And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov

First published:Tikhii Don, 1928-1940 (partial English translations, 1934 as And Quiet Flows the Don; 1940 as The Don Flows Home to the Sea; complete English translations, 1942 as The Silent Don; 1967 as And Quiet Flows the Don)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical realism

Time of plot: 1913-1918

Locale: Tatarsk, Russia

Principal characters

• Gregor Melekhov, a Cossack
• Piotra, Gregor’s brother
• Natalia, Gregor’s wife
• Aksinia Astakhova, Gregor’s mistress
• Bunchuk, a revolutionary leader

The Story:

The Melekhov family lives in the small village of Tatarsk, in the Don River basin of czarist Russia. Gregor, the oldest son, has a love affair with Aksinia, wife of his neighbor, Stepan Astakhov. Stepan is away serving a term in the army. In an effort to make his son settle down, Gregor’s father arranges a marriage with Natalia Korshunov. Gregor never loves Natalia, and their relationship is a cold one. Soon Gregor goes openly to Aksinia, and the affair becomes the village scandal.

When he hears the gossip, Gregor’s father whips him. Humiliated and angry, Gregor leaves home. With Aksinia, he becomes the servant of the Listnitsky family, well-to-do landowners who live outside the village of Tatarsk. When Aksinia bears him a daughter, Gregor’s father relents enough to pay a visit before Gregor leaves for the army.

In the meantime, Gregor’s wife, Natalia, tries to commit suicide because Gregor does not return her love. She goes back to her own home, but the Melekhovs ask her to come to them. She is glad to do so. When Gregor returns to Aksinia on his first leave from the army, he discovers that she was unfaithful to him with Eugene Listnitsky, the young officer-son of his employer. Aksinia’s daughter dies, and Gregor feels nothing but anger at his mistress. He fights with Eugene and whips Aksinia. Then he returns to his own home, and there he and Natalia are reconciled. During the time he served in the army, Natalia bore twins, a boy and a girl.

In the war against the Central Powers, Gregor distinguishes himself. Wounded, he is awarded the Cross of St. George, and so he becomes the first Chevalier in the village. While in the army, he meets his brother, Piotra, and his enemy, Stepan Astakhov, who swore to kill him. Nevertheless, on one occasion, Gregor saves Stepan’s life during an attack.

Discontent is growing among the soldiers. Bolshevik agitators begin to talk against the government and against a continuation of the war. In Eugene’s company, an officer named Bunchuk is the chief agitator. He deserts before Listnitsky can hand him over to the authorities.

Then the provisional government of Kerensky is overthrown, and a Soviet Socialist Republic is established. Civil war breaks out. The Cossacks, proud of their free heritage, are strongly nationalistic and want an autonomous government for the Don region. Many of them join the counterrevolutionists, under such men as Kornilov. Many return to their homes in the Don basin. Gregor, joining the revolutionary forces, is made an officer of the Red Army.

Meanwhile, the revolutionary troops in Rostov are under attack. Bunchuk, the machine gunner, is prominent in the battle and in the administration of the local revolutionary government. He falls in love with a woman machine gunner, Anna Poodko, who is killed during an attack. The counterrevolutionary troops are successful, and the Red Army troops retreat.

Gregor returns to the village and resumes the ordinary life he led before the war. News soon comes that revolutionary troops are advancing on the village. When his neighbors prepare to flee, Gregor refuses to do so. Stories of burning, looting, and rape spread throughout the countryside. A counterrevolutionary officer attempts to organize the villagers against the approaching enemy troops. He names Gregor as commander, but the nomination is turned down in anger because the people in the village know that Gregor sympathizes with the Reds and fought with them. Instead, Gregor’s brother Piotra is named commander.

The village forces march out, and Gregor goes with them. When they arrive at their destination, they find that the revolutionary troops are already defeated and that the leaders were captured. When Gregor asks what will happen to them, he is told they will be shot. Then Gregor comes face-to-face with Podtielkov, his old revolutionary leader. When his former leader accuses him of being a traitor and opportunist, all of Gregor’s suppressed feelings of disgust and nationalism burst forth. He reminds Podtielkov that he and other Red leaders ordered plenty of executions, and he charges that Podtielkov sold out the Don Cossacks. The revolutionists die prophesying that the revolution will live. Gregor goes back to his Cossack village.

Bibliography

Clark, Katerina. “Socialist Realism in Soviet Literature.” In The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature, edited by Neil Cornwell. New York: Routledge, 2001. Includes discussion of two of Sholokhov’s novels, And Quiet Flows the Don and Virgin Soil Upturned, placing them within the broader context of Soviet social realism.

Ermolaev, Herman. Mikhail Sholokhov and His Art. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982. One of the best studies of Sholokhov and his works by a native scholar trained in the West. And Quiet Flows the Don is treated extensively, especially the historical events and sources and Sholokhov’s use of them.

Hallet, Richard. “Soviet Criticism of Tikhy Don, 1928-1940.” The Slavonic and East European Review 46, no. 106 (1968): 60-74. A brief but substantive treatment of Sholokhov’s difficulties in publishing the novel because the Soviet authorities disliked his objective presentation of the revolution.

Klimenko, Michael. The World of Young Sholokhov: Vision of Violence. North Quincy, Mass.: Christopher, 1979. A useful study of Sholokhov’s early works, with emphasis on And Quiet Flows the Don.

Medvedev, Roy. Problems in the Literary Biography of Mikhail Sholokhov. Translated by A. D. P. Briggs. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977. A former Russian dissident discusses the controversy about the accusations of Sholokhov’s plagiarism in writing And Quiet Flows the Don.

Muchnic, Helen. “Mikhail Sholokhov.” In From Gorky to Pasternak. New York: Random House, 1961. Extensive essay on Sholokhov, the first part of which is devoted to And Quiet Flows the Don.

Mukherjee, G. Mikhail Sholokhov: A Critical Introduction. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 1992. A bilingual study, in both English and Russian. Analyzes Sholokhov’s works, considering them within the context of Soviet literature and ideology. Discusses Sholokhov’s critical reception.

Murphy, Brian, V. P. Butt, and H. Ermolaev. Sholokhov’s “Tikhii Don”: A Commentary. 2 vols. Birmingham, England: Department of Russian Language and Literature, University of Birmingham, 1997. A detailed discussion of the novel.

Simmons, Ernest J. Russian Fiction and Soviet Ideology: Introduction to Fedin, Leonov, and Sholokhov. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967. Simmons, a leading American scholar of Russian literature, evaluates Sholokhov within an ideological and political context.

Stewart, D. H. Mikhail Sholokhov: A Critical Introduction. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1967. A solid introduction to Sholokhov, with emphasis on And Quiet Flows the Don.