each other. I had a different life."

"Under Gorbachev, our family was persecuted"

While grandfather was alive, Victoria's life flowed well. The problems began after Brezhnev's death. The granddaughter of the General Secretary told how her family was persecuted under Gorbachev. It was at this time that Victoria became a victim of "black realtors" and lost her property and money.

I exchanged my apartment for two small ones: for myself and my daughter, but I didn’t receive my part of the money, Filippova said. - It was Gorbachev's time. And no one stood up. Why was it us, grandchildren, to poison? We were not in politics, the country was not robbed. They poisoned us, and with us our children. My Galya was not accepted into the Komsomol, they threw us out of all polyclinics, from everywhere. In the end, I was laid off - kicked out of the State Committee for Publishing. When Boris Nikolayevich (Yeltsin. - Ed.) came, it became easier ...

Victoria's daughter Galina drank herself and became homeless: in the summer she spent the night on playgrounds, in the winter - in the porches. A few years ago, Victoria sent her daughter to a psychiatric clinic. Just like she did with her mother Galina Brezhneva.

Help "KP"

Both marriages were unhappy.

Victoria Filippova (Milaeva) was born in the family of the daughter of the USSR Secretary General Galina Brezhneva and circus performer Evgeny Milaev. They named her in honor of her grandmother - the wife of Leonid Ilyich Victoria Brezhneva. When the girl was five years old, her parents separated. Her stepfather in the future was Yuri Churbanov (Colonel General of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs).

After school, Victoria studied at Moscow State University, but transferred to GITIS. The first husband is Mikhail Filippov, a former employee of Vneshtorg. In marriage, a daughter, Galya, was born. The second husband is Gennady Varakuta, Lieutenant General of the KGB.

Victoria was a housewife, then she worked at the State Committee for Publishing. In Gorbachev's times, she was left without a job. To provide for herself, she began to exchange apartments with a surcharge. I fell for the bait of "black realtors" and was left without a home. Her only daughter, Galya, was a wanderer. For the last ten years, Victoria has lived in Pavlovsky Posad in the house of Dmitry's common-law husband.

Daughter identified in a psychiatric clinic. A few years ago, Galya left the hospital. An apartment in Moscow was helped by a Moscow deputy who saw on television a report about her miserable situation. Shortly before her death, Victoria Evgenievna nevertheless began to communicate with her daughter. Her daughter found out that her mother had cancer six months ago. It turned out that Victoria Evgenievna was diagnosed with cancer late, she knew that she was doomed, but she held firm.

She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Skopina Olga © IA Krasnaya Vesna

May 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the massacre of the commission of the Don Soviet Republic. At the end of April 1918, by decision of the Central Executive Committee of the republic, an expedition was sent to the north of the region to mobilize the Upper Don Cossacks. It was necessary to form detachments to repulse the Germans, who were already approaching Rostov. The counter-revolutionary-minded Cossacks first captured a commission headed by Fyodor Podtelkov and Mikhail Krivyshlokov, members of the Republic's Military Revolutionary Committee. And then they executed almost all the members of the expedition.

The anniversary of the event that led to a sharp aggravation between the Reds and the Whites, unfortunately, has gone almost unnoticed in the region. Commemorative events were planned only at the place of execution of the detachment members - in the Kashar region. The regional authorities actually ignored the centenary of one of the key episodes of the Civil War on the Don. Almost forgot about the anniversary and the Cossacks. Meanwhile, this story is worth remembering.

The first post-revolutionary months on the Don

By 1917, the population of the Don was very heterogeneous. The Cossacks, who made up about 40% of the population of the region, owned more than 80% of the land. In addition, the Cossack estate enjoyed other privileges, for example, did not pay taxes. All this led to great tension between the Cossacks and the “non-residents” (which included the entire non-Cossack population of the Don). The Cossacks themselves were also not a monolith - the poor and the "middle peasants" had big claims to the Cossack elite. This tangle of contradictions largely predetermined the future difficult fate of the region.

After the Great October Revolution on the Don, an active political confrontation began between the Rostov Soviet and the military government of Ataman Kaledin, who met in Novocherkassk. The aggravation quickly reached the sluggish hostilities. At the end of November, a detachment of Cossacks and junkers smashed the premises of the Rostov Soviet, killing several Red Guards. White partisan detachments began to operate. They were opposed by individual units of the Red Guards. The bulk of the Cossacks, who had only recently returned from the front, remained neutral.

But on January 10 (23) a congress of front-line Cossacks was assembled in the village of Kamenskaya. At first, the congress had no definite political orientation. But as soon as it became known about the telegram of the Don government with the order to disperse the congress and arrest those present, the mood of the delegates changed. Ensign Mikhail Krivoshlykov's proposal to declare the congress an organ of revolutionary power in the region was supported by all those present. The congress delegates elected the Don Cossack Military Revolutionary Committee (WRC). It should be noted that of the 15 members of the WRC, only three were Bolsheviks. Fedor Podtelkov was elected chairman, Mikhail Krivoshlykov was elected secretary.

Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov

Fedor Grigoryevich Podtelkov was born in the Krutovsky farm of the Ust-Khoperskaya village of the Ust-Medvedetsky district in 1886 in the family of a poor Cossack. Since 1909, he served in the Life Guards Artillery, which was part of the emperor's guard. Fought in the First World War, rose to the rank of cadet. After the February Revolution, he began to take an active part in the political life of the regiment, campaigning for Soviet power.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Krivoshlykov was born in the Ushakov farmstead of the Yelanskaya village of the Donetsk District in the family of a blacksmith in 1894. In 1909 he entered the Donskoy Agricultural School, located near Novocherkassk. After graduating from college, he worked as an agronomist. With the outbreak of World War I, he was drafted into the army. By 1917, he had risen to the rank of ensign and the position of commander of a hundred. After the February Revolution, he was elected chairman of the regimental committee, was a member of the division committee. In May 1917, he was sent as a delegate from the village of Yelanskaya to the Cossack Military Circle, where he sharply criticized the candidate for ataman, General Kaledin. He was one of the organizers of the congress of front-line Cossacks in Kamenskaya.

