Essay on the topic “The Image of Grigory Melekhov” briefly: characteristics, life story and description of the hero in search of the truth
In Sholokhov's epic novel " Quiet Don» Grigory Melekhov occupies a central place. He is the most complex Sholokhov hero. This is a truth seeker. He suffered such cruel trials that a person, it would seem, is unable to endure. The life path of Grigory Melekhov is difficult and tortuous: first there was the First World War, then the civil war, and, finally, an attempt to destroy the Cossacks, an uprising and its suppression.
The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is the tragedy of a man who broke away from the people and became a renegade. His detachment becomes tragic, because he is a confused person. He went against himself, against millions of workers just like himself.
From his grandfather Prokofy Gregory, he inherited a hot-tempered and independent character, as well as the ability for tender love. The blood of the “Turkish” grandmother manifested itself in his appearance, in love, on the battlefields and in the ranks. And from his father he inherited a tough disposition, and it was because of this that integrity and rebellion haunted Gregory from his youth. He fell in love married woman Aksinya (this is a turning point in his life) and soon decides to leave with her, despite all the prohibitions of his father and the condemnation of society. The origins of Melekhov's tragedy lie in his rebellious character. This is the predetermination of a tragic fate.
Gregory is a kind, brave and courageous hero who always tries to fight for truth and justice. But war comes, and it destroys all his ideas about the truth and justice of life. The war appears to the writer and his characters as a series of losses and terrible deaths: it cripples people from the inside and destroys everything dear and dear to them. It forces all the heroes to take a fresh look at the problems of duty and justice, to look for the truth and not find it in any of their warring camps. Once among the Reds, Gregory sees the same cruelty and thirst for blood as the Whites. He can't understand why all this? After all, war destroys the smooth life of families, peaceful work, it takes away the last things from people and kills love. Grigory and Pyotr Melekhov, Stepan Astakhov, Koshevoy and other heroes of Sholokhov are unable to understand why this fratricidal massacre is happening? For whose sake and what should people die when they still have a long life ahead of them?
The fate of Grigory Melekhov is a life incinerated by war. The personal relationships of the characters unfold against the background tragic story countries. Gregory will never again be able to forget how he killed his first enemy, an Austrian soldier. He cut him down with a saber, it was terrible for him. The moment of murder changed him beyond recognition. The hero has lost his point of support, his kind and fair soul protests, cannot survive such violence against common sense. But the war is on, Melekhov understands that he needs to continue killing. Soon his decision changes: he realizes that war kills the best people of his time, that the truth cannot be found among thousands of deaths, Grigory throws down his weapon and returns to his native farm to work on his native land and raise his children. At almost 30 years old, the hero is almost an old man. The path of Melekhov’s search turned out to be an impassable thicket. Sholokhov in his work raises the question of the responsibility of history to the individual. The author sympathizes with his hero Grigory Melekhov, whose life is already broken in such young years.
As a result of his search, Melekhov is left alone: Aksinya is killed by his recklessness, he is hopelessly distant from his children, if only because he will bring disaster on them with his closeness. Trying to remain true to himself, he betrays everyone: the warring parties, women, and ideas. This means that he was initially looking in the wrong place. Thinking only about himself, about his “truth,” he did not love and did not serve. At the hour when a strong man’s word was required from him, Gregory could only provide doubts and soul-searching. But the war did not need philosophers, and women did not need a love of wisdom. Thus, Melekhov is the result of a transformation like “ extra person"in conditions of the most severe historical conflict.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!1892 - 1914
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1892 - end of autumn
