« Quiet Don"M. A. Sholokhova

(Lesson system)

The significance of the novel "Quiet Don" is due to the fact that it was written by the greatest writer of the 20th century, who gained worldwide fame. It was for this novel that Sholokhov was awarded Nobel Prize... Quiet Don is a national contribution to world culture. This circumstance should determine the place of the work in the monographic theme “M. A. Sholokhov ". The initial theses that guide the methodological solution of this topic can be formulated as follows:

- “Quiet Flows the Don” should be viewed in the context of the entire work of the writer, who came to literature with the theme of the birth of a new society in the throes and tragedies of social struggle. This theme was determined by the scope and significance of the events that were taking place, in which Sholokhov himself was a contemporary and participant. The contextual principle of the review will make it possible to establish not only problem-thematic, but also aesthetic connections of the writer's works, which will give the reader the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the artistic world of Sholokhov, to feel the peculiarities of his talent.

- The epic novel "Quiet Don", on which the writer worked from 1925 to 1940, reflects the fate of a person who went through the First World War and the Civil War.

- Each generation reads this novel in a new way, interprets the characters of the heroes in a new way, the origins of their tragedy. The teacher's task is to help students understand the complex content of a large-scale work, to bring them closer to understanding the author's version of the events "that shook the world." The system of review lessons based on the novel "Quiet Don" can be presented in the following way:

First lesson. A word about Sholokhov. The idea and history of the creation of the novel "Quiet Don".(Introductory lecture by the teacher.)
Second lesson. Pictures of the life of the Don Cossacks on the pages of the novel. "Family Thought" in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don".(Work on individual episodes of the first part of the novel, determining its place in the overall concept of the novel, in its compositional plan.)
Third lesson. "The monstrous absurdity of war" in the image of Sholokhov.(Conversation about what was read, commentary on certain scenes of the third - fifth parts of the novel, generalization of the teacher.)
Fourth lesson. "In a world split in two." The civil war on the Don as depicted by Sholokhov.(The teacher's word, a comparative analysis of individual episodes of the sixth and seventh parts of the novel.)
Fifth lesson. The fate of Grigory Melekhov.(Lesson-seminar.)

The novel "Quiet Don" will attract students with the novelty of life material. It very vividly shows the life of a Cossack farm in all its picturesqueness and diversity, everyday life and in all the fullness of human manifestation.

To the second lesson students will complete the following tasks: 1. Find in the first part of the novel the answers to the questions: who are the Cossacks? What did they do? How did you live? Why does Sholokhov write about them with love? About whom does he speak with special sympathy? 2. Highlight the brightest episodes of the first part. How do they convey the beauty of the peasant life of the Cossacks, the poetry of their labor? In what situations does the writer show his heroes? 3. Highlight the description of the Don nature, the Cossack farm. What is their role? It is advisable that the students did not pass by such episodes of the first part: "The Story of Prokofy Melekhov" (Ch. 1), "Morning in the Melekhovs' Family", "Fishing" (Ch. 2), "At the Hayfield" (Ch. 9), scenes of matchmaking and the wedding of Gregory and Natalia (chap. 15-22), conscription, Gregory on a medical examination (part two, chap. 21).

Let us draw the students' attention to the fact that in the center of Sholokhov's narration there are several families: the Melekhovs, Korshunovs, Mokhovs, Koshevs, Listnitskys. This is not accidental: the patterns of the era are revealed not only in historical events, but also in the facts of private life, family relations, where the power of traditions is especially strong and any breaking of them gives rise to acute, dramatic conflicts.

The story of the fate of the Melekhov family begins with a sharp, dramatic plot, with the story of Prokofy Melekhov, who amazed the farmers with his "outlandish act." From the Turkish war he brought a Turkish wife. He loved her, in the evenings, when "the dawns wither," he carried her in his arms on the top of the mound, "sat down next to her, and so they gazed into the steppe for a long time." And when the angry crowd approached their house, Prokofy with a saber defended his beloved wife.

Proud, independent-minded people, capable of great feeling, appear from the first pages. Thus, from the story of grandfather Gregory, the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" enters the beautiful and at the same time tragic. And for Gregory, love for Aksinya will become a serious test of life. “I wanted to tell about the charm of the man in Grigory Melekhov,” Sholokhov admitted. The general structure of the narrative convinces that the writer was also under the influence of the charm of Natalia, Ilyinichna, Aksinya, Dunyashka. The main values ​​of the Melekhovs are moral, human: benevolence, responsiveness, generosity and, most importantly, diligence.

In the Cossack environment, a person was valued in relation to work. “He is a fiancé wherever,” Natalya’s mother says about Grigory, “and their family is very hardworking ... A hard-working family and with enough money.” “The Melekhovs are glorious Cossacks,” Grishak's grandfather echoes her. “Miron Grigorievich liked Grishka in his heart for his Cossack prowess, for his love of household and work. The old man singled him out from the crowd of village guys even when Grishka took the first prize for horse racing at the races ”. Many episodes convince of the validity of this characterization of the Melekhovs.

The original concept of the novel was associated with the events of 1917, "with the participation of the Cossacks in the campaign of Kornilov against Petrograd." In the process of work, Sholokhov significantly expanded the scope of the narrative, returned to the pre-war period, in 1912. In the life of the Cossack village, in the course of everyday life, in the psychology of the Cossacks, he was looking for an explanation for the behavior of the heroes during the days of terrible trials. Therefore, the first part of the novel can be viewed as a wide-ranging exposition of The Quiet Don, the chronological framework of which is very clearly indicated: May 1912 - March 1922. The expansion of the book's concept allowed the writer to capture “the people's life of Russia at its grandiose historical turning point”. This conclusion can be used to complete the second lesson on the novel by Sholokhov.

"The monstrous absurdity of war" in the image of Sholokhov - this is the theme third lesson. Let us draw the attention of students to this formulation: it indicates the author's view of the event, and the attitude of the Cossacks to the war, and the nature of the narrative. How is this image, which has become key in the novel, revealed? This question will guide the analysis of episodes in the third to fifth parts of the novel.

The antithesis of a peaceful life in "Quiet Don" will be a war, first the First World War, then the civil one. These wars will take place in farmsteads and villages, each family will have victims. Sholokhov's family will become a mirror, in a peculiar way reflecting the events of world history. Starting with the third part of the novel, the tragic will determine the tone of the narrative. For the first time, the tragic motive will sound in the epigraph:

What pages of the novel echo the chant of this old Cossack song? Let's turn to the beginning of the third part of the novel, here the date first appears: "In March 1914 ..." This is a significant detail in the work: the historical date will separate the world from the war. Rumors about her went around the farms: "The war will push ...", "There will be no war, to see by the harvest", "Well, how is the war?", "War, uncle!" As you can see, the story of the war begins in the farm, in the very thick of folk life... The news of her found the Cossacks at their usual work - they were mowing rye (part three, ch. 3). The Melekhovs saw: the horse was walking with a "catchy outline"; the horseman, jumping up, shouted: "A flash!" Disturbing news gathered a crowd in the square (ch. 4). "One word in a diverse crowd: mobilization." The fourth chapter ends with the episode "At the Station", from where echelons with Cossack regiments departed to the Russian-Austrian border. "War…"

The concatenation of short episodes, the alarming tone conveyed by the words: "flash", "mobilization", "war ..." - all this is connected with the date - 1914. The writer puts the word "War ..." "War!" On a separate line twice. Pronounced with different intonation, it makes the reader think about the terrible meaning of what is happening. This word echoes the remark of an old railwayman who looked into the carriage, where “Petro Melekhov was soaring with the other thirty Cossacks”:

“- My dear beef! "And for a long time he shook his head reproachfully."

