"Grigory Melekhov" was shot. Grigory Melekhov, Don Cossack Where did Grigory Melekhov live

Sholokhov created a whole gallery of images in his novel “Quiet Don”. The heroes of the novel have become extraordinary characters in world literature.

The most controversial and attractive hero of the book is Grigory Melekhov. In the image of the hero, the author personified the individual character traits of a common man. Melekhov is the most ordinary Cossack who was born into a wealthy family. From early childhood, the hero lives a peasant life. There is a love for nature, pity for all living things. In addition, Gregory is very honest and sincere with everyone. After growing up, he falls in love with Aksinya and forever keeps love in his heart. Aksinya was married. Despite her marriage, Gregory did not try to hide his feelings. Melekhov married Natalya and admitted to her that he did not love her.

The hero stood out as an economical, brave and hard-working guy. Finding himself in the center of the war, the young Cossack behaved like a persistent and brave fighter. He was smart, fearless and determined, and at the same time proud. He always acted with honor and adhered to the principles he learned in childhood.

Melekhov joined the ranks of the red revolutionaries. However, upon learning that the revolutionaries supported violence and cruelty, Gregory was greatly disappointed. Before his eyes, the Red Army killed all unarmed prisoners and shot all the Cossacks, plundered Cossack villages and raped women.

During the battles, the hero constantly saw the ruthlessness and cruelty of the white and red revolutionaries. Therefore, class hatred seemed meaningless to him. In his soul he wanted peace, love and simple work. Gregory did not know how to understand the contradictions of society. He took everything that happened to heart, and therefore often changed camps. The hero did not know how to understand his thoughts and began to obey the will of other people.

Melekhov did not want to betray his principles and himself and therefore became an outcast in the revolutionary camps. To learn the truth, he joined the ranks of white revolutionaries. He became a stranger to everyone and constantly experienced loneliness.

After some time, he attempted to escape with Aksinya. But on the way, a misfortune happened to his beloved, which led to her death. Together with a strong and brave fighter, Gregory turned into a grief-stricken man who will suffer for the rest of his life.

By the end of the work, Melekhov completely abandoned weapons and war. He returned to his native lands because he could not accept the cruelty of the mortal world.

Option 2

Mikhail Sholokhov wrote an interesting epic novel, Quiet Don. A simple, life-like story about ordinary people who are destined to experience more than just difficulties. Life is difficult, and this is what the author of Quiet Flows the Don wanted to show us.

Quiet Don is about ordinary people, one of them was Grigory Melekhov. Gregory's fate is intertwined with many life events. He is the man who has been searching for the truth all his life. He seeks justice, honesty, he wants to know the answers to many life questions. Grigory Melekhov is a contradictory personality, certain people condemn him, and many praise him, nevertheless he is a man, and a man is constantly changing.

It was difficult for him to cope with the realization that he had killed a man. He never imagined that the time would come when he would have to kill. He was looking for the truth, but did not find it either surrounded by whites or surrounded by reds during the Civil War. Thus, we can say that he was not for a certain side, he searched, but never found those who were right in honor...

He was very often unlucky in life. He faced difficulties along the way, but always overcame them. It was difficult, but he managed. Grigory Melekhov got along with many people, he was surrounded by many of his friends. Mikhail Koshevoy can be considered Grigory’s best friend, but it is his best friend who kills Grigory’s brother. Is it possible to consider Mikhail a friend after this?

But the main interweaving in the epic novel was the love story of Grigory Melekhov. He was a free man and no girl could rein him in. But he was popular among girls. He had 2 life partners, Aksinya and Natalya. Grigory's parents forced him to marry Natalya, but he could have refused, but did not do so. He claimed, and everyone knew anyway, that he didn’t love Natalya. They still had two children.

Gregory had a lover - Aksinya. She was the inspiration for him. In their relationship there was passion, love, mutual attraction. This was a real relationship, but Grigory still could not decide who he needed to be with - his wife Natalya or his mistress Aksinya. Grigory even delivered Aksinya’s child. They worked in the field, and Aksinya, who was pregnant, also helped. But suddenly contractions begin. He took her into the cart and headed to the village, but didn’t have time to get there and had to deliver the baby himself.

Grigory Melekhov is a controversial character with a very difficult fate, but I personally respect him because he never betrayed his principles. He always strived to achieve truth and justice.

