Grigory Melekhov - central character novel " Quiet Don”, unsuccessfully searching for his place in a changing world. In the context historical events showed the difficult fate of the Don Cossack, who knows how to passionately love and selflessly fight.

History of creation

Contemplating new novel, Mikhail Sholokhov did not imagine that the work would eventually turn into an epic. It all started innocently. In mid-autumn 1925, the writer began the first chapters of “Donshchina” - this was the original name of the work in which the author wanted to show the life of the Don Cossacks during the years of the revolution. That’s how it started - the Cossacks marched as part of the army to Petrograd. Suddenly the author was stopped by the thought that readers were unlikely to understand the motives of the Cossacks in suppressing the revolution without a backstory, and he put the manuscript in a far corner.

Only a year later the idea was fully matured: in the novel Mikhail Alexandrovich wanted to reflect life individuals through the prism of historical events that occurred in the period from 1914 to 1921. Tragic fates the main characters, including Grigory Melekhov, had to be integrated into the epic theme, and for this it was necessary to become better acquainted with the customs and characters of the inhabitants of the Cossack farm. The author of “Quiet Don” moved to his homeland, to the village of Vishnevskaya, where he plunged headlong into the life of the “Don region”.

In search of bright characters and a special atmosphere that settled on the pages of the work, the writer traveled around the area, met with witnesses of the First World War and revolutionary events, collected a mosaic of tales, beliefs and elements of folklore of local residents, and also stormed Moscow and Rostov archives in search of the truth. about the life of those hard years.

Finally, the first volume of “Quiet Don” was released. It showed Russian troops on the war fronts. In the second book the February revolution and October Revolution, the echoes of which reached the Don. In the first two parts of the novel alone, Sholokhov placed about a hundred characters, later they were joined by another 70 characters. In total, the epic spanned four volumes, the last one being completed in 1940.

The work was published in the publications “October”, “Roman-newspaper”, “ New world" and "Izvestia", rapidly gaining recognition among readers. They bought magazines, flooded the editors with reviews, and the author with letters. Soviet bookworms perceived the tragedies of heroes as personal shocks. Among the favorites, of course, was Grigory Melekhov.

It’s interesting that Grigory was absent from the first drafts, but a character with that name appeared in early stories writer - there the hero is already endowed with some features of the future “resident” of “Quiet Don”. Researchers of Sholokhov’s work consider the Cossack Kharlampy Ermakov, who was sentenced to death in the late 20s, to be Melekhov’s prototype. The author himself did not admit that it was this man who became the prototype of the book Cossack. Meanwhile, Mikhail Alexandrovich during the training camp historical basis Roman met Ermakov and even corresponded with him.

Biography

The novel sets out the entire chronology of Grigory Melekhov’s life before and after the war. The Don Cossack was born in 1892 on the Tatarsky farm (Veshenskaya village), although the writer does not indicate the exact date of birth. His father Panteley Melekhov once served as a constable in the Ataman Life Guards Regiment, but was retired due to old age. For the time being, the life of a young guy passes in serenity, in ordinary peasant affairs: mowing, fishing, caring for the farm. At night there are passionate meetings with the beautiful Aksinya Astakhova, a married lady, but passionately in love with a young man.

His father is dissatisfied with this heartfelt affection and hastily marries his son to an unloved girl - meek Natalya Korshunova. However, a wedding does not solve the problem. Grigory understands that he is unable to forget Aksinya, so he leaves his legal wife and settles with his mistress on the estate of a local gentleman. On a summer day in 1913, Melekhov became a father - his first daughter was born. The couple’s happiness turned out to be short-lived: life was destroyed by the outbreak of the First world war, who called Gregory to repay his debt to the Motherland.

Melekhov fought selflessly and desperately in the war; in one of the battles he was wounded in the eye. For his bravery, the warrior was awarded the Cross of St. George and a promotion in rank, and in the future three more crosses and four medals will be added to the man’s awards. Overturned Political Views The hero meets the Bolshevik Garanzha in the hospital, who convinces him of the injustice of the tsarist rule.

Meanwhile, a blow awaits Grigory Melekhov at home - Aksinya, heartbroken (by the death of her little daughter), succumbs to the charms of the son of the owner of the Listnitsky estate. The common-law husband, who arrived on leave, did not forgive the betrayal and returned to his legal wife, who later bore him two children.