The emotion expressed in these words also contains generalization. It is expressed more openly at the end of the seventh chapter: “Echelons ... Echelons ... Echelons are innumerable! Along the arteries of the country, along the railways to the western border, agitated Russia is driving gray-cinched blood. "

Let us single out other enlarged images that will appear on the pages of the novel: "the land crucified with many hooves", "the field of death" on which people collided, "who had not yet had time to break their hands on the destruction of their own kind", "the monstrous absurdity of war." Each of them is associated with separate sketches, episodes, reflections. There are battle scenes in the "war" chapters, but they are not interesting to the author in and of themselves. Sholokhov solves the “man in war” conflict in his own way. In "Quiet Don" we will not find descriptions of exploits, admiration for heroism, military courage, rapture in battle, which would be natural in a story about the Cossacks. Sholokhov is interested in something else - what does war do to a person. Isolation of this very aspect of the topic will allow one to feel the peculiarities of Sholokhov's psychologism.

Getting acquainted with the heroes of the novel, we will notice that everyone has their own ability to experience and comprehend war, but everyone will feel the "monstrous absurdity of war". Through the eyes of the Cossacks, we will see how “the ripe grain was trampled by the cavalry”, how a hundred “crumpled the bread with iron horseshoes”, how “a black marching column unfolded in a chain between the brown, uncleared rolls of mown bread”, how “the first shrapnel covered the rows of unharvested wheat”. And each, looking at "unharvested trees of wheat, at the bread that had fallen under their hooves," recalled their tithes and "hardened at heart." These memories-influxes illuminate, as it were, from within the dramatic situation in which the Cossacks found themselves in the war.

Let us note in the conversation: the novel strongly expresses a moral protest against the senselessness of war, its inhumanity. Drawing episodes of baptism of fire, Sholokhov reveals the state of mind of a person who shed someone else's blood. In a chain of such episodes, the scene "Gregory kills an Austrian" (part three, chapter 5) stands out for its psychological expressiveness, which caused a strong shock in the hero. The commentary on this episode in the lesson is guided by such questions: what psychological shades can be distinguished in the description of the appearance of the Austrian? How does Sholokhov convey the state of Gregory? In what words is the author's assessment of what is happening expressed? What does this scene open in the hero of the novel?

It is advisable to convey the most important moments of the episode in reading. An Austrian ran along the trellis of the garden. Melekhov caught up with him. “Inflamed by the madness that was going on around him, he raised his sword,” lowered it to the temple of an unarmed soldier. "Elongated with fear" his face "blackened cast iron", "the skin hung like a red rag", "blood was falling in a crooked stream" - as if this "frame" was filmed in slow motion. Gregory met the Austrian's gaze. Eyes filled with mortal horror gazed at him with death ... Blinking, Grigory waved his sword. A blow with a long pull tore the skull in two. The Austrian fell, bumping his hands, as if slipping; the halves of the skull were thumped on the stone of the pavement. "

The details of this scene are terrible! They won't let go of Gregory. He, “not knowing why,” approached the Austrian soldier he had hacked to death. “He was lying there, by the playful braid of the lattice fence, stretching out his dirty brown palm, as if for alms. Grigory looked into his face. It seemed to him small, almost childish, in spite of the drooping mustache and the twisted, stern mouth, exhausted - whether by suffering or by the old joyless life ...

Gregory ... stumbling, went to the horse. His step was confused and heavy, as if he were carrying an overwhelming load over his shoulders; I bend and bewilderment crumpled my soul. "

A terrible picture in all its details will stand before the eyes of Gregory for a long time, painful memories will trouble him for a long time. When meeting with his brother, he confesses: “I, Petro, got tired of my soul. I’m not finished at once ... As if I have been under the millstones, they crumpled and spit it out ... My conscience is killing me. I stabbed one with a lance near Leshnyuv. In the heat of the moment. Otherwise it was impossible ... Why did I cut down the entogo? Dreams at night ... ”(part three, ch. 10).

Several weeks of the war have passed, but the impressionable Gregory can already see its traces everywhere: “August was approaching the end. In the gardens, the leaf turned boldly yellow, from the cutting it was filled with dying crimson, and from a distance it looked like the trees were in lacerated wounds and were bleeding with ore with woody blood.

Gregory watched with interest the changes taking place with his comrades of a hundred ... Changes were made on each person, each in his own way nurtured and grew the seeds sown by the war. "

The changes in Grigory himself were striking: he was "bent ... by the war, sucked the blush from his face, painted him with bile." And internally, he became completely different: “Gregory took the Cossack honor firmly, caught an opportunity to show selfless courage, took risks, went crazy, walked in disguise to the rear of the Austrians, removed the outposts without blood, jigged the Cossack and felt that the pain for a person that crushed him in the first days of the war. The heart became hardened, it was hardened, like a salt marsh in a drought, and just as a salt marsh does not absorb water, so Gregory's heart did not absorb pity. With cold contempt he played with someone else's and his own life; that is why he was known for being brave - he served four St. George's crosses and four medals. At rare parades, he stood at the regimental banner, fanned by the gunpowder smoke of many wars; but he knew that he would no longer laugh at him as before, he knew that his eyes had sunken in and his cheekbones protruded sharply; he knew that it was difficult for him, kissing a child, to look openly into clear eyes; Gregory knew at what price he paid for a full bow of crosses and production ”(part four, ch. 4).

Sholokhov diversifies the visual means, showing the Cossacks in the war. Here they copy "Prayer from the gun", "Prayer from the battle", "Prayer during the raid." The Cossacks kept them under their undershirts, fastened them to knots with a pinch of their native land. "But death also stained those who carried prayers with them." The scene depicting the Cossacks in the field by the fire is lyrically painted: “in the opal crown of June” the song “The Cossack went to a distant foreign land” is performed, performed by “thick sorrow”. Near another fire - another Cossack song: "Oh, from the violent sea, but from the Azov."

The voice of the author bursts into the epic narration: "The darlings drew imperiously to themselves, and there was no such force that could keep the Cossacks from spontaneous attraction home." Everyone wanted to be at home, "just look with one eye." And, as if fulfilling this desire, Sholokhov draws a farm “bleeding like a widow”, where “life went on for sale - like hollow water in the Don”. The author's text sounds in unison with the words of an old Cossack song, which became the epigraph of the novel.

So, through battle scenes, through the acute experiences of the heroes, through landscape sketches, description-generalization, lyrical digressions, Sholokhov leads us to comprehending the "monstrous absurdity of war."

