Sholokhov and the Riddle of 'The Quiet Don'
From the time when it first began to appear in 1928 The Quiet Don has posed a whole series of riddles which have not been satisfactorily answered even today. The reading public found itself confronted with something unprecedented in the history of literature. A twenty-three-year-old beginner had created a work out of material which went far beyond his own experience of life and his level of education (four years at school)…. [The book] could have been written only by someone closely acquainted with many sections of pre-Revolutionary society in the Don region, [for it is] a book whose most impressive quality was its deep insight into the way of life and the psychology of the characters it portrayed.
Although in terms of his origins and his personal record he himself was an "outsider", a non-Cossack, the emotional force of the young author's novel was directed against the influence of "outsiders" and its destructive effect on the traditional culture of the Don—a message which he was never to repeat in later life or in any public statement, however, remaining faithful to this very day to the mentality of those who requisitioned produce from the peasantry by force and served in "special purpose" units. He described vividly and with apparent first-hand knowledge the World War, in which he had been far too young to take part (he was only ten or so at the time), and the Civil War, which was over by the time he was fifteen.
The critics commented at once that here was a novice who wrote as though he had a great deal of literary experience behind him…. The book revealed the kind of literary power which can normally be attained only after many attempts by a practised and gifted author—and yet the finest sections were those which came first. The first volume was begun in 1926 and delivered complete to the editors in 1927; the splendid second volume was finished only a year after that; the third volume was ready within even less than a year of the second, and it was only on account of the "proletarian" censorship that this astonishing output was held up. So what are we to conclude—that we are dealing with an incomparable genius? But neither the level of achievement nor the rate of production has been confirmed or repeated in the subsequent forty-five years of his career!
Too many miracles!—and even when the early volumes first appeared there were widespread rumours that the novel had not in fact been written by the author who had put his name to it, that Sholokhov had found a complete manuscript (or, according to other versions, a diary) belonging to a Cossack officer who had been killed, and had turned it to his own use….
The true story of this book was apparently known to, and understood by, the Don writer Alexander Serafimovich, who was by then well on in years. Because of his passionate enthusiasm for everything to do with the Don, however, he was primarily concerned to see that the way was open for a brilliant novel about the region: any revelations about its having been written by some "White Guard" officer could only have prevented it being printed. And, once he had overcome the opposition of the editors of the magazine Oktyabr, Serafimovich insisted that The Quiet Don should be published, clearing a path for it with a glowing review in Pravda (April 19, 1928)….
There are in fact people who were alive then and are still living now who are convinced that Sholokhov did not write this book. But, restrained by the general fear of a powerful man and of his capacity for taking revenge, they will never speak their minds….
Nothing was done to confirm Sholokhov's authorship or to explain either the speed or scale of his achievement…. And here is another point: no rough drafts or manuscripts of the novel are preserved in any archives, none has ever been produced or shown to anybody (apart from Anatoli Sofronov [Soviet writer and literary official; editor of the popular weekly Ogonyok], who is too biased a witness for his evidence to count)….
A careful examination of The Quiet Don itself reveals many odd features. Coming from a major literary artist, there are instances of inexplicable slovenliness and forgetfulness: some of the characters simply disappear (the author's favourite characters, too, the vehicles of his cherished ideas!). There are breaks in personal story-lines; insertions of substantial episodes which have no connexion whatever with the main narrative, and differ in quality; and finally, in a work which displays great literary sensibility, places where passages of the crudest propaganda have been inserted (literature had not yet become accustomed to this in the 1920s).
Even at a first reading, I think, one notices a kind of sudden break between the second and third volumes, as though the author were starting to write a different book…. [While] the last sections of The Quiet Don were still appearing Sholokhov also began to publish Virgin Soil Upturned, and anyone with an ordinary feeling for literature can see, without having to undertake any special research, that this is not the same thing, not on the same level, not the same canvas, not the same perception of the world. The contrived, coarse humour of Shukar alone is quite incompatible with the style of the author of The Quiet Don, and it grates on the ear at once….
What is also surprising is that over the years Sholokhov has given permission for numerous unprincipled corrections to The Quiet Don—political and factual, affecting both the plot and the style…. To wipe out all the bright colours and reduce it to a dull greyness—could any artist really do that to a work which he has created with so much effort?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "Sholokhov and the Riddle of 'The Quiet Don'," in The Times Literary Supplement (© Times Newspapers Ltd. (London) 1974; reproduced from The Times Literary Supplement by permission), No. 3787, October 4, 1974, p. 1056.
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