Rare PHOTOS of Mikhail Sholokhov, Soviet writer & Nobel Prize winner

Sholokhov was one of the most famous and influential Soviet writers, having gone through the entire World War II as war correspondent and having written several important books that have since become classics of literature. 

But, first of all, he is known as the author of the novel epic 'And Quiet Flows the Don', about the life of the Don Cossacks during World War I and the Civil War in Russia. It was for it that he received the Nobel Prize for Literature with the wording: “For the artistic power and integrity with which, in his epic of the Don, he has given expression to a historic phase in the life of the Russian people.”

Sholokhov himself was not a Cossack, but was born and lived almost all his life on the Don River in the village (‘stanitsa’) of Vyoshenskaya in the south of Russia. 

Therefore, echoes of Cossack life were deeply imbued in his life, as Russians grew up on his stories of dashing fates and the events of brave and independent Cossacks. Later, he began to cultivate the image of a “Cossack writer” himself, even going as far as to wear a ‘papakha’ wool hat and black boots. 

When Sholokhov came up with the idea of a great novel about Cossacks, it so gripped him that his relatives were afraid he would go crazy. He would work whole nights on the intricacies of Cossack Grigory Melekhov's life.

The efforts of the novice writer were not in vain. The novel 'And Quiet Flows the Don' was published, making Sholokhov famous. In the photo below, the writer is pictured reading his work to the workers in the club of the ‘Krasny Bogatyr’ factory.

The second important novel about collectivization in the Soviet era is titled 'Virgin Soil Upturned' (a.k.a. in English as 'Harvest on the Don'). After it, Sholokhov stood next to Maxim Gorky in the writer's hierarchy and, together, they became the pioneers of the Soviet Union of Writers in the early 1930s. 

Sholokhov was more often than not meeting Stalin privately, protecting interests of peasants and workers oppressed by the Soviet authorities and people unjustly condemned during the Great Purge.

At the same time, Sholokhov acted like a simple man from the masses, spent almost all his time in his Don village and enjoyed hunting. 

He was also an avid fisherman.

Like many folks in Russia, Sholokhov had another “inclination” – to alcohol. He drank all his life and even Stalin tried to set him on the right path, but failed. 

He was a model family man, living all his life with his wife Maria. They had four children and, according to their memories, he was not strict at all.

Sholokhov went through the entire World War II as a war correspondent for the ‘Pravda’ and ‘Krasnaya Zvezda’ newspapers. 

He often found himself on the front line and once was seriously wounded in a hard landing of a fighter plane. The war ended and he was demobilized with the rank of colonel. 

Two of Sholokhov's military works of fiction have, meanwhile, become truly iconic. The novel 'They Fought for Their Country' and the short story 'Fate of a Man' were included in the school literature program. Director Sergei Bondarchuk turned both works into no less successful movies. Later, he would also begin a screen adaptation of 'And Quiet Flows the Don'.

With no exaggeration, Sholokhov became a national star. He was greeted everywhere with flowers by crowds of admirers. 

He received thousands of letters from all over the country. 

Guests constantly went to his house in the village of Vyoshenskaya.  

For example, English writer Charles Percy Snow tried on Cossack clothes and rode on horseback while visiting Sholokhov. 

The writer's house, more reminiscent of a villa on the Cote d'Azur than a Cossack hut, is now a museum. 

The 60th anniversary of the writer was celebrated with pomp  in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions in Moscow.

And, in 1965, Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the only Soviet writer who was not forced to give it up and who flew to Stockholm to receive the award with the consent of the authorities. 

The writer died of cancer in 1984 at the age of 78 and was buried near his home in his native land. This is one of the last photos of the writer.