Grigory Panteleevich was born on the Tatarsky farm of the Vyoshenskaya village of the Don Army Region into a Cossack family. At the time of his birth, he was the second son and child in the family of a retired senior officer of the Life Guards Ataman Regiment. Older brother Peter was born in 1886
1899 - approximate date
Birth of Evdokia, younger sister of Gregory and Peter
1911 - end of February
Maslenitsa
Grigory takes part in a wall-to-wall fight between married farmsteads and single men on the latter’s side. Neighbor Astakhov felt sorry for Grigory when he ran away and did not beat him to death
1912 - May
Gregory begins trying to get closer to the wife of Astakhov, who is called up for military training
1912 - June
Grigory and Aksinya Astakhova become lovers
1912 - July
Stepan Astakhov returns home. Fight between the Melekhov brothers and Stepan over Aksinya
1912 - August 1 (old style)
Grigory is brought together with his betrothed Natalya Korshunova, their wedding day is set
1912 - early August
Gregory breaks off relations with Aksinya
1912 - September 28 (old style)
Grigory explains to Natalya and tells her that he does not love her and will not live with her as a family
1912 - early October
Grigory accidentally meets Aksinya and they realize that they cannot live without each other
1912 - mid-December
Grigory takes the military oath in the village of Vyoshenskaya. The next day, after a stormy explanation with his father, Grigory leaves his wife and leaves his parents' house. Soon he is hired as an assistant groom to the landowner Listnitsky on the Yagodnoye estate. Natalya goes to live with her parents
1912 - end of December
Grigory, through his friend’s sister, tells Aksinya where he is and offers to leave her husband for him. Aksinya runs away from home
1913 - April 12 (old style)
Palm Sunday
Grigory fell through the ice while crossing the Don; due to a cold, abscesses appeared on his back
1913 - April 19 (old style)
Bright Sunday of Christ
Grigory refuses Natalya’s request to return to her, transmitted through a note. Natalya tries to commit suicide, receives severe wounds and injury, but remains alive
1913 - May
Grigory, at the request of the son of the landowner Listnitsky, receives exemption from military training before being called up for service.
1913 - July
Grigory and Aksinya have a daughter, Tanya.
1913 - end of November
Natalya is recovering from her wounds
1913 - November 26 (old style)
Gregory is called up for military service. Due to the abscesses on his back and the “wildness” of his facial features, Gregory is assigned to the 12th Don Cossack Regiment, and not to the Life Guards Ataman Regiment. The commission rejected Gregory's horse and he had to take his brother's horse into service.
1914 - early January
Gregory arrived in the regiment stationed in the town of Radzivilov, Volyn province on the border with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From the first days of his service he makes it clear to the sergeant that he will not allow himself to be beaten
1914 - February
The child of Peter and Daria Melekhov dies from illness
1914 - March
Natalya Korshunova went to live with Grigory’s parents
1914 - end of June
Gregory's regiment was redeployed for maneuvers in the Rivne region
1914 - July 21 (old style)
After being transferred to railway, Gregory's regiment marches and at noon crosses the border of Austria-Hungary. In the area of the town of Leszniow, the regiment enters into battle, in which Gregory kills two soldiers of the Austrian army
1914 - end of July, August, beginning of September
Gregory, as part of his regiment, takes part in battles and skirmishes with the Austrian army. At the end of August, the regiment was withdrawn from the battle line for three days for rest and replenishment.
1914 - August 29 (old style)
In the battle near Shevel, the son of the landowner Listnitsky was seriously wounded
1914 - early September
In Yagodnoye, Grigory’s daughter dies of scarlet fever
1914 - September 15 (old style)
In a battle with the Hungarian cavalry near the town of Kamenka-Strumilov, Grigory is wounded in the head and concussed. He loses consciousness and remains surrounded on the battlefield. Some consider him dead and send a notice to his relatives. Waking up at night, Grigory finds the seriously wounded commander of the 9th Dragoon Regiment, and carries him to the location of the Russian units.
1914 - September 18 (old style)
Grigory voluntarily leaves the dressing station for his unit. For saving the life of a wounded officer, he is awarded the St. George Cross, IV degree and promoted to clerk*
* - rank in the Cossack troops, corresponds to the rank of corporal
1914 - September 21 (old style)
During a raid by an Austrian airplane, Grigory's eye was damaged and he was sent to Moscow for treatment.
