Realism of the 20th century is directly related to the realism of the previous century. And how did this artistic method develop in mid-19th century century, having received the rightful name of “classical realism” and having experienced various kinds of modifications in literary creativity the last third of the 19th century, experienced the influence of such non-realistic movements as naturalism, aestheticism, and impressionism.
Realism of the 20th century develops its own specific history and has a destiny. If we cover the 20th century in total, then realistic creativity manifested itself in its diversity and multi-component nature in the first half of the 20th century. At this time, it is obvious that realism is changing under the influence of modernism and mass literature. He connects with these artistic phenomena as with revolutionary socialist literature. In the 2nd half, realism dissolves, having lost its clear aesthetic principles and poetics of creativity in modernism and postmodernism.
Realism of the 20th century continues the traditions of classical realism at different levels - from aesthetic principles to the techniques of poetics, the traditions of which were inherent in realism of the 20th century. The realism of the last century acquires new properties that distinguish it from this type of creativity of the previous time.
Realism of the 20th century is characterized by an appeal to the social phenomena of reality and the social motivation of human character, personality psychology, and the fate of art. As is obvious, the appeal to the social pressing problems of the era, which are not separated from the problems of society and politics.
Realistic art of the 20th century, like the classical realism of Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, is distinguished by a high degree of generalization and typification of phenomena. Realistic art tries to show the characteristic and natural in their cause-and-effect conditionality and determinism. Therefore, realism is characterized by different creative embodiments of the principle of depicting a typical character in typical circumstances, in the realism of the 20th century, which is keenly interested in the individual human personality. Character is like a living person - and in this character the universal and typical has an individual refraction, or is combined with the individual properties of the personality. Along with these features of classical realism, new features are also obvious.
First of all, these are the features that manifested themselves in the realistic at the end of the 19th century. Literary creativity in this era takes on a philosophical-intellectual character, when philosophical ideas underlay the modeling of artistic reality. At the same time, the manifestation of this philosophical principle is inseparable from the various properties of the intellectual. From the author’s attitude towards an intellectually active perception of the work during the reading process, then emotional perception. An intellectual novel, an intellectual drama, takes shape in its specific properties. A classic example of an intellectual realistic novel is given by Thomas Mann (“The Magic Mountain”, “Confession of the Adventurer Felix Krull”). This is also noticeable in the dramaturgy of Bertolt Brecht.
The second feature of realism in the 20th century is the strengthening and deepening of the dramatic, mostly tragic, beginning. This is obvious in the works of F.S. Fitzgerald (“Tender is the Night”, “The Great Gatsby”).
As you know, the art of the 20th century lives by its special interest not just in a person, but in his inner world.
The term "intellectual novel" was first coined by Thomas Mann. In 1924, the year the novel “The Magic Mountain” was published, the writer noted in the article “On the Teachings of Spengler” that the “historical and world turning point” of 1914-1923. with extraordinary force intensified in the minds of his contemporaries the need to comprehend the era, and this was refracted in a certain way in artistic creativity. T. Mann also classified the works of Fr. as “intellectual novels”. Nietzsche. It was the “intellectual novel” that became the genre that for the first time realized one of the characteristic new features of realism of the 20th century - the acute need for interpretation of life, its comprehension, interpretation, which exceeded the need for “telling”, the embodiment of life in artistic images. In world literature he is represented not only by the Germans - T. Mann, G. Hesse, A. Döblin, but also by the Austrians R. Musil and G. Broch, the Russian M. Bulgakov, the Czech K. Capek, the Americans W. Faulkner and T. Wolfe , and many others. But T. Mann stood at its origins.
Multi-layeredness, multi-composition, the presence of layers of reality far removed from each other in a single artistic whole became one of the most common principles in the construction of novels of the 20th century. Novelists articulate reality. They divide it into life in the valley and on the Magic Mountain (T. Mann), on the worldly sea and the strict solitude of the Republic of Castalia (G. Hesse). They isolate biological life, instinctive life and the life of the spirit (German “intellectual novel”). The province of Yoknapatawfu (Faulkner) is created, which becomes the second universe, representing modernity.
First half of the 20th century put forward a special understanding and functional use of myth. Myth has ceased to be, as usual for the literature of the past, a conventional garment of modernity. Like many other things, under the pen of writers of the 20th century. the myth acquired historical features, was perceived in its independence and isolation - as a product of distant antiquity, illuminating repeating patterns in common life humanity. The appeal to myth widely expanded the time boundaries of the work. But besides this, the myth, which filled the entire space of the work (“Joseph and his brothers” by T. Mann) or appeared in separate reminders, and sometimes only in the title (“Job” by the Austrian I. Roth), provided the opportunity for endless artistic play, countless analogies and parallels, unexpected “meetings”, correspondences that throw light on modernity and explain it.
The German “intellectual novel” could be called philosophical, meaning its obvious connection with the traditional philosophizing in artistic creativity for German literature, starting with its classics. German literature I have always strived to understand the universe. A strong support for this was Goethe's Faust. Having risen to a height not reached by German prose throughout the second half of the 19th century, the “intellectual novel” became a unique phenomenon of world culture precisely because of its originality.
The very type of intellectualism or philosophizing was of a special kind here. In the German “intellectual novel”, its three largest representatives - Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Alfred Döblin - have a noticeable desire to proceed from a complete, closed concept of the universe, a thoughtful concept of the cosmic structure, to the laws of which human existence is “subjected”. This does not mean that the German “intellectual novel” soared in the sky and was not connected with the burning problems of the political situation in Germany and the world. On the contrary, the authors named above gave the most profound interpretation of modernity. And yet the German “intellectual novel” strived for an all-encompassing system. (Outside the novel, a similar intention is obvious in Brecht, who always sought to connect the most acute social analysis with human nature, and in his early poems with the laws of nature.)
However, in fact, time was interpreted in the twentieth century novel. much more varied. In the German “intellectual novel” it is discrete not only in the sense of the absence of continuous development: time is also torn into qualitatively different “pieces”. In no other literature is there such a tense relationship between historical time, eternity and personal time, the time of human existence.
The image of a person’s inner world has a special character. The psychologism of T. Mann and Hesse differs significantly from the psychologism of, for example, Döblin. However, the German “intellectual novel” as a whole is characterized by an enlarged, generalized image of a person. The image of a person became a capacitor and container of “circumstances” - some of their indicative properties and symptoms. The mental life of the characters received a powerful external regulator. This is not so much the environment as the events of world history and the general state of the world.
Most German “intellectual novels” continued the tradition that developed on German soil in the 18th century. genre of education novel. But education was understood according to tradition (“Faust” by Goethe, “Heinrich von Ofterdingen” by Novalis) not only as moral improvement.
