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Present for the Museum

On March, 5, 2009, in Stanitsa Veshenskaya, in the assembly-hall of the People’s House of the State M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve a great event took place which attracted attention both of the stanitsa’s residents and of the country museum community, television and press. P.S. Kosov, a well-known on the Don businessman, historian-local lore expert, a Cossack-colonel, presented an archive of A.A. Zimovnov, who for several years had been M.A. Sholokhov’s assistant on deputy matters, as a gift for the museum.

– “Just imagine, for instance, - said Pyotr Kosov, - a letter of Hemingway would be found. The original! It would be a sensation all over the cultural world! So I think, that the epistolary heritage of M.A. Sholokhov is no less significant. In the archives of Andrey Afanasiyevich Zimovnov we have counted more than 700 readers’ letters to M.A. Sholokhov. And there are rough copies written by Sholokhov himself. There are diaries of Zimovnov, among the papers there is a letter written by L.I. Brezhnev himself. Besides, there is a big folder of photos and negatives made by A.A. Zimovnov. It is of a great value for our culture, and we decided to give all that had been found to the depository of the State M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve”.

The director of the Museum A.M. Sholokhov thanked P.S. Kosov for his noble gift, emphasizing the importance of the event: “The importance of the cultural heritage, particularly today, is enormous. It is great that there are people who understand it. We are grateful to receive this archive from Pyotr Sevostiyanovich and can assure you that it will not only be kept in one of the best depositories in the south of our country, but it will be processed in a short time and we shall tell about its contents in details”.

With the public applauding the act of giving the present was signed. The museum collection numbering more than 70000 deposition pieces is added with the valuable information of the Sholokhov epoch.

Alexey Kochetov