Essay Image and characteristics of Melekhov

In one of Sholokhov's most famous novels, the author, having revealed one of the problems - the relationship between the individual and the people, with special artistic skill, showed the tragedy of Grigory Melekhov's life path. The character and beliefs of the hero differ significantly from Peter. The writer, highlighting 19-year-old Grishka from the Melekhov family, shows his amazing attractiveness. Gregory’s appearance is highlighted not by what class he belongs to, but by his unique character.

As a teenager, he was a hardworking guy with a keen sense of his native nature. Sholokhov’s remarkable abilities, directness and openness are constantly noted. He opposes the hard-heartedness of his villagers, stands up for Aksinya because of her husband’s terrible treatment of her, and is contemptuous of the act of Daria, who kills Kotlyarov without a twinge of conscience.

Gregory sympathizes with those who are always courageous and maintain their dignity in the most dangerous life situations. He always condemned cowardice and weak-willedness and remained steadfast at various stages of his quest. Gregory's patriotism is especially clearly shown. So, for example, he cannot see the presence of British troops on the Don and speaks disapprovingly of them. Along with the positive qualities of a gifted person, his willful character was discovered early on. As a hard worker, he is drawn to better and new trends, however, his interest in possessiveness draws him back and confuses him in choosing the right path. He hesitates for a long time between two political camps and searches for his own path in the revolution.

The main character cannot figure out his personal relationships either. He is drawn to Natalya by his possessive streak, home comfort, and children. Aksinya is close to him with her ardent love and love of freedom. This position of Gregory between two women is explained by the desire to reconcile his love for Aksinya with family traditions. The author showed in the image of Gregory features characteristic of the middle peasants. He showed his views and moods that distinguished the small owner. The tragedy of his fate was manifested in the fact that he was completely lost in his quest, spoke out against historical events, against the people of which he was a native.

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The TV series “Quiet Don” has ended on the Rossiya channel. It became the fourth version of the film adaptation of the great novel by Mikhail Sholokhov, who managed to use the example of his hero to show the catastrophe of human fate during the Civil War era. Did Grigory Melekhov really exist? After the publication of the work, Sholokhov was asked this question thousands of times.

For half a century, the writer stated unequivocally: his hero is a completely fictitious character. And only in his later years did the writer Sholokhov admit: Melekhov actually had a real prototype. But it was impossible to talk about this, because by the time the first volume of “Quiet Don” was published, Gregory’s prototype was lying in a mass grave, shot as an “enemy of the people.”

It is worth noting that Sholokhov still made attempts to reveal the secret. So, back in 1951, at a meeting with Bulgarian writers, he said that Gregory had a prototype. However, he responded with silence to further attempts to extort details from him. Only in 1972, the Nobel laureate told the literary critic Konstantin Priyma the name of the one from whose biography he almost completely copied the image of his hero: a full Knight of St. George, the Upper Don Cossack Kharlampiy Vasilyevich Ermakov.

From red to white and back

“Almost completely” is not a figure of speech in this case. Now that researchers have studied “Quiet Don” from the first to the last line, having compared the plot with the life of Ermakov, we can admit: Sholokhov’s novel was almost biographical, down to the smallest detail. Do you remember where “Quiet Don” begins? “Melekhovsky yard is on the very edge of the farm…”. So the house in which Kharlampy grew up also stood on the very outskirts. And even Grigory’s appearance is based on him - Ermakov’s grandfather actually brought his Turkish wife back from the war, which is why the dark-haired children came from him. Except that Kharlampy went to war not as an ordinary Cossack, but as a platoon sergeant, having managed to graduate from the training team. And, apparently, he fought desperately - in two and a half years he earned four soldiers' St. George Crosses and four St. George medals, becoming one of the few full holders. However, at the end of 1917 he caught a bullet and returned to his native farm.

On the Don, as well as throughout the country, confusion and vacillation reigned at that time. The Whites and Ataman Kaledin called to continue fighting for “one indivisible”, the Reds promised peace, land and justice. Coming out of the Cossack poverty, Ermakov, naturally, joined the Reds. Soon, the Cossack commander Podtyolkov appoints an experienced warrior as his deputy. It is Ermakov who destroys the detachment of Colonel Chernetsov - the last counter-revolutionary force on the Don. However, immediately after the fight, a fatal twist occurs. Podtyolkov ordered the execution of all prisoners, for example, personally hacking to death a dozen of them.