1914 - end of September
The son of landowner Listnitsky comes to Yagodnoye on vacation after being wounded. Evgeny Listnitsky and Aksinya become lovers
1914 - end of September, October
Grigory is treated at the eye clinic of Dr. Kiselyov (Moscow, Kolpachny Lane, 1), then a wound opens on his head and he is transferred to a general hospital
1914 - end of October
Influenced by conversations with one of the wounded, Gregory thinks about the reasons for the ongoing war and who benefits from it. He defies the delegation that visited the hospital with members of the imperial family and, after discharge, receives leave to go home
1914 - November 4/5 (old style)
At night, Grigory arrives in Yagodnoye and learns about Aksinya’s betrayal. In the morning he beats Evgeniy and returns to his wife at his parents' house
1914 - end of November
Grigory returns to the regiment after leave
At the very beginning of the novel, it becomes clear that Grigory loves Aksinya Astakhova, the married neighbor of the Melekhovs. The hero rebels against his family, who condemn him, a married man, for his relationship with Aksinya. He does not obey his father’s will and leaves his native farm together with Aksinya, not wanting to live a double life with his disliked wife Natalya, who then attempts suicide - she cuts her neck with a scythe. Grigory and Aksinya become hired workers for the landowner Listnitsky.
In 1914 - Gregory’s first battle and the first person he killed. Gregory is having a hard time. In war, he receives not only the St. George Cross, but also experience. The events of this period make him think about the life structure of the world.
It would seem that revolutions are made for people like Grigory Melekhov. He joined the Red Army, but there was no greater disappointment in his life than the reality of the red camp, where violence, cruelty and lawlessness reign.
Gregory leaves the Red Army and becomes a participant in the Cossack rebellion as a Cossack officer. But here too there is cruelty and injustice.
He again finds himself with the Reds - in Budyonny's cavalry - and again experiences disappointment. In his vacillations from one political camp to another, Gregory strives to find the truth that is closer to his soul and his people.
Ironically, he ends up in Fomin's gang. Gregory thinks that bandits are free people. But even here he feels like a stranger. Melekhov leaves the gang to pick up Aksinya and flee with her to Kuban. But Aksinya’s death from a random bullet in the steppe deprives Gregory of his last hope for a peaceful life. It is at this moment that he sees in front of him a black sky and a “dazzlingly shining black disk of the sun.” The writer depicts the sun - the symbol of life - as black, emphasizing the troubles of the world. Having joined the deserters, Melekhov lived with them for almost a year, but longing again drove him to his home.
At the end of the novel, Natalya and her parents die, Aksinya dies. Only a son and a younger sister remained, who married a red man. Gregory stands at the gates of his home and holds his son in his arms. The ending is left open: will his simple dream of living as his ancestors lived ever come true: “to plow the land, take care of it”?
Women's images in the novel.
Women, into whose lives war breaks into, takes away their husbands, sons, destroys their home and hopes for personal happiness, take on their shoulders an unbearable load of work in the field and at home, but do not bend, but courageously carry this load. The novel presents two main types of Russian women: the mother, the keeper of the hearth (Ilyinichna and Natalya) and the beautiful sinner frantically seeking her happiness (Aksinya and Daria). Two women - Aksinya and Natalya - accompany the main character, they selflessly love him, but are opposite in everything.
Love is a necessary need for Aksinya’s existence. Aksinya’s frenzy in love is emphasized by the description of her “shamelessly greedy, plump lips” and “vicious eyes.” The heroine's backstory is scary: at the age of 16, she was raped by her drunken father and married to Stepan Astakhov, a neighbor of the Melekhovs. Aksinya endured humiliation and beatings from her husband. She had neither children nor relatives. Her desire “to fall out of bitter love throughout her entire life” is understandable, so she fiercely defends her love for Grishka, which has become the meaning of her existence. For her sake, Aksinya is ready for any test. Gradually, almost maternal tenderness appears in her love for Gregory: with the birth of her daughter, her image becomes purer. In separation from Grigory, she becomes attached to his son, and after Ilyinichna’s death she takes care of all Grigory’s children as if they were her own. Her life was cut short by a random steppe bullet when she was happy. She died in Gregory's arms.
Natalya is the embodiment of the idea of home, family, and the natural morality of a Russian woman. She is a selfless and affectionate mother, a pure, faithful and devoted woman. She suffers a lot from her love for her husband. She does not want to put up with her husband’s betrayal, she does not want to be unloved - this forces her to commit suicide. The hardest thing for Gregory to survive is that before her death she “forgave him everything,” that she “loved him and remembered him until the last minute.” Upon learning of Natalya's death, Gregory for the first time felt a stabbing pain in his heart and a ringing in his ears. He is tormented by remorse.
