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First Publication of the Story “Shibalkovo Semya”

On March 8, 1925, 95 years ago, in the magazine “Ogonyok” No. 11 on the first and third pages the story of Mikhail Sholokhov “Shibalkovo Semya” was first published. A year later, it was included in the collection “Don Stories”, published in the publishing house “Novaya Moskva” with a preface by Aleksander Serafimovich. 

This story is about love and betrayal, about honor and duty to the homeland during the Civil War. The story is based on the confession of the protagonist - the Red Army machine gunner, Yakov Shibalk, chasing his squad "along the Don strongholds of the Ignatiev’s gang." Once, out of pity, he picked up and left the Cossack Daria in the detachment. Later she gave birth to his son. Having learned that she turned out to be a traitor (she reported their detachment to the enemy), Yakov personally shot Daria. For a fighter, “a hundred” becomes more expensive than a beloved woman: - “Brothers! I’ll kill her not out of fear, but in good conscience, for those brother comrades who have given their heads through her treason ...” Jacob deliberately went to such cruelty, as he was infinitely devoted to the nation-wide cause - the fight against the enemies of the Soviet regime. 

Based on Mikhail Sholokhov’s short stories “Shibalkovo Semya” and “Birthmark”, in 1964 the feature film “Don Tale” by the Lenfilm studio was released on screen and won 7th place at the box office (31.8 ml. viewers). The script for the film was written by Arnold Vitol, the director - Vladimir Fetin, starring Yevgeny Leonov and Lyudmila Chursina. Filming took place in the area of ??the stanitsa Razdorskaya. In the funds of the Sholokhov Museum-Reserve kept a poster for the film "Don Tale", printed on the printing house named after Volodarsky (Leningrad, 19 / V-64), from the archive of scriptwriter A. Vitol. 

Galina Govorukhina