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Melikhov's life path. Stages of Gregory's life

Roman M.A. Sholokhov's "Quiet Don" is a novel about the Cossacks in the era of the Civil War. The protagonist of the work - Grigory Melekhov - continues the tradition of Russian classical literature, in which one of the main images is the hero-truth seeker (the works of Nekrasov, Leskov, Tolstoy, Gorky).
Grigory Melekhov also strives to find the meaning of life, to understand the whirlwind of historical events, to find happiness. This simple Cossack was born in a simple and friendly family, where centuries-old traditions are sacred - they work hard, have fun. The basis of the hero's character - love for work, for his native land, respect for the elders, justice, decency, kindness - is laid right here, in the family.
Handsome, hardworking, cheerful, Grigory immediately wins the hearts of those around him: he is not afraid of human rumors (almost openly loves the beautiful Aksinya, the wife of the Cossack Stepan), he does not consider it shameful to become a farm laborer in order to maintain relations with his beloved woman.
And at the same time, Gregory is a man who tends to hesitate. So, despite his great love for Aksinya, Grigory does not resist his parents, marries Natalya Korshunova at their will.
Without fully realizing it himself, Melekhov strives to exist "in truth." He is trying to understand, to answer for himself the question “how should one live?”. The search for a hero is complicated by the era in which he was born - the time of revolutions and wars.
Gregory will experience strong moral hesitation when he gets to the fronts of the First World War. The hero went to war, thinking that he knew which side the truth was on: you need to defend the fatherland and destroy the enemy. What could be easier? Melekhov does just that. He fights valiantly, he is brave and selfless, he does not shame the honor of the Cossacks. But gradually doubts come to the hero. He begins to see in opponents the same people with their hopes, weaknesses, fears, joys. What is all this slaughter for, what will it bring to people?
The hero begins to realize this especially clearly when fellow countryman Melekhov Chubaty kills a captive Austrian, still a very young boy. The prisoner tries to establish contact with the Russians, openly smiles at them, tries to please. The Cossacks were pleased with the decision to bring him to the headquarters for interrogation, but Chubaty kills the boy simply out of love for violence, out of hatred.
For Melekhov, this event becomes a real moral blow. And although he firmly protects the Cossack honor, deserves a reward, he understands that he was not created for war. He desperately wants to know the truth in order to find the meaning of his actions. Having fallen under the influence of the Bolshevik Garandzhi, the hero, like a sponge, absorbs new thoughts, new ideas. He starts fighting for the Reds. But the killing of unarmed prisoners by the Reds pushes him away from them too.
The childishly pure soul of Gregory alienates him from both the Reds and the Whites. Melekhov reveals the truth: the truth cannot be on either side. Reds and whites are politics, class struggle. And where there is a class struggle, blood is always shed, people die, children remain orphans. The truth is peaceful work in the native land, family, love.
Gregory is a wavering, doubting nature. This allows him to seek the truth, not to stop there, not to be limited by other people's explanations. Gregory's position in life is a position "between": between the traditions of the fathers and his own will, between two loving women - Aksinya and Natalya, between whites and reds. Finally, between the need to fight and the realization of the senselessness and uselessness of the massacre (“my hands need to plow, not fight”).
The author himself sympathizes with his hero. In the novel, Sholokhov objectively describes the events, talks about the "truth" of both the Whites and the Reds. But his sympathy, feelings are on the side of Melekhov. It fell to this man to live at a time when all moral guidelines were shifted. It was this, as well as the desire to search for the truth, that led the hero to such a tragic ending - the loss of everything that he loved: “Why did you, life, cripple me like that?”
The writer emphasizes that the civil war is a tragedy for the entire Russian people. There are no right or wrong in it, because people die, brother goes against brother, father against son.
Thus, Sholokhov in the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" made a man from the people and from the people as a truth seeker. The image of Grigory Melekhov becomes the concentration of the historical and ideological conflict of the work, an expression of the tragic searches of the entire Russian people.

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 the will of his father and leaves his native farm with Aksinya, not wanting to live a double life with his disliked wife Natalya, who then attempts suicide by cutting her neck with a scythe. Grigory and Aksinya become employees of the landowner Listnitsky.

In 1914 - the first battle of Gregory and the first man he killed. Gregory is having a hard time. In the 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 he had no greater disappointment in his life than the reality of the red camp, where violence, cruelty and lack of rights reign.

Grigory leaves the Red Army and becomes a member of 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 is again disappointed. In his wanderings 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 an outsider. Melekhov leaves the gang to pick up Aksinya and run away with her to the Kuban. But the death of Aksinya from a random bullet in the steppe deprives Grigory 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 - a symbol of life - in black, emphasizing the troubles of the world. Having nailed to the deserters, Melekhov lived with them for almost a year, but longing again drove him to his native home.

At the end of the novel, Natalya and her parents die, and Aksinya dies. Only a son and a younger sister, who married a red, remained. Gregory stands at the gate of his native house and holds his son in his arms. The finale is left open: will his simple dream ever come true to live as his ancestors lived: “to plow the land, to take care of it”?

female characters in the novel.

Women, in whose lives the war breaks in, takes away husbands, sons, destroys the house and hopes for personal happiness, take on their shoulders an unbearable burden of work in the field and at home, but do not bend, but courageously bear this burden. In the novel, two main types of Russian women are given: the mother, the keeper of the hearth (Ilyinichna and Natalya) and the beautiful sinner, frantically looking for 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 fury in love is emphasized by the description of her "shamelessly greedy, puffy lips" and "perverse eyes". The heroine's background is terrible: at the age of 16, she was raped by a drunken father and married to Stepan Astakhov, a neighbor of the Melekhovs. Aksinya endured the humiliation and beatings of her husband. She had no children, no relatives. It is understandable her desire "to love the bitter for the rest of her life", 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 cleaner. Separated from Grigory, she becomes attached to his son, and after the death of Ilyinichna, she takes care of all the children of Grigory as if they were her own. Her life was cut short by a random steppe bullet when she was happy. She died in the arms of Gregory.

Natalia is the embodiment of the idea of a home, family, the natural morality of a Russian woman. She is a selfless and affectionate mother, a pure, faithful and devoted woman. She takes a lot of suffering from her love for her husband. She does not want to put up with her husband's betrayal, does not want to be unloved - this makes her lay hands on herself. The hardest thing will be for Gregory to go through the fact 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, Grigory for the first time felt a stabbing pain in his heart and a ringing in his ears. He is tormented by remorse.

"Quiet Don" is a work that shows the life of the Don Cossacks in one of the most difficult historical periods in Russia. The realities of the first third of the twentieth century, which turned the whole habitual way of life upside down, like caterpillars drove through the fate of the common people. Through the life path of Grigory Melekhov in the novel “Quiet Flows the Don”, Sholokhov reveals the main idea of the work, which is to depict the clash of the individual and historical events beyond his control, his wounded fate.