At the beginning of the story, young Gregory - a real Cossack, a brilliant rider, hunter, fisherman and diligent rural worker - is quite happy and carefree. He is a rebel by nature and does not tolerate violence against himself. And now he is almost forcibly married. Grigory and Natalya live outwardly peacefully, but this is only outwardly. He is burdened by his unloved wife, she feels it and suffers in silence. But this could not last long. The rebellion that had been brewing in Gregory’s soul since the wedding day burst out.
Sholokhov endows Grigory with a sensitive soul. It is revealed in the history of his relationships with two women Aksinya and Natalya. His love for Aksinya, full of dramatic moments, is amazing in its strength and depth.
By the time the First World War began, we already see a different Gregory. This is no longer that carefree young man. “Both this one and not that one,” Aksinya thinks the night before Gregory leaves for the army. Already another person, oppressed by painful thoughts, is riding in a soldier's carriage. The traditional Cossack commitment to military duty helps him out in his first trials on the bloody battlefields in 1914. What distinguishes him from his brothers in arms is his sensitivity to all manifestations of cruelty, to any violence against the weak and defenseless... The war forced Gregory to take a new look at life: in the hospital where he is after being wounded, under the influence of revolutionary propaganda, he begins to doubt his loyalty to the Tsar and his fatherland and military duty. During the civil war, Melekhov is at first on the side of the Reds, but their murder of unarmed prisoners repulses him, and when the Bolsheviks come to his beloved Don, committing robberies and violence, he fights them with cold rage. And again Gregory’s search for truth does not find an answer. They turn into the greatest drama of a person completely lost in the cycle of events. “They are all the same,” he says to his childhood friends leaning towards the Bolsheviks, “They are all a yoke on the face of the Cossacks!”
But among the white officers, Grigory feels like a stranger. In the end, he joins Budyonny’s cavalry and heroically fights the Poles, wanting to clear himself of his war before the Bolsheviks. But for Gregory there is no salvation in Soviet reality, where even neutrality is considered a crime. With bitter mockery, he tells the former messenger that he envies Koshevoy and the White Guard Listnitsky: “It was clear to them from the very beginning, but to me everything was still unclear. They both have their own straight roads, their own ends, but since 1917 I have been walking along the Vylyuzhka roads like I’m swaying like a drunken man...”
Under the threat of arrest, and, consequently, imminent execution, Grigory, together with Aksinya, flees from his native farm in the hope of getting to Kuban and starting new life. But their happiness is short-lived. On the way, they are overtaken by a horse outpost, and they rush into the night, pursued by bullets flying after them. Gregory buries his Aksinya. “There was no need for him to rush now. It was all over..."
Talking about moral choice Gregory in life, it is impossible to say for sure whether his choice was always really the only true and correct one. But he was almost always guided by his own principles and convictions, trying to find better road in life, and this desire of his was not a simple desire to “live better than everyone else.” It affected the interests not only of himself, but also of many people close to him. Despite his fruitless aspirations in life, Gregory was happy, although not for very long. But these short moments of happiness were enough. They were not lost in vain, just as Grigory Melekhov did not live his life in vain.
Lesson topic : The path of quest of Grigory Melekhov.
(based on the novel by M. Sholokhov “Quiet Don”)
Lesson type – conference (lesson of generalization and systematization of knowledge).
Technology: communicative (at the lesson preparation stage - research).
Goals:
Educational: consider the panorama of the life of the Don people in tragic moments of history and note how historical events reflected on people's lives through the example of the hero Grigory Melekhov.
Developmental: develop skills independent work with the text and additional literature and the ability to express your thoughts about what you read.
Educational : to cultivate love for the Motherland, native land and the historical heritage of its people.
Equipment: literary texts, portraits of the writer and the main character, map of the Rostov region, diagram “The Path of Quest of Grigory Melekhov,” multimedia.
Lesson steps :
Organizing time: Greetings, introduction of specialists (literary scholars, historians, geographers, creative team),
Introduction:
The teacher's word about the journey;
Poem. “A Man Needs Little” by R. Rozhdestvensky.
