News
A Farewell Ceremony to M.M.Sholokhov
24.10.2013
Thousands of people came to the Estate of M.A.Sholokhov on October, 23, to farewell to Mikhail Mikhailovich Sholokhov, the younger son of the great writer, a retired colonel, the chief consultant of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve. The sad moments were filled with silence. Having worshipped the ashes of the deceased, having expressed condolences to his relatives many people visited the tombs of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov and his wife, Mariya Petrovna Sholokhova, to worship the parents of Mikhail Mikhailovich.
A continuous stream of people passing through the famous mansion veranda of the writer, a favourite place for the family to rest, lasted until one p.m. The people brought flowers, expressed their condolences to his close relatives: Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov, his son, Valentina Ismailovna Sholokhova, his wife, Svetlana Mikhailovna Sholokhova and Mariya Mikhailovna Sholokhova, his sisters, his grandsons and nephews.
On the way to the cemetery the coffin of the deceased was carried by the cadets of the Rostov Law Institute of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs, of which M.M.Sholokhov was one of the founders. Hundreds of people joined the mournful procession to pay the last tribute to the man, whom they sincerely loved, respected, appreciated for his profound knowledge, solid civic stand, a subtle humour and genuine modesty.
At the funeral rally in the cemetery, V.I.Tolstoy, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for Culture, underlined, that M.M.Sholokhov was a talented, remarkably subtle and profound person, whom he could talk with about the most important things, and he found the loss of Mikhail Mikhailovich equal to the irretrievable loss of his own father 16 years ago. The feeling of deep understanding and spiritual affinity has remained in the hearts of all the people who were lucky to communicate closely with Mikhail Mikhailovich.
To the sound of the funeral orchestra music and a farewell gun salvo the ashes of M.M.Sholokhov were consigned to the grave. The Head of the Kazakhstan delegation, K.K.Zhakupov, the akim of the Zelenov District, the West-Kazakhstan Region, poured on the grave a bag of earth from the places of Daryinskoye Village, where M.M.Sholokhov, like his father, liked to rest in the nature. The fresh grave was completely covered with funeral wreaths and fresh flowers from the people of all the northern districts including the Governor of the Rostov Region, from Cossacks of the Voysko Donskoye Region.
The funeral of M.M.Sholokhov was joined by V.N.Vasilenko and I.A.Guskov, the Rostov Region Deputy Governors, the representatives of the Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the associates of Mikhail Mikhailovich on creation in 1990 of the Union of Cossacks of the Voysko Donskoye Region, Sholokhov scholars, representatives of the creative unions, residents of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya.
Many times M.M.Sholokhov said that he had thrown in his lot with the Don River, with Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, which he would have exchanged for nothing. In the earth of Vyoshenskaya, next to his brother, Alexander Mikhailovich, he has found his eternal repose.
Alexey Kochetov