Thomas Mann (1875-1955) can be considered the creator of a new type of novel not because he was ahead of other writers: the novel “The Magic Mountain”, published in 1924, was not only one of the first, but also the most definitive example of new intellectual prose.
The work of Alfred Döblin (1878-1957). What is highly characteristic of Döblin is what is not characteristic of these writers - an interest in the “material” itself, in the material surface of life. It was precisely this interest that connected his novel with many artistic phenomena of the 20s in various countries. The 1920s saw the first wave of documentary films. Accurately recorded material (in particular, a document) seemed to guarantee comprehension of reality. In literature, montage has become a common technique, displacing the plot (“fiction”). It was montage that was central to the writing technique of the American Dos Passos, whose novel Manhattan (1925) was translated in Germany in the same year and had a certain influence on Döblin. In Germany, Döblin's work was associated at the end of the 20s with the style of the “new efficiency”.
As in the novels of Erich Kästner (1899-1974) and Hermann Kesten (b. 1900) - two of the greatest prose writers of the “new efficiency”, in Döblin’s main novel “Berlin - Alexanderplatz” (1929) a person is filled to the limit with life. If people's actions did not have any decisive significance, then, on the contrary, the pressure of reality on them was decisive.
The best examples of the social and historical novel in many cases developed a technique close to the “intellectual novel.”
Among the early victories of realism of the 20th century. These include Heinrich Mann's novels written in the 1900s and 1910s. Heinrich Mann (1871-1950) continued the centuries-old traditions of German satire. At the same time, like Weerth and Heine, the writer experienced significant influence from French social thought and literature. It was French literature that helped him master the genre of the socially accusatory novel, which acquired unique features from G. Mann. Later, G. Mann discovered Russian literature.
The name of G. Mann became widely known after the publication of the novel “The Country of Jelly Shores” (1900). But this folklore name is ironic. G. Mann introduces the reader to the world of the German bourgeoisie. In this world, everyone hates each other, although they cannot do without each other, being connected not only by material interests, but also by the nature of everyday relationships, views, and the confidence that everything in the world is bought and sold.
A special place belongs to the novels of Hans Fallada (1893-1947). His books were read in the late 20s by those who had never heard of Döblin, Thomas Mann or Hess. They were bought with meager earnings during the years of economic crisis. Not distinguished by either philosophical depth or special political insight, they posed one question: how can a small person survive? " Small man, what's next? - was the name of the novel published in 1932, which enjoyed enormous popularity.
For a long time, literary criticism was dominated by the assertion that at the end of the 19th century, Russian realism was experiencing a deep crisis, a period of decline, under the sign of which realistic literature of the beginning of the new century developed until the emergence of a new creative method - socialist realism.
However, the state of literature itself contradicts this statement. The crisis of bourgeois culture, which sharply manifested itself at the end of the century on a global scale, cannot be mechanically identified with the development of art and literature.
Russian culture of this time had its negative sides, but they were not comprehensive. Domestic literature, always associated in its peak phenomena with progressive social thought, did not change this in the 1890-1900s, marked by the rise of social protest.
The growth of the labor movement, which showed the emergence of a revolutionary proletariat, the emergence of a Social Democratic Party, peasant unrest, the all-Russian scale of student uprisings, frequent expressions of protest by the progressive intelligentsia, one of which was a demonstration at the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1901 - all this spoke of a decisive a turning point in public sentiment in all layers of Russian society.
A new revolutionary situation arose. Passivity and pessimism of the 80s. were overcome. Everyone was filled with anticipation of decisive changes.
To talk about the crisis of realism at the time of the heyday of Chekhov’s talent, the emergence of a talented galaxy of young democratic writers (M. Gorky, V. Veresaev, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, A. Serafimovich, etc.), at the time of Leo Tolstoy’s appearance with the novel “ Resurrection" is impossible. In the 1890-1900s. literature was not experiencing a crisis, but a period of intense creative search.
Realism changed (the problems of literature and its artistic principles changed), but did not lose its power and its significance. His critical pathos, which reached its utmost power in “Resurrection,” did not dry out either. Tolstoy gave in his novel a comprehensive analysis of Russian life, its social institutions, its morality, its “virtue” and everywhere he discovered social injustice, hypocrisy and lies.
G. A. Byaly rightly wrote: “The denouncing power of Russian critical realism at the end of the 19th century, during the years of direct preparation for the first revolution, reached such a degree that not only major events in people’s lives, but also the smallest everyday facts began to appear as symptoms of complete ill-being social order."
Life had not yet settled down after the reform of 1861, but it was already becoming clear that capitalism in the person of the proletariat was beginning to be confronted by a strong enemy and that the social and economic contradictions in the development of the country were becoming more and more complicated. Russia stood on the threshold of new complex changes and upheavals.
New heroes, showing how the old worldview is collapsing, how established traditions, the foundations of the family, the relationship between fathers and children are being broken - all this spoke of a radical change in the problem of “man and environment”. The hero begins to confront her, and this phenomenon is no longer isolated. Anyone who did not notice these phenomena, who did not overcome the positivistic determinism of his characters, lost the attention of readers.
Russian literature reflected acute dissatisfaction with life, and hope for its transformation, and the volitional tension ripening among the masses. Young M. Voloshin wrote to his mother on May 16 (29), 1901, that the future historian of the Russian revolution “will look for its causes, symptoms and trends in Tolstoy, and in Gorky, and in the plays of Chekhov, just as historians of the French revolution see them in Rousseau and Voltaire and Beaumarchais."
In the realistic literature of the beginning of the century, the awakening civic consciousness of people, the thirst for activity, social and moral renewal of society come to the fore. V.I. Lenin wrote that in the 70s. “The mass was still asleep. Only in the early 90s did its awakening begin, and at the same time a new and more glorious period began in the history of all Russian democracy.”
The turn of the century was sometimes filled with romantic expectations, usually preceding major historical events. It was as if the very air was charged with a call to action. The judgment of A. S. Suvorin is noteworthy, who, although not a supporter of progressive views, nevertheless followed Gorky’s work in the 90s with great interest: “Sometimes you read a work by Gorky and feel that you are being lifted out of your chair, that the previous drowsiness is impossible that something needs to be done! And this needs to be done in his writings - it was necessary.”
The tone of literature changed noticeably. Gorky’s words are widely known that the time has come for the heroic. He himself acts as a revolutionary romantic, as a singer of the heroic principle in life. The feeling of a new tone of life was also characteristic of other contemporaries. There is a lot of evidence that readers expected a call to cheerfulness and struggle from writers, and publishers, who caught these sentiments, wanted to promote the emergence of such calls.
