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Memory Day of M.A. Sholokhov

On the Memory Day of Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov the residents and guests of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya put flowers to the tomb and the monument of the writer at the embankment of the River Don. A session devoted to the foreign visits of the writer and his talks with the readers of different countries was held in the Palace of Culture.

The total edition of Sholokhov’s works is over 100 mln copies in 90 languages of the world. Already the first editions of the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” in foreign countries made the young writer widely known. The name of Sholokhov still joins the people of different generations, different nationalities.

The program “I Like Travelling Around the World…” involved all the members of the writer’s memory party to make a kind of a tour about the countries and continents, where Sholokhov’s works are known, read and loved. Mikhail Aleksandrovich travelled much, was interested in discovering for himself the history and culture of different peoples, met with numerous readers, got acquainted with interesting people. It provided him enormously.

The leaders of the session told about Sholokhov’s first travelling abroad in 1930, about the following visits with his wife and children, about the reviews of the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” in foreign press, about the meetings with V. Bredel, A Zeghers, D. Dolchi, L. Aragon, E. Triole, F. Kubka, Ch. Snow, M. Larni and other famous writers. The narration was accompanied by the demonstration of photos, film fragments, which wonderfully conveyed the atmosphere of the talks between Sholokhov and the readers of different countries.

Svetlana, the writer’s elder daughter, recollects their travel about Europe in 1934: “Newspapers were full of rapturous greetings and responses about the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”.  Father accepted all this soberly, but Mother was overwhelmed: how it was so, that her husband, a writer from an unknown stanitsa, was welcomed like a famous person”.

Each trip was a kaleidoscope of bright events, lots of impressions. During his trip to Great Britain in 1962, the Saint Andrews University, one of the oldest educational institutions, awarded M.A. Sholokhov the Degree of the Honorary Doctor of Law. Thousands of students greeted the writer, then, during the ceremony he was laid on with the red cloak of the Doctor of Sciences, and his head was touched with the velvet hat, which was over 500 years old.

In Japan Sholokhov was everywhere accompanied by the photoreporters and teleoperators. The radio, television and papers were efficient in publishing about the process of the writer’s travelling, the cities he was going to visit, the people to meet with. In a city of Nikko, a young schoolgirl had been waiting for five hours by the gate of the ancient temple in order to get the writer’s autograph. Her patience was rewarded, the memorial photographs have remained, which impressed a touching meeting of a Japanese girl and the author of the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”.

The program “I Like Travelling Around the World…” showed the viewers through the writer’s eyes Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, England, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Japan, the USA. Music and songs of foreign composers were performed on the stage by the students of the M.A. Balakirev Children’s School of Arts (Moscow).

When the screen developed the film fragments about awarding M.A. Sholokhov the Nobel Prize in the Town Hall of Stockholm, and the writer’s words came, that “the feeling of joy overwhelms me, because I, though to some extent, contribute to glorifying my Motherland…”, all the public felt pride and joy, and delight with the modesty and grandeur characteristic of Mikhail Aleksandrovich.

Sholokhov travelled abroad more than thirty times, he visited fifteen countries. But his heart always remained with his native country. He said: “I like travelling around the world, especially because it gives me an opportunity to look forward to coming back home, to my Cossack nest, where I know everyone and where everyone knows me…” And on coming to Vyoshenskaya the writer shared his impressions of foreign trips with his countrymen, told about the experience in organizing the agricultural industry, about leisure and everyday life of the country residents. He did his best to make the life in the remote place “better, richer, more cultural”.

Sholokhov loved his country, his native land. “Here it is warmer and dearer to my heart”, he would say. And the finale of the program was the song “Vyoshenskaya Stanitsa” performed by the folk group “Zarnitsa” and by amateur groups of the Sholokhov District. Here, in Vyoshenskaya, Mikhail Aleksandrovich lived through almost 60 years. Here, on the bank of the Quiet Don, glorified by him, he was buried. The admirers of the writer’s work come here from all parts of our big planet to pay homage to his talent, wisdom, great love for his Country.

Olga Bakhtiyarova