“It’s not a matter of killing without a trial,” Ermakov objected. – Many were taken because of mobilization, and many were drugged due to their darkness. The revolution was not made to disperse dozens of people.” After this, Ermakov, citing injury, left the detachment and returned home. Apparently, that bloody execution was firmly ingrained in his memory, since with the beginning of the Cossack uprising on the Upper Don, he immediately sided with the whites. And again fate threw a surprise: now the former commander and comrade Podtyolkov with his staff was himself captured. The “traitors to the Cossacks” were sentenced to hanging. Ermakov was assigned to carry out the sentence.

And again he refused. The military court sentenced the apostate to death, but hundreds of Cossacks threatened to start a riot and the case was put on hold.

Ermakov fought in the Volunteer Army for another year, rising to the rank of colonel.

shoulder straps However, by that time victory had gone to the Reds. Having retreated with his detachment to Novorossiysk, where the defeated units of the White movement boarded ships, Ermakov decided that Turkish emigration was not for him. After which he went to meet the advancing squadron of the First Cavalry. As it turned out, yesterday’s opponents had heard a lot about his glory as a soldier, not an executioner. Ermakov was received personally by Budyonny, giving him command of a separate cavalry regiment. For two years, the former White Captain, who replaced his cockade with a star, alternately fights on the Polish front, crushes Wrangel’s cavalry in the Crimea, and chases Makhno’s troops, for which Trotsky himself gives him a personalized watch. In 1923, Ermakov was appointed head of the Maikop cavalry school. He retires from this position, settling in his native farm. Why did they decide to forget the owner of such a glorious biography?

Sentence without trial

The archives of the FSB directorate for the Rostov region still contain volumes of investigative case No. 45529. Their contents answer the question posed above. Apparently, the new government simply could not leave Ermakov alive.

From his military biography it is not difficult to understand: the brave Cossack ran from one side to the other not at all because he was looking for a warmer place for himself. “He always stood for justice,” Ermakov’s daughter said years later. So, having returned to peaceful life, the retired Red commander soon began to notice that he actually fought for something else. “Everyone thinks that the war is over, but now it’s going against its own people, it’s worse than the German war...” he once remarked.

In the Bazki farm Ermakov was met by young Sholokhov. The story of Kharlampy, who rushed in search of the truth from the Reds to the Whites, greatly interested the writer. In conversations with the writer, he openly talked about his service, without hiding what both the whites and the reds did during the Civil War. In Kharlampy’s file there is a letter sent to him by Sholokhov in the spring of 1926, when he was just planning “Quiet Don”: “Dear comrade Ermakov! I need to get some information from you regarding the 1919 era. This information concerns the details of the Upper Don Uprising. Tell me what time would be most convenient for me to come to you?”

Naturally, such conversations could not go unnoticed - a GPU detective came to Bazki.

It is unlikely that the security officers were pointed at Ermakov himself - as follows from the investigative file, the former white officer was already under surveillance.

At the beginning of 1927, Ermakov was arrested. Based on the testimony of eight witnesses, he was found guilty of counter-revolutionary agitation and participation in a counter-revolutionary uprising. Fellow villagers tried to intercede for their fellow countryman. “Very, very many can testify that they remained alive only thanks to Ermakov. Always and everywhere, when catching spies and taking prisoners, dozens of hands reached out to tear those captured to pieces, but Ermakov said that if you allow the prisoners to be shot, then I will shoot you too, like dogs,” they wrote in their appeal. However, it remained unnoticed. On June 6, 1927, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, chaired by Kalinin, allowed Kharlampy Ermakov to be given an “extrajudicial verdict.” After 11 days it was carried out. By that time, Grigory Melekhov’s prototype was 33 years old.

On August 18, 1989, by a decision of the Presidium of the Rostov Regional Court H.V. Ermakov was rehabilitated “for lack of corpus delicti.” For obvious reasons, Ermakov’s burial place remains unknown. According to some reports, his body was thrown into a mass grave in the vicinity of Rostov.

Introduction

The fate of Grigory Melekhov in the novel “Quiet Don” by Sholokhov becomes the focus of the reader’s attention. This hero, who by the will of fate found himself in the midst of difficult historical events, has been forced to search for his own path in life for many years.

