Chelyshev Stanislav, Kapustina Alina
Sholokhov's early stories are very relevant to our time. The presentation on the story "The Mole" contains not only an analysis of the story, but also immerses the writer in the creative laboratory, notes the artistic features of the work.
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THE STORY OF M.A. SHOLOHOV "THE MORNEL".
The twenties in the image of Sholokhov are a time that irreversibly split the Russian world; This is the era of great grief of the people. T.R. Gavrish
In the story "The Mole", the tragedy is revealed not in terms of social class, but in terms of humanity, it is largely accidental: the father does not know that he is chasing his son.
EPISODE FROM THE STORY "MOLE".
SUMMARY OF THE STORY. Cartridges, a mutton bone, a field map, a summary, a bridle, a loaf of bread are lying on the table. Nikolka Koshevoy, the squadron commander, is sitting at the table, he fills out a questionnaire. “The rough leaf sparingly says: Nikolay Koshevoy. Squadron commander. Earthman. Member of the RKSM, age - 18 years. He looks like a green boy, but he managed to eliminate two gangs almost without damage and led the squadron into battles and fights for half a year no worse than any old commander. Nikolka hates his age and is ashamed of it. Nikolka's father is a Cossack, and Nikolka himself is also a Cossack. He recalls how, at the age of five or six, his father put him on a horse, taught him to ride. In the "German" father disappeared. Mother died. From his father, Nikolka inherited a love for horses, incredible courage and a mole the size of a pigeon's egg on his left leg above the ankle. At the age of fifteen, Nikolka left with the Reds for Wrangel. Nikolka lodges in a hut standing over the Don itself. In the morning he went out into the yard and lay down in the dewy grass. A Cossack came for him and reported that a courier had arrived, reporting on a new gang from the Salsky district, which had already occupied the Grushinsky state farm. The messenger galloped forty miles without rest, drove the horse to death. Nikolka read the order to go to the rescue. He began to get ready, thinking that it would not hurt to learn somewhere, and then the gang showed up.
FOR THREE DAYS THE GANG LEAVES FROM THE PURSUIT OF NIKOLKA KOSHEVOY'S TEAM. THE PEOPLE IN THE GANG ARE EXPERIENCED, LEAVING LIKE A WOLF. ATAMAN IS DRUNK, AND ALL THE COACHERS AND MACHINE-GUNTERS ARE DRUNK. FOR SEVEN YEARS THE ATAMAN WAS NOT IN THE NATIVE LANDS: FIRST WAS IN GERMAN CAPTIVITY, THEN WITH WRANGEL, LEFT TO TURETCH, BUT THEN RETURNED WITH A GANG. “HERE IT IS, ATAMAN'S LIFE, IF YOU LOOK BACK OVER YOUR SHOULDER. HIS SOUL IS STUNNED, LIKE IN THE SUMMER IN ZHARYN THE TRAILS IN THE STEPPE ARE STALLY... THE PAIN IS WONDERFUL AND INCOMPLETE, GEARS FROM THE INSIDE, POURS THE MUSCLES WITH VOICE, AND THE ATAMAN FEELING: DO NOT FORGET HER AND DO NOT FILL LIHOMANKA WITH ANY MOONASHON. THE DAWN HAS BEEN FROZEN. MELNIK LUKITCH HAS BEEN SICK, ON THE BEEP LOUNGE HE LIES TO REST; WHEN Woke up, he was called out by two military men who had left the forest. THE ATAMAN POINTED RED AND STARTED INQUIRYING FROM THE MILLER IF THERE ARE ALIEN ALIEN NEARBY. HE GET DOWN FROM THE HORSE AND ADMITTED THAT WE WILL LIQUIDATE THE REDS, THEN DEMANDED GRAIN TO THE HORSES. THE MILLER IS SORRY FOR THE GRAIN GATHERED BY THE CRUMBER, DOES NOT WANT TO GIVE IT AWAY; THE ATAMAN THREATS TO KILL HIM FOR ASSISTING THE RED. THE OLD MAN WALKED AT THE FEET, ASKING FOR MERCY. ATAMAN LAUGHING FORGIVED THE OLD MAN. AND THE ARRIVAL BANDITS ARE ALREADY FEEDING GRAIN TO THE HORSES, SLEEPING GOLD GRAINS UNDER THE FEET.