"All Russia is in the throes of a great redistribution." "In a world split in two." In Sholokhov's novel, you can find many words to define the topic fourth lesson dedicated to the pictures of the civil war. The introductory part of this lesson might include the following points:

- M. Gorky attributed "Quiet Don" to those "striking works" that "gave a broad, truthful and talented picture of the civil war." And for more than half a century, the novel has brought the light of this truth to the reader.
- Determining the essence of the Sholokhov concept of the civil war, let us turn to the reflections of modern writers and historians, who discovered a new vision of the events of those years. Thus, the writer Boris Vasiliev asserts: “In a civil war there are no right and wrong, no just and unjust, no angels and no demons, just like there are no victors. There are only the vanquished in it - all of us, all the people, all of Russia ... A tragic catastrophe gives rise only to losses ... "Quiet Flows the Don convinces of the truth of what has been said. Sholokhov was one of those who first spoke of the civil war as the greatest tragedy with grave consequences.
- The level of truth that marks the novel "Quiet Flows the Don", the researchers of Sholokhov's work explain the serious work of the young writer on archival materials, memoirs of the participants in the events. One cannot but take into account the opinion of MN Semanov, who wrote in his book "Quiet Don" - Literature and History ":" The painstaking work of the author of "Quiet Don" on the collection of historical material is unconditional and obvious, but the explanation of the unparalleled depth of historicism of the Sholokhov epic follows look in the biography of the writer. M. Sholokhov himself was not only an eyewitness to the events described (like Leo Tolstoy in Hadji Murad), but he was also - and this should be emphasized especially - a fellow countryman of his heroes, he lived their lives, he was flesh of their flesh and bone of their bones. Thousands of rumors of the world stirred up by the revolution brought to him such “facts” and such “information”, with which the archives and libraries of the whole world could not compete ”.

How does Sholokhov portray this world stirred up by the revolution? This is the central theme of Lesson 4.

One of the author's favorite tricks is a pre-story. So, at the end of the first chapter of the fifth part of the novel, we read: “Until January, people also lived quietly on the Tatarsky farm. Returning from the front, the Cossacks were resting near their wives, ate, did not sense that at the thresholds of the kurens they were watching their bitter troubles and hardships than those that had to be endured during the war they had endured.

"Burning troubles" is a revolution and Civil War who broke the usual way of life. In a letter to Gorky, Sholokhov noted: "Without exaggerating colors, I painted the harsh reality that preceded the uprising." The essence of the events depicted in the novel is truly tragic; they affect the fate of huge segments of the population. In "Quiet Don" there are more than seven hundred characters, main and episodic, named by name and unnamed; and the writer is worried about their fate.

What happened on the Don during the years of the civil war has a name - "decossacking the Cossacks", accompanied by mass terror, which provoked a return cruelty. "Black rumors" about extraordinary commissions and revolutionary tribunals spread through the farmsteads, the trial of which was "simple: an accusation, a couple of questions, a verdict - and under a machine-gun fire." The author writes about the atrocities of the Red Army in the farms (part six, ch. 16). The military courts of the Don Army were just as tough. We see the Reds hacked with special cruelty. Informing the facts with great persuasiveness, Sholokhov cites documents: a list of those executed from the Podtelkov detachment (part five, chapter 11) and a list of the executed hostages of the Tatarsky farm (part six, chapter 24).

Many pages of the sixth part of the novel are colored with anxiety, heavy forebodings: "All Obdonye lived in a secret, crushed life ... Mga hung over the future." “Life turned abruptly at the bend”: the richest houses were imposed with indemnity, arrests and executions began. How do the Cossacks themselves perceive this time?

Petro Melekhov: “- Look how the people were divided, you bastards! As if they had driven with a plow: one in one direction, the other in the other, as if under a plow. Bloody life, and a terrible time! One no longer guesses the other ...
- Here you are, - he abruptly translated the conversation, - here you are - my brother, and I do not understand you, by God! I feel that you are leaving me somehow ... am I telling the truth? - and answered himself: - The truth. You are freaking out ... I'm afraid you will go over to the red ... You, Grishatka, haven't found yourself before.
- Have you found it? - asked Grigory.
- Found. I got into my furrow ... You can't pull me to the red lasso. The Cossacks are against them, and I am against ”.
“Miron Grigorievich spoke in a new way, with ripened anger:
- And through what life collapsed? Who is the reason? That damn power! .. I worked all my life, wheezed, then washed, and in order for me to live equally with the entity, what finger didn’t pull a finger to get out of need? No, let's wait a bit! .. "

"The people were played off", - Gregory will think about what is happening. Many episodes of the fifth - seventh parts, built on the principle of antithesis, will confirm the correctness of this assessment. “The people have become overwhelmed, they have become mad,” the author will add. He does not forgive cruelty to anyone: not Polovtsev, who hacked to death Chernetsov and ordered to kill forty more captured officers, nor Grigory Melekhov, who hacked to death the captured sailors. He does not forgive Mikhail Koshevoy, who killed Pyotr Melekhov, shot grandfather Grishaka in Tatarskoye, burned Korshunov's kuren, and then lit seven more houses; does not forgive Mitka Korshunov, who "cut out the entire family of Koshevoy."

"The people were played off", - we recall when we read about the execution of the commander of the detachment Likhachev, captured by the rebels: “He was not shot ... Seven miles from Veshenskaya, in the sandy, severely frowning breakers, he was brutally hacked to death by the guards. They gouged out his eyes alive, cut off his hands, ears, nose, and crossed his face with swords. They unbuttoned their pants and outraged, defiled a large, courageous, beautiful body. They outraged the bleeding stump, and then one of the guards stepped on a flimsy trembling chest, on the body which had been thrown backwards and cut off the head with one blow obliquely ”(part six, chapter 31).

"The people were played off"- aren't these words about how twenty-five communists, led by Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov, were killed? “The guards beat them, driving them into a heap like sheep, beat them long and severely ...

Then everything was like in the gravest fog. Thirty versts walked through continuous farms, which were met on each farm by crowds of torturers. Old men, women, teenagers beat, spat on the swollen, covered with blood ... the faces of the captured communists. "

And one more execution - Podtelkov and his detachment. This episode is given in the following frame: “Cossacks and women were piling thickly on the edge of the farm. The population of Ponomarev, notified of the execution appointed for six hours, went willingly, as if it were a rare merry show. The Cossacks dressed up as if for a holiday; many took their children with them ... Cossacks, converging, animatedly discussed the upcoming execution. "

“And in Ponomarev, the shots were still puffing with haze: Veshenskie, Karginskie, side, Krasnokutsk, Milyutin Cossacks shot Kazan, Migulin, Razor, Kumshat, Balkan Cossacks.”

Rejecting a violent death, Sholokhov will say more than once about the unnaturalness of such situations; and in all cases of extreme cruelty, he will oppose the harmony of an eternal, boundless world. In one episode, a birch tree will become a symbol of this world, on which "brown buds have already swollen with sweet March juice." With black petals of buds on his lips, Likhachev died. In the other - the steppe, above which "high, under the cumulus ridge, swam an eagle." Into your last hour Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov will see, raising his head, "with a blue vision, the spurs of the chalk mountains have risen in the distance, and above them, above the flowing stirrup of the ridged Don, in the imposing majestic blue of the sky, in the inaccessible height - a cloud." And here the landscape sketch, striking with the purity of its colors, will receive a high philosophical content.