In the outbreak of the Civil War, Gregory takes the side of the “reds”. But by 1918, he became disillusioned with the Bolsheviks and joined the ranks of those who staged an uprising against the Red Army on the Don, becoming a division commander. The death of his elder brother Petro at the hands of a fellow villager, an ardent supporter, awakens even greater anger towards the Bolsheviks in the hero’s soul. Soviet power Koshevoy's bears.

Passions are also boiling on the love front - Grigory cannot find peace and is literally torn between his women. Because of his still-living feelings for Aksinya, Melekhov cannot live peacefully in his family. Her husband's constant infidelities push Natalya to have an abortion, which destroys her. The man endures the premature death of a woman with difficulty, because he also had peculiar, but tender feelings for his wife.

The Red Army's attack on the Cossacks forces Grigory Melekhov to go on the run to Novorossiysk. There, the hero, driven into a dead end, joins the Bolsheviks. The year 1920 was marked by Gregory’s return to his homeland, where he settled with Aksinya’s children. New power began persecution of the former “whites”, and during the escape to Kuban for a “quiet life” Aksinya was mortally wounded. After wandering around the world a little more, Gregory returned to his native village, because the new authorities promised amnesty to the Cossack rebels.

Mikhail Sholokhov put an end to the story at the most interesting point, without telling readers about future fate Melekhova. However, it is not difficult to guess what happened to him. Historians urge curious fans of the writer’s work to consider the year of death of his favorite character as the date of death of his favorite character - 1927.

Image

The author conveyed the difficult fate and internal changes of Grigory Melekhov through a description of his appearance. By the end of the novel, a carefree, stately young man in love with life turns into a stern warrior with gray hair and a frozen heart:

“...knew that he would no longer laugh as before; knew that his eyes were sunken and his cheekbones were sticking out sharply, and in his gaze the light of senseless cruelty began to shine through more and more often.”

Gregory is a typical choleric person: temperamental, hot-tempered and unbalanced, which manifests itself both in love affairs and in relationships with the environment in general. The character of the main character of "Quiet Don" is an alloy of courage, heroism and even recklessness; he combines passion and humility, gentleness and cruelty, hatred and endless kindness.

Sholokhov created a hero with an open soul, capable of compassion, forgiveness and humanity: Grigory suffers from a gosling accidentally killed in the mowing, protects Franya, not being afraid of an entire platoon of Cossacks, saves Stepan Astakhov, his sworn enemy, Aksinya’s husband, in the war

In search of the truth, Melekhov rushes from the Reds to the Whites, eventually becoming a renegade who is not accepted by either side. The man appears to be a true hero of his time. Its tragedy lies in the story itself, when quiet life disrupted by upheavals, turning peaceful workers into unhappy people. The character’s spiritual quest was accurately conveyed by the novel’s phrase:

“He stood on the brink in the struggle of two principles, denying both of them.”

All illusions were dispelled in the battles of the civil war: anger towards the Bolsheviks and disappointment in the “whites” forces the hero to look for a third way in the revolution, but he understands that in “the middle it is impossible - they will crush you.” Once a passionate lover of life, Grigory Melekhov never finds faith in himself, remaining at the same time folk character and an extra person in the current fate of the country.

Screen adaptation of the novel "Quiet Don"

The epic of Mikhail Sholokhov appeared on movie screens four times. Based on the first two books, a silent film was made in 1931, where the main roles were played by Andrei Abrikosov (Grigory Melekhov) and Emma Tsesarskaya (Aksinya). There are rumors that, with an eye on the characters of the heroes of this production, the writer created a continuation of “Quiet Don”.

A poignant picture based on the work was presented to the Soviet audience in 1958 by the director. The beautiful half of the country fell in love with the hero performed by. The mustachioed handsome Cossack was in love with, who convincingly appeared in the role of the passionate Aksinya. She played Melekhov's wife Natalya. The film's collection of awards consists of seven awards, including a diploma from the Directors Guild of America.

Another multi-part film adaptation of the novel belongs to. Russia, Great Britain and Italy worked on the 2006 film “Quiet Don”. On main role approved and .

For “Quiet Don” Mikhail Sholokhov was accused of plagiarism. Researchers considered the “greatest epic” stolen from a white officer who died in the Civil War. The author even had to temporarily postpone work on writing a sequel to the novel while a special commission investigated the information received. However, the problem of authorship has not yet been resolved.