Through the fog, at dawn, Lukich moved to the farm and got on a horseman, who led him to the commander. Lukich was led into Nikolka's house. The miller was glad that he got to the Reds. He recalled to Nikolka how he had recently given him milk to drink when his detachment passed by the mill. The miller complains about the bandits who poisoned all his grain. He reports that they are still at the mill, drunk, sleeping. Nikolka orders to saddle the horses and attack the gang, which was already advancing along the path (road). The chieftain saw a commander with a saber galloping at him, whom he identified by binoculars hanging on the chest of a young soldier. The ataman took aim angrily and fired. The horse under Nikolka fell, and he himself, shooting, ran closer to the ataman. The ataman was waiting for Nikolka to shoot the clip, and then he ran into the guy like a kite. He waved his saber, and Nikolka's body went limp, slid to the ground. The ataman removed the binoculars and chrome boots from the dead man. With difficulty pulling off his boots with socks, the ataman saw a mole. He turned Nikolka to face him and cried: “Son! Nikolushka! Native! My little blood...” Ataman, realizing that he had killed his son, took out a revolver and shot himself in the mouth. And in the evening, when horsemen loomed over the copse, a kite-vulture fell off the shaggy head of the chieftain.
Showing that the class struggle that has engulfed the Don destroys family foundations, Sholokhov depicts reality as contrary to the norm of human relations, and resolves this contradiction between the ideal and the real absolute negation of the latter.
IMAGE OF NIKOLKA KOSHEVOY Squadron commander, although he is 18 years old. Fearless (as his father taught him) Nikolka is broad-shouldered, looks beyond his years. Immeasurable love for horses (from father). Dreaming about studying. Mole, same as father's.
THE IMAGE OF ATAMAN For seven years I have not seen my native kurens. He drinks, because the pain, wonderful and incomprehensible, sharpens from the inside. The soul withered. Attentive. Strong. A mole the size of a pigeon's egg, on the left leg, above the ankle.
CONCLUSION. A sharp class struggle demarcated not only the Don, the village, the farm, but also the Cossack families. Father and son find themselves on opposite sides of the barricade. The conflict between reds and whites gives way to a conflict between the norms of human life and the inhumanity of fratricidal war. The civil war for M. Sholokhov is a catastrophe in which human ties are destroyed. There are no right and wrong here, which means there can be no winners.
1Comprehension of the artistic meaning of M. Sholokhov's story "The Mole". impossible without interpreting the archetypal conflict of fathers and children reflected in it, presented not only in the system of characters, but also in numerous details. Attention to this side of human life is accentuated by the title of the story. "A mole is a congenital speck on a person's skin", a speck that nature endows a person regardless of his desire. In works devoted to Sholokhov's story, it was repeatedly pointed out that "mole" is a single-root word with "clan", "people", "homeland", "nature", "harvest", "spring". So, a mole is a sign of the influence on a person of world forces beyond his control and at the same time an indication of the deep connection of a person with the world, the universe.
Already the sentence that begins the text helps us create a primary idea of the main conflict of the work and generates in the reader a kind of “anticipation” of the meaning of the whole. This process of understanding the text, as scientists rightly point out, is determined by the mythopoetic model of the world, which "assumes the identity of the macrocosm and microcosm" . The presented images are extremely important, as they "correct" the range of reader's expectations: " On the table(hereinafter highlighted by us - T.B.) cartridge cases cartridges, smelling of burnt gunpowder, lamb bone, field map, summary, bridle type-setting with the smell of horse sweat, loaf of bread. All this on the table... ". The field map and summary lying on the table make the main theme of the war. The loaf of bread that completes this description (it is not the main thing on this table) is an image of everyday peaceful life. So already in the first sentence, which combines cartridge cases and bread, the reader feels the drama of this everyday life, its internal inconsistency, realizing the universal antinomy of life: war - peace. And peace here is not opposed to war, but drawn into it.
But it is impossible not to see another meaning of the images presented in the first sentence. They are designed to highlight the most important themes of the work, to connect disparate, at first glance, pictures of life. So, the cartridge cases indicated at the beginning of the story, "smelling of burnt gunpowder" correlate both with Nikolka's empty clip, which predetermined the outcome of his duel with his father, and with the Mauser shot with which the chieftain himself summed up his life. Mentioned in the first sentence, “a bridle with a smell of horse sweat” links into one whole the death of a horse driven by a messenger, and the death from a bullet of the ataman of Nikolka’s horse.