The struggle between duty and feelings

At the beginning of the work, the protagonist is shown as a hardworking guy with a hot temper, which he inherited from his ancestors. Cossack and even Turkish blood flowed in him. Oriental roots endowed Grishka with a bright appearance that could turn the head of more than one Don beauty, and the Cossack stubbornness, in places bordering on stubbornness, ensured the stamina and steadfastness of his character.

On the one hand, he shows respect and love for his parents, on the other hand, he does not listen to their opinion. The first conflict between Gregory and his parents happens because of his love affair with a married neighbor Aksinya. To end the sinful connection between Aksinya and Grigory, his parents decide to marry him. But their choice in the role of the sweet and meek Natalya Korshunova did not solve the problem, but only exacerbated it. Despite the official marriage, love for his wife did not appear, and for Aksinya, who, tormented by jealousy, was increasingly looking for a meeting with him, only flared up.

The blackmail of his father with his house and property forced the hot and impulsive Gregory to leave the farm, his wife, relatives in his hearts and leave with Aksinya. Because of his act, the proud and adamant Cossack, whose family from time immemorial cultivated their own land and grew their own bread, had to become a mercenary, which made Grigory ashamed and disgusted. But he now had to answer both for Aksinya, who had left her husband because of him, and for the child she was carrying.

War and betrayal of Aksinya

A new misfortune was not long in coming: the war began, and Gregory, who swore allegiance to the sovereign, was forced to leave both the old and the new family and recover at the front. In his absence, Aksinya remained in the master's house. The death of her daughter and news from the front about the death of Grigory crippled the woman's strength, and she was forced to succumb to the onslaught of the centurion Listnitsky.

Coming from the front and learning about Aksinya's betrayal, Grigory returns to his family again. For some period, his wife, relatives and soon appeared twins delight him. But the troubled time on the Don, associated with the Revolution, did not allow them to enjoy family happiness.

Ideological and personal doubts

In the novel "Quiet Flows the Don" Grigory Melekhov's path is full of quests, doubts and contradictions both politically and in love. He constantly rushed about, not knowing where the truth was: “Everyone has his own truth, his own furrow. People have always fought for a piece of bread, for a plot of land, for the right to life. We must fight those who want to take life, the right to it ... ". He decided to lead the Cossack division and repair the pillars of the advancing Reds. However, the longer the Civil War continued, the more Gregory doubted the correctness of his choice, the more clearly he understood that the Cossacks were waging war with windmills. Nobody was interested in the interests of the Cossacks and their native land.

The same model of behavior is typical in the personal life of the protagonist of the work. Over time, he forgives Aksinya, realizing that he cannot live without her love and takes him to the front. After he sends her home, where she is forced to once again return to her husband. Arriving on a visit, he looks at Natalya with different eyes, appreciating her devotion and loyalty. He was drawn to his wife, and this intimacy culminated in the conception of a third child.

But again the passion for Aksinya took over him. His last betrayal led to the death of his wife. Grigory drowns his remorse and the impossibility of resisting feelings in the war, becoming cruel and merciless: “I got so smeared on someone else's blood that I didn’t have any stings left for anyone. Childhood - and I almost do not regret this one, but I don’t even think about myself. The war took everything out of me. I became terrible myself. Look into my soul, and there is blackness, as in an empty well ... ".

Alien among their own

The loss of loved ones and the retreat sobered Gregory, he understands: you need to be able to save what he has left. He takes Aksinya with him on his retreat, but due to typhus, he is forced to leave her.

He again begins to search for the truth and finds himself in the Red Army, taking command of a cavalry squadron. However, even participation in hostilities on the side of the Soviets will not wash away Grigory's past, stained by the white movement. He is threatened with execution, about which his sister Dunya warned him. Taking Aksinya, he makes an attempt to escape, during which the woman he loves is killed. Having fought for his land and on the side of the Cossacks and the Reds, he remained a stranger among his own.

The path of Grigory Melekhov's search in the novel is the fate of a simple man who loved his land, but lost everything that he had and appreciated, protecting it for the life of the next generation, which in the final personifies his son Mishatka.

Artwork test

Grigory leaves the Red Army and becomes a member of the Cossack rebellion as a Cossack officer. But here, too, there is cruelty and injustice.

female characters in the novel.

M.A. Bulgakov. "Master and Margarita".

M. Bulgakov's novel is multidimensional. This multidimensionality affects:

1. in the composition - the interweaving of various plot layers of the narrative: the fate of the master and the story of his novel, the story of the love of the master and Margarita, the fate of Ivan Bezdomny, the actions of Woland and his team in Moscow, the biblical story, satirical sketches of Moscow in the 20s - 30s years;

2. in a multi-theme - the interweaving of the themes of the creator and power, love and fidelity, powerlessness of cruelty and the power of forgiveness, conscience and duty, light and peace, struggle and humility, true and false, crime and punishment, good and evil, etc .;

The heroes of M. Bulgakov are paradoxical: they are rebels seeking to find peace. Yeshua is obsessed with the idea of moral salvation, the triumph of truth and goodness, the happiness of people, and rebels against unfreedom and brute power; Woland, who is obliged to do evil as Satan, consistently does justice, mixing the concepts of good and evil, light and darkness, which emphasizes the depravity of society and people's earthly life; Margarita rebels against everyday reality, destroying and overcoming shame, conventions, prejudices, fear, distances and times with her loyalty and love.

It seems that the master is the furthest from rebellion, because he humbles himself and does not fight either for the novel or for Margarita. But precisely because he does not fight, he is a master; his job is to create, and he created his honest novel beyond any self-interest, career gain and common sense. His novel is his rebellion against the "sound" idea of the creator. The master creates for centuries, eternity, “accepts praise and slander with indifference”, exactly according to A.S. Pushkin; the very fact of creativity is important to him, and not someone's reaction to the novel. And yet the master deserved peace, but not light. Why? Probably not for the fact that he refused to fight for the novel. Perhaps because he refused to fight for love (?). Parallel to him, the hero of the Yershalaim chapters, Yeshua, fought for love for people to the end, to death. The Master is not God, but only a man, and like any man, he is weak in some way, sinful... Only God is worthy of light. Or maybe peace is exactly what the creator needs most of all?..

Another novel by M. Bulgakov is about escaping from everyday reality or about overcoming it. Everyday reality is also the regime of Caesar, cruel in its unrighteousness, trampling on the conscience of Pilate, reproducing scammers and executioners; this is also the false world of the Berliozes and the near-literary circles in Moscow in the 1930s; this is also the vulgar world of Moscow inhabitants, living on profit, self-interest and sensations.

The flight of Yeshua is an appeal to the souls of people. The master is looking for answers to everyday questions in the distant past, which, as it turned out, is closely connected with the present. Margarita rises above everyday life and conventions with the help of Woland's love and miracles. Woland deals with reality with the help of his diabolical power. And Natasha does not want to return to reality from the other world at all.

This novel is also about freedom. It is no coincidence that the heroes, freed from all sorts of conventions and dependencies, receive peace, and Pilate, not free in his actions, endures constant torture with anxiety and insomnia.

The novel is based on the idea of M. Bulgakov that the world in all its versatility is one, integral and eternal, and the private fate of any person of any time is inseparable from the fate of eternity and humanity. This explains the multidimensionality of the artistic fabric of the novel, which united all the layers of the narrative with one idea into a monolithic whole work.

