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A Memorable Meeting with Famous Actors

35 years ago, on October 13, 1982, on the days of celebration the 50th anniversary of publication of the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned”, Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya was visited by the well-known cinema actors starring in the screen versions of the works by M.A.Sholokhov – Pyotr Glebov, the USSR People’s Actor, and Pyotr Chernov, the RSFSR People’s Actor.

The Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov stores negatives and photographs made by V.I.Chumakov telling about the visit of the actors to Vyoshenskaya, their meetings with the residents and with the great writer.

On that day, P.Glebov and P.Chernov laid flowers to the bust of M.A.Sholokhov at the River Don embankment and took part in the meeting with the residents of Vyoshenskaya in the House of Culture. They visited Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov and congratulated him on his literary anniversary.

Pyotr Glebov, the viewers’ favourite as Grigory Melekhov in the film “The Quiet Don” (the film director S.Gerasimov, 1958) was also brilliant as Polovtsev in “Virgin Soil Upturned” (the film director A.Ivanov, 1961) and as a miller Vlas Timofeyevich in the film “Mortal Enemy” (film director E.Matveyev, 1971).

At the meeting with the residents of Vyoshenskaya in the House of Culture, Pyotr Petrovich confessed: “I am forever fascinated with Sholokhov’s prose, Sholokhov’s images, the Don flavour and the land of Vyoshenskaya! The role in “The Quiet Don” was my first work in cinema and it has become, as I may say, my actor’s academy. Before meeting with you I went to the Don, looked at the panorama and my feelings overwhelmed me. It is by those steeps that Grigory Melekhov loved and buried his love. There he sought for and failed to find the true way in his life. On the name of all, who acted in the films after Sholokhov, I say: we are forever fascinated with the writer’s talent and Don people.”

For Pyotr Chernov, who acted a lot in the theatre and cinema, the films after the works by M.A.Sholokhov also brought a creative success. He played a role of Semyon Davydov in “Virgin Soil Upturned”, Bunchuk – in “The Quiet Don” and later – a role of Streltsov in a radio show based on the novel “They Fought for Their Country” and recorded on the radio a short story “The Worm-Hole”.

“I am lucky, – Pyotr Grigoryevich remembered, – my work brought me together with almost all the works by Sholokhov. I acted in films, read the writer’s stories on the radio, TV and in concerts. And each time I felt myself enriched and

discovered for myself an aspect of the most original national character. Each personage of Sholokhov is original, I should say, resolutely individualized, bright and versatile. Acting is a great happiness, which every actor dreams of.”

Meeting with M.A.Sholokhov in his house the actors were invited to the big family table headed by the writer himself. Mikhail Alexandrovich lively talked with the guests, joked and laughed. Later Pyotr Chernov remembered: “It was a general conversation, but I was looking at that unique and such an ordinary man dressed in a green soldier’s shirt and grey coat, with a wise and keen look from under the sagging eyelids of a man possessing a great mystery, able to do something that no one else can do…”

Yana Kosheleva
Olga Bakhtiyarova