Main part:
A word about the writer;
Kh. Tatarsky - collective settlement;
About the Melekhov family;
About the main character;
Military service;
First world war;
Into the revolution;
Participation in the Verkhnedon uprising;
At the Reds;
In Fomin's gang;
Mental emptiness, returning home;
Teacher: Guys, today we are teaching you an unusual lesson - a lesson - a journey. Do you like to travel? What happens to a person while traveling?
Answer : Meetings are interesting, unforgettable; learning something new and useful; experiencing feelings of joy, surprise, admiration.
We will take a virtual trip, and it will be conducted by experts. You guys will try yourself in a new role, as historians, literary critics, geographers. We also have a creative group: Sergey Kabargin, Evgeniy Chebotarev, who prepared slides and videos. We have everything needed for beginners to work.
The unusual thing about the trip is that it is a journey through a wonderful book and literary places. We will do it according to life path and the fate of not only the main character, but also the entire Don Cossacks, whose descendants we are.
We have a secret question that we will have to answer at the end of the journey: what is hidden under this circle? Maybe someone has already guessed? (students' answers) This question will be a riddle that we will answer at the end of the lesson.
So guys, what is the most important thing when traveling?
Answer : Homecoming.
Teacher : Of course, the main thing is the road home.
Let's get started: let's go to literary scholars.
Poem “A Man Needs Little” by R. Rozhdestvensky .
A person needs little:
To search and find.
To start with
One friend and one enemy...
A person needs little...
So that the path leads along.
May my mother live in the world.
She lived as long as she needed...
A person needs little:
After thunder - silence,
Blue patch of fog
One life. And one death...
Not a great reward.
Low pedestal.
A person needs little.
If only someone was waiting at home.
Teacher : Guys, you already understand that we will make the journey with the main character of the novel “Quiet Don” Grigory Melekhov, and this brilliant work was written by M.A. Sholokhov. And we set off from the native home of Mikhail Alexandrovich, a wonderful Don Cossack, famous writer and just a person in love with his land! And the more talented the writer, the more truthful his path.
Geographer: So, the Kruzhilin farm. (show on map)
Historians: M.A. was born. Sholokhov in 1905 in x. Kruzhilina village of Veshenskaya, Donetsk district (now it is the Sholokhov district of the Rostov region). His childhood passed in St. Karginskaya: here he studied, here he began to write his first literary works. From here he volunteered for the Civil War.
Then, in peacetime, there was work in Moscow. In 1926 Mikhail Alexandrovich begins to work on the novel Quiet Don, often visiting his native places: x. Kruzhilin, st. Bazkovskaya, Veshenskaya. In Bazki, he sometimes talked all night long with Kharlampy Ermakov, the prototype of Grigory Melekhov, our guide on today’s journey.
There is so much in common in the fate of the real Cossack, Kharlampy Ermakov, and literary hero, Grigory Melekhov. Even in origin: Ermakov’s grandmother is Turkish, brought from Turkey by her grandfather, a participant in the war of 1877-1878. And that’s why the grandson, Kharlampy, was dark-skinned in an oriental way, with a hunchback, and the villagers called him “gypsy.” This description in the novel corresponds to our hero.
Teacher: The next stop on our journey is a literary place.
Literary scholars: The action of the novel begins in Tatarsky. This is a purely literary farmstead, but it exists in the work among real farmsteads and villages. Let's try to determine its location. According to Sholokhov, x. Tatarsky - near the Don, on the shore of “the gate from the cattle station leads north, to the Don.” The Don is located to the north only in relation to the right-bank farmsteads. So x. Tatarsky on the right bank. Residents of ancient farms have long been arguing about which farm is described in M.A.’s novel. Sholokhov. Some say that x. Tatar is x. Kalinsky, others claim that this is x. Bazkovsky. And yet x. Tatar is a collective settlement.
Teacher: The beginning of the book is very poetic.
Literary scholars: “Melekhovsky yard is on the very edge of the farm. The gates from the cattle base lead north to the Don. A steep eight-fathom descent between mossy green chalk blocks, and here is the shore: a mother-of-pearl scattering of shells, a gray broken border of pebbles kissed by the waves, and further – the stirrup of the Don boiling under the winds with blued ripples” - these are the opening lines of the great novel. The Melekhovsky kuren, which stood on the edge of the Tatarsky farm, found itself at the very center of events in world and Russian history, since the waves of life diverge widely from it and converge to it from everywhere.