At the end of the novel, all the characters and themes converge on the lunar road leading to eternal light, and the debate about life, continuing, turns into infinity.

Analysis of the episode of the interrogation of Yeshua by Pontius Pilate in the novel "The Master and Margarita" (Chapter 2).

There is practically no exposition or preface in chapter 1 of the novel. From the very beginning Woland argues with Berlioz and Ivan Bezdomny about the existence of Jesus. As proof of Woland's rightness, the 2nd chapter of "Pontius Pilate" is immediately placed, which tells about the interrogation of Yeshua by the procurator of Judea. As the reader will later understand, this is one of the fragments of the master's book, which Massolit curses, but Woland knows well, who retold this episode. Berlioz will later say that this story "does not coincide with the gospel stories", and he will be right. In the Gospels there is only a slight hint of Pilate’s torment and hesitation when approving the death sentence for Jesus, and in the master’s book, the interrogation of Yeshua is a complex psychological duel not only of moral goodness and power, but also of two people, two individuals.

Several details-leitmotifs skillfully used by the author in the episode help to reveal the meaning of the duel. At the very beginning, Pilate has a premonition of a bad day because of the smell of rose oil, which he hated. Hence the headache that torments the procurator, because of which he does not move his head and looks like a stone. Then - the news that it is he who must approve the death sentence for the person under investigation. This is another torment for Pilate.

And yet, at the beginning of the episode, Pilate is calm, I’m sure he speaks quietly, although the author calls his voice “dull, sick.”

The next leitmotif is the secretary fixing the interrogation. Pilate is burned by the words of Yeshua that the writing of words distorts their meaning. Later, when Yeshua relieves Pilate of a headache and he feels a disposition towards the reliever of pain against his will, the procurator will either speak in a language unknown to the secretary, or even kick out the secretary and the escort to stay with Yeshua one on one, without witnesses.

Another image-symbol is the sun, which was obscured by its rough and gloomy figure of the Ratslayer. The sun is an irritating symbol of heat and light, and the tormented Pilate is constantly trying to hide from this heat and light.

Pilate's eyes are cloudy at first, but after Yeshua's revelations, they shine more and more with the same sparks. At some point, it begins to seem that, on the contrary, Yeshua is judging Pilate. He saves the procurator from a headache, advises him to take a break from business and take a walk (like a doctor), scolds for the loss of faith in people and the scarcity of his life, then claims that only God gives and takes away life, and not the rulers, convinces Pilate that " There are no bad people in the world."

The role of a swallow flying into the colonnade and flying out of it is interesting. The swallow is a symbol of life, not dependent on the power of Caesar, not asking the procurator where to nest and where not to nest. The swallow, like the sun, is Yeshua's ally. It has a softening effect on Pilate. From that moment on, Yeshua is calm and confident, while Pilate is anxious, irritated by the painful split. He is constantly looking for a reason to leave Yeshua, who he likes, alive: either he thinks of imprisoning him in a fortress, then placing him in a lunatic asylum, although he himself says that he is not crazy, then with glances, gestures, hints, and reticence he tells the prisoner the words necessary for salvation; For some reason, he looked with hatred at the secretary and the convoy. Finally, after a fit of rage, when Pilate realized that Yeshua was absolutely uncompromising, he powerlessly asks the prisoner: “Do you have a wife?” - as if hoping that she could help straighten the brains of this naive and pure person.

Retelling plan

1. The history of the Melekhov family.
2. Meeting of Grigory Melekhov and Aksinya Astakhova, Stepan's wife.
3. The story about Aksinya.
4. The first meeting of Gregory and Aksinya.
5. Husband Stepan finds out about his wife's infidelity. Gregory's father wants to marry his son to Natalia.
6. Grigory marries Natalya Korshunova.
7. Pedigree of the merchant Mokhov.
8. Gathering of the Cossacks.
9. Aksinya and Grigory renew their relationship and leave the farm.
10. Natalia lives with her parents. Wants to commit suicide.
11. Aksinya gives birth to a girl from Gregory.
12. Grigory was enrolled in the army 12th Cossack regiment.

13. Natalia survived. Hoping for the return of her husband, she lives in his family.
14. Gregory's service in the army. His wound.
15. The daughter of Gregory and Aksinya dies. Aksinya meets Listnitsky.
16. Gregory finds out about this and returns to his wife.
17. The attitude of the Cossacks to the February Revolution. Events at the front.
18. Bolshevik coup in Petrograd.
19. Gregory goes over to the side of the Bolsheviks.
20. The wounded Gregory was brought home.
21. The situation at the front.
22. Cossack assembly. The Cossacks are enlisted in the regiment to fight the Reds. Commander - Pyotr Melekhov, Grigory's brother.
23. Civil war on the Don.
24. Grigory fights with the Red Guards. He returns home on his own. Pyotr Melekhov also runs away from the regiment.
25. Red troops in the farm.
26. Soviet power on the Don.
27. Development of events at the front.
28. Gregory returns home and quarrels with Natalya. The connection between Grigory and Aksinya is resumed.
29. Gregory agrees to lead the breakthrough to the Don.
30. Upper Don uprising. Battle of the Cossack troops with the Red Guards.
31. Battle at Ust-Medveditskaya.
32. Gregory arrives home three days after his wife's death. He's leaving for the front in two weeks.
33. The offensive of the Reds.
34. Sick of typhus, Gregory gets home. He calls Aksinya to retreat with him, but she falls ill with typhus and stays.
35. Gregory returns home. Soviet power is on the farm.
36. Grigory gets into Fomin's gang.
37. Grigory, having arrived at the farm, invites Aksinya to run away. She is dying.
38. Return home.

retelling

Book I. Part I

Chapter 1
Pedigree of the Melekhov family: after the end of the penultimate Turkish campaign, the Cossack Prokofy Melekhov brought home, to the village of Veshenskaya, a captive Turkish woman. They had a son, named Panteley, as swarthy and black-eyed as his mother. He married a Cossack woman named Vasilisa Ilyinichna. The eldest son of Panteley Prokofievich, Petro, went to his mother: he was short, snub-nosed and fair-haired; and the youngest, Grigory, was more reminiscent of his father: the same swarthy, hook-nosed, wildly handsome, of the same frenzied disposition. In addition to them, the Melekhov family consisted of their father's favorite Dunyasha and Peter's wife Daria.

Chapter 2
Early in the morning, Pantelei Prokofievich and Grigory go fishing. The father demands that Grigory leave alone Aksinya Astakhova, the wife of Stepan's neighbor Melekhov. Later, Grigory and his friend Mitka Korshunov go to sell the caught carp to the rich merchant Mokhov and meet his daughter Elizabeth. Mitka and Lisa agree on fishing.

Chapters 3, 4
Morning after the games in the Melekhovs' house. Petro and Stepan leave for camps for military training. Grigory and Aksinya meet on the Don. The beginning of a thunderstorm. Grigory and Aksinya are fishing, the first steps towards their rapprochement.