Actions of the MRC

On January 15, the delegates of the committee put forward an ultimatum to the Don government, in which they proposed to recognize the power of the Military Revolutionary Committee and resign. The Kaledin government refused. A situation of dual power was established in the region. On January 20, a decisive battle took place: one of the most combat-ready units of the chieftains, the detachment of Colonel Chernetsov, was defeated by the revolutionary Cossacks near the Glubokaya station. Vasily Chernetsov himself, along with part of his detachment, was captured.

What exactly happened during the escort of prisoners is unknown. According to the most common version (confirmed, among other things, by the surviving soldiers of his detachment), Chernetsov attacked Podtelkov, the commander of the convoy. In response to the attack, the chairman of the Military Revolutionary Committee hacked to death the colonel, the prisoners rushed into the loose. Some of them were shot while trying to escape, others managed to escape. Subsequently, it was this event that served as one of the main accusations against Podtelkov.

The Reds continued to advance. On January 29, Ataman Kaledin convened an emergency meeting of the government, at which he stated: “The population not only does not support us, but is also hostile to us”. He acknowledged the futility of further resistance and resigned as chieftain and chairman of the government. In the evening of the same day, General Kaledin shot himself. The Don government was headed by ataman Nazarov, but even he could not raise the Cossacks to fight against the Soviet regime. On April 1, Novocherkassk was occupied by the Cossack detachment of Golubov, who dispersed the Military Circle. Small detachments of whites retreated to the Salsky steppes.

As early as March 23, the Military Revolutionary Committee announced the creation "an independent Don Soviet Republic in blood connection with the Russian Soviet Republic". It should be noted that the central Soviet authorities, in principle, did not object to autonomy. Lenin wrote on February 28: “I have nothing against the autonomy of the Don region ... Let the plenipotentiary congress of urban and rural councils of the entire Don region develop its own agrarian bill and submit it for approval to the Council of People's Commissars ...”.

Fyodor Podtelkov became the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and the military commissar of the republic. Mikhail Krivoshlykov took the post of Commissioner for Management Affairs. From 22 to 27 April, the First Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Cossacks' Deputies of the Don Republic was held in Rostov, attended by 713 delegates. The congress confirmed the powers of the commissars, recognized the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and held elections to the Central Executive Committee of the republic.

Mobilization Commission

However, not the entire population of the region recognized Soviet power. The remnants of the Don government incited the Cossacks to revolt. The situation was aggravated by the fact that German troops approached the region. The leadership of the republic sent a delegation to the Germans and tried to convince them to comply with the terms of the peace treaty, according to which the Germans did not have the right to occupy the Don region. However, the negotiations were unsuccessful, and at the end of April, German troops invaded the territory of the republic.

The appeal of the republican authorities calling on the population to stand up for the defense of the Don and the revolution from the invaders did not have much success. The Red troops continued to retreat under the pressure of the invaders. It was decided to send a mobilization commission to the northern Don districts to recruit volunteers to fight the Germans and strengthen local authorities.

Podtelkov was appointed head of the expedition, and Krivoshlykov was appointed commissar. The commission was supplied with 10 million tsarist money, and on April 30 a detachment of about 120 people left Rostov. But the goal was not achieved. As they moved to the north of the region, the detachment encountered more and more resistance from the population, desertion began. On May 10, the expedition was surrounded by superior forces of counter-revolutionary Cossacks. Members of the mobilization commission surrendered under the promise of personal immunity and the return of their weapons after being transported to the village of Krasnokutskaya.

But contrary to promises, the prisoners were taken only as far as Ponomarev's farm, where at night the White Cossacks gathered a court that was supposed to decide the fate of the detachment. Despite the fact that the expedition did not commit any violent actions, the court, directed by Cossack officers, decided to shoot the surrendered Cossacks, and hang the leaders of the detachment, Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov. Only one of the approximately 80 prisoners was released by the court. The severity of the sentence struck not only the members of the expedition, but also many of their opponents. The massacre was scheduled for the next day. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that it was a pre-Easter Saturday, and for many Cossacks the very idea of ​​execution on the eve of the holy holiday was seditious.

execution

Nevertheless, a firing squad was formed and the execution took place on the morning of 11 May. Part of the population of the farm (mostly from other cities) did not want to go and watch the massacre, but the village administration sent horse patrols through the streets, which actually drove the inhabitants to execution. According to eyewitnesses, in addition to the prisoners, local resident Mikhail Lukin was also executed for sympathy for the convicts.

The leaders of the detachment were among the last to be executed, and while waiting for the execution, they tried to encourage their comrades. Fedor Podtyolkov several times addressed the crowd of spectators and tried to convince the audience. Mikhail Krivoshlykov, ill with a fever, wrote a short letter to his relatives, which one of the Cossacks watching the execution agreed to deliver: “Dad, mom, grandfather, grandmother, Natasha, Vanya and all relatives! I went to fight for the truth to the end. Taking prisoners, they deceived us and they kill the disarmed. But do not grieve, do not cry. I am dying and I believe that the truth will not be killed, and our suffering will be redeemed with blood... Farewell forever! Your loving Misha. P.S. Dad! When everything calms down, then write a letter to my fiancee: the village of Volki, Poltava province, Stepanida Stepanovna Samoylenko. Write that I couldn't keep my promise to meet her.".

During the execution, the farm teacher managed to take a photo of the leaders of the detachment. The photograph has been preserved and is currently in the museum of Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov in the Ponomarev farm.