Among the objects located on the table in the room of Nikolai Koshevoy, a mutton bone is indicated as a sign of a sacred sacrifice. In the context of the plot about the son-killer, realized in the story "The Mole", this image is associated with the biblical hero Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac to God. By the will of the Lord, the role of the victim was a lamb (Gen. 22:12-13). Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac is proof of the elder's deep faith and his "most complete obedience" to the Lord. At the ataman, “the soul has become stale ... as in summer the traces of forked bull hooves near the muzga of the steppe stale in the brazier” . Not for a moment did he have a feeling of pity for the young opponent: "Neuk, sucker, hot, through this, death will touch him here." Associations of this kind clearly reflect the author's assessment of the events that formed the basis of the story.
The death of Nikolai Koshevoy as the culmination of an external conflict, a concrete historical one, embodying the struggle of 2 sides in a civil war, is the most important event of an internal conflict, embodying in the broadest sense the interaction of man and nature, the world as a whole, presented in archetypal images.
When creating a picture of the death of a young squadron commander, M. Sholokhov follows the traditions of folklore and ancient Russian literature: “The sun covered with a cloud, and floating shadows fell on the steppe, on the paths, on the forest, windswept and shabby in autumn.” Such, for example, is the description of nature on the eve of the last battle between the Russians and the Polovtsians in the Tale of Igor's Campaign: "...black clouds are coming from the sea, they want to cover the four suns...".
Not only the son and father met in a deadly battle, but everything that is next to them perishes. We see this in the scene of the death of a horse driven by a messenger, which left the surrounding people indifferent: Nikolka only “looked at the black ribbon of blood poking from the dusty nostrils” of the horse, and turned away. The episode at the mill tells us the same thing, when the members of the gang poured under the feet of the horses and the yard was covered with golden grain. The chieftain, himself a native Don Cossack, did not think about how the land would be in the spring without sowing. Thus, the war is artistically interpreted in the story as a crime against the earth, its life-giving force.
The story of the duel between father and son also refers us to the well-known epic “Fight of Ilya Muromets with his son”, where the opposition “friend or foe” characteristic of the mythopoetic model of the world is realized. The negative character (alien), who abused mother Zlatygorka (mother earth, her creative power), here is Sokolnik, who is treacherously ready to kill the sleeping unarmed father, Ilya Muromets (his own). In the story of M. Sholokhov, the ataman is a negative character (alien). Like Sokolnik, who in the bylina had no respect for either his homeland or the old people, the ataman prevents the earth from manifesting life-creating power: by his order, at the mill, “barley and wheat are poured under the horses’ feet and the yard is covered with golden grain.” The resemblance to Sokolnik, who humiliates Russian heroes, is also manifested in the mockery of the Cossack ataman over the miller Lukich, who, fearing death, “chews sand from a handful of sand with a toothless mouth” of the ataman and kisses his boots.
The desire to achieve victory by cunning brings Sokolnik closer to the ataman. So, having waited until Nikolka's clip ran out, the ataman "fell like a kite" on him.
In the actions of Nikolai Koshevoy, the features of the defender of the Russian land and the Russian people are manifested, i.e. "his". This can be seen in the fact that he "managed to liquidate two gangs almost without damage and lead a squadron into battles for six months," and in the fact that offended people turn to him with a request to "find justice" for the gang.
The reader does not know what happened to the body of commander Koshevoy, but the finale of the life of the ataman's suicide is clearly defined: in the evening ... "a vulture kite reluctantly fell off the ataman's shaggy head" . This episode also makes us remember the end of the epic. Ilya Muromets throws the murdered Sokolnik "yes to magpies, to ravens, yes to pecking, // Yes, to gray wolves, yes to be torn apart."
Thus, the definition of the mythopoetic context of the story "The Mole" allows the writer to interpret the main conflict of the civil war as unnatural, in conflict with the entire course of human development.
Bibliography
Sholokhov M. Stories. - L., 1983.
Ozhegov S.I. Dictionary of the Russian language. - 16th ed. - M., 1984.
Myths of the peoples of the world: Encyclopedia: in 2 volumes - M., 1997. - V.2.
Explanatory Bible, or Commentaries on all the books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament: In 12 vols. Vol. 1 / ed. A.P. Lopukhin. - M.: Terra, 1997.
A word about Igor's regiment / Enter. article and preparation of Old Russian. text by D. Likhachev; Comp. and comment. L. Dmitrieva. - M., 1985.
