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The Sholokhov Museum Treated to “Vyoshenskaya Fish Soup Shcherba”

At the Excursion-Exhibition Centre “The People’s House” of the State M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve on February, 8, the exhibition “M.A. Sholokhov is the Singer of the Don Nature” was opened.

The residents and guests of Vyoshenskaya took part in the original presentation “Vyoshenskaya Shcherba”, which gathered the public by an improvised fire. The fishermen at the halt shared their recipes of cooking real “shcherba” (fish soup), told funny stories, sang favourite Cossack songs.

Mikhail Mikhailovich Sholokhov, the writer’s son, recollected about his father, his hobby of fishing and hunting and his touching attitude to the nature.

Mikhail Alexandrovich was an experienced fisherman and hunter, was keen on these occupations. He knew well the habits of birds and beasts, fishing spots, was a good shot, he charged the cartridges himself. He seldom went fishing or hunting alone. Usually he was accompanied by his friends, relatives and his faithful companion, his wife, Mariya Petrovna, who could shoot no worse than Mikhail Alexandrovich.

The exhibits of the lay out are unique. Here one can see memorial objects from the Sholokhov’s house: hunting and fishing accessories, outfit, footwear, equipment for hunting and fishing. The writer’s favourite fishing rods were home-made of birch, with a plummet and float from dry rush. There are beautiful spoon-baits, which Sholokhov’s friends brought him from their foreign trips, they were used for fishing by the members of his family and guests.

         A special wonder are rarity books about hunting and fishing from the writer’s private library: “The Tsar and Emperor’s Hunting in Rus” by N. Kutepov (1902), “The Fish of Russia” by L.P. Sabaneyev (1911) as well as journals “Our Hunting” (collected of 1908) and “Dog and Rifle Hunting (1905).

Knowing about hunting and fishing hobbies of M.A. Sholokhov, a writer Efim Permitin presented him “The Book for Beast and Game Hunters as Well as Rifle Shooters and Singing Birds Raisers” (1814) with words of granting.

The photos tell about hunting and fishing hobbies of the writer and his wife, documents, letters in protection of the nature and its riches. It was just by the river, in the forest, in the steppe, at fishing and hunting, where Sholokhov could be thinking best of all, where he created many scenes and pictures, embodied on the paper.

The most valuable exhibit of the exposition is the two pages of the documentary film script “About the Quiet Don”, at which M.A. Sholokhov worked together with the film operator L.B. Mazrukho, and several boxes with the films preserved by Mariya Petrovna during the war years.

The visitors will learn about the nature protecting activity of the Museum-Reserve of M.A. Sholokhov and the work on ecological education of young people. The exhibition displays a two-volume book of the Red List of Threatened Species of the Rostov Region “Animals” and “Plants”, which tells about the rare and extincting animal and plant species. Now they are protected by the law.

The exhibition is aimed at showing the beauty of Sholokhov country, at helping the people to comprehend better the necessity protecting the nature so dearly loved and valued by the writer.

The exhibition is open till April, 25, 2011.

E. Tolstopyatenko