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Conference «They Fought for Their Country»

The staff of the Sholokhov museum-reserve took part in the International Scientific Conference "They Fought for their Country" took place on October 29-30, 2020. It was dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the 115th anniversary of Mikhail Sholokhov birthday. The conference was organized by the Institute of World Literature named after Maxim Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Literary Institute named after Maxim Gorky. The conference was held in an online format, which made it possible to reach participants from Moscow, Minsk, Vilnius, Ulyanovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yakutsk, Tambov, Voronezh, stanitsa Vyoshenskaya Rostov region. 

Welcoming remarks were made by Vadim Polonsky, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of World Literature named after Maxim Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexei Varlamov, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Rector of the Literary Institute named after Maxim Gorky; Alexander Sholokhov, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture of the State Duma of the Russian Federation; Vladimir Smirnov, Professor, Head of the Department of Modern Russian Literature of the Literary Institute named after Maxim Gorky; Natalia Kornienko, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Contemporary Russian Literature and Literature of the Russian Abroad of the Institute of World Literature named after Maxim Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

Wartime journalism is a unique phenomenon in the history of Russian and world literature. It needs close attention and deep study. Unfortunately, at present it is practically not published. «In order to foster patriotism, which is so much cared for, it is necessary to publish a collection of wartime journalism. It should be published not from the collected works of writers, but from periodicals - the newspapers «Krasnaya Zvezda», «Pravda» - these are priceless documents ... The main revelation about the Great Patriotic War was said during the war years - in journalism, in the unsurpassed lyrics of the war years, in the prose of the military years old. For the first time in the Soviet era, we are faced with such a phenomenon that we call the «spiritual prose» of Russian literature ...», - Natalia Kornienko said. 

The reports of the conference participants were devoted to both military prose and the military period of Mikhail Sholokhov's life, and to the work of his contemporaries - Alexei Tolstoy, Andrei Platonov, Olga Bergholts, Konstantin Fedin, Konstantin Simonov, Leonid Leonov, Viktor Kurochkin, Ivan Shmelev. 

A highlight of the conference was the presentation of two editions of the Institute of World Literature named after Maxim Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences – «The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945: Literature and History» (Moscow: IWL RAS, 2020. Managing editor Yuri Azarov) and «Please answer me on the merits ...» -  Sholokhov. 1929 – 1955 (Moscow: IWL RAS, 2020. Editor-in-chief N. Kornienko). 

The collective work «The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: Literature and History», presented by the executive editor Yuri Azarov, examines the problem of perception of the Great Patriotic War on the material of Russian literature, literature of the Russian peoples and neighboring countries. Chronological framework is pre-war, war and post-war years. The book touches upon issues such as the participation of writers who became front-line correspondents in the war, the attitude of representatives of the emigration to fascism, and their participation in the Resistance movement. Among other sources, diaries, notebooks, memoirs, which formed the basis of literary works, are analyzed. 

The book of letters from readers to Mikhail Sholokhov «Please respond me substantial» is the result of the collective work of the Institute of World Literature named after Maxim Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Sholokhov museum-reserve on the identification and preparation for publication of readers' letters with reviews of the works of Mikhail Sholokhov. The book was also presented at the recently held conference «Sholokhov Readings» at the Sholokhov museum-reserve. A great number of letters were studie. Among them there were 520 letters from the funds of the Russian State Archives of Literature and Art, the National Sholokhov museum-reserve and the writer's family archive. The letters contain a unique example of a living dialogue between readers and the writer, the subject of which was not only a piece of art, but also the most important events of that era related to them - the Civil War, collectivization, industrialization, the Great Patriotic War, the post-war years. Continuing the theme of studying the writer's epistolary heritage, the reader's perception of his military prose, the peculiarities of the dialogue between writers and readers, the reports of Elena Papkova (IWL RAS, «Letters from readers to Mikhail Sholokhov about the novel «They fought for their Country»), Ekaterina Karbysheva and Lidia Slyusarenko (Sholokhov museum-reserve, «Your works brought up courage ...» Letters from the front-line soldiers about the story «The Fate of a Man»).

 Lydia Slyusarenko