Literary scholars : Among the waves of the raging sea of people's life, the writer chose the Melekhov family. She is no better than others, but she is from the very depths, a true heir to what has been accumulated over the centuries, she contains human spiritual wealth. That’s why it’s good to be around the Melekhov family: with them it’s simple, reliable, confident and interesting, although you have to work from morning to night, and there are many surprises, and there are scorching explosions. And at the same time, what a gratifying feeling of security, a feeling of home!
Literary scholars: The protagonist of the novel spent his childhood and youth here. Here he grew up, matured, learned to grow grain, mow hay, and became a good Cossack. Here he met his first love - married Aksinya. In this farm he started his family, at the behest of his father, Pantelei Prokofievich, and married the kind and decent Natalya Korshunova. Already before the wedding, Grigory realized that his destiny was Aksinya, and he realized that Natalya was unloved. Therefore, after living with his wife for a while, he leaves with Aksinya to the Yagodnoye estate, which is not far from x. Tatarsky. Here they are hired as workers by the wealthy landowner Listnitsky.
Teacher: And please help, historians and geographers.
Geographers : The Yagodnoye estate is also a fictitious literary name, but historians tell us that this fictitious name means x. Yasenovka.
Geographers: Let's travel further: the brightest and favorite place of the Cossacks -Veshenskaya village .
Historians: Art. Veshenskaya is rightfully considered one of the oldest and most beautiful Cossack villages, the banks of which are washed by clean waters Fathers - Don. It was moved from the site of the Chigonatskaya village, devastated under Peter 1, and renamed Veshenskaya. Here, before serving, Grigory Melekhov swore an oath of allegiance to the Tsar and the Fatherland.
And before that, the old Cossack gives instructions (Cossack commandments):« If you want to be alive, to emerge from mortal combat intact, you must preserve human truth. Don’t take someone else’s in war - once. God forbid I should touch women, and also know such a prayer.”
In these ancient testaments there are also humane words about the attitude towards women, and that the army should not engage in robbery and violence.
Literary scholars : It was a matter of honor for the whole family to escort a serviceman into the army with dignity, so Panteley Prokofievich, having swallowed the insult, comes to Yagodnoye to Grigory and brings the right: two greatcoats, a saddle, trousers, and Grigory is very worried: “Christmas is coming, but he had nothing.” ready".
Historian-geographers : On the eve of the First World War, Gregory was drafted into the imperial army. “From the Chertkovo station (this is an ancient station named after the Military Ataman Mikhail Ivanovich Chertkov and is located on the border of the Rostov region and Ukraine), the Cossacks of conscript service were transported by a train loaded with Cossacks, horses and fodder to Voronezh, and then Western Ukraine, where its war began service. And soon the outbreak of the First World War found the main character here.
(reading an episode of the novel)
Literary scholars : In the small Western Ukrainian town of Leshnev, Grigory was destined to participate in the first battle and for the first time kill a man, an Austrian soldier: “Along the iron grating of the garden, swinging, unconscious, an Austrian ran without a rifle... Grigory met the Austrian’s gaze - they looked at him deadly, filled with death horror of the eyes. The Austrian slowly bent his knees, a gurgling wheeze buzzing in his throat. Squinting his eyes, Grigory waved his saber. The blow with a long pull split the skull in two. The Austrian fell, sticking out his hands as if he had slipped; the half of the skull thumped dully on the stone of the pavement. The horse jumped, snoring, and carried Gregory into the middle of the street.”
This was the first military attack in which Melekhov took part, the first battle and the first person he killed - an unnamed Austrian soldier.
Literary scholars: For the first time, Gregory felt with all his soul the wild, terrible absurdity of the massacre, the need to kill people who had not brought him the slightest harm, just like him, yesterday’s farmers or workers. It was not easy for him to forget that August day...Grigory Melekhov...heavily grinded through the inner pain within himself, often on campaigns and on vacation, in his dreams and in slumbers, he imagined the Austrian, the one who was cut down at the bars.
It was the “hard science of war,” after which the hero matures and becomes a brave warrior, defender of the Fatherland.