According to eyewitnesses, Podtelkov himself put a noose around his neck and, before the stool was knocked out from under his feet, shouted, addressing the Cossacks: “Only one thing: do not return to the old ...”. Krivoshlykov, during the execution, was very agitated and incoherently said that the cause of Bolshevism lives on, and they themselves are dying, like the first Christian martyrs, with the belief that their cause has not died.

The consequences of the massacre

The execution of the members of the Podtelkov expedition became one of the key events in inciting the Civil War on the Don. Fighting clashes between the Reds and Whites have occurred before, but such a massacre without investigation took place for the first time. The execution of the Podtelkovites marked the beginning of the practice of mass political anti-Soviet terror on the Don, which was then continued during the reign of Ataman Krasnov. Such a cruel and disenfranchised trial could not but evoke a response from the supporters of the Don Soviet Republic, who wanted to take revenge on the Cossacks for their executed comrades.

By mid-May, the situation of the Don Republic became catastrophic: Rostov and Taganrog were occupied by the Germans, Novocherkassk and most of the region's territories were controlled by their ally Krasnov. In fact, the republic ceased to exist by the summer, formally it was abolished on September 30th.

Subsequently, Soviet power returned to the Don at the beginning of 1919, and the former leadership of the DSR, which, in many respects, consisted of the Don Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), advocated an extremely tough policy towards the Cossacks. There is every reason to believe that one of their motives was revenge for the unjustly executed comrades.

Memory of the executed

In the winter of 1919, when the front passed through the Ponomarev farm, on the mass grave of the executed, the Red Army built an obelisk with the inscription: "You killed individuals, we will kill classes." In the late 1920s, Mikhail Sholokhov published the first two volumes of his ingenious "Quiet Flows the Don". In the second volume, the episode with the massacre of the expedition was described in detail. The writer vividly showed how this execution greatly influenced the consciousness of the Cossacks and pushed them to a fratricidal war.

Currently, several monuments to Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov are located on the territory of the Rostov region. The monument, located at the site of the execution in the Ponomarev farm, was restored in 2017. Local residents themselves raised funds for the examination of the monument, which showed the need for repairs. At the request of local residents and the district administration, the governor allocated funds from the regional reserve fund. But the monument, located in the center of the former capital of the Don Cossack Region - Novocherkassk, has not been repaired for many decades and is in disrepair.

Modern assessment of the events of the Civil War on the Don

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a myth about the participation of the Cossacks in the Civil War was introduced into the public consciousness. Its creators tried to present the complex and contradictory situation on the Don as if all the Cossacks unambiguously supported the Whites.

At present, Colonel Chernetsov is praised by the Cossacks as one of the main heroes of the Civil War. He led a detachment of counter-revolutionary youth, defeated near Glubokaya in January 1918. In 2008, at the place of the death of the colonel, by decision of the registered Don Cossacks, a memorial sign was erected to him. In an interview with the regional portal 161.ru, a representative of the press service of the troops said that a monument was erected to Chernetsov as the creator of "the first partisan detachment on the Don to protect against the advancing troops sent by the Bolshevik government to seize power".

In 2009, the first Military Chernetsov commemorations were held in the region, which became annual. The organizers and participants of the event glorify the members of the Chernetsov detachment in every possible way, as if forgetting that the Cossacks participated in the battle from both sides. So, at the events held on the centenary of the battle, Alexander Palatny, director of the Department for Cossacks and Cadet Educational Institutions of the Rostov Region, shared his opinion about those events with the regional channel 33. He declared: “In difficult, critical times for Russia, there was a group of patriots, which consisted of young people, and who came out to defend the country”. It turns out, according to the regional authorities, the Red Cossacks who fought on the side of the Military Revolutionary Committee (which, we recall, later entered into battle with the Germans who came to the Don) were not patriots and posed a danger to the country.

But the fate of the mobilization commission of Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov, when some Cossacks carried out atrocious reprisals against others, testifies that the real situation that developed on the Don in 1918 was much more complex and deeper than they try to imagine. Such stories break the myth about a single “white” Cossacks, which is probably why they prefer either to keep silent about them completely or to distort them. So, in one of the Don cadet corps, a history teacher in a lesson told the children that Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov were white, and the Red Guards committed reprisals against them! Moreover, the teacher himself really believed in this “version” and did not see anything special in the incident.

Such a distortion of history primarily offends the Cossacks who fought in the Civil War, both "red" and "white". If only out of respect for them, the Cossacks should stop using their own history to achieve any political goals whatsoever. A hundred years have passed since those events, and it's time to really deal with the full truth about the Revolution and the Civil War.

Lesson 4

Theme: The tragedy of the civil war on the pages of the novel by M.A. Sholokhov

Quiet Don

The purpose of the lesson: show the civil courage of Sholokhov, who was one of the first Russian writersXXcentury, he told the real truth about the civil war as the greatest tragedy that had grave consequences for the whole people; understand deep intention of "Quiet Flows the Don"; determine the author's position on the key issues of the novel; prove that any civil war - the greatest tragedy, which has grave consequences for both the individual and the entire nation.

Equipment: portrait of M. Sholokhov, illustrations, handouts.

Methodical methods: storytelling, analysis of episodes, analytical conversation, group work.

And the Lord said to Cain:

Where is Abel, your brother?

During the classes

teacher's word

For a long time in Soviet literature, the civil war was shrouded in the halo of a great feat and revolutionary romance. Sholokhov, one of the first Soviet writers, spoke of the civil war as the greatest national tragedy that had grave consequences for the country.

Why can the creation and publication of the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" be called Sholokhov's literary feat?

(The novel "Quiet Don" was published for twelve years (from 1928 to 1940). And all this time Sholokhov was under enormous pressure - from editors of all degrees to critics, who in one way or another expressed the position of the authorities. It was possible to withstand this pressure, only deeply related to the idea of ​​a thing that was more and more different from other works of Soviet literature and more and more threatening the well-being of the author, up to arrest and prosecution.

