Belousov Maxim Gennadievich – Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities, Moscow International University
The article presents a comparative analysis of two minor characters in Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel And Quiet Flows the Don: Dmitry Korshunov and Mikhail Koshevoy. Belonging to two opposing camps of the Russian Civil War, far from any theoretical dogma, they act as the practical agents of its inhumane essence, embodying the ultimate cruelty of this fratricidal con-frontation. Writing under the conditions of an increasingly totalitarian state and strict censorship, the author demonstrated outstanding civic courage. He virtually equated the two characters – who, in accordance with the ideological canons of the time, should have been depicted as diametrically opposed – yet remained true to a high humanistic ideal, truthfully depicting the violent destruction of the traditional Cossack way of life.
Sholokhov M.A.; the novel And Quiet Flows the Don; Grigory Melekhov; Russian Civil War 1918–22; Don cossacks; Veshenskaya uprising of 1919