News

News

In Memory of Maria Sholohova

January 20 is a Memorial Day for Maria Sholokhova, the wife of the writer. Members of the writer’s family, museum staff, residents of the village of Vyoshenskaya came to honor her memory and lay flowers on the grave.

28 years have passed since this wonderful woman died. We can’t talk about Maria and Mikhail Sholokhov separately, so much united them. Together they lived in love and harmony for 60 years. And over the years, Maria Sholokhova always walked alongside – beloved wife, faithful friend, assistant and adviser. All her time, both thoughts and heart belonged to the dearest for her people: her husband and children.

Mikhail Sholokhov and his wife Maria raised four great children, who throughout their lives carried deep respect and love for their parents, who became an example of their whole life. “I don’t know what my father would be and what he would creat if there hadn’t been my mother,” says Maria Sholokhova, the youngest daughter of the writer. “She is his first reader, first editor, adviser, and like-minded person.”

Maria Sholokhova took a close part in her husband's work: she handwrote his early stories, reprinted manuscripts of later works. She would always support her husband, worry about the fate of the manuscripts, rejoice when new editions of Sholokhov books were published.

Mikhail Sholokhov and Maria Sholokhova were inseparable both at home and on trips around the country and abroad. They got acquainted with the values ??of culture and art not only in Russia, but also abroad. They learned life, traditions and customs of other peoples, in particular, with the life of the village workers. They communicated with writers, people of art, statesmen. They maintained relationships with old friends outside Vyoshenskaya and with new friends/ They used to receive a lot of guests.

Maria and Mikhail were always together in business and on vacation, usually on hunting and fishing. She was not afraid of the hardships of a hunting life. In a tent or a hut, she could spend many hours in the rain and snow, waiting for the arrival of a wild fowl. And nothing could so upset Maria as failure on hunting or fishing.

 Until the last days of her life, Maria Sholokhova was a true keeper of the family hearth, foundations, and traditions of the family. Everyone who spoke closely with Maria recalls her sincere attention to the people around her, her interest in their life, and her desire to help.

 “She's the one from whom we women should take an example!” - nurses that often visited their home said. They spoke about the atmosphere of kindness and warmth that they always felt at the Sholokhovs' house. They talked about the modesty that distinguished Maria, how hospitable she was and how accurately and faithfully she felt the mood of the guest.

Maria Sholokhova had a wonderful memory: even at almost 90 years old, she remembered all the events of her youth, declared poems in French that she learnt in the walls of the diocesan school, and loved to listen to the spiritual choirs of Dmitriy Bortnyansky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and other composers, always quietly singing along the choir. Maria’s musical ear was preserved until the last days, after all, she sang in the church choir as a girl.

In recent years, like earlier, it was her pleasure to watch birds that always lived in the Sholokhov’s Garden. Every morning, Maria fed blue-eyed birds, woodpeckers in a trough tied outside the window, and admired them ....

After the death of her husband, she lived for almost eight years. “But she went out quietly, like a candle,” the children of the writer say. - She used to sit for a long time at the window, from which she could see the father’s grave. She used to repeat his words: "You see, Maroussia, we have lived with you for sixty years and never divorced." Now they lie side by side.”

Maria Petrovna died on January 20, 1992. Their graves are nearby - and in death, as in life, they remained inseparable.

Natalya Kirsanova