Beginning actor of the Maly Theater Andrei Abrikosov woke up famous after the premiere of Quiet Don. It is noteworthy that before this, in the temple of Melpomene, he had never appeared on stage - they simply were not given a role. The man also didn’t bother to get acquainted with the work; he read the novel when filming was already in full swing.

Quotes

“You have a smart head, but the fool got it.”

"The blind man said, 'We'll see.'

“Like a steppe scorched by fires, Gregory’s life became black. He lost everything that was dear to his heart. Everything was taken from him, everything was destroyed by merciless death. Only the children remained. But he himself still frantically clung to the ground, as if, in fact, his broken life was of some value to him and to others.”

“Sometimes, remembering your whole life, you look, and it’s like an empty pocket, turned inside out.”

“Life turned out to be humorous, wisely simple. Now it seemed to him that from eternity there had not been such a truth in it, under the wing of which anyone could warm up, and, embittered to the brim, he thought: everyone has their own truth, their own furrow.

“There is no truth in life. It can be seen that whoever defeats whom will devour him... But I was looking for the bad truth.”

The image of Grigory Melikhov (based on the novel by M. Sholokhov “Quiet Don”)

The image of Grigory Melekhov is central in M. Sholokhov’s epic novel “Quiet Don”. It is impossible to immediately say about it whether it is positive or bad guy. For too long he wandered in search of the truth, his path. Grigory Melekhov appears in the novel, first of all, as a truth-seeker. At the beginning of the novel, Grigory Melekhov is an ordinary farm boy with the usual range of household chores, activities, and entertainment. He lives thoughtlessly, like grass in the steppe, following traditional principles. Even the love for Aksinya that captured him passionate nature, can't change anything. He allows his father to marry him, as usual, he prepares for military service. Everything in his life happens involuntarily, as if without his participation, just as he involuntarily dissects a tiny defenseless duckling while mowing - and shudders at what he has done. Grigory Melekhov did not come into this world for bloodshed. But harsh life put a saber into his hardworking hands. Gregory experienced the first shed of human blood as a tragedy. The image of the Austrian he killed later appears to him in a dream, causing mental pain. The experience of war completely turns his life upside down, makes him think, look into himself, listen, and take a closer look at people. Conscious life begins.

The Bolshevik Garanzha, who met Gregory in the hospital, seemed to reveal to him the truth and the prospect of change for the better. “Autonomist” Efim Izvarin and Bolshevik Fyodor Podtelkov played a significant role in shaping the beliefs of Grigory Melekhov. The tragically deceased Fyodor Podtelkov pushed Melekhov away, shedding the blood of unarmed prisoners who believed the promises of the Bolshevik who captured them. The senselessness of this murder and the callousness of the “dictator” stunned the hero. He is also a warrior, he killed a lot, but here not only the laws of humanity are violated, but also the laws of war. “Honest to the core,” Grigory Melekhov cannot help but see the deception. The Bolsheviks promised that there would be no rich and poor. However, a year has already passed since the “Reds” were in power, and the promised equality is not there: “the platoon leader is in chrome boots, and the Vanyok is in windings.” Grigory is very observant, he tends to think about his observations, and the conclusions from his thoughts are disappointing: “If the gentleman is bad, then the boorish gentleman is a hundred times worse.”

Civil war Grigory is thrown into the Budennovsky detachment, then into the white formations, but this is no longer thoughtless submission to the way of life or a coincidence of circumstances, but a conscious search for the truth, the path. He sees his home and peaceful work as the main values ​​of life. In war, shedding blood, he dreams of how he will prepare for sowing, and these thoughts make his soul warm. The Soviet government does not allow the former chieftain of the centenary to live peacefully and threatens him with prison or execution. The surplus appropriation system instills in the minds of many Cossacks the desire to “re-conquer the war”, to replace the workers’ government with their own, the Cossack’s. Gangs are forming on the Don. Grigory Melekhov, hiding from persecution by the Soviet regime, ends up in one of them, Fomin’s gang. But bandits have no future. For most Cossacks it is clear: they need to sow, not fight.

Is also drawn to peaceful labor main character novel. The last test, the last tragic loss for him is the death of his beloved woman - Aksinya, who received a bullet on the way, as it seems to them, to a free and happy life. Everything died. Gregory's soul is scorched. There remains only the last, but very important thread connecting the hero with life - this is his home. A house, land waiting for its owner, and a little son - his future, his mark on the earth.