The finale of the second volume is expressive. A civil war is raging on the Don, people are dying, and the Red Army soldier Valet is also killed. He was buried by the Yablonov Cossacks, and after half a month some old man put a wooden chapel on the grave mound. “Under its triangular canopy, the sorrowful face of the Mother of God glimmered in the darkness; below, on the cornice of the canopy, the black ligature of Slavic writing was shaggy:

In a time of turmoil and debauchery Do not condemn, brothers, brother.

The old man left, and a chapel remained in the steppe to grieve the eyes of passers-by and passers-by with an eternally dull look, to awaken indistinct melancholy in the hearts. " And in May little bustards fought near the chapel, "fought for the female, for the right to life, to love, to reproduce." And right there, near the chapel, the female laid nine smoky-blue eggs and sat on them.

In one episode, life and death collide, the lofty, eternal and tragic realities that have become "in a time of turmoil and debauchery" habitual, commonplace. The increased contrast of the image determined the emotional expressiveness of the author's speech, in which the civic spirit of the writer and his compassion for the heroes of the novel are expressed. All of them were faced with a harsh time to make a choice.
- Which side are you holding on?
- You seem to have accepted the red faith?
- You were in white? White! Officer, eh?

These questions were asked to the same person - Grigory Melekhov, but he himself could not answer them. Revealing his condition, Sholokhov uses the following words: "tired", "overwhelmed by contradictions", "thick melancholy", "a tedious feeling of something unresolved." Here he goes home after breaking up with Podtyolkov; "Grigory could neither forgive nor forget the death of Chernetsov and the extrajudicial execution of captured officers."

"Who should I lean against?" - a question that excites the consciousness of the hero Sholokhov, about this his anxiety and thought, conveyed through an internal monologue:

“I also broke his fatigue, acquired during the war. I wanted to turn my back on the whole world, seething with hatred, hostile and incomprehensible. There, behind, everything was confused, contradictory. It was difficult to find the right path, and there was no certainty whether he was going along the right path. He was drawn to the Bolsheviks - he walked, led others, and then he took thought, became cold at heart. “Is it possible that Izvarin is right? Whom should I lean against? " Grigory thought about this indistinctly, leaning against the back of his wallet. But, when he imagined how he would prepare the harrows by the spring, weaving from a reddened manger, and when the earth was undressed and dry, it would go out into the steppe; holding on to the chipigi with his bored hands for work, he will follow the plow, feeling its lively movement and jolts; imagining how the sweet spirit of young grass and chernozem lifted by plowshares would breathe in, it felt warm in my soul. I wanted to clean the cattle, throw hay, breathe the wilted smell of sweet clover, wheatgrass, the spicy smell of manure. I wanted peace and silence - that's why shy joy and shore in harsh eyes Grigory, looking around ... Sweet and thick, like hops, seemed at this time life here, in the wilderness ”(part five, ch. 13).

The words cited here can be the best commentary on the characterization that the writer B. Vasiliev gives to Sholokhov's novel, interpreting the essence of the civil war in his own way: “This is an epic in the full sense of the word, reflecting the most important thing in our civil war - monstrous fluctuations, throwings of the normal, calm family man. And this is done, from my point of view, great. One fate shows the whole break in society. Even if he is a Cossack, he is still primarily a peasant, a farmer. He is the breadwinner. And the breaking of this breadwinner is the whole civil war in my understanding. "

Gregory's dream of living as a peaceful worker and family man was constantly destroyed by the cruelty of the civil war. Emotional contrast is used by Sholokhov as a means of expressing the mood of the hero: “I wish Grigory had a rest, sleep off! And then walk along the soft plow furrow with a plow, whistle at the bulls, listen to the blue crane trumpet cry, gently remove the silver spider webs from the cheeks and constantly drink the wine smell of the ground raised by the plow.

And instead of this - bread cut by the blades of the roads. On the roads crowds of undressed, corpse-black with dust prisoners ... In the farmsteads amateurs search the families of the Cossacks who left with the Red, whip the wives and mothers of the apostates ... Discontent, fatigue, anger accumulated ”(part six, chapter 10). From episode to episode, the tragic discrepancy between the inner aspirations of Grigory Melekhov and the life around him grows.

This observation can complete the fourth lesson on "Quiet Don".

"The Fate of Grigory Melekhov", "The Tragedy of Grigory Melekhov" - these two themes are the main ones in the conversation about Sholokhov's novel at the final, fifth lesson. The final lesson can be conducted in the form of a workshop lesson. Its task is to synthesize the knowledge of students about the novel "Quiet Flows the Don", to look at it from a new angle. For this, it is necessary to avoid repeating the course of analysis that took place in the previous lessons. Not detailing the text, but looking at the work as a whole - this is the direction of work in the lesson-seminar. Students can come to more generalized conclusions by considering not a separate episode, but their cohesion, the through lines of the novel, which will be reflected in the lesson plan: 1. "Good Cossack". What meaning does Sholokhov put into these words, speaking so about Grigory Melekhov? 2. In what episodes is the bright, outstanding personality of Grigory Melekhov most fully revealed? What role do his inner monologues play in characterizing the hero? 3. Complex vicissitudes of the hero's fate - from the circumstances. Compare the situations "Gregory at home", "Gregory at war." What gives the cohesion of these episodes to understand the fate of the hero? 4. The choice that the hero makes, his path of seeking the truth. The origins of the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov. Finale of the novel.

The first half of the questions, offered for home thinking to students, may be related to the motivation behind the choice of Grigory Melekhov for the role of the central character. Indeed, why did the author's choice fall not on Mikhail Koshevoy, Pyotr Melekhov or Evgeny Listnitsky, Podtelkov or Bunchuk? There are explanations for this: they are in those moral values ​​that the heroes profess, in the peculiarities of their emotional and psychological make-up.

Grigory Melekhov, unlike other heroes of The Quiet Don, is a bright personality, unique individuality, wholehearted nature, extraordinary. He is sincere and honest in his thoughts and actions (this is especially evident in his relationship with Natalia and Aksinya: the last meeting of Grigory with Natalia (part seven, chapter 7), Natalia's death and related experiences (part seven, chapter 16 -18), the death of Aksinya (part eight, chapter 17) Gregory is distinguished by an acute emotional reaction to everything that happens, he has a heart responsive to the impressions of life. like In the Hayfield, when Gregory accidentally cut a wild duckling (part one, chapter 9), an episode with Franya (part two, chapter 11), a scene with a murdered Austrian (part three, chapter 10), reaction to the news about the execution of Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov (part six).

