And Quiet flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov. I read this novel in the summer of 1990. 34 years later, I have watched a film based on this novel in 3 parts. The Russian title says Tikai Don, which means “The Quiet Don.” In the class of outstanding Russian novels like: War and Peace, Fathers and Sons, A Hero of our Times, or The Prisoner of the Caucasus, Quiet Flows the Don is a time-defying novel. It describes the ever-lasting scene, the unchanging landscape, the rhythms and beats of Nature, the life and struggle of a people, their aspirations and ideology, their sorrow and passion, their love and hate.
For a novelist the most difficult thing could be to bring life on to paper, to recreate the scene, the scent, the color, the ardor, the trees, the flowers, the rivers and the people just as they lived. Set against the back drop of the first world war, the Russian revolution and the Russian Civil war, this novel about the Cossacks takes the reader by storm. I read this novel of 2 volumes, probably 1600 pages in English translation in 4 days. I read and read it in a frenzy.
The Cossack village of Tatarsky and the family of Melekhovs is at the center of the narrative. The Cossacks are known for their bravery and horsemanship. Even the Melekhovs are soldiers. The tumultuous love between Grigory and Aksinya who is married to Stepan is the story around which the plot turns. Grigory’s wife Natalya who is a dutiful wife but cannot replace Aksinya in Grigory’ s heart completes the love triangle. The outcome of this love story, the death of Natalya when she tries to abort herself in frustration and desperation, the elopement of Grigory and Aksinya and Aksinya being shot dead by soldiers in their pursuit, the literal disarming and disowning of Grigory the soldier, as he makes peace with himself, putting an end to his participation in revolution, counter revolution, killing, murder and indifference is portrayed along with the war on various fronts. The affiliation of the Cossacks to their land, the resistance to the Red army, the eventual capitulation, the killing of brothers and kin unfold as the Don flows quietly through Spring, Autumn and Winter.
I have a deferential reverence for Russian novelists. They can wrench your heart and bring tears to your eyes, just like Charles Dickens. There is no happy ending to be celebrated but in the end you are enriched for having been through the narrative. Quiet flows the Don resonates with Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons in celebrating the supremacy of Nature. Sometimes I’m reminded of Shakespeare after reading such novels set on a grand scale.
“ All the World’s a stage
And all the Men and Women merely players”
One of my friends used to call it Soviet propaganda, but he erred in estimating the value of this literary masterpiece. In Sholokhov’s novel as the Cossacks plough on, quietly flows the Don. ( To be continued)