Literary scholars : The war continues. In one of the battles, the wounded Gregory saves the life of the officer-commander, for which he was nominated for an award - the St. George Cross.
Historians:
Here, during the war, he first heard about the injustice of the existing system. The idea of overthrowing the tsarist government was increasingly heard. And although the Don Army Region lived autonomously, and the Cossacks were free people, but Gregory had the first doubts. He also recalled a conversation with the machine gunner Garanzha, who spoke about hitherto unknown “truths, exposing the real reasons for the outbreak of the war, caustically ridiculing the autocratic government.”
Literary critic - geographer : After the second wound, Grigory is sent for treatment to the village of Kamenskaya. Now this is the modern city of Kamensk - Shakhtinsky. After the hospital - a short vacation home in x. Tatar. Here he is greeted with love and respect not only by his family and friends, but also by the Cossack villagers. And thoughts about the new power of the Bolsheviks, about a new life, dissipate in Gregory’s head. He returns to the front again. At the end of 1916, Grigory Melekhov was promoted to cornet for military distinction and appointed platoon officer.
Historians: But then comes the tragic year, for our hero and for the entire Don Cossacks, 1917. The October Revolution took place (formerly referred to as the Great October Socialist Revolution).
Geographer: The city of Novocherkassk was the center of the Don Army Region, and in 1918 it became the center of attraction for all those fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution. Here, on the Don, where Alexey Maksimovich Kaledin was the commander-in-chief, the surviving White Guard generals and officers come. They decide that it is necessary to protect the freedom-loving and independent Don from the new government of the Bolsheviks. And the Cossacks were divided in two. The civil fratricidal war began. With its flame it engulfed the entire Don Army Region. Particularly fierce battles took place near Kamensk, in the area of the village. Glubokoe, Chertkovo, Millerovo, near Rostov, Novocherkassk and, of course, on the Upper Don. (show on map)
Historians : Having returned from the war as a “chevalier of the cross”, Gregory after the revolution takes the side of the Reds, participates in the overthrow of the Regional Government of General A.M. Kaledina. And only the innocent blood of the captured Chernetsov officers killed by Podtyolkov forced Grigory to retreat from the active struggle for Soviet power on the Don. In the spring of 1919, the Upper Don uprising broke out, Grigory reluctantly takes part in it, but gradually this struggle turns for him into a fierce struggle for his homeland, for the Don. Grigory mercilessly deals with the Red Army soldiers, avenges his murdered brother. The hero experiences a terrible shock after one of the attacks, where he hacked to death four sailors. In hysterics he shouts: “Brothers, I have no forgiveness! Who did he chop down? Grigory finds no excuse for his blind hatred of the Reds.
Literary scholars: Why does the hero experience such a shock? Maybe because “whether you work with your own people or with strangers, it’s equally hard if the work is not conscientious.” And a fratricidal war is “not a job of conscience.” Gregory thought a lot about the injustice that he encountered at this time, about the meaninglessness and hopelessness of this armed struggle into which he was drawn.And what was ripening, what was gradually accumulating in his consciousness, in his soul, broke through into a decision: to voluntarily surrender to the Red Army and join its ranks.He became a fighter in the 14th division, which was part of the cavalry army under the command of Budyonny. They raided Ukraine, fought in Crimea, and liberated Simferopol and Sevastopol.
Literary scholars : The last part of the novel is the autumn of the twentieth year. Grigory, a demobilized Red commander, arrived in Kh. Tatar. Here Grigory Melekhov was destined to drink to the bottom the bitter cup of suffering (out of the entire large Melekhov family, only Dunyashka, his sister, and the children, Polyushka and Mishatka, as Grigory affectionately calls them), the bitter cup of tragic delusions and mistakes remained.He fled from his native farm, joined Fomin’s gang, scoured the Don lands with her, fleeing from the Red Cavalry detachments. Here, on the Don, the hero realizes: he’s fought enough, he’s tired, death isn’t scary, he’s not afraid of anyone, but he has only one thought: go home. He understands that the most valuable things are home, family, love. Grigory left the remnants of the defeated gang and secretly made his way to H. Tatarsky, to escape with Aksinya, even to the ends of the earth.
Teacher: Let us mentally follow the two fugitives.
Literary scholars: At a halt, Aksinya asks Gregory:
Where do we go from here?