Remaining always honest, morally independent and direct in character, Gregory showed himself as a person capable of action. An example is the following episodes: a fight with Stepan Astakhov over Aksinya (part one, ch. 12), a departure with Aksinya to Yagodnoye (part two, chapters 11-12), a clash with the sergeant-major (part three, chap. 11) , a break with Podtyolkov (part three, ch. 12), a clash with General Fitzkhalaurov (part seven, ch. 10), the decision, without waiting for an amnesty, to return to the farm (part eight, ch. 18). The sincerity of his motives is captivating - he never lied to himself, in his doubts and throwings. We are convinced of this by his internal monologues (part six, chap. 21, 28). Note that he is the only character who has been given the right to monologues - "thoughts" that reveal his spiritual origin.

Gregory's deep affection for home, for the land remains his strongest spiritual movement throughout the novel. “I'm not going anywhere from the ground. There is a steppe, there is something to breathe ... "This confession of Aksinye echoes another:" My hands need to work, not fight. All my soul ached during these months. " Behind these words is the mood of not only Grigory Melekhov. Emphasizing the dramatic nature of this situation, the author adds on his own behalf: “The time has come to plow, harrow, sow; the earth called to itself, calling tirelessly day and night, but here it was necessary to fight, perish in other people's farms ... "

Sholokhov found his protagonist in a Cossack farm - this in itself is a remarkable literary phenomenon. As a person, Grigory took a lot from the historical, social and moral experience of the Cossacks, although the author argued: "Melekhov has a very individual fate, in him I do not try to personify the average Cossacks."

"Hero and Time", "Hero and Circumstances", the search for oneself as a person - the eternal theme of art became the main theme in "Quiet Don". This search is the meaning of Grigory Melekhov's existence in the novel. “I'm looking for a way out myself,” he says about himself. At the same time, he always faces the need for a choice that was not easy and simple. The very situations in which the hero found himself prompted him to action. So, the entry of Gregory into the rebel detachment is to some extent a forced step. It was preceded by the atrocities of the Red Army men who came to the farm, their intention to kill Melekhov. Later, in the last conversation with Koshev, he would say: "If the Red Army weren’t going to kill me then, I might not have taken part in the uprising."

His relations with his friends sharply escalated: Koshev, Kotlyarov. The scene of a night dispute in the executive committee, where Grigory "out of old friendship, came to play a game, to say what was boiling in his breasts," is indicative. The dispute turned out to be sharp, the positions were irreconcilable. Kotlyarov threw in Grigory's face: “… you've become a stranger. You are an enemy of the Soviet regime! .. The Cossacks have nothing to stagger, they stagger anyway. And you do not stand across the road to us. Stop! .. Goodbye! " Shtokman, who became aware of this clash, said: “Melekhov, though temporarily, escaped. It is him who should be taken into account! .. The conversation that he had with you in the executive committee is the conversation of tomorrow's enemy ... Either they are us, or we are theirs! There is no third". This is how those who asserted Soviet power on the Don defined their line.

This meeting essentially marked a turning point in the fate of Grigory Melekhov. Sholokhov defines its significance as follows: “Grigory walked, feeling as if he had stepped over the threshold, and what seemed unclear suddenly stood up with extreme brightness ... deaf, incessant irritation. "

"Life turned abruptly at the bend." The farm looked like a "disturbed bee-eater". "Mishka's heart was dressed with burning hatred for the Cossacks." The actions of the authorities bred the Cossacks in different directions.

“- What are you standing, sons of the quiet Don ?! - shouted the old man, shifting his eyes from Gregory to the others. “Your fathers and grandfathers are being shot, your property is taken away, the Jewish commissars laugh at your faith, and you are nibbling sunflower seeds? ..” This appeal was heard.

In Gregory “captive, hidden feelings were released. Clear, it seemed, was his path from now on, like a highway illuminated by the month. " Sholokhov conveys the innermost thoughts of the hero in his inner monologue: “The paths of the Cossacks crossed with the paths of landless peasant Russia, with the paths of factory people. Fight them to the death! To tear the Don soil, watered with Cossack blood, from under their feet. Drive them, like Tatars, from the borders of the region! Shake Moscow, impose a shameful peace on it! .. And now - for a saber! "

In these thoughts - the uncompromising character of a man who never knew the middle. It had nothing to do with political vacillation. The tragedy of Gregory is, as it were, transferred into the depths of his consciousness. He "painfully tried to sort out the confusion of thoughts." His "soul rushed about" like "a wolf who has been rounded up on a raid in search of a way out, in the resolution of contradictions." Behind him were days of doubt, "hard internal struggle", "search for the truth." In it, "his own, the Cossack, sucked in with mother's milk throughout his life, prevailed over the great human truth." He knew the "truth of Garanzhi" and anxiously asked himself: "Is Izvarin really right?" He himself says about himself: "I am blooming, like in a blizzard in the steppe ..." But Grigory Melekhov "blunders", "looking for the truth," not from emptiness and thoughtlessness. He yearns for such a truth, "under whose wing everyone could warm up." And such a truth, from his point of view, is not among the Whites, nor among the Reds: “There is no truth in life. It can be seen whoever overcomes whom will devour ... And I was looking for the bad truth. He was sick with his soul, he swayed back and forth ... "These searches, according to his confession, turned out to be" wasted and empty. " And this also determined the tragedy of his fate.

It is impossible to accept the point of view of those critics of The Quiet Don, who believed that Melekhov survived the tragedy of a renegade, he went against his people and lost all human traits. Let us trace the movement of the hero's thought in such episodes as “Melekhov interrogates and then orders the release of the captive khopertsa”, “The division he commands is passing in front of Melekhov”; both episodes are colored by the struggle of conflicting feelings. Let's single out the episodes that became catharsis for the hero: “Gregory chopped the sailors”, “The last meeting with Natalya”, “Natalya's death”, “Aksinya's death”. Any episode of The Quiet Don reveals the multidimensionality and high humanity inherent in Sholokhov's text. Grigory Melekhov evokes deep sympathy, compassion as a hero of a tragic fate.

Recommended reading

Kolodny L. Who wrote "Quiet Don": Chronicle of one search. - M., 1995.
Palievsky P. "Quiet Don" by Mikhail Sholokhov // Literature and theory. - M., 1978.

Lesson topic : "Quiet Don" as a work depicting the fate of the Russian people and the Cossacks during the Civil War. Determination of the originality of the genre, features of the composition .

Goals:

to determine the methods of depicting pictures of the Civil War in Sholokhov's novel, to trace how the tragedy of an entire people and the fate of one person are intertwined, how the problem of humanism is reflected in the epic.

Develop oral speech students, logical thinking, the ability to draw conclusions, compare, reason.

To foster feelings of patriotism through the text of the work "Quiet Don".

Lesson type: combined.

Work on the development of OK 2.7.

During the classes

Org. Moment. Message of the topic, the purpose of the lesson.

Updating the knowledge gained in the previous lesson. (frontal survey based on the novel "The Master and Margarita").

Presentation of educational material:

- You have already met the novel "Quiet Don" by M. A. Sholokhov. What is this book about?

The name of the epic novel by M. A. Sholokhov already has a symbolic meaning, the Don is a flat river, quiet, calm. In bad weather it is stormy and dangerous, like the sea, like the ocean. He covers Gregory and Aksinya with a terrible wave during fishing, like the element of passion that has united their destinies. In winter, Pantelei Prokofievich Melekhov's horse and sleigh instantly falls through the wormwood, he miraculously escapes himself ...

