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News

Collection of Written Sources Updated

The documentary collection of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov is updated with 50 letters to M.A.Sholokhov of the mid XX century.They were donated by the writer’s heirs.

All the letters are originals chronologically covering 1952–1984. They are the readers’ responses of the novels “And Quiet Flows the Don”, “Virgin Soil Upturned”. “They Fought for Their Country”, of the story “The Fate of a Man”; of the writer’s speeches to the XX and XXIII CPSU Congress (including criticism, but mostly sharing the writer’s view); addresses to the deputy; letters of confession narrating the stories of the people of different generations and nationalities. They were received from different parts of the Soviet Union. The authors of the letters are scientists, figures of culture, workers, villagers, war and labour veterans and young people. Mostly interesting are the letters-responses about the works of M.A.Sholokhov. They show readers’ perception and the literary texts interpretation sometimes quite different from the judgments of the well-known Sholokhov Scholars.

The deputy correspondence of M.A.Sholokhov is of great importance for the study in his social activity. Among the letters there are official answers to his deputy requests, letters of gratitude for specific assistance.

A part of the letters came from young authors. This subject is interesting and practically has not been studied. Sholokhov looked into the writings of young authors, helped them with his advice and met with them on their requests.

The letters being era documents reflect the life of the society at a particular historical period. They are a source of a rich material to organize a search and research work which will expand the idea of the interests and hobbies of the people in the 50–80s of the past century and

of their life in general. Very interesting is the style of written communication of that time.

The letters are well preserved and are a valuable completion of the museum documentary collection.

Certainly, the most interesting letters will be published in the forthcoming edition of letters to M.A.Sholokhov, a joint project of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve and the Institute of the World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It will become a significant event in the field of education, history and culture.

Lyudmila Afanasyeva

The article is prepared under financial support of the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Fund (RHSF). Project No 16-04-00166a