Why are the characters of the Bolsheviks less attractive in The Quiet Don than the characters of the Cossacks?

(Sholokhov in his novel came from the truth of life. When he created the characters of the same Podtelkov or Mishka Koshevoy, he painted them not as some kind of “ideal heroes”, but as people who were just groping for a new life path. Each of them has its own share guilt and responsibility to the people - more for Shtokman and Mishka Koshevoy, less for Ivan Alekseevich Behind the complexity of Sholokhov's attitude towards these figures is the complexity of his attitude to the revolution and the Civil War, which was initially not unambiguous).

Do you agree with Sholokhov's statement that the civil war did not end in 1920?

(“The civil war ... among other things, is so dirty that there are no victories or winners in it ...,” Sholokhov said.

After all, the troubles of the Civil War on the Don for Sholokhov are not an abstraction, but a bitter personal experience that went like a plow through their large family. Three cousins ​​​​of Sholokhov - Ivan, Valentin and Vladimir Sergin - died in the Civil War. He grew up with them on the Kruzhilin farm, where the sister of Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov, Olga Mikhailovna Sergina, after the death of her husband, moved with her four children and settled in the same kuren with Sholokhov. The death of the brothers could not but deeply affect the writer.

According to the writer, the Civil War, which brought people so much grief and trouble, did not end in 1920. After the “reconciliation”, “then all those who survived came to their broken kurens and broken families. Both winners and losers. And a peaceful life began: “They live from gate to gate, they drink water from one well, how many times a day they call each other's eyes ... What is it like? Enough imagination? Here, in my opinion, even the poorest will be enough to get frost on the skin. ” This split, which the war brought, continued for many years, nourishing mutual hatred and suspicion ...

“When did the civil war end there, according to your textbooks? In the 20th? No, my dear, she is still on her way. The means are just different. And don't think it's over soon...)

Conclusion: This characterization by Sholokhov of the time of the revolution and the Civil War at the very end of his life helps better. Sholokhov's bitter words about the break in the life of the people, which determined their troubles and suffering for many decades, reveal the very essence of this great work that called the people to national unity.

The events of the civil war on the Don, reflected on the pages of the novel by M. Sholokhov "The Quiet Don" (historical commentary)

In late 1917 - early 1918, the Cossack "governments" of the Don and Kuban, under the leadership of atamans A. M. Kaledin and A. P. Filimonov, declared non-recognition of the Soviet government and started a war against Soviet power. Then the Soviet government sent Red Guard detachments and detachments of Baltic sailors from the central provinces of Russia to fight them, uniting them on the Don under the general command of the famous Bolshevik V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko. The fighting at this stage of the Civil War was carried out on both sides, mainly along the railways by a few separate detachments (from several hundred to several thousand people) and received the name "echelon war". The Red Guard detachments of R. F. Sievers, Yu. V. Sablin and G. K. Petrov in January 1918 drove the units of General Kaledin and the White Guard Volunteer Army from the northern part of the Don region. The congress of the Don front-line Cossacks in the village of Kamenskaya on January 10-11 (23-24), 1918 formed the Donrevkom headed by F. G. Podtelkov and M. V. Krivoshlykov and formed revolutionary Cossack detachments, which a few days later defeated the officer volunteer detachment of Yesaul V. M. Chernetsova. Chernetsov and more than 40 officers who were captured, by order of F.G. Podtelkov, were executed without trial or investigation. On February 24, the Red Guard detachments occupied Rostov, on February 25 - Novocherkassk. General Kaledin shot himself, and the remnants of his troops fled to the Sal steppes. The volunteer army (3-4 thousand people) retreated with battles to the territory of the Kuban ...

Episode Analysis "The scene of the massacre of Chernetsovites" (part 5, ch.12)

(Viewing film fragments of the movie "Quiet Don" (2nd series)

Twisting his wahmister's upraised mustaches, Golubov shouted hoarsely:

Melekhov, well done! You're hurt, aren't you? Hell! Is the bone intact? - and,

without waiting for an answer, he smiled: - Head on! Head-smashed!..

The officer detachment was so dispersed that it was impossible to assemble. Got them in the tail!

Gregory asked for a smoke. Cossacks flocked all over the field and

red guards. A riding Cossack trotted from the crowd, far blackening ahead.

Forty people have been taken, Golubov! .. - he shouted from afar. - Forty officers

and Chernetsov himself.

Are you lying?! - Golubov spun in fright in the saddle and galloped, mercilessly

chopping a tall white-legged horse with a whip.

Grigory, after waiting a little, followed him at a trot.

A dense crowd of captured officers was accompanied by a ring engulfing them,

a convoy of thirty Cossacks - the 44th regiment and one of the hundreds of the 27th. ahead

all went Chernetsov. Fleeing from persecution, he threw off his sheepskin coat and now

walked in a light leather jacket. The epaulette on his left shoulder was

cut off. There was a fresh abrasion on the face near the left eye. He went

quickly without breaking your feet. The papakha, worn on one side, gave him the appearance

carefree and youthful. And there was no shadow of fright on his pink face: he,

apparently, he had not shaved for several days - the blond growth was golden on his cheeks and

chin. Chernetsov looked sternly and quickly at the Cossacks who ran up to him;

a bitter, hateful crease loomed between her brows. He lit on the go

a match, lit a cigarette, squeezing a cigarette at the corner of pink hard lips.

Most of the officers were young, only a few had white frost.

gray hair One, wounded in the leg, lagged behind, he was pushed with a butt in the back

small big-headed and pockmarked Cossack. Almost next to Chernetsov walked

tall brave captain. Two arm in arm (one is a cornet, the other is a centurion)

walked smiling; behind them, without a hat, curly-haired and broad-shouldered, walked the cadet. On the

one had a soldier's overcoat thrown wide open with epaulettes sewn

to death. Another walked without a hat, pulling his beautiful black eyes

red officer's cap; the wind carried the ends of the hood over his shoulders.