Chapters 5 and 6
Stepan Astakhov, Petro Melekhov, Fedot Bodovskov, Khristonya, Tomilin go to the places of camp gathering and sing a song. Overnight in the steppe. Christoni's story about the excavation of the treasure.

Chapter 7
The fate of Aksinya. When she was sixteen years old, she was raped by her father, who was then killed by her mother and the girl's brother. A year later, at the age of seventeen, she was given in marriage to Stepan Astakhov, who, not forgiving the “insult”, began to beat Aksinya and walk around the zhalmerki. Aksinya, who did not know love, had a reciprocal feeling (although she did not want it) when Grishka Melekhov began to show interest in her.

Chapters 8-10
The division of the meadow by the farmers. Races are held between Mitka Korshunov and the centurion Listnitsky. Grigory and Aksinya meet on the road. The meadow mowing begins. The first meeting of Grigory and Aksinya. Soon Aksinya converges with Grigory. They do not hide their connection, and rumors about them creep around the farm. “If Gregory went to the zhalmerka Aksinya, pretending to be hiding from people, if the zhalmerka Aksinya lived with Gregory, observing this in relative secrecy, and at the same time would not refuse others, then this would not be unusual, whipping in the eyes. The farmer would have talked and stopped. But they lived almost without hiding, they were knitted by something more, unlike a short tie, and therefore they decided in the farm that it was criminal, immoral, and the farm suffocated in a filthy waiting: Stepan would come and untie the knot "Pantelei Prokofievich talks about With Aksinya, he decides to quickly marry Grigory to Natalia, Mitka Korshunov's sister.

Chapter 11
Military camp life. Stepan is told about Aksinya's relationship with Grigory.

Chapter 12
Aksinya, not hiding, meets with Grigory. Farmers condemn them. She invites Grigory to run away from the farm, but he refuses.

Chapter 13
Stepan has a quarrel with Peter Melekhov. They return home from military training and on the way there is another quarrel.

Chapter 14
Aksinya goes to grandmother Drozdikha to bewitch Gregory. Stepan, returning, begins to brutally beat Aksinya, and, having a fight with the Melekhov brothers, becomes their sworn enemy.

Chapter 15
Pantelei Prokofievich is wooing Natalya, but the final decision has not yet been made.

Chapter 16
Stepan is tormented by Aksinya's betrayal and beats her. Aksinya and Grigory meet in sunflowers, and he invites her to end their relationship.

Chapters 17-19
Wheat mowing begins. Matchmaking gives positive results - Natalya Korshunova falls in love with Grigory. Pre-wedding preparations in the Korshunovs' house. Meetings of Gregory with Natalia.

Chapters 20-23
The suffering of Aksinya and Gregory. The wedding of Grigory and Natalya, first in the house of the Korshunovs, then at the Melekhovs.

Part II

Chapters 1, 2
Pedigree of the merchant Mokhov, his family. In August, Mitka Korshunov meets Elizaveta Mokhova, they agree on fishing. And there Mitka rapes her. Rumors begin to spread around the farm, and Mitka goes to woo Elizabeth. But the girl refuses him, and Sergei Platonovich Mokhov unleashes the dogs on Korshunov.

Chapter 3
Natalia's life in the Melekhovs' house. Grigory remembers Aksinya. Stepan broke off all relations with his neighbors.

Chapter 4
Shtokman comes to the farm, Fedot Bodovskov meets him.

Chapter 5
Grigory and his wife are going to the mowing. A fight takes place at the mill (Mitka Korshunov beats the merchant Molokhov), which is stopped by Shtokman. Grigory confesses to Natalya that he does not love her.

Chapter 6
During interrogation by the investigator, Shtokman says that in 1907 he was in a "prison for riots" and served a link.

Chapter 7
The onset of winter. Gathering of the Cossacks, where Avdeich tells how he caught the robber.

Chapter 8
Life in the Melekhovs' house after the meeting. During a trip for brushwood, the Melekhov brothers meet Aksinya. Aksinya's connection with Grigory is renewed.

Chapter 9
Readings on the history of the Don Cossacks take place in Shtokman's house. Knave, Christonya, Ivan Alekseevich Kotlyarov and Mishka Koshevoy arrive.

Chapter 10
Grigory and Mitka Korshunov take the oath. Natalia wants to return to live with her parents. There is a quarrel between Grigory and Panteley Prokofievich, after which Grigory leaves the house to the Koshevs. Grigory and Aksinya meet and decide to leave the farm.

Chapters 11-13
At the merchant Mokhov, Grigory meets the centurion Listnitsky and accepts an offer to work as a coachman on his estate Yagodnoye. Aksinya is hired as a cook for yard and seasonal workers. Aksinya and Grigory leave the farm. Natalia returns to live with her parents.

Chapter 14
Life story of Listnitsky. The life of Grigory and Aksinya in a new place. From the very first days, Listnitsky begins to show interest in Aksinya.

Chapter 15
Natalia's life in her parents' house, Mitka's bullying. Natalia's conversation with Panteley Prokofievich.

Chapter 16
Valet and Ivan Alekseevich continue to visit Shtokman, who tells them about the struggle of the capitalist states for markets and colonies as the main reason for the impending world war. The course of ice along the Don.

Chapter 17
Returning from Millerovo, Grigory hunts a wolf, and then meets Stepan.

Chapter 18
Gatherings at the Korshunovs' neighbor Pelageya. Natalia writes a letter trying to get Gregory back. After receiving the answer, she suffers even more and tries to commit suicide.

Chapters 19-20
Conversation between Stepan and Gregory. Aksinya tells Grigory that she is expecting a child from him. Petro comes to visit his brother. Aksinya begs Grigory to take her with him to the mowing and gives birth to a girl on the way home.

Chapter 21
Morning in Listnitsky's house. In December, Gregory is called to military training; Pantelei Prokofievich unexpectedly visits him. Gregory leaves for the service; on the way, his father informs him that Natalya survived. At the review, they want to enlist Gregory in the guards, but due to non-standard external data (“Gangster mug ... Very wild”), they are enrolled in the army's Twelfth Cossack Regiment. On the very first day, Grigory begins friction with his superiors.

Part III

Chapter 1
Natalia returns to live with the Melekhovs. She still hopes for the return of Gregory to the family. Dunyashka begins to go to games and tells Natalya about her relationship with Mishka Koshev. An investigator arrives at the village and arrests Shtokman; during a search, illegal literature is found on him. During interrogation, it turns out that Shtokman is a member of the RSDLP. He is taken away from Veshenskaya.

Chapter 2
Gregory's life in the army. Watching the officers, he feels an invisible wall between himself and them; this feeling is intensified by the incident with Prokhor Zykov, who was beaten during the exercises by the sergeant-major. Before the beginning of spring, the Cossacks, brutalized with boredom, rape Franya, the young maid of the manager, with the whole platoon; Gregory, who tried to help her, is tied up and thrown into the stable, promising to kill if he let it slip.

