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Karghin Memorial and Historical Complex

The Mill Complex

In Stanitsa Karghinskaya there is a building of a steam mill which belonged to Cossack T.A. Karghin. This mill was depicted in one of the episodes of the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”.

Early in the XX century, the estate of T.A. Karghin on the bank of the Chir River was well-known not only in the neighbourhood, but also in the adjacent provinces. There was a two-storey building of a mill with a millet hulling mill, oil press, locksmith’s shop, smithery, and a spacious inn for the visitors staying overnight. For manufacturing high quality flour, millet, oil the owner was encouraged with several diplomas.

To attract grain transporters to the mill T.A. Karghin built in 1911, “a cinematograph “Ideal”, attached to the mill, the second cinema in the Don Army Region (the first one bearing the same name was in Rostov).

Little Misha Sholokhov often visited the mill, the cinema, mixed with the future personages of the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”. In the 1920s, young people of Karghin put up on the cinema stage amateur performances, plays written by young Sholokhov. Often the author himself performed his personages, and the audience encouraged Sholokhov, an actor, with a stormy applause.

At present, the Museum carries on a restoration of Karghin’s estate: the buildings of the mill complex are under reconstruction, a functioning bakery is planned to be set up. The cinema house “Ideal” will be used for theatrical performances and concerts, the inn will be used as a hotel, the old buildings will show exhibitions. When the reconstruction is over, day off tours will be organized for the tourists.