- What do you know from the history of the Cossacks?

Historically, the Cossacks are a freedom-loving people; Russian rebels - Stepan Razin, Emelyan Pugachev from the Cossacks. But even the most loyal, elite tsarist troops who suppressed revolutions and carried out pogroms are hundreds of Cossacks. The units that were the first to march across the battlefield during the First World War, hundreds of Cossacks.

These contradictions manifest themselves even more sharply in a bitter time, when the Don becomes the site of a fratricidal war and no longer divides the shores, but people, bringing terrible news to the Cossacks' smoking rooms. This is the theme of war. This is what Sholokhov's novel is about.

There are battle scenes in the "war" chapters, but they are not interesting to the author in and of themselves. The writer solves the “man in war” conflict in his own way. In "Quiet Don" we will not find descriptions of exploits, admiration for heroism, military courage, rapture in battle, which would be natural in a story about the Cossacks. Sholokhov is interested in something else - what does war do to a person.

II. Lecture based on text.

Quiet Don is a novel about the fate of the people in a critical era. Getting acquainted with the heroes of the work, we will notice that everyone has their own ability to experience and comprehend war, but everyone will feel the “monstrous absurdity of war”.

1. Message about the depiction of the First World War in the novel.

The antithesis of a peaceful life in "Quiet Don" will be a war, first World War I, then Civil. These wars will take place in farmsteads and villages, each family will have victims. Starting with the third part of the novel, the tragic determines the tone of the narrative. This motive sounds already in the epigraph and is designated by the date "In March 1914 ..."

The concatenation of short episodes, the alarming tone conveyed by the words: "flash", "mobilization", "war" - all this is connected with the date - 1914. The writer twice puts on a separate line the word "War ..." "War!" Pronounced with different intonation, it makes the reader think about the terrible meaning of what is happening. This word echoes the remark of an old railwayman who looked into the carriage, where “Petro Melekhov was soaring with the other thirty Cossacks”:

“- My dear beef! "And for a long time he shook his head reproachfully."

The emotion expressed in these words also contains generalization. It is expressed more openly at the end of the seventh chapter: “Echelons ... Echelons are innumerable! Along the arteries of the country, along the railways to the western border, agitated Russia is driving gray-cinched blood. "

Through the eyes of the Cossacks, we will see how “the ripe grain was trampled by the cavalry”, how a hundred “crumpled the bread with iron horseshoes”, how “the first shrapnel covered the rows of unharvested wheat”. And each, looking at "unharvested trees of wheat, at the bread that had fallen under their hooves," recalled their tithes and "hardened at heart." These memories-influxes illuminate, as it were, from within the dramatic situation in which the Cossacks found themselves in the war.

The episode "Gregory kills the Austrian" is being re-read (part 3, chapter 5).

After reading the episode, I recall the words of Leo Tolstoy: "War is madness." Madness not only because it devalues ​​life, but also because it cripples the soul and obscures the mind.

It is precisely “inflamed by the madness that was going on all around” that Grigory Melekhov will rush with a sword at the Austrian who has lost his mind from fear “without a rifle, with a cap clenched in his fist” (Book 1, Part 3, Chapter 5).

Feeling his own defenselessness, the Austrian in the image of Sholokhov is doomed to death: “The square face of the Austrian, elongated with fear, was blackened with iron. He held his hands at the seams, often moved his ashen lips ... Gregory met the Austrian's gaze. Eyes filled with mortal horror gazed at him with death ... "

A terrible picture in all its details will stand before the eyes of Gregory for a long time, painful memories will trouble him for a long time. When meeting with his brother, he confesses: “I, Petro, got tired of my soul. I’m not finished at a time ... As if I have been under the millstones, they crumpled and spit it out ... My conscience is killing me ... "

Gregory watched with interest the changes taking place with his comrades of a hundred: "Changes were made on each person, each in his own way nurtured and grew the seeds sown by the war." The author draws our attention to those whom he considers “morally crippled” by the war.

Through the eyes of Grigory, the reader will see the "pain and bewilderment" lurking in the corners of Prokhor Zykov's lips, will notice how "charred and blackened, groveling absurdly" by the one-farmer Grigory Emelyan Groshev, will hear how Yegorka Zharkov's speech was filled with "heavy obscene curses."

The most sinister figure will, of course, be Alexei Uryupin, nicknamed Chubaty, who teaches Grigory not so much "a complex technique of striking" as an easy technique of murder: “You can cut a man bravely. He is soft, a man, like dough ... You are a Cossack, your business is to chop without asking. In battle, killing the enemy is a sacred thing ... He is a rotten man ... an evil spirits, stinks on the ground, lives like a toadstool mushroom "(Vol.I, h. 3, ch. 12).

The changes in Grigory himself were striking: he was "bent ... by the war, sucked the blush from his face, painted him with bile." And inwardly he became completely different: “His heart was hardened, it was hardened, like a salt marsh in a drought, and just as the salt marsh does not absorb water, so Gregory's heart did not absorb pity ... he knew that he would no longer laugh at him as before; he knew that it was difficult for him, kissing a child, to look openly into clear eyes; Gregory knew at what price he paid for a full bow of crosses and production ”(part 4, chapter 4).

The voice of the author bursts into the epic narration: "The darlings drew imperiously to themselves, and there was no such force that could keep the Cossacks from spontaneous attraction home." Everyone wanted to be at home, "just look with one eye." And, as if fulfilling this desire, Sholokhov draws a farm “bleeding like a widow”, where “life went on for sale - like hollow water in the Don”. The author's text sounds in unison with the words of an old Cossack song, which became the epigraph of the novel.

So, through battle scenes, through the acute experiences of the heroes, through landscape sketches, description-generalization, lyrical digressions, Sholokhov leads us to comprehending the "monstrous absurdity of war."

2. Sholokhov's depiction of paintings of the Civil War.

. The writer B. Vasiliev gives his assessment to the novel "Quiet Don", interpreting the essence of the civil war in his own way: (you can write it down on the blackboard and in notebooks): throwing a normal, calm family man. And this is done, from my point of view, great. One fate shows the entire break in society. Even if he is a Cossack, he is still primarily a peasant, a farmer. He is the breadwinner. And the breaking of this breadwinner is the whole Civil War in my understanding. "

At the end of the lesson, you have the opportunity to compare your impressions of Sholokhov's depiction of the Civil War with this opinion.

Sholokhov's novel is concretely historical in its plot. The Don region is the center of attraction for all events. Cossacks, farms along the banks of the Don, Khopra, Medveditsa. Cossack kurens. Wormwood steppes with a hardened nesting horse hoof track. Mounds in wise silence, preserving the ancient Cossack glory. The land on which the civil strife of the Civil War passed so devastatingly. The novel contains the history of the Don itself, verified, documented - actual events, historical names, exact dating, orders, resolutions, telegrams, letters, absolutely exact routes of military campaigns. The fates of the heroes are correlated with this historical reality.