Golubov rode behind.

Leaving behind, he shouted to the Cossacks:

Listen here!.. You are responsible for the safety of the prisoners to the fullest extent.

military revolutionary time! To be delivered to the headquarters in one piece!

He called one of the mounted Cossacks, sketched, sitting on the saddle, a note:

rolling it up, handed it over to the Cossack:

Download! Give it to Podtelkov.

Turning to Gregory, he asked:

Are you going there, Melekhov?

Having received an affirmative answer, Golubov caught up with Grigory and said:

Tell Podtelkov that I am bailing Chernetsov! Understood? .. Well, so

pass. Ride.

Grigory, ahead of the crowd of prisoners, galloped to the headquarters of the Revolutionary Committee, which was standing in

field near a farm. Near a wide Tachanka tachanka, with

Podtelkov walked around with frozen wheels and a machine gun covered with a green case.

Right there, tapping their heels, the staff, orderlies, several

officers and Cossack orderlies. Minaev only recently, like Podtelkov,

returned from the chain. Sitting on the goats, he bit the white, frozen bread,

chewed crunchy.

Podtelkov! Gregory stepped aside. - Now they will bring the prisoners.

Did you read Golubov's note?

Podtelkov waved his whip forcefully; dropping low-drooping pupils,

bleeding, shouted:

I don't give a damn about Golubov!.. You never know what he wants! On bail to him

Chernetsov, this robber and counter-revolutionary?.. I won’t let you!.. Shoot

all of them - and that's it!

Golubov said he was taking him on bail.

I won't give it!.. It is said: I won't give it! Well, that's all! The revolutionary court to judge him

and punish without delay. So that it was disgraceful to others! .. You know -

he spoke more calmly, peering sharply at the approaching crowd

prisoners - do you know how much blood he released into the world? Sea!..

How many miners did he transfer? .. - and again, boiling with rage, fiercely

rolled his eyes: - I will not give! ..

There is nothing to shout here! - Grigory also raised his voice: everything was trembling in him

inside, Podtelkov's rage seemed to take root in him. - There are many of you

judges! You go there! - trembling nostrils, he pointed back ... - And above

captured you a lot of stewards!

Podtelkov walked away, his whip crumpling in his hands. From a distance he shouted:

I was there! Do not think that you escaped on a cart. And you, Melekhov, shut up

Take it!.. Got it?.. Who are you talking to?

clean up! The Revolutionary Committee judges, and not everyone ...

Grigory touched his horse to him, jumped, forgetting about the wound, from the saddle and,

shot through with pain, he fell backwards... From the wound, burning, blood sloshed.

He got up without outside help, somehow hobbled to the cart,

leaned sideways against the rear spring.

The prisoners arrived. Part of the foot escorts mixed with the orderlies and

Cossacks who were guarding the headquarters. The Cossacks have not yet cooled down from the battle,

their eyes gleamed hotly and angrily, exchanged remarks about

details and outcome of the battle.

Podtelkov, stepping heavily on the falling snow, approached the prisoners.

Chernetsov, who stood in front of them all, looked at him, screwing up his sly eyes contemptuously.

desperate eyes; freely setting aside his left leg, shaking it, crushed his white

a pink lip seized from the inside by a horseshoe of the upper teeth. Podtelkov

walked straight up to him. He was trembling all over, his unblinking eyes crawled over

pitted snow, having risen, crossed with the fearless, despising

Chernetsov's glance and broke him off with the weight of hatred.

Gotcha... bastard! - Podtelkov said in a bubbling low voice and stepped

step back; His cheeks were slashed with a crooked smile.

Traitor of the Cossacks! Scoundrel! Traitor! - through clenched teeth

Chernetsov rang.

Podtelkov shook his head, as if dodging slaps in the face, - he turned black in

cheekbones, with an open mouth flimsy sucked in air.

What happened next played out with astonishing speed. bared,

Chernetsov, who had turned pale, pressed his fists to his chest, leaning forward all over, walked

on Podtelkova. From his convulsed lips, slurred

words mixed with obscene swearing. What he said - heard one

slowly backing Podtelkov.

You'll have to... you know? Chernetsov raised his voice sharply.

These words were heard by the captured officers, and the convoy, and staff.

But-oh-oh-oh ... - as if strangled, Podtelkov wheezed, throwing his hand on the hilt

checkers.

It immediately became quiet. The snow creaked distinctly under Minaev's boots,

Krivoshlykov and several other people who rushed to Podtelkov. But he

ahead of them; with the whole body turning to the right, crouching, pulled out of the scabbard

saber and, lunging forward, slashed Chernetsov with terrible force

head.

Grigory saw how Chernetsov, trembling, raised his left hand above his head,

managed to shield himself from the blow; I saw how a cut brush broke at an angle

and the saber soundlessly fell on Chernetsov's thrown back head. At first

a hat fell off, and then, like an ear broken in the stalk, slowly

fell Chernetsov, with a strangely twisted mouth and painfully screwed up,

wrinkled, as from lightning, eyes.

Podtelkov slashed him again, walked away with an aged, heavy gait,

on the move, wiping the sloping valleys of the checkers, blackened with blood.

Knocking against the cart, he turned to the guards, shouted exhausted,

Cut-and-and them... such a mother!! Everyone! .. Now there are no prisoners ... in the blood, in the heart !!

