News

News

A Poet of the Don Country

On September 24, 2017, it is the 85th anniversary of the poet, writer, radio journalist, translator, Nikolay Mikhailovich Skryobov, whose creative literary career is connected with the Don country.

N.M.Skryobov worked for Rostov newspapers “Leninskoye Znamya”(Lenin’s Banner), “Molot”(Hammer), journal “Don”, TV and Radio Company “Don-TR” and the Rostov branch of the USSR Union of Writers. A whole era of the Don journalism is associated with his name.

The stores of the Museum-Reserve keep a book by Nikolay Skryobov “Everyday Holidays” (“Будничные праздники”) with his autograph: “If only the duty dictatorship could coincide with the allotted time ticking in the chest. N.Skryobov. To dear Mariya Petrovna Sholokhova with a deep heartfelt bow and the best of feelings. N.Skryobov. May 24, 1987.”

N.M.Skryobov met with M.A.Sholokhov in 1963, and later remembered about it in his article “Unforgettable Days” published in the book “Powerful Talent” (“Могучий талант”) (Moscow, 1981): “…In 1963, a young poet then, I was lucky to talk with Mikhail Alexandrovich in the circle of the Don writers who have just been elected to the board of the regional writers' organization. If to say in a couple of words about his attitude to us, who met with him in the hotel “Moskovskaya”, in the Builders’ Palace of Culture and in the District Officers’ House, then these words are tenderness and exactingness.”

In 1967, N.M.Skryobov took part in the literary seminar of young writers from Bulgaria, Hungary, the GDR, Poland and the Don area. It was held in Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya. In his memoirs he quotes the words of M.A.Sholokhov, who said to the seminar participants: “We must bring our creative work closer to our hearts and passionately love our difficult profession. I remind you again: no matter how difficult it might be at first, do not chase after easy success. After all, you are our successors, you are our hope. You are our future. Many of you have already been recognized writers at present, but the future – all of you have got the writer’s future.”

Yelena Kleimenova
Yelena Ponomaryova