Here is one such evidence. On February 8, 1904, the aspiring writer N. M. Kataev reported to Gorky’s friend at the Znanie publishing house K. P. Pyatnitsky that the publisher Orekhov refused to publish a volume of his plays and stories: the publisher’s goal was to print books of “heroic content,” and in Kataev’s works do not even have a “cheerful tone”.
Russian literature reflected the development that began in the 90s. the process of straightening a previously oppressed personality, revealing it in the awakening of the consciousness of workers, and in spontaneous protest against the old world order, and in anarchic rejection of reality, like Gorky’s tramps.
The process of straightening was complex and covered not only the “lower classes” of society. The literature has covered this phenomenon in a variety of ways, showing what unexpected forms it sometimes takes. In this regard, Chekhov turned out to be insufficiently understood, as he sought to show with what difficulty—“bit by drop”—a man overcomes the slave within himself.
Usually the scene of Lopakhin’s return from the auction with the news that the cherry orchard now belonged to him was interpreted in the spirit of the new owner’s intoxication with his material power. But Chekhov has something else behind this.
Lopakhin buys the estate where the gentlemen tortured his powerless relatives, where he himself spent a joyless childhood, where his relative Firs still servilely serves. Lopakhin is intoxicated, but not so much with his profitable purchase, but with the consciousness that he, a descendant of serfs, a former barefoot boy, is becoming superior to those who previously claimed to completely depersonalize their “slaves.” Lopakhin is intoxicated by the consciousness of his equality with the bars, which separates his generation from the first buyers of forests and estates of the bankrupt nobility.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
V. Korolenko, those who have won a name for themselves in previous years as masters Russian literature.
New trends in the development of realism both as a movement in the Silver Age and as a literary movement appeared in the works of M. Gorky, I. Bunin, L. Andreev, A. Kuprin and others.
The creativity of this period is characterized by a mixture of directions (realism and). Even the writer’s realistic works, to one degree or another, reflect features characteristic of romanticism (an unusual hero is a tramp, contrast as an artistic device - “Chelkash”, “Grandfather Arkhip and Lenka”, “Malva”, etc.). However, the writer gradually moves away from the image of the tramp as a rebel, from the idealization of tramping (“Rogue” ) . In 1899, Gorky published the novel « Foma Gordeev", which shows the change of generations in a bourgeois family. A theme characteristic of European literature(“Buddenbrooks” by T. Mann). With the play, the author responds to the demands of our time - about the meaning of life, about truth and lies, about the purpose of man.
The fading of the old landowner way of life, the impoverishment of noble nests is one of the themes of the prose (“Baybaks”, “ Antonov apples", "Sukhodol"). Many of the writer’s stories are dedicated to the life of the village. And here Bunin is characterized by a sober, sharp look, which allows him not to admire the people or talk about the difficult life of the peasants. The ego is concerned with themes and problems: the disintegration of the peasant family, inertia, patriarchy, life, sometimes devoid of meaning (“Village”, “Tanka”, “Pass”, “On the Farm”).
New topics are introduced by A. Kuprin. As you know, the writer tried many professions, which is why his stories are so full of the truth of life. This is the theme of the inhumanity of the bourgeois world order (“Moloch”), the life of circus performers (“At the Circus,” “Bad Pun”), the meaningless life of army officers (“Duel”), the tragic power of love, which is higher than the surrounding world ( « Olesya").
The cruelty and abomination of life are contrasted with beautiful human characters, the beauty of simple human feelings and relationships ( « Gambrinus", "Listrigons"). Love and social inequality revealed in a new way in the story “Garnet Bracelet” .
The theme of human transformation, manifestation of the best qualities in him, awareness of oneself as a person sounds in many works L. Andreeva. His early stories often called “Yuletide”, i.e. with realistic content in Andreev’s stories, a miracle of human transformation occurs ( « Bargamot and Geraska"), which enriches realism as a movement Silver Age. The seemingly simple plot of the story “Petka at the Dacha” (the arrival of a teenage craftsman at the dacha to his mother’s owners) partly explains the events of 1917 - the social abyss between the masters of life and those who work for them. The story “The Life of Basil of Thebes” is a rebellion against the absurdly structured human life, which dooms people to loss and suffering. The horror of war is shown in the story “Red Laughter”. The famous "Tale of the Seven Hanged Men" » allows the author not only to explore the theme of imminent death, anticipation of execution, not only to condemn the judicial system, but also to have a negative impact against terrorism as such, because the horror of death is not only for those who were going to be killed, but also for the one who was going to kill
Did you like it? Don't hide your joy from the world - share itRealism is a trend in literature and art that truthfully and realistically reflects the typical features of reality, in which there are no various distortions and exaggerations. This direction followed romanticism, and was the predecessor of symbolism.
This trend originated in the 30s of the 19th century and reached its peak in the middle of it. His followers sharply denied the use in literary works any sophisticated techniques, mystical trends and idealization of characters. The main feature of this trend in the literature is artistic display real life with the help of ordinary and familiar images to readers that are part of their everyday life (relatives, neighbors or acquaintances).
(Alexey Yakovlevich Voloskov "At the tea table")
The works of realist writers are distinguished by their life-affirming beginning, even if their plot is characterized by tragic conflict. One of the main features of this genre is the authors’ attempt to consider the surrounding reality in its development, to discover and describe new psychological, public and social relations.
Having replaced romanticism, realism has the characteristic features of an art that strives to find truth and justice, and wants to change the world for the better. The main characters in the works of realist authors make their discoveries and conclusions after much thought and deep introspection.
(Zhuravlev Firs Sergeevich "Before the Crown")
Critical realism develops almost simultaneously in Russia and Europe (approximately 30-40s of the 19th century) and soon emerges as leading direction in literature and art throughout the world.
In France, literary realism is primarily associated with the names of Balzac and Stendhal, in Russia with Pushkin and Gogol, in Germany with the names of Heine and Buchner. All of them experience the inevitable influence of romanticism in their literary work, but gradually move away from it, abandon the idealization of reality and move on to depicting a broader social background, where the lives of the main characters take place.
Realism in Russian literature of the 19th century
The main founder of Russian realism in the 19th century is Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. In his works " Captain's daughter", "Eugene Onegin", "Belkin's Tales", "Boris Godunov", " Bronze Horseman“He subtly captures and skillfully conveys the very essence of all important events in the life of Russian society, presented by his talented pen in all its diversity, colorfulness and inconsistency. Following Pushkin, many writers of that time came to the genre of realism, deepening the analysis of the emotional experiences of their heroes and depicting their complex inner world (“Hero of Our Time” by Lermontov, “The Inspector General” and “ Dead Souls"Gogol).