Shots fired furiously. The officers, colliding, rushed

scattered. A lieutenant with beautiful female eyes, in a red officer's

hat, ran, clutching his head with his hands. The bullet got him high

as if through a barrier, jump. He fell and didn't get up. high,

the brave captain was cut down by two. He grabbed the blades of the checkers, from the cut

blood poured from his palms on his sleeves; he screamed like a child - fell on

on his knees, on his back, rolled his head in the snow; alone were seen on the face

bloodshot eyes and a black mouth drilled with a continuous scream. By face

his flying checkers slashed across his black mouth, and he was still screaming

torn off the strap, finished him off with a shot. The curly-haired junker almost

broke through the chain - he was overtaken and killed by some

ataman. The same ataman drove a bullet between the shoulder blades of the centurion, who fled to

overcoat opened from the wind. The centurion sat down and until then scraped

fingers chest until he died. The gray-haired podsaul was killed on the spot;

parting with his life, he knocked out a deep hole in the snow with his feet and still beat,

like a good horse on a leash, if the pitiful Cossacks had not finished it.

Gregory at the first moment, as soon as the massacre began, broke away from

carts - without taking their eyes filled with dregs from Podtelkov, limping, quickly

hobbled towards him. From behind, Minaev grabbed him across, - breaking, twisting

hands, took away the revolver and, looking into the eyes with faded eyes, gasping for breath,

asked:

And you thought - how? Or they us, or we them! There is no middle!

1. What motivates the behavior of the characters?

2. How are Podtelkov and Chernetsov depicted in this scene?

3. Why does Sholokhov give a detailed description of the appearance of the executed white officers?

4. How does Gregory feel after the massacre of white officers?

Analysis of the episode "Execution of Podtelkov and his detachment" (part 5, ch.30)

The analyzed episode is one of the key ones for understanding the ideological content of M. Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Don". The most important problem is connected with this episode - the problem of humanism, the problem of a person's moral responsibility for his actions.

Grigory Melekhov, squeezing through the ragged crowd, went to the farm and came face to face with Podtelkov. He stepped back and frowned.

- And are you here, Melekhov?

A bluish pallor washed over Grigory's cheeks, and he stopped:

- Here. As you see…

- I see ... - Podtelkov smiled sideways, looking at his whitened face with a flash of hatred. - What, you shoot brothers? Turned around? .. What are you like ... - He, moving close to Grigory, whispered: - Do you serve both ours and yours? Who will give more? Oh you!..

Grigory caught him by the sleeve and gasped:

- Do you remember under Deep Fight? Do you remember how the officers were shot... They shot at your order! BUT? Now you're burping! Well, don't worry! You are not the only one to tan other people's skins! You, grebe, sold the Cossacks to the Jews! Understandably? Isho say?

Embracing Christonya, he took the enraged Gregory aside.

- Come on, let's go to the horses. Go! We have nothing to do with you. Lord God, what is happening to people! ..

They went, then stopped, hearing the voice of Podtelkov. Surrounded by front-line soldiers and old men, he shouted out in a high, passionate voice:

- You are dark... blind! You are blind! Officers lured you, forced blood brothers to kill! Do you think if you beat us, it will end like this? Not! Today is your top, and tomorrow you will be shot! Soviet power will be established throughout Russia. Here, mark my words! In vain you pour someone else's blood! You people are stupid!

1. How does Grigory perceive the execution of Podtelkov?

2. Why does Grigory leave the square where Podtelkov is being executed?

3. What is the similarity of this scene with the scene of the massacre of Chernetsovites?

4. What is the point of mirroring scenes like this?

(In the scene of the massacre of the Podtelkovites over the Chernetsovites near Glubokaya Balka, the force of class enmity and hatred that divided the Cossacks on the Don is clearly shown. Grigory carefully peers into the faces of the officers who are being shot (for him they are, first of all, not enemies, but living people). The execution of Podtelkov perceives, as a just punishment of God for all the evil that he inflicted on others. (“Remember how the officers were shot in the beam? They shot at your order! Eh? Now you get revenge!”) But he leaves the square because the massacre of unarmed people is disgusting, "is contrary to his nature. Gregory is lost, crushed psychologically. Everywhere - whether the whites, whether the reds - deceit, savagery, cruelty, which has no justification. War corrupts people, provokes them to such actions that in a normal state a person would never have committed From episode to episode, an internal tragic discrepancy between Grigory's aspirations and the life around him grows. flattery and must make a choice for himself, decide his own fate. The hero of the novel, having committed seemingly monstrous murders and atrocities, ultimately remains a man in the full sense of the word. He is still capable of doing good, disinterested, noble deeds).

Conclusion:“When did the civil war end there, according to your textbooks? In the 20th? No, my dear, she is still on her way. The means are just different. And don’t think that it will end soon”… This characterization by Sholokhov of the time of the revolution and the Civil War at the very end of his life helps to better understand the deep intention of The Quiet Flows the Don. Sholokhov's bitter words about the break in the life of the people, which determined their troubles and suffering for many decades, reveal the very essence of this great work, which called the people to national unity.

I. Talkov's song "Former podesaul" sounds

Exercise: while it sounds song by I. Talkov, write a sequence on the theme "War"

(Sequence - a short literary work that characterizes the subject (topic), consisting of five lines, which is written according to a certain plan:

1 line - one word. The title of the poem, usually a noun.

Line 2 - two words (adjectives or participles). Description of the topic.

Line 3 - three words (verbs). Actions related to the topic.

4 line - four words - a sentence. A phrase that shows the author's attitude to the topic.

Line 5 is one word. As a rule, this is an association that repeats the essence of the topic, usually a noun.)

Execution by Chekists of captured Cossack officers on the Don

They were given shovels, they were ordered to dig graves.

Chilling from the cold, the convoy was trampling nearby.

The young officers were blindfolded with a bandage.

The young Chekist read out the verdict to the doomed.

Crosses were torn from them, shoulder straps were cut off with knives.

The machine gun belt was gobbled up by a machine gun in a minute.

And the Latvian arrows, finishing off, no longer spared cartridges.

Proletarian lead killed both the stomach and the temple.

And the golden shoulder straps remained lying on the ground,

The officer's crosses are trampled into the mud with boots.