Russian Folk Poetry: Epic Poetry: Collection. - L., 1984.
Bibliographic link
Bakhor T.A. CONFLICT OF GENERATIONS IN M. SHOLOHOV'S STORY "THE MOTHERLINE" // Successes of modern natural sciences. - 2011. - No. 12. - P. 85-87;URL: http://natural-sciences.ru/ru/article/view?id=29029 (date of access: 04/02/2019). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History" January 24, 2015
The years of the First World War, the revolution and especially the civil war became a test for all the inhabitants of Russia. The Cossacks felt the consequences of political events very sharply. The freedom-loving people by nature could not reconcile themselves to the fact that the well-established life, settled for centuries, was collapsing. But that wasn't even the scariest part. The split that took place between the people spread former neighbors, comrades and members of the same family on different sides of the barricades.
The writer M. Sholokhov paid much attention to the depiction of the horrors of the civil war and the analysis of its influence on the fate of people. The work “The Mole”, written in 1924 and marking the beginning of the “Don Stories” cycle, was the first in his work, where the truth about that terrible time was shown. And for the epic novel "Quiet Flows the Don", in which the writer summarized all the material on the topic, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Features of the image of the Cossacks by Sholokhov
"Don stories" became an important event in the literature of the twenties. They were not similar to what was created during the formation of Soviet power by proletarian writers. A hereditary Cossack and an excellent connoisseur of life on the Don, M. Sholokhov managed to recreate in small works the unique flavor and originality of the way of life of the local population. He paid special attention to moral convictions and ideals, originally based on kindness and humanism, but crossed out by fratricidal war.
The attitude towards the stories was ambiguous. Many were confused by the naturalism and unconventionality of the depiction of the civil war, but this is what allowed the writer to convey the true scale of the tragedy. It was these principles that guided Sholokhov when writing the story "The Mole".
Summary of the work: acquaintance with Nikolka
The plot of the story is quite simple and is built in chronological order with small digressions (retrospectives) into the past. The main character is Nikolai Koshevoy, a young Red Army squadron commander. Nikolka is the name of an eighteen-year-old guy experienced Cossacks, who respected him for his courage and courage. Despite his young age, he had already led a squadron for six months and managed to break two gangs during this time. This was a great merit of his father, a prominent Cossack, who "disappeared" in the German war. It was he who instilled in his son courage, endurance, love for horses: at the age of five or six he taught his son to stay in the saddle. And Nikolka also inherited from her father (and further analysis of Sholokhov's work will be based on this) a mole on her left leg, the size of a pigeon's egg.
The plot begins with a letter brought to the commander with the news of the appearance of whites in the district. The need to speak again causes the commander to gloomy thoughts about how tired he was of military life: “I would like to study ... but here is a gang.”
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Valiant Ataman
On the comparison of two strong characters, Sholokhov builds the story "The Mole". An analysis of the internal state of an elderly Cossack, who has not seen his father for 7 years at home, is the next part of the work. He went through German captivity, served under Wrangel, visited Constantinople, and now he has returned to his native land at the head of a gang. The ataman has become hardened in soul over the years, he feels as if something is sharpening him from the inside, he does not give rest.
For three days the gang left Nikolka's squadron, then settled down at the miller, about which the latter informed the Red Army men. And now a brave young Cossack is already rushing to the chieftain. His still beardless face covered with anger and the desire to achieve the goal - even a bullet did not stop him - caused bitterness in the ataman. In addition, binoculars on his chest clearly spoke of the rank of a warrior. The ataman flew up to him, and the young body went limp from the swing of the saber. Experience prevailed over youthful prowess. Then, with a stocking, he pulled off an old Cossack chrome boot from his foot, and under it (Sholokhov depicts this episode incredibly truthfully and emotionally) - a mole. The analysis of the story is especially acute in this scene, which has become the climax in the whole story.
The main characters as antipodes of war
At the same moment, the ataman of his son, who had seen a lot, learned a lot, his soul was filled with suffering and pain: “Nikolushka! .. My little blood! ..”. The unfolding bloody struggle scattered native people on different sides, making them irreconcilable enemies. The father could not forgive himself for the murder of his son - he clenched his “Mauser steel” with his teeth and fired. So tragically finished the story "The Mole" Sholokhov.