Description of Grigory Melekhov

Already from the first pages of the novel, Sholokhov introduces us to the unusual fate of grandfather Grigory, explaining why the Melekhovs are outwardly different from the rest of the inhabitants of the farm. Gregory, like his father, had “a drooping kite nose, in slightly slanting slits there were bluish almonds of hot eyes, sharp slabs of cheekbones.” Remembering the origin of Pantelei Prokofievich, everyone in the farmstead called the Melekhovs “Turks.”
Life changes Gregory's inner world. His appearance also changes. From a carefree, cheerful guy, he turns into a stern warrior whose heart has hardened. Gregory “knew that he would no longer laugh as before; knew that his eyes were sunken and his cheekbones were sticking out sharply,” and in his gaze “a light of senseless cruelty began to shine through more and more often.”

At the end of the novel, a completely different Gregory appears before us. This is a mature man, tired of life, “with tired squinting eyes, with the reddish tips of a black mustache, with premature gray hair at the temples and hard wrinkles on the forehead.”

Characteristics of Gregory

At the beginning of the work, Grigory Melekhov is a young Cossack living according to the laws of his ancestors. The main thing for him is farming and family. He enthusiastically helps his father with mowing and fishing. He is unable to contradict his parents when they marry him to the unloved Natalya Korshunova.

But, for all that, Gregory is a passionate, addicted person. Contrary to his father's prohibitions, he continues to go to night games. He meets Aksinya Astakhova, the neighbor’s wife, and then leaves his home with her.

Gregory, like most Cossacks, is characterized by courage, sometimes reaching the point of recklessness. He behaves heroically at the front, participating in the most dangerous forays. At the same time, the hero is not alien to humanity. He is worried about a gosling he accidentally killed while mowing. He suffers for a long time because of the murdered unarmed Austrian. “Obeying his heart,” Grigory saves his sworn enemy Stepan from death. He goes against an entire platoon of Cossacks, defending Franya.

In Gregory, passion and obedience, madness and gentleness, kindness and hatred coexist at the same time.

The fate of Grigory Melekhov and his path of quest

The fate of Melekhov in the novel “Quiet Don” is tragic. He is constantly forced to look for a “way out,” the right road. It's not easy for him in the war. His personal life is also complicated.

Like the beloved heroes of L.N. Tolstoy, Grigory goes through a difficult path of life’s quest. At the beginning, everything seemed clear to him. Like other Cossacks, he is called up for war. For him there is no doubt that he must defend the Fatherland. But, getting to the front, the hero understands that his whole nature is opposed to murder.

Grigory moves from white to red, but even here he will be disappointed. Seeing how Podtyolkov deals with captured young officers, he loses faith in this power and the next year he again finds himself in the White Army.

Tossing between the whites and the reds, the hero himself becomes embittered. He loots and kills. He tries to forget himself in drunkenness and fornication. In the end, fleeing the persecution of the new government, he finds himself among the bandits. Then he becomes a deserter.

Grigory is exhausted from tossing and turning. He wants to live on his land, raise bread and children. Although life hardens the hero and gives his features something “wolfish,” in essence, he is not a killer. Having lost everything and not having found his way, Grigory returns to his native farm, realizing that, most likely, death awaits him here. But a son and a home are the only things that keep the hero alive.

Gregory's relationship with Aksinya and Natalya

Fate sends the hero two passionately loving women. But Gregory’s relationship with them is not easy. While still single, Grigory falls in love with Aksinya, the wife of Stepan Astakhov, his neighbor. Over time, the woman reciprocates his feelings, and their relationship develops into unbridled passion. “So unusual and obvious was their crazy connection, they burned so frantically with one shameless flame, people without conscience and without hiding, losing weight and blackening their faces in front of their neighbors, that now for some reason people were ashamed to look at them when they met.”

Despite this, he cannot resist his father’s will and marries Natalya Korshunova, promising himself to forget Aksinya and settle down. But Gregory is unable to keep his vow to himself. Although Natalya is beautiful and selflessly loves her husband, he gets back together with Aksinya and leaves his wife and parental home.

After Aksinya's betrayal, Grigory returns to his wife again. She accepts him and forgives past grievances. But he was not destined for a calm family life. The image of Aksinya haunts him. Fate brings them together again. Unable to bear the shame and betrayal, Natalya has an abortion and dies. Grigory blames himself for the death of his wife and experiences this loss cruelly.

Now, it would seem, nothing can stop him from finding happiness with the woman he loves. But circumstances force him to leave his place and, together with Aksinya, set off on the road again, the last for his beloved.

With the death of Aksinya, Gregory's life loses all meaning. The hero no longer has even a ghostly hope for happiness. “And Gregory, dying of horror, realized that it was all over, that the worst thing that could happen in his life had already happened.”