And the hot cartridge cases have not yet cooled down,

But life is over, there is a connection between the past and the future.

And the courage and glory of Russia remained in the grave,

Jesus children of the great, crucified country,

Young, beautiful, brave, smart, strong,

Blinded by the fury of the Russian civil war.

And in the morning bright stars fell from blue skies,

And above the mass grave, wormwood was already breaking through,

Hungry dogs barked, black crows croaked.

The bloody Crimean blue was washed with dew ...

An excerpt from the autobiographical story of R.B. Gul "The Ice Campaign with Kornilov"

Chapter. Massacre of the prisoners.

“Prisoners.
They are overtaken by Lieutenant Colonel Nezhintsev, galloping towards us, stopped - a mouse-colored mare is dancing under him.
"Wishing for reprisal!" he shouts.
"What is it? - I think. - Execution? Really?" Yes, I understood: execution, these 50-60 people, with their heads and hands down.
I looked back at my officers.
"Suddenly no one will go?" - passed me.
No, they are out of line. Some are smiling shyly, some with fierce faces.
Fifteen people came out. They go to strangers standing in a bunch and click the shutters.
A minute has passed.
Arrived: plee! ... Dry crackling of shots, screams, groans ...
People fell on each other, and from ten paces, tightly pressed into their rifles and legs apart, they were fired at, hastily clicking bolts. All fell. Silent groans. The shots ceased. Some of the shooters retreated.
Some, on the contrary, approached and finished off the still alive with bayonets and rifle butts.
Here it is, a real civil war ...
Near me is a staff captain, his face is like a beaten one. "Well, if we shoot like that, everyone will stand on us," he mutters softly.
The shooting officers approached.
Their faces are pale. Many have unnatural smiles wandering around, as if asking: well, how do you look at us after that?
"But how do I know! Maybe this bastard shot my relatives in Rostov!" - says, answering someone, the officer who shot.

In a poem by M. Voloshin, written in 1918, there are such lines: “I stand alone between them in a roaring flame and smoke, And with all my strength I pray for both of them.” On whose side, in your opinion, is the sympathy of the author of the poem "Execution"? Justify your answer.

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From the review of the poet Alexei Surkov about the novel by M. Sholokhov "Quiet Flows the Don":

“... Here Sasha Busygin quite thoroughly questioned whether the proletarian or non-proletarian work The Quiet Don ... It seems to me that Sholokhov wanted to make The Quiet Don undoubtedly our proletarian work, but objectively, regardless of Sholokhov’s subjective desire , the work turned out to be non-proletarian ... The poor Cossack part, represented by Mishka Koshev, is so poor internally that you immediately feel from which bell tower the author is looking at the Don steppe. This situation is further exacerbated by the fact that the entire prosperous part of this same Don Cossacks, that most of the White Guard heroes, most of the officers, in one way or another affected by Sholokhov, they look, despite the fact that they are hostile to us, they look, from the point of view of of the author with crystal-clear ideological, pure people ... It turns out that Sholokhov, in a romantic form, as Shulgin does, is trying to present the White Guard Guards ... "Quiet Flows the Don" has not yet ended. But Bunchuk, whom Sholokhov put on high romantic stilts, he had already killed along with Podtyolkov. The entire poor part of the village fell out of the sphere of attention of Sholokhov ... Sholokhov does not represent either the aspirations of the middle peasants of the Don, or the aspirations of the weak Cossacks. This is a representative of a full-blooded owner, a strong, prosperous Cossacks.

Why is the poet A. Surkov convinced that M. Sholokhov's novel "Quiet Flows the Don" is not a proletarian work?

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The protagonist of the novel by M. A. Sholokhov "Quiet Flows the Don" Grigory Melekhov, looking for the truth of life, gets confused a lot, makes mistakes, suffers, because he does not find the moral truth he aspires to in any of the warring parties.

Gregory is faithful to the Cossack traditions, instilled in him from birth. But at the same time, he surrenders to the power of violent passion, capable of violating generally accepted norms and rules. Neither the formidable father, nor dirty rumors and ridicule can stop Gregory in his passionate outburst.

Melekhov is distinguished by an amazing ability to love. Unwittingly, at the same time, he causes pain to loved ones. Grigory himself suffers, suffers no less than Natalya, Aksinya, and his parents. The hero finds himself as if between two poles: love-duty and love-passion. Committing bad deeds from the point of view of public morality and meeting with a married woman, Gregory remains honest and sincere to the end. “And it’s a pity for you,” he says to Natalia, “to go to sleep, for these days we became related, but there is nothing in my heart ... Empty.”

Stormy historical events swirled Gregory in their whirlwind. But the more he goes into military operations, the more he is drawn to the land, to work. He often dreams of the steppe. His heart is always with my beloved, distant woman, with his native farm, kuren.

A new turn in history brings Melekhov back to the earth, to his beloved, to his family. Grigory meets with the house, with the farm after a long separation. The bosom of the family returns him to the world of shaken habitual ideas about the meaning of life, about the Cossack duty.

While fighting, “Grigory firmly protected the Cossack honor, seized the opportunity to show selfless courage, took risks, went wild, went disguised to the rear of the Austrians, removed outposts without bloodshed.” Over time, the hero changes. He feels that “that pain over a person that crushed him in the first days of the war has irrevocably gone. Hardened heart, hardened ... ". The initial portrait of Gregory is also changing: "... his eyes are hollow and his cheekbones are sharply sticking out."

The tragic upheaval that split the world of the Cossacks into friends and foes poses numerous difficult and acute questions for Grigory. The hero is faced with a choice. Where to go? With whom? For what? Where is the truth? Melekhov, on his path of search, encounters different people, each of whom has his own point of view on what is happening. So centurion Efim Izvarin does not believe in the universal equality declared by the Bolsheviks, he is convinced of the special fate and destiny of the Cossacks and stands for an independent, autonomous life of the Don region. He is a separatist. Grigory, delving into the essence of his speeches, tries to argue with him, but he is illiterate and loses in an argument with a well-educated centurion who knows how to consistently and logically express his thoughts. “Izvarin easily defeated him in verbal battles,” the author reports, and therefore Grigory falls under the strong influence of Izvarin's ideas.