(Pavel Fedotov "The Picky Bride")
The tense socio-political situation in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I aroused keen interest in the life and fate of common people among progressive public figures that time. This is noted in later works Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol, as well as in the poetic lines of Alexei Koltsov and the works of the authors of the so-called “ natural school": I.S. Turgenev (cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter”, stories “Fathers and Sons”, “Rudin”, “Asya”), F.M. Dostoevsky (“Poor People”, “Crime and Punishment”), A.I. Herzen (“The Thieving Magpie”, “Who is to Blame?”), I.A. Goncharova (“ An ordinary story", "Oblomov"), A.S. Griboyedov “Woe from Wit”, L.N. Tolstoy (“War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”), A.P. Chekhov (stories and plays “The Cherry Orchard”, “Three Sisters”, “Uncle Vanya”).
Literary realism of the second half of the 19th century was called critical; the main task of his works was to highlight existing problems and address issues of interaction between man and the society in which he lives.
Realism in Russian literature of the 20th century
(Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky "Evening")
The turning point in the fate of Russian realism was the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when this direction was experiencing a crisis and a new phenomenon in culture loudly declared itself - symbolism. Then a new updated aesthetics of Russian realism arose, in which History itself and its global processes were now considered the main environment shaping a person’s personality. The realism of the early 20th century revealed the complexity of the formation of a person’s personality, it was formed under the influence of not only social factors, history itself acted as the creator of typical circumstances, under the aggressive influence of which the main character fell.
(Boris Kustodiev "Portrait of D.F. Bogoslovsky")
There are four main trends in realism of the early twentieth century:
- Critical: continues the traditions of classical realism of the mid-19th century. The works place emphasis on the social nature of phenomena (the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy);
- Socialist: displaying the historical and revolutionary development of real life, analyzing conflicts in conditions of class struggle, revealing the essence of the characters of the main characters and their actions committed for the benefit of others. (M. Gorky “Mother”, “The Life of Klim Samgin”, most of the works of Soviet authors).
- Mythological: display and re-interpretation of real life events through the prism of plots of famous myths and legends (L.N. Andreev “Judas Iscariot”);
- Naturalism: an extremely truthful, often unsightly, detailed depiction of reality (A.I. Kuprin “The Pit”, V.V. Veresaev “A Doctor’s Notes”).
Realism in foreign literature of the 19th-20th centuries
The initial stage of the formation of critical realism in European countries in the mid-19th century is associated with the works of Balzac, Stendhal, Beranger, Flaubert, and Maupassant. Merimee in France, Dickens, Thackeray, Bronte, Gaskell - England, the poetry of Heine and other revolutionary poets - Germany. In these countries, in the 30s of the 19th century, tension grew between two irreconcilable class enemies: the bourgeoisie and the labor movement, and a period of rise in various fields bourgeois culture, a number of discoveries took place in natural science and biology. In countries where a pre-revolutionary situation developed (France, Germany, Hungary), the doctrine of the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels arose and developed.
(Julien Dupre "Return from the Fields")
As a result of complex creative and theoretical polemics with the followers of romanticism, critical realists took for themselves the best progressive ideas and traditions: interesting historical topics, democracy, trends of folklore, progressive critical pathos and humanistic ideals.
Realism of the early twentieth century, which survived the struggle of the best representatives of the “classics” of critical realism (Flaubert, Maupassant, France, Shaw, Rolland) with the trends of new non-realistic trends in literature and art (decadence, impressionism, naturalism, aestheticism, etc.) is acquiring new character traits. He addresses the social phenomena of real life, describes the social motivation of human character, reveals the psychology of the individual, the fate of art. The modeling of artistic reality is based on philosophical ideas, the author's focus is primarily on the intellectually active perception of the work when reading it, and then on the emotional one. Classic example intellectual realistic novel are the works of the German writer Thomas Mann “The Magic Mountain” and “Confession of the Adventurer Felix Krull”, the dramaturgy of Bertolt Brecht.
(Robert Kohler "Strike")
In the works of realist authors of the twentieth century, the dramatic line intensifies and deepens, there is more tragedy (the work of the American writer Scott Fitzgerald “The Great Gatsby”, “Tender is the Night”), and a special interest in the inner world of man appears. Attempts to depict conscious and unconscious moments of a person’s life lead to the emergence of a new literary technique, close to modernism, called “stream of consciousness” (works by Anna Segers, W. Keppen, Yu. O’Neill). Naturalistic elements appear in the work of American realist writers such as Theodore Dreiser and John Steinbeck.
Realism of the 20th century has a bright, life-affirming color, faith in man and his strength, this is noticeable in the works of American realist writers William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Mark Twain. The works of Romain Rolland, John Galsworthy, Bernard Shaw, and Erich Maria Remarque were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Realism continues to exist as a direction in modern literature and is one of the most important forms of democratic culture.
Realism, as we know, appeared in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century and throughout the century existed within the framework of its critical movement. However, symbolism, which made itself known in the 1890s - the first modernist movement in Russian literature - sharply contrasted itself with realism. Following symbolism, other non-realistic trends arose. This inevitably led to qualitative transformation of realism as a method of depicting reality.
Symbolists expressed the opinion that realism only skims the surface of life and is not able to penetrate to the essence of things. Their position was not infallible, but since then it began in Russian art confrontation and mutual influence of modernism and realism.
It is noteworthy that modernists and realists, while outwardly striving for demarcation, internally had a common desire for a deep, essential knowledge of the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that the writers of the turn of the century, who considered themselves realists, understood how narrow the framework of consistent realism was, and began to master syncretic forms of storytelling that allowed them to combine realistic objectivity with romantic, impressionistic and symbolist principles.
If the realists of the 19th century close attention paid social nature of man, then realists of the twentieth century correlated this social nature with psychological, subconscious processes, expressed in the clash of reason and instinct, intellect and feeling. Simply put, realism of the early twentieth century pointed to the complexity of human nature, which is by no means reducible only to his social existence. It is no coincidence that in Kuprin, Bunin, and Gorky, the plan of events and the surrounding situation are barely outlined, but a sophisticated analysis of the character’s mental life is given. The author's gaze is always directed beyond the spatial and temporal existence of the heroes. Hence the emergence of folklore, biblical, cultural motifs and images, which made it possible to expand the boundaries of the narrative and attract the reader to co-creation.