Chapter 3-5
Melekhovs and Natalia at the mowing. The war begins, the Cossacks are taken to the Russian-Austrian border. The remark of the old railwayman in relation to the recruits is expressive: “You are my dear ... beef!” In his first fight, Gregory kills a man, and his image disturbs Gregory.

Chapters 6-8
Petro Melekhov, Anikushka, Khristonya, Stepan Astakhov and Tomilin Ivan go to war. Battles with the Germans.

Chapters 9, 10
For the feat, Kryuchkov is awarded Georgy. The regiment of Gregory, withdrawn from the fighting, receives reinforcements from the Don. Grigory meets his brother, Mishka Koshevoy, Anikushka and Stepan Astakhov. In a conversation with Petro, he admits that he is homesick. Petro advises to beware of Stepan, who promised to kill Gregory in the first battle.

Chapter 11
Near the murdered Cossack, Grigory finds a diary, which describes the latter's affair with the fallen Elizaveta Mokhova.

Chapters 12, 13
A Cossack nicknamed Chubaty gets into Grigory's platoon; mocking Gregory's feelings, he says that it is a sacred thing to kill an enemy in battle. War with Hungary. Gregory is seriously wounded in the head.

Chapters 14, 15
Yevgeny Listnitsky decides to transfer to the active army. He writes to his father: “I want a living thing and ... if you want, a feat.” Meeting of Listnitsky and the commander of the regiment. Podsaul Kalmykov advises him to meet the volunteer Ilya Bunchuk. Meeting of Listnitsky and Bunchuk.

Chapters 16, 17
The Melekhovs receive news of Grigory's death, and twelve days later, from Peter's letter, it turns out that Grigory is alive, moreover, he was awarded the St. George Cross for saving a wounded officer and promoted to junior officer.

Chapters 18, 19
Natalya decides to go to Yagodnoye and begs Aksinya to return her husband. Life of Aksinya. Natalya comes to her, but she drives her away, saying that she will not give Grishka back. “At least you have children, but I have him,” Aksinya’s voice trembled and became muffled and lower, “one in the whole wide world! First and last..."

Chapter 20, 21
On the eve of the next offensive, a shell hits the house where Prokhor Zykov, Chubaty and Grigory are staying. Grigory, wounded in the eye, is sent to a hospital in Moscow.

Chapter 22
On the Southwestern Front, during an attack near Listnitsky, a horse was killed, he himself received two wounds. Tanya, daughter of Grigory and Aksinya, falls ill with scarlet fever and dies. Soon Listnitsky arrives on vacation, and Aksinya meets him.

Chapter 23
Grigory in the hospital meets another wounded named Garanzha. In conversations with the Cossack, he disparagingly speaks of the autocratic system and reveals the true causes of the war. Gregory in his heart agrees with him.

Chapter 24
Gregory is sent home. He learns about Aksinya's betrayal with Listnitsky. The next morning, Grigory beats the centurion with a whip and, leaving Aksinya, returns to his family, to Natalya.

Book II. Part IV

Chapters 1, 2
Dispute between Bunchuk and Listnitsky. Listnitsky reports that he is conducting Bolshevik propaganda. Bunchuk deserts. Propaganda leaflets appear. Conduct a search of the Cossacks. In the evening the Cossacks sing a song. Bunchuk makes new documents.

Chapter 3
Hostilities. Meeting Ivan Alekseevich and Jack; it turns out that Shtokman is in Siberia.

Chapter 4
Grigory remembers Aksinya. In one of the battles, he saves the life of Stepan Astakhov, which, however, did not reconcile them. Gradually, Grigory begins to develop friendly relations with Chubaty, who tends to deny the war. Together with him and Mishka Koshev, Grigory participates in the "arrest" of wormy cabbage soup and takes them to his hundredth commander. During the next offensive, Grigory is wounded in the arm. “Just as the salt marsh does not absorb water, so Gregory’s heart did not absorb pity. With cold contempt, he played with someone else's life and with his own, that's why he was known as brave - he served four St. George's crosses and four medals.

Chapter 5
Life in the Melekhovs' house. In autumn, Natalia gives birth to twins. Rumors reach Peter about the infidelity of Daria, who cohabited with Stepan Astakhov. One day Stepan goes missing. Pantelei Prokofievich tries to rein in his daughter-in-law, but this does not lead to anything good.

Chapter 6
The February Revolution arouses restrained anxiety among the Cossacks. Mokhov demands an old debt from Pantelei Prokofievich. Mitka returns.

Chapter 7
The life of Sergei Platonovich Mokhov. Listnitsky returns from the front. He tells the merchant Mokhov that, as a result of Bolshevik propaganda, the soldiers turned into gangs of criminals, unbridled and wild, and the Bolsheviks themselves are "worse than cholera bacilli."

Chapters 8-10
The situation at the front. The commander of the brigade, where Petro Melekhov serves, calls on the Cossacks to stay away from the unrest that has begun. Daria comes to Peter. Listnitsky is assigned to the pro-monarchist 14th Regiment. Soon, in connection with the July events, he was sent to Petrograd.

Chapters 11-14
General Kornilov is appointed supreme commander in chief. Listnitsky's conversation with officers. Cossack Ivan Lagutin. Meeting of Listnitsky and Kalmykov. The situation at the front. Kornilov arrives in Moscow.

Chapters 15-17
Ivan Alekseevich makes a coup in his regiment and is appointed centurion; he refuses to go to Petrograd. The situation at headquarters after the failure of the armed coup. Bunchuk comes to the front to agitate for the Bolsheviks and runs into Kalmykov. The deserter arrests Kalmykov to be shot later.

Chapters 18-21
Army of General Krymov. His suicide. In Petrograd, Listnitsky witnesses the Bolshevik coup. Liberation of generals in Bykhov. Retreat of the 12th regiment. Having received the news of the change of power, the Cossacks return home.

Part V

Chapter 1
Ivan Alekseevich, Mitka Korshunov, Prokhor Zykov are returning from the front, followed by Petro Melekhov.

Chapter 2
The fate of Gregory A change in his outlook. It becomes known that he went over to the side of the Bolsheviks, already in the rank of platoon officer. After the coup, he receives an appointment as commander of a hundred. Grigory falls under the influence of his colleague Efim Izvarin, who advocates the complete autonomy of the Don Cossack Region. In November 17, Grigory met Podtelkov.

Chapters 3-7
Events in Novocherkassk. Bunchuk leaves for Rostov, where he meets Anna Pogudko. Attack on Rostov. Fighting in the city.

Chapter 8
Life in Tatar. Ivan Alekseevich and Khristonya go to the congress of veterans and meet Grigory there.

Chapters 9, 10
Transfer of power to the VRC. Representatives of the Military Revolutionary Committee are coming to Novocherkassk. Delegates' speeches. Podtelkov is elected chairman, and Krivoshlykov is elected secretary of the Cossack Military Revolutionary Committee, which has declared itself the government on the Don.

Chapters 11, 12
Chernetsov's detachment breaks the forces of the Red Guards. Escape of the captain Izvarin from the regiment. Gregory, at the head of two hundred, goes into battle and is wounded in the leg. Chernetsov, along with four dozen young officers, was captured. All were brutally killed on the orders of Podtelkov, despite the opposition of Grigory and Golubov.