An analysis of the description and behavior of the heroes shows how disgusting the war was to their nature, especially to Nikolka. From the age of fifteen he had to fight, and at eighteen he looked like a man already tired of life: with a network of wrinkles around his eyes, a stooped back. His dream of getting an education never came true. The only bright moment left for Nikolka was the memory of a calm, peaceful life, when her mother was still alive, and her father was not listed as missing. These nostalgic pictures make it clear how disgusting the very thought of having to go into battle again was. So at the very beginning of the story "The Mole" Sholokhov (a summary of the hero's thoughts looks most eloquent) makes it clear to the reader that war is something unnatural, alien to human nature. He dreams of returning to a peaceful life and how to plow the land before, and the old chieftain, who was trying to drown out the longing that did not let him go with hops.
Artistic details in the work
The work “The Mole” attracts with unusual colloquial speech and expressiveness. Sholokhov - the problematic of the story is directly related to this - enhances the feeling of tragedy by turning to vivid folklore images. So twice, when describing the chieftain, a wolf is mentioned. At first, this is a vivid, figurative comparison of the old Cossack with the leader of the pack, who has "winned over" and is rapidly advancing. The spoken word helps to better understand the emotional state of the hero. Then, on the eve of the deadly battle, the wolf jumps out of the den in front of people, listens and slowly goes back. According to tradition, the wolf symbolized among the people a hungry, angry, usually lonely animal, causing pity rather than fear. This is how the old ataman seems in the story.
Sholokhov introduces another predator into the story "The Mole". Analysis of the last scene with the vulture, which, on the evening of the same day when the murder took place, flies off the chieftain's head and dissolves in the sky, suggests a tired, tormented soul of a Cossack leaving the body and ascending upwards.
Author's life experience
Sholokhov's persuasiveness and naturalism in describing the events of the civil war are explained by the fact that in 1918-19 he found himself at the center of the confrontation between the whites and the reds in the area of the Yelan capital. The writer witnessed unjustified cruelty and violence on both sides, and once he was even captured by Nestor Makhno, but was released after interrogation. Since 1920, Sholokhov himself "served and roamed the Don land." According to him, they took turns chasing each other with the gangs.
The conclusions to which Sholokhov leads the reader
"Mole" - the full content of the story cannot leave anyone indifferent - makes you really think about the fact that in difficult conditions of devastation and irreconcilable enmity, people become hardened, forget about humanism and sympathy. The author does not name in this, and in other stories, right and wrong, since in such a situation they simply cannot be. The civil war has become a universal tragedy that should never be forgotten - Sholokhov wants to draw the reader's attention to this. A mole (an analysis of the story leads to this conclusion) becomes a symbol of an indestructible blood connection: for Nikolka it is the same as for her father. Consequently, there are no winners in the confrontation between heroes (the father raised a worthy son), this initially contradicts the human essence.
The meaning of "Don stories" by Sholokhov
The civil war was a real disaster, as a result of which moral norms were completely destroyed and the ties that existed between people were destroyed. This is emphasized by the story "The Mole" by Sholokhov. An analysis of the actions and feelings of the characters is a confirmation of this idea. The first work sets the tone for the entire cycle, and before the eyes of the reader, one after another, terrible pictures come to life, telling about immeasurable human grief. And I want to appeal to all living on earth: “People, think again! If a brother kills a brother, and a father kills a son, if everything around is drowned in a sea of blood, why live on?
And with secret and heartfelt sadness
I'm thinking, "Bad man.
What does he want!., the sky is clear,
Under the sky there is enough space for everyone,
But incessantly and in vain
He alone is at enmity - why?
M. Yu. Lermontov
The story "The Mole" (1924) refers to the Don cycle of M.A. Sholokhov. The main idea of the work is the depiction of the civil war as a national tragedy: it disfigures human lives and destroys natural human relations, there are no and cannot be winners in it. Having learned that the gang attacked the Grushinsky state farm and that they had to rush there to help the communards, Nikolka Koshevoy thought wearily: “I would like to learn to go somewhere ... and here is the gang ... Blood again, and I’m tired of living like this ... I’m sick of everything..." (II). And Ataman Koshevoy was tired of the war, tired of endless murders and senseless wanderings. After all, the Cossack is not only a warrior, but also a grain grower, which is why the elder Koshevoy is so worried about the sight and smell of flowering fields. Retelling the thoughts of the elder Koshevoy, Sholokhov writes: “The pain, wonderful and incomprehensible, wears away from the inside, fills the muscles with nausea, and the chieftain feels, do not forget her and do not fill the lihomania with any moonshine. And he drinks - there is no sober day because life is fragrant and sweetly blooming in the steppes of the Don, overturned under the sun by a greedy black-earth womb ”(III). The ordinary people suffer from the war, caught between the Reds and the Whites. Robbery, humiliation, lawlessness - everything falls on the old miller Lukich: there is nowhere to hide from the civil war. And how happy was the peaceful day that the old man spent at his mill, until uninvited guests arrived - the bandits of Ataman Koshevoy.