Conclusion

In conclusion of my essay on the topic “The Fate of Grigory Melekhov in the novel “Quiet Don””, I want to fully agree with critics who believe that in “Quiet Don” the fate of Grigory Melekhov is the most difficult and one of the most tragic. Using the example of Grigory Sholokhov, he showed how the whirlpool of political events breaks human destiny. And the one who sees his destiny in peaceful work suddenly becomes a cruel killer with a devastated soul.

Work test

(446 words)

The main character of the novel is M.A. Sholokhov is the Don Cossack Grigory Melekhov. We see how dramatically the fate of Gregory develops on one of the most controversial and bloody pages of our history.

But the novel begins long before these events. First, we are introduced to the life and customs of the Cossacks. In this time of peace, Gregory lives a calm life, not caring about anything. However, at the same time the hero’s first mental turning point occurs, when, after a stormy romance with Aksinya, Grishka realizes the importance of family and returns to his wife Natalya. A little later, the First World War begins, in which Gregory takes an active part, receiving many awards. But Melekhov himself is disappointed in the war, in which he saw only dirt, blood and death, and with this comes disappointment in the imperial power, which sends thousands of people to their deaths. In this regard, the main character falls under the influence of the ideas of communism, and already in the seventeenth year he takes the side of the Bolsheviks, believing that they will be able to build a new, just society.

However, almost immediately, when the Red commander Podtelkov carries out a bloody massacre of the captured White Guards, disappointment sets in. For Gregory, this becomes a terrible blow; in his opinion, it is impossible to fight for a better future while committing cruelty and injustice. Melekhov’s innate sense of justice repels him from the Bolsheviks. Returning home, he wants to take care of his family and housekeeping. But life does not give him this chance. His native village supports the white movement, and Melekhov follows them. The death of his brother at the hands of the Reds only fuels the hero’s hatred. But when Podtelkov’s surrendered detachment is mercilessly exterminated, Grigory cannot accept such cold-blooded destruction of his neighbor.

Soon, the Cossacks, dissatisfied with the White Guards, including Grigory, deserted and let the Red Army soldiers pass through their positions. Tired of war and murder, the hero hopes that they will leave him alone. However, the Red Army soldiers begin to commit robbery and murder, and the hero, in order to protect his home and family, joins the separatist uprising. It was during this period that Melekhov fought most zealously and did not torment himself with doubts. He is supported by the knowledge that he is protecting his loved ones. When the Don separatists unite with the white movement, Grigory again experiences disappointment.

In the final, Melekhov finally goes over to the Red side. Hoping to earn forgiveness and a chance to return home, he fights without sparing himself. During the war he lost his brother, wife, father and mother. All he has left are his children, and he just wants to return to them so he can forget about the fight and never take up arms. Unfortunately, this is not possible. For those around him, Melekhov is a traitor. Suspicion turns into outright hostility, and soon the Soviet government begins a real hunt for Gregory. During the flight, his still beloved Aksinya dies. After wandering around the steppe, the main character, aged and gray, finally loses heart and returns to his native farm. He has resigned himself, but wishes to see his son perhaps one last time before accepting his sad fate.

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In the novel “Quiet Don” M. A. Sholokhov poetizes people’s life, gives a deep analysis of its way of life, the origins of its crisis, which largely affected the fate of the heroes of the novel. The author emphasizes the decisive role of the people in history. According to Sholokhov, it is the people who are the driving force of history. One of his representatives in the novel is Grigory Melekhov. Undoubtedly, he is the main character of the novel.

Gregory is a simple and illiterate Cossack, but his character is complex and multifaceted. The author endows him with the best features inherent in the people.

At the very beginning of the novel, Sholokhov describes the history of the Melekhov family. Cossack Prokofy Melekhov returns from the Turkish campaign, bringing with him his wife, a Turkish woman. This is where the “new” history of the Melekhov family begins. The character of Gregory is already laid out in it. It is no coincidence that Grigory is outwardly similar to the men of his kind: “... he looks like his father: half a head taller than Peter, at least six years younger, the same drooping kite nose as his father’s, with slightly slanting cuts in the bluish tonsils of hot eyes, sharp slabs of cheekbones are 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.” It is he, and not his older brother Peter, who continues the Melekhov family.