Chapters 13 and 14
Pantelei Prokofievich brings the wounded Grigory home. His father and brother are disapproving of his Bolshevik views; Gregory himself, after the massacre of Chernetsov, is experiencing a mental crisis.

Chapter 15
Declaration of the Don Revolutionary Committee. News arrives of Kaledin's suicide.

Chapters 16 and 17
Bunchuk is ill with typhus. Anna takes care of him. After his recovery, they travel together first to Voronezh, and then to Millerovo. From there, Anna leaves for Lugansk.

Chapters 18-20
The situation at the front. The arrival of General Popov, a meeting of the generals. Golubov's detachment captures Novocherkassk. Go-lubov and Bunchuk arrest the leaders of the Military Circle. Bunchuk meets Anna. The work of Bunchuk in the Revolutionary Tribunal at the Don Revolutionary Committee. In a few months he will refuse to work there.

Chapters 21, 22
The performance of the Cossacks from neighboring farms, the defeat of the detachment. The overthrow of the Soviets. Life in Tatar. Jack calls on the Cossacks to go to the rescue of the Red Guard units, but he persuades only Koshevoy; Grigory, Khristonya and Ivan Alekseevich refuse.

Chapter 23
A Cossack meeting is held on the Maidan. A visiting centurion agitates the Cossacks to assemble a detachment to fight the Reds and protect Veshki. Miron Grigoryevich Korshunov, father of Natalya and Mitka, is elected ataman. Peter Melekhov is appointed to the post of commander. Prokhor Zykov, Mitka, Khristonya and other Cossacks join the regiment, but they are convinced that there will be no war.

Chapters 24, 25
The Cossacks return to Tatarsky, but soon the order comes again. Anna is mortally wounded in battle and dies in Bunchuk's arms.

Chapters 26, 27
The situation at the front. Expedition Podtelkov. On the way, Podtelkov hears rumors about him in Ukrainian settlements.

Chapters 28, 29
Podtelkov's detachment is taken prisoner. Podtelkov negotiates the terms of surrender, to which Bunchuk objects. The prisoners are sentenced to death, Podtelkov and Krivoshlykov to hanging. Moods on the night before the execution.

Chapters 30, 31
A detachment under the command of Peter Melekhov arrives at the farm. Mitka, who volunteered for the firing squad, kills Bunchuk. Before the execution, Podtelkov accuses Gregory of betrayal, in response, Gregory recalls the massacre of Chernetsov's detachment: “Do you remember under the Deep Battle? Do you remember how they shot officers... They shot at your order! Now you win back! You are not the only one to tan other people's skins! The bear of Koshevoy and Jack is being caught by the Cossacks; Knave is killed, and Mishka, in the hope of correction, is sentenced to lashing.

Book III. Part VI

Chapter 1
April 1918 A civil war is going on on the Don. Pantelei Prokofievich and Miron Korshunov are elected delegates to the military circle; General Krasnov becomes the ataman of the army.

Chapters 2, 3
The situation on the Don. Petro Melekhov leads the Tatar Cossacks against the Reds. In a conversation with Grigory, he tries to find out the mood of his brother, to find out if he is going to return to the Reds. Koshevoy's mother begs that instead of being sent to the front, Mishka will be appointed as a farm worker. Mishka Koshevoy is haunted by conflicting thoughts, a conversation takes place with Soldatov.

Chapter 4
Krasnov arrives in the village of Manychskaya, where a meeting of the Don government is taking place.

Chapter 5
Listnitsky's shattered arm is amputated. Soon he marries the widow of a deceased friend and returns to Yagodnoye. Aksinya tries to please the new mistress, but Listnitsky asks her to leave the farm.

Chapters 6 and 7
Stepan Astakhov comes from German captivity, meeting Koshevoy in the steppe. He goes to Aksinya and persuades her to return home.

Chapters 8, 9
Fights hundreds of Gregory with the Red Guards. For a humane attitude towards the prisoners, Gregory is removed from the command of a hundred, he again accepts a platoon. Panteley Prokofievich comes to Grigory in the regiment and is engaged in looting there.

Chapters 10-12
Hostilities. During the retreat, Grigory arbitrarily leaves the front and returns home. A military mission arrives in Novocherkassk. Cossacks and officers are separated by an invisible wall of hostility. Petro Melekhov flees from the regiment.

Chapters 13-15
The Melekhovs decide to wait out the Red offensive without leaving the farm. The whole village is waiting for the arrival of the Reds. Their relative Makar Nogaitsev comes to the Melekhovs.

Chapters 16 and 17
Red troops enter the farm. Several Red Army soldiers are staying at the Melekhovs, one of whom begins to look for a quarrel with Grigory. Panteley Prokofievich cripples the horses of Peter and Grigory so that they would not be taken away. Life in the back.

Chapters 18, 19
A meeting gathers on the farm, and Avdeich is elected as chieftain. The Cossacks hand over their weapons. Rumors are spreading around the Don about the emergency and tribunals, which are administering a quick and unjust trial of the Cossacks who served with the Whites, and Petro seeks intercession from Yakov Fomin, head of the district revolutionary committee.

Chapters 20, 21
Ivan Alekseevich quarrels with Grigory, who does not want to recognize the merits of Soviet power; Koshevoy offers to arrest Grigory, but he manages to leave for another village.

Chapters 22, 23
According to the list compiled by Koshev, Miron Korshunov, Avdeich Brekh and several other old men are arrested. Shtokman is announced in Veshenskaya. The news comes about the execution of the Cossacks. Yielding to Lukinichna's persuasion, Petro digs out of the common grave at night and brings the corpse of Miron Grigorievich to the Korshunovs.

Chapter 24
In Tatarsky there is a collection. Shtokman comes and announces that the executed were enemies of the Soviet regime. The execution list also includes Pantelei and Grigory Melekhov and Fedot Bodovskov.

Chapters 25, 26
Ivan Alekseevich and Koshevoy, having learned about the return of Grigory, discuss his future fate; Grigory, meanwhile, runs away again and hides with relatives. Panteley Prokofyevich, who survived typhus, cannot avoid arrest.

Chapters 27-29
Riots begin in Kazanskaya. Antip Sinilin, son of Avdeich Brekh, takes part in the beating of Koshevoy; he, having rested up with Stepan Astakhov, is hiding from the farm. Having learned about the beginning of the uprising, Gregory returns home. Koshevoy gets to the Ust-Khoperskaya village.

Chapters 30, 31
In Tatarsky, two hundred Cossacks are formed, and one of them, led by Grigory, captures Likhachev, who is brutally killed.

Chapters 32-34
The battle of the Cossacks with the Reds near Elantsy. Defeated by the Reds, Petro, Fedot Bodovskov and other Cossacks, deceived by the promise to save their lives, surrender, and Koshevoy, with the silent support of Ivan Alekseevich, kills Petro; Of all the Cossacks who were with him, only Stepan Astakhov and Antip Brekhovich managed to escape. Carts with dead Cossacks arrive in Tatarsky. Daria's grief and funeral.