Some researchers of the novel, referring to the tragic events on the Don, accused the Cossacks. There is truth in this. But far from complete. The Don problem was hotly discussed already in the 1920s and 1930s, V. A. Antonov-Ovseenko, for example, in the book "Notes on the Civil War", speaking about the shaky behavior of the peasantry in the Don, Ukraine and other places, noted for a number of reasons not only the economic basis of the middle strata of the population, but also what intensified the fluctuations, caused excesses: excesses in the conduct of land policy, the forcible planting of communes, tactlessness on the part of some leaders who did not take into account the indigenous population, the gangster behavior of the "anarchist rabble" Red Army detachments.

Sholokhov tells about the difficult morale of the people, who are experiencing cruelty from both the "red" and the "white". The author does not forgive cruelty to anyone. And she was everywhere. Cossack Fyodor Podtyolkov lynched the captive officers, chops the captain Chernetsov, and then, losing all self-control, gives the command: "Cut them all!" Sholokhov does not forgive this, as does the no less reckless and even bloodier trial in the Ponomarevo farm - the execution of Podtelkov and the entire detachment. He does not forgive the sadist Mitka Korshunov for the reprisals against the captured Red Army men and the old woman, the mother of Mikhail Koshevoy. But there is no excuse for many actions of Koshevoy himself: remember how he executes his hundred-year-old grandfather Grishak, who was universally respected in the farm for disinterestedness and justice, and sets fire to the Cossack smokehouses.

Many in 1928 were surprised by the unusual in our literature - the ending of the Second Book of the novel. The Civil War is raging on the Don. The Red Guard Knave dies. Yablonovskaya Cossacks buried him. “Soon an old man came from a nearby farm, dug a hole in the heads of the grave, put a chapel on a freshly planed oak abutment. Under its triangular canopy, in the darkness, the mournful face of the Mother of God glimmered; below, on the cornice of the canopy, the black ligature of Slavic writing was shaggy:

In a time of turmoil and debauchery

Do not condemn, brothers, brother.

The old man left, and a chapel remained in the steppe to grieve the eyes of passers-by and passers-by with an eternally dull look, to awaken indistinct melancholy in the hearts. "

- What is the essence of this ending?

The bottom line was that Sholokhov recalls the desire of the people to approve the norms of morality, which have evolved over the centuries and are often associated with images of religious origin. The mournful face of the mother of God and the inscription said that it was time to end the strife and bloodshed, the fratricidal war, stop, think again, find agreement, remember the purpose of life, which nature asserts.

III. Bottom line. Creative work.

What are your impressions of the pictures of the "monstrous absurdity of war"?

Write your reasoning using the epigraph of the words

In a time of turmoil and debauchery

Do not condemn, brothers, brother.

Homework.

Prepare (in groups) for a seminar in the image of Grigory Melekhov, the protagonist of Sholokhov's novel "And Quiet Flows the Don".

The epic novel by M.A. Sholokhov's "Quiet Don" tells about the most difficult time in the history of Russia, huge social upheavals among the Kuban Cossacks. The usual way of life collapsed, destinies were distorted and broken, depreciated human life... Sholokhov himself characterized his work as "an epic novel about a national tragedy." Indeed, there is none character in a novel that would not be touched by the grief and horrors of war. However, the author does not give an unambiguous assessment of the events taking place; he gives this right to the heroes and readers. It is no coincidence that opinions about the author's position in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" sound completely differently. Critics also talk about Sholokhov's glorification of the growing wave of the revolution, its strength and power, the frenzy that seized the people, and at the same time that Sholokhov was one of the first to see in the preceding war and the revolution itself a threat to man, expressed this idea with extraordinary vividness in the tragic figure of Grigory Melekhov.

In The Quiet Don it is shown how war corrupts the souls of people, kills everything human in them. Gregory says to his brother: "I, Petro, got tired of my soul ... As if I had been under the millstones, they crushed me and spat me out." Modern war breeds cruelty and madness, melancholy and bewilderment. The murder of a Hungarian soldier by Grigory becomes a contrast to the memories of Grishaka's grandfather about how he did not "cut down" the Turkish officer.

The death scene always attracts attention, even if it happens on the battlefield, without being, at first glance, something amazing. Such an act as murder makes our soul tremble all the more. Therefore, a lot in Gregory reveals the episode of his murder of a person, even an enemy, but, above all, a person.

There is nothing remarkable in the description of the appearance of the Hungarian, but in his behavior the decisiveness and irrevocability with which he moves towards the enemy are immediately evident. The only goal in front of him is to kill the enemy. Ruthlessness, cruel and insane courage - this is what leads people during the battle. This is what prompts Gregory to murder, which he would never have committed in peacetime. It is terrible that murder in war ceases to be a crime, all moral norms lose their meaning there. Sholokhov does not avoid naturalistic details in order to convey to the reader all the horror of what happened: “He slowly bent his knees, a gurgling wheeze hummed in his throat. Frowning, Grigory waved his sword. A blow with a long pull tore the skull in two. The Hungarian fell, his hands bristling, as if he had slipped; the halves of the cranium were thumped dully on the stone of the pavement ... "This is the result of a person's life. About Gregory's feelings at this moment, only the remark - "frowning" speaks. Realization of what was done and mental anguish will come later. A talented writer is always a psychologist. And Sholokhov subtly understands that a person cannot immediately comprehend that he has become a murderer. But the more acute and painful will then be the insight. Gregory will not forget the person he killed for a long time: “... and even in a dream, burdened by memories, he felt his convulsion right hand, holding the pole of the pike, waking up and waking up, drove away sleep from himself, covered his closed eyes with his hand to pain. " “I’m sick and bewildered, crumpled my soul” by Gregory. “My conscience is killing me,” he says. Sleep at night, you bastard. Al am I to blame? " The last question is really very difficult. Is it the fault of the soldier sent to kill in the war? If you think in historical, social categories, then, of course, not. He was given a task, and he fulfills it. But why does not the killer leave the pangs of conscience, the thought that it is a sin to take a person's life ?! Moral laws, divine commandments turn out to be stronger than social ones in Gregory, since his soul does not cease to ache from the evil he has done.

Thus, the scene of the murder of the Hungarian contains an important idea, which is key to understanding the entire novel. A great tragedy for any country and any people is a war in which people must, contrary to their nature, kill people, regardless of their nationality and religion. But even more terrible is the civil war, where brothers go to exterminate brothers. The episode from the First World War, as it were, precedes the description of fratricide in the civil war. Sholokhov shows how the hero's soul begins to wrinkle, where the origins of the life drama of Grigory Melekhov are. But if we comprehend the lessons of The Quiet Don on a national scale, then one thing is clear: there can be no bright future for people who are accustomed to killing. Generations must change so that the killed people stop coming in their dreams and people can learn to enjoy life again.

