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"... What Will My CC Advise Me?" (Letter from Mikhail Sholokhov to Leonid Brezhnev About Presentation of the Nobel Prize)

55 years ago Mikhail Sholokhov was awarded the title of honorary Nobel Prize laureate for the novel "And Quiet Flows the Don". In this regard, the letter dated July 30, 1965, addressed to Leonid Brezhnev is interested. In it, the writer asks for advice from the leader of the country and the party of which he was a member, advice on awarding him this prize. Mikhail Sholokhov’s candidacy in the Nobel Committee had been discussed many times.

Since around the award of the Nobel Prize to Boris Pasternak had fierce disputes (some approved, others condemned the fact of awarding), and Pasternak was recommended to refuse this prize, Mikhail Sholokhov was very careful in the wording of his appeal to Leonid Brezhnev.

“Dear Leonid Ilyich!

The vice-president of the Nobel Committee was recently in Moscow.

In a conversation with the Writers' Union, he made it clear that this year the Nobel Committee, obviously, will discuss my candidacy.

After Jean-Paul Sartre's refusal (last year) to receive the Nobel Prize, citing the fact that the Nobel Committee is biased in its assessments and that it - this committee - in particular, should have awarded the Nobel Prize to Sholokhov long ago, the visit of the Vice President cannot be interpreted otherwise as reconnaissance.

Just in case, I would like to know how the Presidium of the Central Committee CPSU will react if this prize is awarded to me (contrary to the class convictions of the Swedish committee), and what will my Central Committee advise me?

Prizes are usually awarded in October, but before that I would like to be aware of your attitude to this issue.

At the end of August, I will go for 2-3 months to Kazakhstan, and I would be glad to have news before leaving.

With the friendliest feelings

M. Sholokhov.

30/07/65.

Moscow".

The result of reading the letter was the statement that “the culture department of the Central Committee of the CPSU believes that awarding the Nobel Prize to Sholokhov would be a fair recognition by the Nobel Committee of the world significance of the work of the outstanding Soviet writer. The department sees no reason to refuse the award."

December 10, 1965 in the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, in the Great Concert Hall of the Stockholm City Hall, Mikhail Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of the artistic strength and honesty that he showed in his Don epic about the historical phases of the life of the Russian people."

Nadezhda Rasskazova