"Mole" is very reminiscent of a ballad. Its plot is tragic: a father kills an unrecognized son, and only when nothing can be fixed, the terrible truth is revealed to the father. Sholokhov transferred this “wandering” literary plot to the era of the civil war on the Don: the father is a bandit chieftain - he kills his only son - an eighteen-year-old red commander. From the ballad in the story, the mystery and understatement of events, the sharp and unexpected denouement, the swiftness of the action are preserved. The latter is obvious, since the plot (the beginning of the battle with the gang), the climax (the fight between Nikolka and the ataman) and the denouement (the suicide of the elder Koshevoy) are in the last (sixth) chapter. A departure from the usual ballad plot is an extended exposition (the first five chapters), built on a sharp contrast between the actions of father and son. An extended exposition is not provided for in the ballad, but the author needs it in order to describe in detail the two main characters and thus express his attitude towards them.
Sholokhov does not explain the choice of heroes (with whom and against whom to fight). It is said sparingly about Nikolka: he is “an orphan from childhood” (I), his father went missing in the German war, his mother died. Until the age of fifteen, he hung around in the workers, and although the author does not describe the life of Nikolka with the owners, according to another story from the Don cycle (“Alyoshka but the Heart”), one can imagine what it was like for a teenager in laborers. Therefore, it is not surprising that at the age of fifteen he became a Red Army soldier: after all, the Reds fought for a good life for the poor. The elder Koshevoy, like many Don Cossacks, fights against the Reds - first in Wrangel's troops, then in a gang. Of course, the lack of a serious motivation for the choice of the characters is a shortcoming of the work, as it leads to the schematism of images. However, in order to deeply reveal the problem of choice in the civil war, a few words that a writer can devote to this issue in a short story are clearly not enough, anyway, the explanation will turn out to be superficial. Therefore, Sholokhov generally refuses to discuss this topic and follows the rule formulated by L. N. Tolstoy: “Do not get carried away by saying everything in one story.”
The writer creates a situation typical of a civil war: social hostility is opposed by family relations. Father and son turned out to be ideological enemies, but Sholokhov notes that each keeps bright memories of the other in his soul. Nikolka remembers how his father taught him, a boy, to ride and walked beside him, leading his horse by the reins. Ataman flees from Turkish captivity to the Don, where seven years ago he left his family - his wife and only son, about whose fate he knows nothing since the beginning of the German war. Sholokhov also notes that the son and father are similar, that is, he emphasizes not only the physical similarity, but also the spiritual relationship of their characters. The son inherited from his father qualities that were very much appreciated by the Cossacks: love for horses, immeasurable courage, organizational talent, for already at the age of eighteen he successfully commanded a squadron.
Sholokhov violates another genre feature of the ballad - the author not only stretches the exposition, as mentioned above, but also openly expresses his attitude towards the characters: the father and son in the story receive a sharply contrasting image. The spiritual clarity of Nikolka, expressed in his dreams, arouses obvious sympathy in the author. Describing the elder Koshevoy, the author several times compares him with a wolf who “quietly makes trouble”, and then leaves the persecution, confusing the tracks like a wolf. In the single combat scene, the ataman, like a predatory kite, fell on the red commander.
It is valuable for the writer that the difficult childhood did not “break” the younger Koshevoy, in his soul he retained compassion for people and the belief that life can be kind and fair. Ataman constantly drinks and mocks people with pleasure (old Lukich is lying at his feet and eating the earth, begging for forgiveness for wanting to hide the grain from the gang). Sholokhov emphasizes the confusion and anger at the whole wide world of the elder Koshevoy.
Nikolka voluntarily joined the Komsomol and defends the Soviet government, as he is sure that he is fighting for a just cause. The bandits who roam the villages, rob, burn, kill, hoping to restore the old order by terror, arouse quite understandable condemnation in the writer.