The depth of the contradictions through which the hero went through is revealed with amazing psychological authenticity and historical validity. Versatility and complexity inner world people are always the focus of M. Sholokhov’s attention. Individual destinies and a broad generalization of the paths and crossroads of the Don Cossacks allow us to see how complex and contradictory life is, how difficult it is to choose the true path.

Essay on the topic “The Image of Grigory Melekhov” briefly: characteristics, life story and description of the hero in search of the truth

In Sholokhov's epic novel "Quiet Don" Grigory Melekhov occupies central place. He is the most complex Sholokhov hero. This is a truth seeker. He suffered such cruel trials that a person, it would seem, is not able to endure. Life path Grigory Melekhov is difficult and tortuous: first there was the First World War, then the civil war, and, finally, an attempt to destroy the Cossacks, an uprising and its suppression.

The tragedy of Grigory Melekhov is the tragedy of a man who broke away from the people and became a renegade. His detachment becomes tragic, because he is a confused person. He went against himself, against millions of workers just like himself.

From his grandfather Prokofy Gregory, he inherited a hot-tempered and independent character, as well as the ability for tender love. The blood of the “Turkish” grandmother showed up in his appearance, in love, on the battlefield and in the ranks. And from his father he inherited a tough disposition, and it was because of this that integrity and rebellion haunted Gregory from his youth. He fell in love with a married woman Aksinya (this is turning point in his life) and soon decides to leave with her, despite all the prohibitions of his father and the condemnation of society. The origins of Melekhov's tragedy lie in his rebellious character. This is the predetermination of a tragic fate.

Gregory is a kind, brave and courageous hero who always tries to fight for truth and justice. But war comes, and it destroys all his ideas about the truth and justice of life. The war appears to the writer and his characters as a series of losses and terrible deaths: it cripples people from the inside and destroys everything dear and dear to them. It forces all the heroes to take a fresh look at the problems of duty and justice, to look for the truth and not find it in any of their warring camps. Once among the Reds, Gregory sees the same cruelty and thirst for blood as the Whites. He can't understand why all this? After all, war destroys the smooth life of families, peaceful work, it takes away the last things from people and kills love. Grigory and Pyotr Melekhov, Stepan Astakhov, Koshevoy and other heroes of Sholokhov are unable to understand why this fratricidal massacre is happening? For whose sake and what should people die when they still have a long life ahead of them?

The fate of Grigory Melekhov is a life incinerated by war. The personal relationships of the characters unfold against the background tragic story countries. Gregory will never again be able to forget how he killed his first enemy, an Austrian soldier. He cut him down with a saber, it was terrible for him. The moment of murder changed him beyond recognition. The hero has lost his point of support, his kind and fair soul protests, cannot survive such violence against common sense. But the war is on, Melekhov understands that he needs to continue killing. Soon his decision changes: he realizes that war kills the best people of his time, that the truth cannot be found among thousands of deaths, Grigory throws down his weapon and returns to his native farm to work for native land and raise children. At almost 30 years old, the hero is almost an old man. The path of Melekhov’s search turned out to be an impassable thicket. Sholokhov in his work raises the question of the responsibility of history to the individual. The author sympathizes with his hero Grigory Melekhov, whose life is already broken in such young years.

As a result of his search, Melekhov is left alone: ​​Aksinya is killed by his recklessness, he is hopelessly distant from his children, if only because he will bring disaster on them with his closeness. Trying to remain true to himself, he betrays everyone: the warring parties, women, and ideas. This means that he was initially looking in the wrong place. Thinking only about himself, about his “truth,” he did not love and did not serve. At the hour when a strong man’s word was required from him, Gregory could only provide doubts and soul-searching. But the war did not need philosophers, and women did not need a love of wisdom. Thus, Melekhov is the result of a transformation like “ extra person"in conditions of the most severe historical conflict.

“Show the charm of a person...” - how did this writer’s attitude affect the creation of the image of Grigory Melekhov?

In Sholokhov's novel, Grigory Melekhov became a hero who fully corresponds to the character and objectives of the epic. At the beginning of the novel, the character traits, lifestyle and attitude to the world that unite the hero with other Cossacks are emphasized. He is the successor of the Melekhov family. Hardworking, youthfully poetic, but also frivolous. At first, Grigory does not even realize his relationship with Aksinya as his destiny and suggests breaking up with her. Like everyone else, he marries according to his parents’ choice, but soon shows disobedience and independence of character, taking Aksinya out of the village, abandoning the “unloving” Natalya.