At the beginning of the 20th century, within the framework of realism, four currents:
1) critical realism continues the traditions of the 19th century and assumes an emphasis on the social nature of phenomena (at the beginning of the 20th century these were the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy),
2) socialist realism - a term by Ivan Gronsky, denoting an image of reality in its historical and revolutionary development, an analysis of conflicts in the context of class struggle, and the actions of heroes in the context of benefits for humanity ("Mother" by M. Gorky, and subsequently most of the works of Soviet writers),
3) mythological realism took shape back in ancient literature, however, in the 20th century under M.R. began to understand the depiction and understanding of reality through the prism of well-known mythological plots (in foreign literature a shining example serves as the novel "Ulysses" by J. Joyce, and in Russian literature of the early 20th century - the story "Judas Iscariot" by L.N. Andreeva)
4) naturalism involves depicting reality with extreme plausibility and detail, often unsightly ("The Pit" by A.I. Kuprin, "Sanin" by M.P. Artsybashev, "Notes of a Doctor" by V.V. Veresaev)
The listed features of Russian realism caused numerous disputes about creative method writers who remained faithful to realistic traditions.
Bitter begins with neo-romantic prose and comes to the creation of social plays and novels, becoming the founder of socialist realism.
Creation Andreeva was always in a borderline state: modernists considered him a “despicable realist,” and for realists, in turn, he was a “suspicious symbolist.” At the same time, it is generally accepted that his prose is realistic, and his dramaturgy gravitates toward modernism.
Zaitsev, showing interest in the microstates of the soul, created impressionistic prose.
Attempts by critics to define artistic method Bunina led to the writer himself comparing himself to a suitcase covered with a huge number of labels.
The complex worldview of realist writers and the multidirectional poetics of their works testified to the qualitative transformation of realism as artistic method. Thanks to a common goal - the search for the highest truth - at the beginning of the 20th century there was a rapprochement between literature and philosophy, which began in the works of Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy.
19. THE MODERN ERA IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE. MAIN CURRENTS AND THEIR FEATURES...
Modernism is a single artistic stream. The branches of modernism: symbolism, acmeism and futurism - had their own characteristics.
In Russia, symbolism arose in the 90s. 19th century and at its initial stage (K. D. Balmont, early V. Ya. Bryusov and A. Dobrolyubov, and later B. Zaitsev, I. F. Annensky, Remizov) developed a style of decadent impressionism, similar to French symbolism.
Russian symbolists of the 1900s. (V. Ivanov, A. Bely, A. A. Blok, as well as D. S. Merezhkovsky, S. Solovyov and others), trying to overcome pessimism and passivity, proclaimed the slogan of effective art, the predominance of creativity over knowledge.
The material world is depicted by symbolists as a mask through which the otherworldly shines through. Dualism finds expression in the two-plane composition of novels, dramas and “symphonies”. The world of real phenomena, everyday life or conventional fiction is depicted grotesquely, discredited in the light of “transcendental irony”. Situations, images, their movement receive a double meaning: in terms of what is depicted and in terms of what is commemorated.
A symbol is a bundle of meanings that diverge in different directions. The task of the symbol is to present matches.
Symbolism also creates its own words - symbols. First, high poetic words are used for such symbols, then simple ones. Symbolists believed that it was impossible to exhaust the meaning of a symbol.
Symbolism avoids the logical disclosure of the topic, turning to the symbolism of sensual forms, the elements of which receive a special semantic richness. Logically inexpressible “secret” meanings “shine through” the material world of art. By putting forward sensory elements, symbolism moves away at the same time from the impressionistic contemplation of scattered and self-sufficient sensory impressions, into the motley stream of which symbolization introduces a certain integrity, unity and continuity.
The task of the symbolists is to show that the world is full of secrets that cannot be discovered.
The lyrics of symbolism are often dramatized or acquire epic features, revealing the structure of “generally significant” symbols, rethinking the images of ancient and Christian mythology. The genre of religious poem, symbolically interpreted legend is being created (S. Solovyov, D. S. Merezhkovsky). The poem loses its intimacy and becomes like a sermon, a prophecy (V. Ivanov, A. Bely).
New modernist movement acmeism, appeared in Russian poetry in the 1910s. as a contrast to extreme symbolism. Translated from Greek, the word “akme” means the highest degree of something, blossoming, maturity. The Acmeists advocated the return of images and words to their original meaning, for art for art's sake, for the poeticization of human feelings. Refusal of mysticism was the main feature of the Acmeists.
For the Symbolists, the main thing is rhythm and music, the sound of the word, while for the Acmeists it is form and eternity, objectivity.
In 1912, poets S. Gorodetsky, N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, V. Narbut, A. Akhmatova, M. Zenkevich and some others united in the “Workshop of Poets” circle.
The founders of Acmeism were N. Gumilyov and S. Gorodetsky. The Acmeists called their work the highest point of achieving artistic truth. They did not deny symbolism, but were against the fact that the symbolists paid so much attention to the world of the mysterious and unknown. The Acmeists pointed out that the unknowable, by the very meaning of the word, cannot be known. Hence the desire of the Acmeists to free literature from those obscurities that were cultivated by the symbolists, and to restore clarity and accessibility to it. The Acmeists tried with all their might to return literature to life, to things, to man, to nature. Thus, Gumilev turned to the description of exotic animals and nature, Zenkevich - to the prehistoric life of the earth and man, Narbut - to everyday life, Anna Akhmatova - to in-depth love experiences.
The desire for nature, for the “earth” led the Acmeists to a naturalistic style, to concrete imagery, objective realism, which determined whole line artistic techniques. In the poetry of the Acmeists, “heavy, weighty words” predominate; the number of nouns significantly exceeds the number of verbs.
Having carried out this reform, the Acmeists otherwise agreed with the Symbolists, declaring themselves their students. The other world for Acmeists remains the truth; only they do not make it the center of their poetry, although the latter is sometimes not alien to mystical elements. Gumilyov’s works “The Lost Tram” and “At the Gypsies” are completely permeated with mysticism, and in Akhmatova’s collections, like “The Rosary,” love-religious experiences predominate.
The Acmeists returned everyday scenes.
The Acmeists were by no means revolutionaries in relation to symbolism, and never considered themselves as such; They set as their main task only the smoothing out of contradictions and the introduction of amendments.
In the part where the Acmeists rebelled against the mysticism of symbolism, they did not oppose the latter to real real life. Having rejected mysticism as the main leitmotif of creativity, the Acmeists began to fetishize things as such, unable to approach reality synthetically and understand its dynamics. For Acmeists, things in reality have meaning in themselves, in a static state. They admire individual objects of existence, and perceive them as they are, without criticism, without attempts to understand them in relationship, but directly, in an animal way.
Basic principles of Acmeism:
Refusal of symbolist calls for the ideal, mystical nebula;
Acceptance of the earthly world as it is, in all its color and diversity;
Returning a word to its original meaning;
A depiction of a person with his true feelings;
Poeticization of the world;
Incorporating associations with previous eras into poetry.
Acmeism did not last very long, but made a great contribution to the development of poetry.
