White spots in the biography of Mikhail Sholokhov: genius or plagiarist?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Scandals and controversies around the name of the Nobel laureate, writer Mikhail Sholokhov do not subside until now. The reason for their appearance at one time was the very fact that the author of the epic novel "Quiet Don" was a 23-year-old boy with 4 classes of education. There are still so many blank spots in the biography of Mikhail Sholokhov that this makes some researchers doubt the very existence of a writer with such a name. Who was he really - a brilliant self-taught, a plagiarist thief or even Stalin's personal agent, hiding under a false name?

As absurd as some of the versions that arise today may sound, they have a certain basis. Two opposite tendencies hindered literary scholars and historians from maintaining objectivity when recreating Sholokhov's biography: the canonization of the writer in the Soviet period, when his carefully "combed" and devoid of "unnecessary" details, biography was printed in all school textbooks, and the desire to overthrow the imaginary idol from the pedestal in 1980-90 -x years

Sholokhov did not like to advertise the details of his life. It is known that he was born on May 11 (24), 1905, although according to some biographers, this date also needs to be clarified: in his gymnasium case, 1903 is indicated. According to the official version, during the civil war Sholokhov commanded a food detachment as a commissar, however, not a single witness was found to confirm this. The entire detachment was allegedly taken prisoner by Makhno, but Sholokhov was released after a conversation with his father. Whether this meeting really took place, and if so, why he remained unharmed - again, it is not known. In 1922 he was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal for abuse of power and sentenced to death. Allegedly, it was then that he indicated born in 1905, so that he would be spared as a minor.

After the war, Sholokhov came to Moscow with the aim of enrolling in a workers' school, but due to the lack of the necessary work experience, he got a job as a loader, paving the streets, and a year later he received the position of an accountant. However, not a single document has survived to confirm these facts.

The largest number of controversies was caused by the publication of "Quiet Don". It was said that the young man could not write such a novel that he published under his own name a manuscript found by an unknown white officer who was shot by the Bolsheviks. A. Serafimovich, who wrote the preface to The Quiet Don, explained these rumors with envy of the talent of the young writer. But some researchers name him among the likely authors of the novel.

In 1929, by order of Stalin, a special commission conducted a study of the manuscripts and drafts and confirmed the authorship of Sholokhov. In 1937-1938. a version appeared that the real author of the novel was a Cossack writer, a member of the White movement Fyodor Kryukov, who died in 1920 from typhus. In the 1970s. this assumption is defended by the author of the book "Who Wrote" The Quiet Don "Roy Medvedev.

In 1974 A. Solzhenitsyn accused Sholokhov of plagiarism: “The 23-year-old debutant created a work based on material that far surpasses his life experience and his level of education (grade 4). The young food commissar, and then a Moscow laborer and housekeeper in Krasnaya Presnya, published a work that could only be prepared by long-term communication with many strata of the pre-revolutionary Don society."

The fact of Stalin's patronage, repeated personal meetings with him and correspondence, service as a front-line correspondent with the rank of colonel (in the complete absence of military education), the history of building a house for Sholokhov with money from the Central Committee of the party gave reason to assume K. Smirnov and V. Anokhin that under the name of the writer Stalin's personal agent A. Popov was hiding. Allegedly, an experienced intelligence officer was sent to the North Caucasus, and for introduction into the Cossack environment, he called himself the name of the deceased Sholokhov.

At the moment, the identity of the author of The Quiet Don remains a mystery. Nevertheless, in 1965 Sholokhov received the Nobel Prize in Literature and was among five Russian writers who became Nobel laureates