“Normal” conflicts of dramatic, but peaceful life are abruptly interrupted by war. Grigory perceives with pain the violence in which he is forced to participate. Nowhere does Sholokhov wax poetic about military exploits, front-line camaraderie, and mutual assistance of the Cossacks, although he shows all this. Front-line paintings are colored by a basic feeling in which the hero and the author are united - rejection of war, which burns out the souls of the victors and the vanquished. It is the deep conviction of the unrighteousness of the war started by the tsarist government that pushes the hero to sympathize with the revolutionaries.

Truth and justice are for Gregory the criteria for evaluating theories and actions. It is precisely the attempts to find, and if necessary, to defend in the struggle the truth, a fair world order, that determine the hero’s hesitation during the course of civil strife. Twice he fights on the side of the Reds, three times he finds himself in the ranks of their opponents. And Gregory’s talent makes everything he undertakes powerful and bright, be it work or battle. Gregory has no trust in the tsarist generals and the Cossack authorities, who dream of returning to the past, where not everything suited the Cossacks. A former officer, a rebel, a proud man who does not agree to bend his neck to anyone, Grigory is constantly under suspicion by the new, Bolshevik authorities. Thus, M.A. Sholokhov shows his main, beloved hero at a crossroads, where none of the roads leads to the goal. A civil war is also incapable of untying historical knots and solving the pressing problems of people and society in a fair manner.

Grigory always worries and thinks in his own way and at the same time in the same way as most honest Cossacks. His position is not on the sidelines of popular quests, but in the thick of it, at the very core of national life. It was precisely such a hero who should rightfully take a central place in the national epic. The author, despite the horrors and violence, the depiction of which covers most of His works, however, said that his main goal was to show the “charm of man.” The more gifted a person is initially, the more actively he is involved in the contradictory historical whirlwind, the more he experiences delusions and insights, the more he takes on guilt and acquires a difficult but necessary truth.

This is the charm human characters, individuals constitute a real alternative to the next “ruin of the Russian land” described in “Quiet Don”.

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Russian writers of the twentieth century from Bunin to Shukshin: training manual Bykova Olga Petrovna

Image of Grigory Melekhov

At the beginning of the novel, he is an eighteen-year-old guy, cheerful, stately, strong, and, in his own way, brutally handsome. Gregory is an exceptionally integral personality, a pure nature. It is illuminated by light, as if emanating from different sources - here is the code of Cossack honor and glory, and intense peasant labor, daring in folk games and parties, and scenes of fishing, familiarization with the rich Cossack folklore, the feeling of first love. Don life with its unique landscapes, freedom-loving traditions, sonorous and soulful folk song th - in a word, in all its poetic freshness - is widely revealed before the gaze of young Gregory. Sholokhov soulfully and lovingly depicts the leisurely, measured way of life of the Cossacks of the Tatar farm with their economic worries, hard work, reverence for centuries-old customs and rituals, the Cossacks’ pride in their class and respect for military valor. Gregory is deeply imbued with hard work, a subtle perception of the beauty of his native Don steppe, a love of folk songs, humanism, great humanity (a chick accidentally cut with a scythe in the grass does not give him peace for a long time). From generation to generation, cultivated courage and bravery, nobility and generosity towards the vanquished, contempt for cowardice and cowardice determined Gregory's behavior in all life circumstances.

The evolution of Melekhov’s image is connected with the events of the First World War and revolution. The war undoubtedly hardened Gregory's heart, but it could not stifle his humanity. The hero's rebellion against only family and household ties (leaving home) is complemented by a protest on a broader social plane. It was during the war years that the hero’s character became increasingly stronger in his sense of independence, pride, and high human dignity.

Grigory Melekhov as the main character epic work During the course of the plot, he meets people from all social classes, strata and groups depicted in the novel. The greatest influence on him is the Bolshevik Garanzha and the Don autonomist officer Izvarin. “Where should I lean?” - one of those far from rhetorical questions that the main character of “Quiet Don” often asks himself. Should I tie my fate with the Reds or the Whites?