From the very first pages, Gregory is depicted in everyday peasant life. He, like everyone else on the farm, goes fishing, takes horses to water, falls in love, goes to games, and takes part in scenes of peasant labor. The character of the hero is clearly revealed in the episode of meadow mowing. Gregory discovers a love for all living things, an acute sense of other people's pain, and the ability to compassion. He feels painfully sorry for the duckling accidentally cut with a scythe; he looks at it “with a sudden feeling of acute pity.”

Grigory has a great sense of nature, he is closely connected with it. “Okay, ah, okay!..” - he thinks, deftly handling the scythe.

Gregory is a man of strong passions, decisive actions and actions. Numerous scenes with Aksinya speak eloquently about this. Despite his father's slander, during haymaking, at midnight he still goes in the direction where Aksinya is. Severely punished by Pantelei Prokofievich and not afraid of his threats, he still goes to Aksinya at night and returns only at dawn. Gregory already shows here the desire to reach the end in everything, not to stop halfway. Marrying an unloved woman could not force him to abandon himself, his natural, sincere feelings. He only slightly calmed his father, who sternly announced to him: “Don’t be nasty to your neighbor! Don't be afraid of your father! Don’t wander around, dog!”, but nothing more. Grigory loves passionately and does not tolerate ridicule of himself. He doesn’t even forgive Peter for making fun of his feelings and grabs a pitchfork. “You fool! Damn mad! This is the tortured Circassian who has degenerated into the batin breed!” - exclaims the scared to death Peter.

Gregory is always honest and sincere. “I don’t love you, Natasha, don’t be angry,” he frankly says to his wife.

At first, Grigory protests against escaping from the farm with Aksinya, but his innate stubbornness and the impossibility of subordination nevertheless forced him to leave the farm and go with his beloved to the Listnitsky estate. Grigory is hired as a groom. But such a life away from his native nest is not for him. “An easy, well-fed life spoiled him. He became lazy, put on weight, and looked older than his years,” says the author.

Gregory contains enormous inner strength. A clear indication of this is the episode of his beating of Listnitsky Jr. Despite Listnitsky’s position, Grigory does not intend to forgive him for his insults: “Having intercepted the whip, he beat him in the face and hands with the whip, not allowing the centurion to come to his senses.” Melekhov is not afraid of punishment for his actions. He also treats Aksinya harshly: when he left, he never looked back. Gregory is characterized by a deep sense of self-worth. His strength lies in him, and it is capable of influencing other people, regardless of their rank and position. In the duel with the sergeant at the watering hole, Grigory undoubtedly wins, not allowing the senior in rank to hit himself.

The hero is ready to stand up not only for his own, but also for the dignity of others. He turned out to be the only one who stood up for Franya, who was abused by the Cossacks. Finding himself powerless against evil, he “for the first time in a long period of time almost cried.”

The First World War caught Gregory's fate and spun it into a whirlwind of turbulent historical events. Grigory, like a true Cossack, devotes himself entirely to battle. He is decisive and brave. He easily captures three Germans, deftly recaptures a battery from the enemy, and saves an officer. Evidence of his courage are St. George's crosses and medals, officer rank.

Melekhov is generous. In battle, he extends a helping hand to his rival Stepan Astakhov, who dreams of killing him. Gregory is shown as a courageous, skilled warrior. But still, the murder of a person deeply contradicts his humane nature, his life values: “Well, I cut down a man in vain and because of him, the bastard, I am sick with my soul,” he says to brother Peter, “... I am sick with my soul.. “It was as if I had been under the millstones, they crushed me and spat me out.”

Grigory quickly begins to experience incredible fatigue and disappointment. At first, he fights fearlessly and without thinking that he is shedding his own and others’ blood. But war and life confront Melekhov with many people who have fundamentally different views on the world and what is happening in it. Communication with them makes the hero think about both the war and the life he lives.

Chubatiy carries the truth “Cut a man boldly.” He easily talks about human death, about the possibility and right to take a person’s life. Grigory listens to him carefully and understands: such an inhumane position is unacceptable and alien to him.

Garanzha sowed seeds of doubt in Melekhov’s soul. He suddenly doubted previously unshakable values, such as the tsar and Cossack military duty. “The Tsar is a drunkard, the Tsarina is a whore, the master’s pennies are increased from the war, but it’s on our necks...” Garanzha cynically declares. He makes Gregory think about a lot. These doubts marked the beginning of Gregory’s tragic path to the truth. The hero makes desperate attempts to find the truth and meaning of life.

The character of Grigory Melekhov is truly amazing, truly folk.