The epic novel by M.A. Sholokhov's "Quiet Don" tells about the most difficult time in the history of Russia, huge social upheavals among the Kuban Cossacks. The usual way of life collapsed, destinies were distorted and broken, human life was devalued. Sholokhov himself characterized his work as "an epic novel about a national tragedy." Indeed, there is not a single character in the novel who has not been touched by the grief and horrors of war. However, the author does not give an unambiguous assessment of the events taking place; he gives this right to the heroes and readers. It is no coincidence that opinions about the author's position in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" sound completely differently. Critics also talk about Sholokhov's glorification of the growing wave of the revolution, its strength and power, the frenzy that seized the people, and at the same time that Sholokhov was one of the first to see in the preceding war and the revolution itself a threat to man, expressed this idea with extraordinary vividness in the tragic figure of Grigory Melekhov.

In The Quiet Don it is shown how war corrupts the souls of people, kills everything human in them. Gregory says to his brother: "I, Petro, got tired of my soul ... As if I had been under the millstones, they crushed me and spat me out." Modern war breeds cruelty and madness, melancholy and bewilderment. The murder of a Hungarian soldier by Grigory becomes a contrast to the memories of Grishaka's grandfather about how he did not "cut down" the Turkish officer.

The death scene always attracts attention, even if it happens on the battlefield, without being, at first glance, something amazing. Such an act as murder makes our soul tremble all the more. Therefore, a lot in Gregory reveals the episode of his murder of a person, even an enemy, but, above all, a person.

There is nothing remarkable in the description of the appearance of the Hungarian, but in his behavior the decisiveness and irrevocability with which he moves towards the enemy are immediately evident. The only goal in front of him is to kill the enemy. Ruthlessness, cruel and insane courage - this is what leads people during the battle. This is what prompts Gregory to murder, which he would never have committed in peacetime. It is terrible that murder in war ceases to be a crime, all moral norms lose their meaning there. Sholokhov does not avoid naturalistic details in order to convey to the reader all the horror of what happened: “He slowly bent his knees, a gurgling wheeze hummed in his throat. Frowning, Grigory waved his sword. A blow with a long pull tore the skull in two. The Hungarian fell, his hands bristling, as if he had slipped; the halves of the cranium were thumped dully on the stone of the pavement ... "This is the result of a person's life. About Gregory's feelings at this moment, only the remark - "frowning" speaks. Realization of what was done and mental anguish will come later. A talented writer is always a psychologist. And Sholokhov subtly understands that a person cannot immediately comprehend that he has become a murderer. But the more acute and painful will then be the insight. Grigory will not forget the person he killed for a long time: "... and even in a dream, burdened by memories, he felt the convulsion of his right hand, which held the shaft of the pike, waking up and waking up, drove the dream away from himself, covered his closed eyes with his hand to pain." “I’m sick and bewildered, crumpled my soul” by Gregory. “My conscience is killing me,” he says. Dreams at night, you bastard. Al am I to blame? " The last question is really very difficult. Is it the fault of the soldier sent to kill in the war? If you think in historical, social categories, then, of course, not. He was given a task, and he fulfills it. But why does not the killer leave the pangs of conscience, the thought that it is a sin to take a person's life ?! Moral laws, divine commandments turn out to be stronger than social ones in Gregory, since his soul does not cease to ache from the evil he has done.

Thus, the scene of the murder of the Hungarian contains an important idea, which is key to understanding the entire novel. A great tragedy for any country and any people is a war in which people must, contrary to their nature, kill people, regardless of their nationality and religion. But even more terrible is the civil war, where brothers go to exterminate brothers. The episode from the First World War, as it were, precedes the description of fratricide in the civil war. Sholokhov shows how the hero's soul begins to wrinkle, where the origins of the life drama of Grigory Melekhov are. But if we comprehend the lessons of The Quiet Don on a national scale, then one thing is clear: there can be no bright future for people who are accustomed to killing. Generations must change so that the killed people stop coming in their dreams and people can learn to enjoy life again.

SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 1 LESSON # 4 Abramova

Retell and quote the episode "Gregory Kills the Austrian"

What psychological nuances can be distinguished in describing the appearance of an Austrian? How does Sholokhov convey the state of Grigory? In what words is the author's assessment of what is happening expressed? What does this scene open in the hero of the novel?

Part 3 Chapter 5
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 2 LESSON # 4 Bolshakova

Tell us about the conversation of the second-order Cossacks, among whom was Pyotr Melekhov, with the old owner at the Yeya farm. What did the Cossacks understand about this war? What advice did the old man give to the soldiers if they want to stay alive?

Part 3 Chapter 6

SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 3 LESSON # 4 Efimova

Retell with a citation the episode how Ivanov ran head to head with the Germans.

Part 3 Chapter 8

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 4 LESSON # 4 Gavrikov

Tell us with a quote about how the first skirmish of the Cossacks with the "Germans" was turned into a "feat". How did people feel during this skirmish?

Part 3 chapter 9
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON" CARD # 5 LESSON # 4 Gazizova

Tell us about Gregory's meeting with his brother. What does Gregory confess to Petro? Are all Cossacks as worried as Grigory? Remember Chubaty's attitude to murder. What does he say about himself? Read it.

Part 3 Chapter 10
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 6 LESSON # 4 Dranishnikova

Tell us about the clash between Chubaty and Grigory. What caused it?

Part 3 Chapter 12
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 7 LESSON # 4 Zaitseva

How did Gregory outwardly change during the war? How has he changed internally? Read the quotes.

Part 3 chapters 10, 12, 13
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 8 LESSON # 4 Kanivets

Read the quotes from the diary about the monstrous absurdity of war.

Part 3 Chapter 11
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 9 LESSON # 4 Ikonnikova

Retell and cite the episode "The Wound of Grigory Melekhov"

Part 3 Chapter 13

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 10 LESSON # 4 Nassonov

Why did the officers think modern combat was a brutal battle?

Part 3 Chapter 15

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 11 LESSON # 4 Matyushina

Tell with a quotation about the attitude of Gregory's family to the news of his death and salvation.

Part 3 chapter 16, 17

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 12 LESSON # 4 Prokopets

Tell us why Grigory Melekhov was given the St. George Cross?

Part 3 Chapter 20

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 13 LESSON # 4 Salomatina

Retell an episode of the conversation between Natalia and Aksinya in Yagodnoye.

Part 3 Chapter 19

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD No. 14 LESSON No. 4 Rukhlov

Retell with citation the episode "Death of Yegorka Zharkov"

Part 3 Chapter 21
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 15 LESSON # 4 Khanov

Read the moment when Colonel Golovachev took pictures of the attack. What does this mean?

Part 3 Chapter 22

SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD № 16 LESSON № 4 Smirnov

For what did Grigory Melekhov thank Garanja when parting with him in the hospital?

Part 3 Chapter 23

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD No. 17 LESSON No. 4 Terekhova

Why did Grigory Melekhov return to Natalia?

Part 3 Chapter 24

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SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 18 LESSON # 4 Shaturny

Read the description of a battlefield with a huge number of killed.

Part 4 chapter 3
SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD # 19 LESSON # 4 Yagfarov

Retell the episode "Likhovidov's Madness" with a citation.

Part 4 chapter 3

SHOLOKHOV "QUIET DON". CARD No. 20 LESSON No. 4 Mitina

Retell the episode of Grigory's rescue of Stepan Astakhov. How does this characterize the hero?

Part 4 chapter 4