Futurism(translated as future) is one of the movements of modernism that originated in the 1910s. It is most clearly represented in the literature of Italy and Russia. On February 20, 1909, the article “Manifesto of Futurism” by T. F. Marinetti appeared in the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro. Marinetti in his manifesto called for abandoning the spiritual and cultural values of the past and building a new art. The main task of futurists is to identify the gap between the present and the future, to destroy everything old and build a new one. Provocations were part of their lives. They opposed bourgeois society.
In Russia, Marinetti's article was published on March 8, 1909 and marked the beginning of the development of its own futurism. The founders of the new trend in Russian literature were the brothers D. and N. Burliuk, M. Larionov, N. Goncharova, A. Ekster, N. Kulbin. In 1910, one of the first futuristic poems by V. Khlebnikov, “The Spell of Laughter,” appeared in the collection “Impressionist Studio.” In the same year, a collection of futurist poets, “The Judges’ Tank,” was published. It contained poems by D. Burliuk, N. Burliuk, E. Guro, V. Khlebnikov, V. Kamensky.
Futurists experience a deformation of language and grammar. Words pile on top of each other, rushing to convey the author’s momentary feelings, so the work looks like a telegraph text. Futurists abandoned syntax and stanzas and came up with new words that, in their opinion, better and more fully reflected reality.
The futurists attached special significance to the seemingly meaningless title of the collection. For them, the fish tank symbolized the cage into which the poets were driven, and they called themselves the judges.
In 1910, the Cubo-Futurists united into a group. It included the Burliuk brothers, V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, E. Guro, A. E. Kruchenykh. Cubo-futurists defended the word as such, “the word is higher than the meaning,” “the abstruse word.” Cubo-futurists destroyed Russian grammar, replacing phrases with combinations of sounds. They believed that the more disorder in a sentence, the better.
In 1911, I. Severyanin was one of the first in Russia to proclaim himself an ego-futurist. He added the word “ego” to the term “futurism.” Egofuturism can literally be translated as “I am the future.” A circle of followers of egofuturism rallied around I. Severyanin; in January 1912 they proclaimed themselves the “Academy of Ego Poetry.” Egofuturists have enriched their vocabulary with a large number of foreign words and new formations.
In 1912, the futurists united around the publishing house “Petersburg Herald”. The group included: D. Kryuchkov, I. Severyanin, K. Olimpov, P. Shirokov, R. Ivnev, V. Gnedov, V. Shershenevich.
In Russia, futurists called themselves “Budetlyans,” poets of the future. Futurists, captivated by dynamism, were no longer satisfied with the syntax and vocabulary of the previous era, when there were no cars, no telephones, no phonographs, no cinemas, no airplanes, no electric railways, no skyscrapers, no subways. The poet, filled with a new sense of the world, has a wireless imagination. The poet puts fleeting sensations into the accumulation of words.
Futurists were passionate about politics.
All these directions radically renew the language, the feeling that old literature cannot express the spirit of modernity.
Art Nouveau style is one of the earliest trends in such a global artistic trend like modernism in art. Thanks to modernism, the artist went beyond traditional realism, discovering something fundamentally new. Our modern culture owes much to such a concept as modernism in fine arts. Artists of the Art Nouveau era, for the most part, I’m not afraid of this word, are geniuses, and rightfully deserve their place in history. But first things first...
The Art Nouveau style in art arose at the end of the nineteenth century: then artists tried to create something original from disparate but generally accepted trends, to give their works some conventionality and abstraction. It is worth mentioning, however, that the term “modern” (French modern - new) is inherent only in Russian culture, since at the end of the nineteenth century Russia had its own modernity in art. In France this style was called Art Nouveau, in Germany and Scandinavia - Art Nouveau. The principles of modernism are based on the idea of the inability of the art of previous eras to fight unfreedom, inhumanity, social injustice, and the inability to capture all this. The main features of modernism are that the artist directs his subjective will to fight cruel reality, thereby erasing the boundaries of previous ideals.
Modernism in fine art is a cultural layer that covers many concepts, such as impressionism, expressionism, cubism, futurism. And also some later movements: surrealism, Dadaism and so on. Such famous artists of the Art Nouveau era as Alphonse Mucha, Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch and others worked in this field. All these are pretty famous people are not just associated with the concept of modernity in the fine arts, but are already synonymous with it.
Here we should turn directly to the work of Alphonse Mucha, a Czech by birth, who won worldwide fame in France. The so-called “Mukha style,” equated to the official name Art Nouveau, served as an example to follow for a whole generation of designers.
In the center of his posters, Mucha placed an idealized image of a woman: smooth lines, closeness to natural forms, rejection of pointed corners - these characteristic signs of Art Nouveau left an indelible impression in the minds of recipients. The female image itself was then used for advertising purposes for the first time, but history has shown how successful this experience has become, and is still used to this day by specialists from leading countries in the advertising industry such as the United States. However, we must pay tribute to Mucha: it is difficult to find the slightest hint of sweetness in his works, which cannot be said about his modern analogues. Perhaps the fact that aesthetics played a role here Czech artist was formed under the influence of medieval stories and Celtic mythology. This, on the one hand, introduced a variety of symbolism into his creations, and, on the other hand, contributed to the ornamental complexity of many posters. To organize the consideration of the background of Mucha’s works, it is necessary to introduce a conditional classification:
Floral motifs
Ornament
Ornament using mythical creatures
Mythological symbolism
Floral motifs borrowed from oriental culture, became an integral attribute of the paintings of the Art Nouveau era for many artists: floating stems and pale petals fully corresponded to the Art Nouveau concept, not only with their forms, but also with a combination of colors that had not been combined before. One can find clear confirmation of this in Mucha’s works: pastel shades, exotic outlines, as if repeating the image of a beautiful lady located in the foreground with her unrealistic flying long hair, dressed in light clothing, akin to Greek tunics - all this created a unique harmony and unity due to the interpenetration of elements of the female figure and background.
Moving on to the consideration of the ornament, it should be noted that the most frequently used geometric figure in Mucha’s works is the circle as a symbol of endless repetition, circulation, and also as a symbol of the feminine principle. Even the advertising inscriptions behind the image of the beautiful lady were located in a semicircle with smoothly outlined letters.
Another motif is a symbolic image of a horseshoe in an enlarged form, with a painted ornament inside. Here again lies a reference to the pagan worldview, not to mention the background images using mythical creatures. Mucha’s creative concept was reflected in every detail of the paintings and posters he created: an emotionally executed, powerful figure, occupying most of the space, would be unfinished without an appropriate background, combining features of fine and applied art. Mucha consciously sought a compromise between the Byzantine and Eastern principles, between modernity and rich mythological stories, he turned exquisite portraits of women into works of mass art and succeeded in this: everyday life was already absorbing new forms.
