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Exhibition “The World of Sholokhov: Don Cossacks” opened in Scotland

On November 22, 2019, the exhibition “The World of Sholokhov: Don Cossacks” opened in the main library building of the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). It tells about the life and work of the great writer, about the culture and traditions of the Don Cossacks, about Mikhail Sholokhov.

In April 1962 at the University of St. Andrews Mikhail Sholokhov was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of Law. Then, at the ceremony, Dean of the Faculty of Law A.J. McDonald introducing Mikhail Sholokhov as the greatest Russian writer, widely known not only in his own, but also in other countries, said: “Mikhail Sholokhov himself is a simple person, stubborn, independent and honest in his views on art. He does not strive for ostentatious aesthetics. He has the innate gift of a writer. The epic created by him for us and for posterity is a work of severe beauty and grandeur, sustained in the spirit of classical Russian realists”.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition by the museum-reserve in the university’s library there were presented  the writer’s grandson, deputy chairman of the Committee on Culture of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Alexander Sholokhov, Director of the Museum-Reserve Olga Anistratenko, Deputy Development Director Valeriya Sholokhova, Vice-Principal of the University Dr. Katie Stevenson, Deputy Head of the University Library Amin Shah, teachers and students of the Faculty of Philology, as well as students interested in Russian literature.

Members of the museum reserve delegation visited the library’s archive, in which they got acquainted with materials related to the time of Sholokhov’s stay at the university, saw books with the writer's inscriptions donated to him personally in the library’s archive, as well as documents of the Don Cossack Alexei Aladin. By agreement with the university, copies of these materials will be transferred to the National Sholokhov Museum-Reserve.

Natalya Trofimenko