Other truths are instilled in Melekhov by Podtelkov, who believes that the Cossacks have common interests with all Russian peasants and workers, with the entire proletariat. Podtelkov is convinced of the need for elected people's power. He speaks so competently, convincingly and passionately about his ideas that this makes Gregory listen to him and even believe. After a conversation with Podtelkov, the hero "painfully tried to sort out the confusion of thoughts, think over something, decide." In Gregory, an illiterate and politically unsophisticated person, despite various suggestions, the desire to find his truth, his place in life, something that is really worth serving is still actively pulsating. Those around him offer him different ways, but Grigory firmly answers them: "I myself am looking for an entrance."

There comes a moment when Melekhov wholeheartedly takes the side of the new system. But this system, with its cruelty to the Cossacks, injustice, once again pushes Gregory onto the warpath. Melekhov is shocked by the behavior of Chernetsov and Podtelkov in the scene of the massacre of Chernetsovites. It burns with blind hatred and enmity. Gregory, unlike them, is trying to protect an unarmed enemy from a merciless bloody race. Gregory does not stand up for the enemy - in each of the enemies he sees first of all a person.

But in war as in war. Fatigue and anger lead the hero to cruelty. This is eloquently evidenced by the episode of the murder of sailors. However, Gregory is not easily given such inhumanity. It is after this scene that Melekhov is deeply tormented by the realization of a terrible truth: he has gone far from what he was born for and what he fought for. “The wrong course in life, and maybe I’m to blame for this,” he understands.

An unrelenting truth, an unshakable value, always remains for the hero a native nest. In the most difficult moments of life, he turns to thoughts about the house, about his native nature, about work. These memories give Gregory a sense of harmony and peace of mind.

Gregory becomes one of the leaders of the Veshensky uprising. This is a new round in his path. But gradually he becomes disillusioned and realizes that the uprising did not bring the expected results: the Cossacks suffer from the Whites in the same way that they suffered from the Reds before. Well-fed officers - the nobles contemptuously and arrogantly treat the ordinary Cossack and only dream of achieving success with his help in their new campaigns; the Cossacks are only a reliable means of achieving their goals. The boorish attitude of General Fitskhelaurov towards him is outrageous for Grigory, foreign invaders are hated and disgusting.

Painfully enduring everything that is happening in the country, Melekhov nevertheless refuses to evacuate. “Whatever the mother, she is someone else’s kindred,” he argues. And such a position deserves all respect.

The next transitional stage, salvation for Gregory again becomes a return to the earth, to Aksi-nye, to the children. He is suddenly imbued with extraordinary warmth and love for children, he realizes that they are the meaning of his existence. The habitual way of life, the atmosphere of his native home give rise in the hero to the desire to get away from the struggle. Gregory, having passed a long and difficult path, loses faith in both whites and reds. Home and family are true values, real support. Violence, repeatedly seen and known, evokes disgust in him. More than once he does noble deeds under the influence of hatred towards him. Grigory releases the relatives of the Red Cossacks from prison, drives a horse to death in order to have time to save Ivan Alekseevich and Mishka Koshevoy from death, leaves the square, not wanting to be a witness to the execution of the underdogs.

Quick to reprisal and unjustifiably cruel, Mishka Koshevoy pushes Gregory to run away from home. He is forced to wander around the farms and, as a result, joins Fomin's gang. Love for life, for children does not allow Gregory to give up. He understands that if he does not act, he will be shot. Melekhov has no choice, and he joins the gang. A new stage of Gregory's spiritual quest begins.

Little remains with Gregory by the end of the novel. Children, native land and love for Aksinya. But the hero is waiting for new losses. He deeply and grievously experiences the death of his beloved woman, but finds the strength to search for himself further: “Everything was taken away from him, everything was destroyed by ruthless death. Only the children remained. But he himself still convulsively clung to the ground, as if, in fact, his broken life represented some kind of value for him and for others.

Gregory spends most of his life in captivity of hatred tearing the world, death, becoming hardened and falling into despair. Stopping on the way, he discovers with disgust that, hating violence, he does not set death. He is the head and support of the family, but he has no time to be at home, among people who love him.

All the attempts of the hero to find himself are the path of going through the torment. Melekhov goes forward with an open to everything, "tossed" heart. He is looking for wholeness, genuine and undeniable truths, in everything he wants to get to the very essence. His searches are passionate, his soul burns. He is tormented by an unsatisfied moral hunger. Gregory longs for self-determination, he is not without self-condemnation. Melekhov is looking for the root of mistakes, including in himself, in his deeds. But about the hero who went through many thorns, one can say with confidence that his soul, in spite of everything, is alive, it has not been ruined by the most difficult life circumstances. Evidence of this is Gregory's desire for peace, for peace, for the land, the desire to return home. Without waiting for an amnesty, Melekhov returns home. He has only one desire - the desire for peace. His goal is to raise his son, a generous reward for all the pains of life. Mishatka is Gregory's hope for the future, in him is the possibility of continuing the Melekhov family. These thoughts of Gregory are confirmation that he is broken by the war, but not broken by it.

The path of Grigory Melekhov to the truth is a tragic path of human wanderings, gains, mistakes and losses, evidence of a close connection between personality and history. This difficult path was traversed by the Russian people in the 20th century.

Critic Yu. Lukin wrote about the novel: “The meaning of the figure of Grigory Melekhov ... expands, going beyond the scope and specifics of the Cossack environment of the Don in 1921 and grows to a typical image of a person who did not find his way during the years of the revolution.”