In life there was a struggle for the future social system, the new was barely making its way, and mainly the destruction of the old was taking place. All the difficulties of restructuring the peasant way of life were still ahead. And perhaps that is why Gregory did not have the courage to finally break with the past, although he did not accept the main thing in it and therefore did not stay with the whites.

Gregory’s tragedy partly lies in the fact that he could not understand all the complexity and difficulty of establishing new standards of life: he generalizes all the bad manifestations at once and discards much else along with them. This is his misfortune, and not his fault, for it is natural for a person who is not able to immediately and completely comprehend the difficult path of the revolution.

The main character of "Quiet Don" dreams of a system of life in which a person would be rewarded with the measure of his intelligence, labor and spiritual talent. This is where his hatred for human backbones comes from: “I have no pity stored up for these white-faced and white-armed ones,” says Grigory about the White Guard officers. Hence his sympathy for Kotlyarov (Communist) and Koshevoy, although “blood lay between us.” Indeed, in the eyes of Gregory, it is they who personify, in contrast to the “white faces and white hands,” the first sign of true democracy - the fight against economic enslavement, against class and estate inequality.

Gregory understands that he is “a stranger from head to toe” to the former tsarist officers. As the leader of the Cossack masses, brought forward from the midst of the popular movement for intelligence, talent and military art, Gregory has the right to judge the leaders of the White Guard movement in his own way. He is not with them, although at sharp turns in history, certain moments of his life coincide with their goals. This contradiction is noticed by the chief of staff of his division, Kopylov: “On the one hand, you are a fighter for the old, and on the other, some kind of, excuse me for being harsh, some semblance of a Bolshevik.” These words express the antinomy that underlies the image of Grigory Melekhov.

Grigory Melekhov not only embodies the historical processes that affected the Cossack-peasant masses of Russia. It acts as a barometer of the author's thought in the complex structure of the novel. This circumstance creates additional difficulties when analyzing the conditions that gave rise to tragic collisions in the epic. After all, we cannot reduce the reasons for the tragedy of the main character of the novel only to his mediocrity. The solution to the problem is somewhere at the intersection of sociological, national-historical, and psychological factors. Gregory is a drama of a proud and tirelessly searching mind, this is the image of a truth-seeker, so characteristic of Russian literature.

Gregory makes mistakes, but by and large he is ostensibly guilty. And yet he is guilty, because he demands from life what she cannot yet give him. Here he is waiting, like everyone else. tragic hero, punishment, retribution.

However, even in the finale, Sholokhov does not give a clear answer. The inconsistency of Melekhov’s image is also emphasized by the use of contrasting tropes. On the one hand, Gregory’s soul is like a steppe scorched by black fires, and on the other, he does not completely lose his “human charm.” His fate in Fomin’s gang is pitiful, unenviable, but, in spite of everything, his nature remains just as unbroken, for going out onto a farm and throwing a weapon into an ice hole two months before the amnesty is something only an established personality can do.

The reader says goodbye to the hero of “Quiet Flows the Don,” carrying in his mind the black disk of the sun and Gregory with a child in his arms, who alone, after many losses, the death of loved ones, still connected him with the world.

In “Quiet Don” the artist translates into a new quality the discoveries that he made earlier in “Don Stories”. Now the problem is posed more broadly: national character and the basic laws of life, the social turning point and the fate of the people, the relationship between class and nationality in the course of social evolution. Consequently, from now on Sholokhov operates not only with such categories as “people”, “society”, “class”, but also, deepening the usual sociological ideas, introduces such concepts as “national life”, “ national history", "national experience".

Sholokhov objectively studies the Russian national character in the light of the concrete historical social experience of the people over the course of decades. The writer is not at all carried away by idealization national specifics, he is interested in the peculiarities of national existence, which is ultimately determined by the class position and class interests of people.

National mental makeup plays a special role in the socio-historical process, in the relationship between history and personality. The completeness of the disclosure of national life is ensured, first of all, by such a capacious form as the novel, and especially the epic novel.

“Quiet Don” shows the greatest social crisis in the fate of the people. The greatness of Sholokhov lies in the fact that he depicts the life of the entire nation and traces the fate of the whole people. Two worlds of ideas and beliefs collided, sharp historical fault lines occurred, and hence the inevitability of tragic collisions. The epic corresponds to a hero who synthesized in himself the fundamental contradictions of the era. This is within the capabilities of a character who embodies national positive qualities.

(According to L.F. Ershov)