Chapters 35-37
Gregory is appointed commander of the Veshensky regiment, and after that - the commander of one of the rebel divisions. Avenging for the death of his brother, he stops taking prisoners. In the battles near Sviridov and for Karginskaya, his Cossacks smashed squadrons of the red cavalry. In an effort to get rid of black thoughts, Grigory begins to drink and walk around the zhalmerki.

Chapters 38-40
The situation at the front. Conversation between Grigory and Kudinov. The situation in Ust-Khoperskaya. Shtokman's conversations with the Red Guards.

Chapters 41, 42
Stanitsa Karginskaya. Gregory's plan to defeat the Reds. Drunk Gregory. Revolution talk. Memoirs of Gregory about Aksinya.

Chapters 43, 44
Cossack life. In the battle near Klimovka, Grigory cuts down three Red Guards, after which he experiences a severe nervous attack.

Chapter 45, 46
The next day, Grigory goes to Veshenskaya, on the way he releases from prison the relatives of the Cossacks who have left with the Reds, arrested by Kudinov. Life in Tatar. Gregory returns home. Natalya learns about her husband's numerous infidelities, a quarrel occurs between them.

Chapter 47, 48
Battle of the Moscow regiment with the rebels. Meanwhile, the Ser-dobsky regiment, where Koshevoy, Shtokman and Kotlyarov serve, goes over to the side of the rebels in full force; even before the riots begin, Shtokman manages to send Mishka with a report to the headquarters.

Chapter 49
A rally takes place on the square, during which Shtokman is killed, and Ivan Alekseevich, along with other communists of the regiment, is put under arrest.

Chapters 50, 51
Grigory and Aksinya meet by chance. Pantelei Prokofievich becomes a witness to this meeting. In Aksinya, a long-term feeling for Grigory wakes up; that same evening, taking advantage of Stepan's absence, she asks Daria to call Grigory for her. Their connection is renewed. The next morning he had a conversation with Natalia. Grigory goes to Karginskaya, where he learns about the transition to the rebels of the Serdobsky regiment. He immediately rushes to Veshki to save Kotlyarov and Mishka and find out who killed Petro.

Chapters 52-55
Bogatyrev arrives in Ust-Khoperskaya. There is a meeting and disarmament of the Serdobites. The captives, beaten beyond recognition, are driven to the Tatarsky farm, where they are met by the relatives of the Cossacks who died together with Peter Melekhov, thirsting for revenge. The situation at the front.

Chapter 56
Daria accuses Ivan Alekseevich of the death of her husband and shoots him, Antip Brekhovich helps to finish off Kotlyarov. An hour after the beating of the captives, Gregory, who had driven his horse to death, appears on the farm.

Chapters 57, 58
The situation at the front. Grigory's conversation with Kudyakov. Agreeing to lead a breakthrough to the Don, Grigory decides to take Aksinya with him, and leave Natalya and her children at home.

Chapters 59-61
The retreat of the rebel troops. Road on the Big Thunder. Crossing the Don rebels. Preparations for battle. Landmarks begin to be subjected to intense artillery fire. The Reds are preparing to cross the Don in the area where the Gromkovskaya hundreds are located, where Grigory immediately goes.

Chapters 62-63
Aksinya settles in Veshki and finds Gregory. Life of Grigory and Aksinya. He meets with his father and finds out that Natalia has typhus.

Chapters 64, 65
Conversation between Kudinov and Grigory. Koshevoy arrives in Tatarskoe. Kills grandfather Grishaka, avenging Ivan Alekseevich and Shtokman. He comes to the Melekhovs, wants to meet Dunyasha, but does not find her at home.

Book IV. Part VII

Chapter 1
Upper Don uprising. Then relative calm. Stepan meets his wife, she thinks about Gregory. A few days later he returns to Veshki.

Chapters 2, 3
To the complete surprise of the Gromkovskaya hundred Cossacks, occupied exclusively by moonshine and women, a Red Guard regiment is crossing the Don. Gromkovtsy in a panic run to Veshenskaya, where Grigory manages to pull up the hundreds of cavalry kargins regiment. Soon he learns that the Tatars have abandoned the trenches. Trying to stop the farmers, Grigory beats Khristonya, who is walking at an unbridled camel gallop, with a whip; Panteley, who runs tirelessly and briskly, also gets it. Having quickly gathered and brought the peasants to their senses, Grigory orders them to join the Semyonov hundred. The Reds are on the offensive; with machine-gun bursts, the Cossacks force them to return to their original positions.

Chapter 4
Natalia's recovery from typhus. To the horror of Ilyinichna, the talkative Mitashka informs the Red Army soldier who has entered the house that his father is in command of all the Cossacks. On the same day, the Reds are knocked out of Veshki and Pantelei Prokofievich returns home.

Chapters 5, 6
Front breakthrough. Cossack crossing. Grigory calls at Yagodnoye and buries his grandfather Sasha.

Chapter 7
General Secretev arrives in Veshenskaya. A banquet is held in his honor. Leaving there, Grigory comes to visit Aksinya and finds only Stepan. Returning home, Aksinya willingly drinks to her lover's health.

Chapter 8
Gregory is looking for Prokhor and finds him at the same table with Stepan. At dawn, Gregory arrives home. He talks to Dunyasha and orders her to leave even thoughts of Koshevoy. Gregory experiences a surge of tenderness for Natalia. The next day, tormented by vague forebodings, he leaves the farm.

Chapters 9, 10
Battle at Ust-Medveditskaya. At night, Gregory has a terrible dream. At dawn, Gregory, together with his chief of staff, is summoned to a meeting with General Fitskhalaurov. During the reception, a clash occurs between Grigory and the general. When he returns to his room, there is a skirmish with officers on the road.

Chapter 11
Battle for Ust-Medveditsa. After this skirmish, a strange indifference takes possession of Gregory; for the first time in his life, he decides to withdraw from direct participation in the battle.

Chapter 12
Mitka Korshunov arrives at the Tatarsky farm. Now he is in the punitive detachment, in a short time he rose to the rank of coroner. First of all, having visited his native ashes, he goes to stay with the Melekhovs, who cordially welcome the guest. After making inquiries about the Koshevs and finding out that Mishka's mother and children remained at home, Mitka and his comrades kill them. Upon learning of this, Pantelei Prokofievich drives him out of the yard, and Mitka, returning to his punitive detachment, goes to restore order in the Ukrainian settlements of the Donetsk district.

Daria goes to the front to deliver ammunition and returns in a depressed state. The commander of the Don Army, General Sidorin, arrives at the farm. Pantelei Prokofievich brings bread and salt to the general and representatives of the allies, and Darya, along with other Cossack widows, is awarded the St. George medal and handed her five hundred rubles.

Chapters 13, 14
Changes in the life of the Melekhovs. Daria clashes with her father-in-law over a reward, she categorically refuses to give back the money received "for Peter", although she gives Ilyinichna forty rubles for a wake for the deceased. Daria admits to Natalya that during her trip she contracted syphilis and, since this disease is incurable, she is going to lay hands on herself. Daria, not wanting to suffer alone, tells Natalya that Grigory has reunited with Aksinya.