20. IMAGE OF A MAN AT A SHARP HISTORICAL TURN IN THE NOVEL "QUIET FON"
« Quiet Don» M. Sholokhov is an epic novel that reveals the fate of the people during the First World War and the Civil War. Russian reality has placed at the author's disposal conflicts of this kind that humanity has not yet known. Old world completely destroyed by the revolution, it is being replaced by a new social system. All this led to a qualitatively new solution to such “eternal” issues as man and history, war and peace, personality and people. The last problem for of this work is especially relevant.
“Quiet Don” is a novel about the fate of the people at a turning point. M. Sholokhov truthfully expressed his view of the revolution not from one side, as was the case in most books of that time, but from both: the bitterness of the tragedy, thoughts and feelings of the whole people, universal to mankind. Dramatic fates of the main characters, the cruel lessons of the fate of Grigory Melekhov, the main character of the novel, as well as Aksinya and Natalya, form in M. Sholokhov the unity of the life truth of the people at a historical turning point.
The action in the novel develops on two levels - historical and everyday, personal. But both of these plans are given in indissoluble unity. The patriarchal idyll of Melekhov's youth is destroyed on a personal level - by his love for Aksinya, on a social level - by Gregory's clash with the cruel contradictions of historical reality. The denouement of the novel is also organic. In personal terms, this is the death of Aksinya. In socio-historical terms, this is the defeat of the White Cossack movement and the final triumph of Soviet power on the Don.
At the center of the novel is a tragic character - Grigory Melekhov. He personifies the tragedy of the people: this is the tragedy of those who did not realize the meaning of the revolution and opposed it, and those who succumbed to deception, the tragedy of many Cossacks drawn into the Veshensky uprising in 1919, the tragedy of the defenders of the revolution dying for the people's cause.
Grigory Melekhov is a gifted son of the people. First of all he fair man- even in your delusions. He never sought his own benefit and did not succumb to the temptation of profit and career. Being mistaken, Grigory Melekhov shed a lot of blood. His guilt is undeniable. He himself is aware of it.
But Grigory Melekhov cannot be approached unambiguously. It is impossible not to notice that he has absorbed a whole series of folk traditions: here is the code of military honor, and intense peasant labor, and daring in folk games and festivities, and familiarization with the rich Cossack folklore. From generation to generation, cultivated courage and bravery, nobility and generosity towards the defeated, contempt for cowardice and cowardice determined the behavior of Grigory Melekhov in all life circumstances.
The embodiment of folk morality and unbreakable principles of life in the novel are Ilyinichna and Natalya. Ilyinichna is the keeper of the family way of life. She consoles her Children when they feel bad, but she also judges them harshly when they commit unrighteous acts. Natalya suffers from Grigory’s dislike, and her suffering is marked by high moral purity.
The novel "Quiet Don" shows the greatest social change
in the fate of the people. Not only the death of the Cossacks as a class is depicted in the book. The greatness of M. Sholokhov lies in the fact that he traces the life of the entire nation, the national destiny. Two worlds of ideas and beliefs collided, and steep historical fault lines occurred. M. Sholokhov’s heroes unite the fundamental contradictions of the era and embody national spiritual qualities. This is the strength of Sholokhov's realism.
"Quiet Don" is called an epic tragedy. And not only because the tragic character is placed in the center - Grigory Melekhov, but also because the novel is permeated from beginning to end by tragic motives. This is a tragedy both for those who did not realize the meaning of the revolution and opposed it, and for those who succumbed to deception. This is the tragedy of many Cossacks drawn into the Veshensky uprising in 1919, the tragedy of the defenders of the revolution dying for the people's cause. The people, their past, present and future, their happiness - this is the main theme of the writer’s thoughts.
“Melekhovsky yard is on the very edge of the farmstead” - this is how the epic novel begins, and throughout the entire narrative Sholokhov will tell us about its inhabitants. A line of defense passes through the Melekhovs’ yard; it is occupied either by Reds or Whites, but the father’s house forever remains the place where the closest people live, always ready to receive and warm. Their life appears from the pages of the epic in an interweaving of contradictions, attractions and struggles. One could say that the whole family found itself at the crossroads of major historical events and bloody clashes.
The Revolution and Civil War bring drastic changes to the established family and everyday life of the Melekhovs: the usual family ties are destroyed, new morals and morality are born. The author of "Quiet Don", like no one else, managed to reveal the inner world of a man from the people, to recreate the Russian national character of the era of revolutionary rift. First of all, we meet the head of the family - Pantelei Prokofievich. “Pantelei Prokofievich began to grow heavy down the slope of the sliding years: he spread out in width, slightly stooped, but still looked like a well-built old man.
He was bone-dry, lame (in his youth he broke his leg at an imperial horse racing show), wore a silver crescent-shaped earring in his left ear, his raven beard and hair did not fade into old age, and in anger he reached the point of unconsciousness...” Panteley Prokofievich stands guarding the old Cossack foundations, sometimes showing traits of a tough character that does not tolerate disobedience, but at the same time, at heart he is kind and sensitive. He knows how to manage the household efficiently, he works from dawn to dusk. He, and even more so his son Gregory, bears the reflection of the noble and proud nature of his grandfather Prokofy, who once challenged the patriarchal mores of the Tatarsky farm. Despite the intra-family split, Panteley Prokofievich tries to unite the pieces of the old way of life into one whole, if only for the sake of his grandchildren and children. And the fact that he dies outside the home that he loved more than anything in the world is the tragedy of a man from whom time has taken away the most precious things - family and shelter.
The father passed on the same all-consuming love for his home to his sons. “His eldest, already married son Petro resembled his mother: big, snub-nosed, with wild wheat-colored hair, brown eyes, and the youngest, Gregory, looked like his father: half a head taller than Peter, at least six years younger, the same as Dad, a drooping kite nose, blue almonds of hot eyes in slightly slanting slits, sharp slabs of cheekbones covered with brown, ruddy skin. Grigory slouched in the same way as his father, even in their smile they both had something in common, a little beastly.”