To Morozovskaya,” Grigory answers. “We’ll get to Platov, and from there we’ll go on foot.”
Geographers : Morozovskaya is our railway station, and x. Platov still exists today, retaining its ancient name.
Literary scholars: On the very first night, Grigory and Aksinya reached Sukhoi Log: about eight versts from Tatarsky. We spent the day in the forest and when night fell, we hit the road again.
After two hours of travel we descended from the hillock to Chir.(The geographer shows the Chir River).
This is where it played out the latest tragedy: the night travelers came across a food detachment outpost and tried to escape, but a stray bullet found Aksinya in the darkness. He buried her in the bright morning light. Grigory said goodbye to her, firmly believing that they would not be parting for long... With his palms he carefully crushed the wet yellow clay and knelt for a long time near the grave, bowing his head, quietly swaying. There was no need for him to rush now. Everything is over.
Teacher: The beginning and end of the book have something in common .
Literary scholars:
“Melekhovsky yard is on the very edge of the farm. The gates from the cattle base lead north to the Don. A steep eight-fathom descent between mossy green chalk blocks, and here is the shore: a pearlescent scattering of shells, a gray, broken border of wave-kissed pebbles, and beyond – the stirrup of the Don, boiling under the winds with blued ripples.”
On this very descent to the Don, ten years later (and it seems to us - after a whole life) Grigory meets his son Mishatka. “Well, that little bit of what Grigory dreamed about during sleepless nights has come true. He stood at the gates of his home and held his son in his arms...
This was all that was left in his life, what still connected him with the earth and with this whole huge world shining under the cold sun.”
A person needs little.
If only someone was waiting at home.
Teacher : Guys, in addition to the geographical map, there is also a diagram hanging in front of you. While reading the novel, we composed it in previous lessons. Now let’s look at it carefully and try to title it, determine the topic of our diagram and the topic of our lesson.
- The path of quest of Grigory Melekhov. (children answer).
In conclusion, I would like to say that all the feelings, all the experiences we experienced while getting to know the novel are reflected in the poem by N. Skrebov:
On the road from Bazki to Veshki
I heard a crane cry.
And the one who was taking me to the ferry said
On the state farm gas station, an old man:
The crane shares her sadness,
Feels a restless flight:
Do you hear, it’s as if Natalya is dying
Calling the children goodbye... -
We don't say a word anymore
And are more words needed here?
If you suddenly remember again
This pain that has been alive since childhood,
This is restless grief,
This life has a crumpled end...
And you are silent, as Gregory was silent,
Remembering the sorrow of offended hearts.
And it rises - page by page -
The epic of that long-ago war.
And the village seems quiet
From the opposite side.
And the cries of the crane fall silent.
And our ferry crosses
Quiet Don, no longer quiet for a long time
IN figuratively and direct.
Conclusion. We talked a lot about the hero, his journey, doubts and suffering. What is he like? Grigory Melekhov is a Cossack, a man.
Guys, what does this question mean?
Printed before you are the character traits of our hero, and, consequently, of the writer himself - M.A. Sholokhov. Choose those that are characteristic of Grigory Melekhov.
A kind Cossack, desperate courage, truthfulness, delusion, cruelty, respect for elders, love for home, children, hard work.
Now we turn the circle around, and what do we see? -I
Simple as that. What will I be like?I ?
Students' answers...
D.z. Write a mini-essay “Grigory Melekhov - a good Cossack.”
In conclusion, I would like to thank all the specialists who prepared our lesson. Excellent marks to all. And special thanks to the geographers who so accurately marked historical places on the map. Look, guys, how rich our region is in literary places. So this is only based on the novel by M.A. Sholokhov.
The journey is over. Have a good journey through life with the commandments of real Cossacks.
4. Conclusion:
Impression of reading the novel;
Returning to the topic;
What character traits did he have? main character?
Educational resources used:
M.A. Sholokhov. "Quiet Don"
V. Akimov. "On the Winds of Time", 1981
Truth and lies about M.A. Sholokhov, Rostov-on-Don: Rostizdat LLC, 2004.
Sholokhov in modern world, ed. Leningrad University, 1977
Internet resources: slides, videos - Yandex website.