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“Your Lines Help to Understand the Cost of War…”

An interactive class for the students of Vyoshenskaya school was held in the Memorial House at the Estate of M.A.Sholokhov on March 28. It was devoted to the war prose of M.A.Sholokhov.

The children learned about the trace the Great Patriotic War left in the life and work of M.A.Sholokhov about his military service in the war years as war correspondent, about the history of the works “Science of Hatred”, “The Fate of a Man” and “They Fought for Their Country”. The children looked into the documentary sources from the collection of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov – the notes from the writer’s front notebook with a description of questioning Zinovy Ferdman, political instructor of the South-Western front of the 26th Army, letters of response to the story “The Fate of a Man” and to the chapters of the novel “They Fought for Their Country”.

Reading the letters the children could comprehend how deeply the works by Sholokhov moved the readers’ hearts and how truthfully and figuratively the events of the war years were described.

The letter of the senior lieutenant Fridkin, 1943, goes: “I have just read the book “They Fought for Their Country”. You know, it has excited me to the core. It reminded me about the hard times of the retreat in the summer of 1941 and 1942…”

From the letter by P.Razin, Moscow, 1958: “I went through the whole war. I have got four injuries and two contusions. I had to experience bodily and mental pains, but never had I cried. Now I am for the third time listening to “The Fate of a Man” on the radio and for the third time I can’t hold back my tears. They burn my eyes, choke my throat, they make me dizzy, and then the heart feels lighter and easier…”

From the letter by N.Titov, Kharkov, 1975: We shall never forget your describing the people defending our Motherland during the most difficult days of hardships so truthfully and brightly… This is your great sacred feat to create an eternal monument to all the living and the dead, who on those severe days walked and crawled through thousands of miles with battles. Your lines written in the smoke of battles <…> make us respect the front-line soldiers, teach young people, help to understand the cost of war and call for Peace”.

Those letters left no one indifferent. The children desired to be sure to read the works by M.A.Sholokhov about the war.

The schoolchildren were greatly attracted by the photos made during the stay of M.A.Sholokhov at the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, fragments of the films “The Fate of a Man” and “They Fought for Their Country” by the film director S.Bondarchuk.

Lidiya Slyusarenko
Yelena Popova