With great skill, M. Sholokhov portrayed the complex character of Grigory Melekhov. He is a gifted son of the people, a sincere person, even in his delusions. He never sought his own benefit and did not succumb to the temptation of profit and career. Mistaken, Gregory shed a lot of blood from those who claimed new life on earth, His guilt is undeniable. He himself is aware of it. However, he cannot be judged unambiguously: an enemy, and nothing more. With special insight, Sholokhov showed the difficult path of the main character. At the beginning of the epic, he is an eighteen-year-old guy - cheerful, strong, handsome. Gregory is an exceptionally integral, pure nature. Here is the code of Cossack honor, and intense peasant labor, and daring in folk games and festivities, and familiarization with the rich Cossack folklore, and the feeling of first love. From generation to generation, cultivated courage and bravery, nobility and generosity towards the defeated, contempt for cowardice and cowardice determined Gregory’s behavior in all life circumstances. During the troubled days of revolutionary events, he makes many mistakes. But on the path of searching for truth, the Cossack is sometimes unable to comprehend the iron logic of the revolution, its internal laws. Grigory Melekhov is a proud, freedom-loving person and at the same time a truth-seeking philosopher. For him, the greatness and inevitability of the revolution must be revealed and proven by the entire subsequent course of life. Melekhov dreams of a system of life in which a person would be rewarded according to the measure of his intelligence, work and talent.
What struck me most in the novel were the female characters: Ilyinichna, Aksinya and Natalya. These women are completely different, but they are united by sublime moral beauty. The image in the novel is filled with charm old Ilyinichna, personifying the difficult lot of a Cossack woman, her high moral qualities. Pantelei Melekhov’s wife, Vasilisa Ilyinichna, is a native Cossack woman of the Upper Don region. Life with her husband was not sweet: sometimes, having flared up, he severely beat her; she grew old early, gained weight, suffered from illnesses, but remained a caring, energetic housewife. The reader is captivated by the image of Natalya, a woman of high moral purity and feeling: “her eyes shone with a radiant, quivering warmth.” Strong in character, she put up with the position of an unloved wife for a long time and still hoped for a better life. But he can decisively stand up for himself and his children, authoritatively declare his right to a bright, real life. She curses and loves Gregory endlessly. With unprecedented depth, the last days of her life reveal the strength of spirit and captivating moral purity of this heroine. Her happiness came to her. The family was restored, and thanks to Natalya’s asceticism, harmony and love reigned in it. She gave birth to twins: a son and a daughter. Natalya turned out to be just as loving, devoted and caring a mother as she was a wife. This beautiful woman is the embodiment of the dramatic fate of a strong, beautiful, selflessly loving nature who can sacrifice everything, even life, in the name of a high feeling.
Aksinya’s love for Gregory on the pages of the novel borders on feat. And even though we have before us a simple semi-literate Cossack woman, we cannot forget how beautiful the inner world of this woman with a difficult fate is.
The heroes of Sholokhov's epic entered our lives as real people, live with us and among us. Unfortunately, the Melekhov family still broke up, but its members were able to create a hearth where the flame of love, warmth and mutual understanding will always glimmer, which will never go out.
For Sholokhov, a person is the most valuable thing on our planet, and the most important thing that helps shape a person’s soul is, first of all, his family, the house in which he was born, grew up, where he will always be expected and loved, and where he will definitely go will return. Two worlds of ideas and beliefs collided, and steep historical fault lines occurred. The heroes of the epic are contemporaries and participants in the turning points of the era, each of whom faced the need to determine their place in a new life, to find their truth. Using the example of the Melekhov family in “Quiet Don”, the greatest social turning point in the fate of the entire people, in the life of the entire nation, is shown.
21. IMAGE OF THE COSSACKS IN SHOLOKHOV’S NOVEL “QUIET FON”
Epic novel by M.A. Sholokhov's "Quiet Don" is rightfully considered his most significant and serious work. The author surprisingly well managed to convey the life and way of life of the Don Cossacks, their very spirit and connect all this with specific historical events. The epic captures a series of great upheavals in Russia. The shocks described in the novel greatly affected the fate of the Don Cossacks. Eternal values define the life of the Cossacks in that difficult historical period, which Sholokhov reflected in the novel, as clearly as possible. Love to native land, respect for the older generation, love for women, the need for freedom - these are the basic values without which a free Cossack cannot imagine himself.
Cossacks are warriors and grain growers at the same time. These two concepts define the life of the Cossacks. It must be said that historically the Cossacks developed on the borders of Russia, where enemy raids were frequent, so the Cossacks were forced to take up arms in defense of their land, which was particularly fertile and rewarded the labor invested in it a hundredfold. Later, already under the rule of the Russian Tsar, the Cossacks existed as a privileged military class, which largely determined the preservation of ancient customs and traditions among the Cossacks. Sholokhov shows the Cossacks as very traditional. For example, from an early age, Cossacks get used to a horse, which is not just a tool for them, but a faithful friend in battle and comrade (the description of the crying hero Christoni after Voronok, taken away by the Reds, touches the heart). All of them are brought up in respect for their elders and unquestioning submission to them (Panteley Prokofievich could punish Grigory even when the latter had hundreds and thousands of people under his command). The Cossacks are governed by an ataman, elected by the military Cossack Circle, where Sholokhov’s Panteley Prokofievich is heading.
The novel “Quiet Don” by M. A. Sholokhov is dedicated to the theme of the civil war that unfolded on the Don land. Here they found a deep and comprehensive reflection of the unique way of life of the Cossacks, and their traditions, culture, way of life, language, and the unique Don nature. The novel is populated by many heroes, full of events in socio-political life, and pictures of peaceful labor. The epic depicts the history of the Cossacks during the turbulent decade from 1912 to 1922. The beginning of the novel depicts the life and customs of the Cossack village on the eve of the First World War, introducing readers into the world of intimate, personal problems of the heroes. The two epigraphs that precede the novel reveal the author’s ideological and artistic intent. The words of an ancient Cossack song precede the story about bloody battles, about the class divisions of the inhabitants of the Tatarsky farm, about the intense search by the heroes for their place in the turbulent revolutionary reality, about their ineradicable attraction to simple human happiness, to peaceful peasant labor on the wet-nurse earth.
Sholokhov the artist defeated Sholokhov the politician, showing the Cossacks in the revolution. What Soviet literary critics saw as the ideological weakness of the novel turned out to be its greatest achievement. The life reflected in the novel turned out to be much more complex, confusing, and contradictory. Her palette was by no means limited to two colors - red and white. And the brightest, strongest and most attractive hero of the novel - the “irresponsible” middle peasant Grigory Melekhov - deeply feels and understands this truth, but in the most difficult conditions he cannot find a way out of the moral impasse. This is what makes him a tragically complex person. His image went down in the history of Russian literature as Pushkin’s Onegin, Lermontov’s Pechorin, Turgenev’s Bazarov, for it combined the best typical qualities of the Don Cossacks during the years of wars and upheavals of the early 20th century. His fate reflected the tragedy of millions captured by the formidable revolutionary elements. Grigory Melekhov serves either the Reds or the Whites. So, at the end of January 1918, he fought against Kaledin in the ranks of the Red Guard, and then for six months he fought against the Reds as part of the All-Great Don Army, subordinate to General Krasnov, and at the end of the winter of 1920/21 he went to Fomin’s gang.