News

News

Meeting with an Inmost World of M.A.Sholokhov

The XVII International Scientific and Practical Conference “Sholokhov Readings” dedicated to the 110th anniversary of the great writer took place in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, homeland of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov. It was held in the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve on September, 16–18.

The conference was joined by the famous scholars in the work of M.A.Sholokhov from different parts of Russia – from Moscow, Ulyanovsk, Lipetsk, Borisoglebsk, Belgorod, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don and from Serbia. Bogdan Kasanovich, Professor of the Novi Sad University (Serbia) has been studying the work of M.A.Sholokhov for more than a half of a century. In 1973, he was hospitably received in Vyoshenskaya by the writer and his wife, and the memories of those meetings are especially dear for him.

Before the plenary session, the members of the conference laid flowers to the monument of M.A.Sholokhov. The conference themed “Modern Studies in the Work of M.Sholokhov: Problems, Concepts, Approaches” lasted 3 days. The first day was a plenary session. It was opened by A.M.Sholokhov, Director of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve. He spoke about the work of the Museum in the previous year, the prospects and new projects, and demonstrated a fragment of the multimedia program: the screen showed a welcoming address in a familiar Mikhail Sholokhov’s handwriting to the members of the XVII International Scientific and Practical Conference. The writer’s handwriting created by means of computer technologies is a part of the project telling about the creative laboratory of the writer.

Within the three days of the conference there were presented 36 talks which showed a great thematic variety and deep knowledge of the subject. Working in two sections the members of the conference discussed the problems, concepts and approaches to the modern study in the work of Sholokhov and the peculiarities of the language power of the great writer. Among the speakers there were not only experienced scholars studying in the work of Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov for a long time, such as N.V. Korniyenko, Philology Doctor, Professor, Correspondent Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (the World Literature Institute of RAS); B.Kosanovich, Philology Doctor (Serbia, Novi Sad University); professors Y.A.Dvoryashin (the World Literature Institute of RAS), A.A.Dyrdin (Uliyanovsk State University), S.A.Vasiliyev (Moscow State Pedagogical University), L.B.Savenkova, N.I.Stopchenko (South Federal University); N.D.Kotovchikhina (Director of Sholokhov Centre of the Moscow State University of Technology and Management), G.N.Vorontsova, Philology Candidate (the World Literature Institute of RAS), T.O.Osipova, Philology Candidate (South Federal University) and others, but also young scholars, who show great interest for the study in Sholokhov literary heritage, such as O.V.Golotvina (Severodvinsk University), K.Maksyuta, A.Malakhova (South Federal University) and others. The guest from Serbia told about the perception of

the art of Sholokhov in his country. The talks aroused a keen interest of the audience.

The speakers talked and discussed the questions of the study in the work of M.A.Sholokhov in the university and secondary school. A real master-class was an open lesson given by professor I.G.Mineralova (Moscow State Pedagogical University) for the teachers of the Sholokhov District.

The most interesting and emotional was the round table talk on the publishing project “Readers’s Letters to M.A.Sholokhov”. It is being developed by the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov (L.P.Razogreyeva, A.M.Kochetov, E.V.Popova, L.T.Afanasiyeva, E.B.Karbysheva) jointly with the Institute of the World Literature named after A.M.Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences (O.Y.Alekseyeva, O.V.Bystrova, E.A.Papkova).

What was there in the works of the great writer that attracted the reader and forced him to experience the lives of the literary personages again and again finding in them almost complete similarity with living people? What motivated the people to write about themselves, share their thoughts on various subjects and send letters and requests to Mikhail Alexandrovich? The answer lies in the samples of the folk epistolary art. Studying the letters will open new aspects of the life and work of M.A.Sholokhov.

Summing up the director of the Museum-Reserve noted that the conference from year to year “gains weight.” The talks gain a high degree of scientific character and depth of the subject study.

Finally, the members of “Sholokhov Readings” made their proposals in the resolution, marked new prospects for the further investigations. The conference papers will be published in the book of collected papers “Vyoshensky Vestnik”.

In their free time, the guests visited the exhibitions of the Museum-Reserve in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, Kruzhilin Village, Stanitsa Karghinskaya and Stables of the Museum-Reserve.

Tatiyana Balak.