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From the History of Stanitsa Karghinskaya…

Karghin Village was formed late in the XVIII century, and by the XX century it had been the third largest settlement after Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya and Stanitsa Kazanskaya, and had become a shopping centre: fairs were regularly held here to gather not only Cossacks from the neighbouring villages and stanitsas, but also residents of Novocherkassk, Lugansk and Voronezh.

In 1868, a wooden single altar Church of the Holy Intercession was built in Karghin Village; but the village grew, expanded in length and width, the neighbouring villages grew up and the old church went cramped.

The folks voluntarily donated for the construction of a new church, and in 1886, it was opened. In decoration, gilding and capacity it had no equal throughout the district. From its bell tower one could see houses of the neighboring villages. The ringing of the bells was heard for many miles along the Chir River. On July 29, 1913, the parents of Misha Sholokhov – Alexander Mikhailovich and Anastasiya Danilovna – wedded in this church.

At the church there was opened a parochial school, where children of rich Cossacks, merchants and priests were educated. The school was supported by the parish money.

The children of poor Cossacks and nonresidents went to the male parish school. For nonresidents education was paid. M.A.Sholokhov was also educated in that school, he was a neat and diligent student.

The school classes were conducted in the following subjects: Law of God, Church Slavonic (the teachers were the local priests of the Holy Intercession Church), arithmetic, reading, Russian (writing, calligraphy, grammar).

The school building has been preserved, now one can learn here about the features of education in the Don country, sit at that very desk, the seat of Misha Sholokhov, feel himself a student of the first half of the XX century, dip a pen in the ink and write alphabet letters in the way our grandparents did.

From the parish school yard one can see a big and bright building of the school named after M.A.Sholokhov. It opened its doors in 1964. For its construction M.A.Sholokhov donated his Lenin Prize awarded to him in 1960, for his novel “Virgin Soil Upturned”.

In the Don country they say, in whatever far away country you had to get off your horse, remember the land which from you rose to the saddle, remember the hands which saddled your horse and equipped you for the journey. And so did Sholokhov. Wherever his writing life might throw him to, he always, with his filial devotion, remembered his countrymen, Karghin villagers, kept on holding friendship ties with them.

Larisa Poddubnaya