Chapter 15
Retreat of the Reds. Shortly thereafter, Gregory is removed from the post of division commander and, despite his requests to be sent to the rear for health reasons, he is appointed centurion of the 19th regiment.

Chapter 16
After talking with Daria, Natalya lives like in a dream. She tries to find out something from Prokhor's wife, but she does not say anything, and then Natalya goes to Aksinya. Having gone along with Ilyinichnaya to weed melons, Natalya tells her mother-in-law about everything. Exhausted, sobbing, Natalya tells Ilyinichna that she loves her husband and does not wish him harm, but she will no longer give birth from him: she has been pregnant for the third month and is going to go to grandmother Kapitonovna to get rid of the fetus. On the same day, Natalya stealthily leaves the house and returns only in the evening, bleeding. The urgently called paramedic could not help. Natalia says goodbye to the children. She dies soon after.

Chapters 17, 18
Grigory arrives on the third day after Natalya's funeral. In his own way, he loved his wife, and now his suffering is exacerbated by guilt over this death. He only talks to Aksinya once. Grigory becomes close to the children, but after two weeks, unable to bear the anguish, he returns to the front.

Chapters 19, 20
On the way, he and Prokhor now and then meet Cossacks carrying carts with looted goods, and deserters: the Don army is decomposing at the moment of its highest success. The position of the Don region.

Chapters 21, 22
Soon after Grigory left, Daria drowned herself in the Don. Funeral. Ilyinichna forbids Mishatka to visit Aksinya, and a quarrel occurs between the women. In August, Pantelei Prokofievich was called to the front, he deserted, but was soon caught. A trial of the deserters took place, and immediately after it, Melekhov again runs home. Houses decide to leave Veshki.

Chapters 23, 24
Red advances. Defeat of the Volunteer Army. The return of the Melekhovs to Tatarsky in two weeks. Gregory, ill with typhus, is brought from the front.

Chapters 25, 26
Having recovered, Grigory shows interest in the household, talks with children. Pantelei Prokofievich is leaving. Grigory meets with Aksinya and calls her to retreat with him. Evacuation begins in Veshenskaya. Grigory meets Prokhor. Grigory, together with Aksinya and Prokhor, leave the farm. On the way, Aksinya falls ill with typhus, and Grigory is forced to leave her.

Chapter 27
The denouement of the war. Grigory and Prokhor go to the Kuban. Arriving in Belaya Glina at the end of January, he learns that Pantelei Prokofievich had died of typhus the day before. After burying his father, Gregory himself falls ill with relapsing fever and survives only thanks to Prokhor's devotion and selflessness.

Chapters 28, 29
On the way they meet Ermakov and Ryabchikov. Having moved to Novorossiysk, they try to evacuate by boat to Turkey, but, seeing the futility of their attempts, they decide to stay at home.

Part VIII

Chapter 1
Having recovered, Aksinya returns home; anxiety for Grigory's life brings her closer to the Melekhovs. It becomes known that Stepan left for the Crimea, and soon Prokhor, who lost his arm, returns and reports that he and Grigory entered the Cavalry, where Grigory took command of the squadron.

Chapters 2, 3
The Cossacks are returning to the farm. Ilyinichna is looking forward to her son, but instead of him, Mishka Koshevoy comes to the Melekhovs. Ilyinichna drives him away, but he keeps coming. Rumors about Koshevoy and Dunyash begin to circulate in the village. In the end, Ilyinichna agrees to his marriage with Dunyasha and soon dies, without waiting for the return of Gregory.

Chapter 4
Koshevoi ceases to farm, believing that Soviet power is still in danger, mainly because of such elements as Grigory and Prokhor Zykov. Mishka believes that Grigory's service in the Red Army does not wash away his guilt for participating in the White movement, and upon returning home he will have to answer for the rebel uprising. Soon Mishka was appointed chairman of the Veshensky Revolutionary Committee.

Chapters 5, 6
Life in Tatar. Old people's conversations. The return of Gregory home with the Cossack. Meeting with Prokhor and Aksinya. A conversation with Koshevoy convinces him of the unrealizability of his plans.

Chapter 7
Having visited Prokhor, Grigory learns about the uprising that has begun in the Voronezh region and understands that this could threaten him, a former officer and rebel, with trouble. In the meantime, Prokhor talks about the death of Yevgeny Listnitsky, who shot himself because of his wife's infidelity. Yakov Fomin, met in Veshki, advises Grigory to leave the house for a while, as the arrests of officers began.

Chapters 8, 9
Relations between Grigory and Aksinya. Having taken the children, Grigory goes to live with Aksinya. Thanks to his sister, he manages to avoid arrest and escape from the farm.

Chapters 10-12
By the will of circumstances, Grigory falls into the gang of Fomin. Acquaintance with Kaparin. Fomin is going to destroy the commissars and communists and establish his own, Cossack power, but these good intentions do not find support among the population, who is even more tired of the war than of the Soviet regime.

Chapter 13
Gregory decides to leave the gang at the first opportunity. Having met a familiar farmer, he asks to convey a bow to Prokhor and Dunyashka, and to tell Aksinya to wait for his imminent return. Meanwhile, the gang suffers defeat after defeat, and the fighters are engaged in looting with might and main. Soon, the red units complete the rout, and out of the entire Fominsky gang, only five people remain alive. Among them are Grigory and Fomin himself.

Chapters 14, 15
The fugitives settle on a small island opposite the Rubizhny farm. They decide to cross the Don. Grigory's conversation with Kaparin. Fomin kills Kaparin. At the end of April, they crossed the Don to merge with Maslak's gang.

Chapter 16
Gradually, forty people from various small gangs join Fomin, and he invites Grigory to take the place of chief of staff. Grigory refuses and soon runs away from Fomin.

Chapter 17
Arriving at the farm at night, he goes to Aksinya and calls her to leave for the Kuban, temporarily leaving the children in the care of Dunyasha. Leaving the house and household, Aksinya leaves with Grigory. After resting in the steppe, they are about to move on when they come across an outpost on their way. The fugitives manage to get away from the chase, but one of the bullets fired after them mortally wounds Aksinya. Shortly before dawn, without regaining consciousness, she dies in the arms of Gregory. Grigory, "dead with horror, realized that it was all over, that the worst thing that could have happened in his life had already happened." Having buried Aksinya, Grigory raises his head and sees above him the black sky and the dazzlingly shining black disk of the sun.

Chapter 18
Having wandered aimlessly across the steppe, he decides to go to the Slashchevskaya oak forest, where deserters live in dugouts. From Chumakov, whom Grigory met there, he learns about the defeat of the gang and the death of Fomin. For six months he lives, trying not to think about anything and driving poisonous longing from his heart, and at night he dreams of children, Aksinya and other dead loved ones. In early spring, without waiting for the amnesty promised by May Day, Gregory decides to return home. Approaching his home, he sees Mishatka. The son is everything that still makes Gregory related to the earth and to the whole vast world shining under the cold sun.

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