So, the main characters are contrasted by the author: a bright, conscientious son who dreams of studying and a “stale” (III), desperate, disbelieving father. The reader is clear about the author's attitude towards the characters - sympathy for the son and condemnation of the father, but Sholokhov does not dwell on such a straightforward opposition. In the final scene, the author's attitude to the hero changes: the elder Koshevoy is depicted not as a bandit chieftain, but as an unfortunate father who killed his only and beloved son with his own hand. The new author's attitude is manifested in the description of the father over the son's cooling body: the ataman looks at the face of the dying Red Army soldier with fear, hugs him by the shoulders and addresses him with desperate words, but does not receive any answer. The grief of the father is understandable and cannot but arouse the sympathy and compassion of the author.
Summing up, it should be noted that Sholokhov believed all his life in the ideals of the revolution, which proclaimed its goal to protect the interests of the working person. This was already fully reflected in his early stories, where he clearly sympathizes with the Red Army men, the poor peasants of the farms, who are fighting for a new, just life. Clear political convictions did not prevent him from being a real writer, that is, from depicting the tragic era of his time from a universal, and not from a narrow class (proletarian) position. Soviet critics often reproached Sholokhov: his works expressed "vague", abstract (pitying everyone - both right and wrong) humanism instead of clear revolutionary humanism (combining love for the revolution and hatred for its enemies). The story "The Mole" is just an example of the fact that the author sympathizes with all his heroes - participants and victims of the civil war.
The author's attitude in the story, as shown above, is expressed in various ways: through evaluative comparisons (wolf, kite), through internal monologues that convey the thoughts and feelings of the characters (confusion and fatigue from the civil war of both Koshevs and Lukich), through the background of the father and son of the Koshevs, through their deeds. That is, the author's position in "The Mole" is very restrained: there are no lyrical digressions, emotional exclamations, psychological landscapes.
But now the action of the story is brought to a tragic denouement, and Sholokhov writes another short epilogue, in which for the first and last time a psychological landscape is placed, depicting the autumn steppe, living its own special life, independent of people and their problems. A vulture kite above the unburied dead Cossacks is an exact detail of a deserted battlefield. This piercing silent landscape carries the most important ideological and emotional load: the author finally clarifies his attitude to the described episode of the civil war, calls to rise above the momentary, class assessments of the heroes, awakens in the reader a sense of compassion for both father and son.
There are wars that in history are conditionally (in the assessment of Leo Tolstoy) called just, liberating: they are, as a rule, imposed by an external aggressor, and then an unprecedented rallying of the people takes place, rising to fight the common enemy, to defend the fatherland. The history of Russia knows examples of such Patriotic Wars - 1812 and 1941-1945. It is no coincidence that the word "Patriotic", as if in reminder of the exceptional importance of these wars for the preservation of the people and statehood, is written with a capital letter.
A civil war is never "just" ever. It is usually the result of social explosions and revolutions. So the October Revolution of 1917 gave rise to the Civil War of 1918-1920. And although in the image of many writers of the 20s of the twentieth century it was a heroic time, however, in the perception of others, this event looked like a tragedy - a fratricidal war, when brother fought against brother, and son against father. As a result of some incomprehensible processes, people who speak the same language, sometimes related to each other by blood, became enemies.
This is how the war appears in Mikhail Sholokhov's Don Stories. All works of this cycle are united not just by a common place of action - Don, Kuban, but by similar ideas. The war in these stories runs like a bloody streak through the family, confronts father and son, and the death of both happens absurdly. Many critics even condemned Sholokhov for too bloody details of the deaths of both the “whites” and the “reds”. At the same time, the writer did not give any assessments of the events described, but allowed the reader himself to figure out who is right and who is wrong.
In the story "The Mole", the analysis of which will be discussed later, the action unfolds in two plans: in the external plot, the author introduces readers to the young Red Army squadron commander Nikolai Koshev, whom even experienced soldiers affectionately call Nikolka. At the age of 18, he has been in command of a squadron for half a year and during this time he defeated two gangs. He is an orphan, because his father perished in the German war, and his mother died. Until the age of 15, the guy had to do odd jobs, and then he left to fight the Reds.
The only thing left of his father is the memories of how his father put him, a six-year-old boy, on his horse, and a birthmark on his leg the size of a pigeon's egg: his father had the same. For more than three years of the war, Nikolai was tired of such a life and now dreams that the war would end and he could study. However, at the very beginning of the story, it becomes known that the commander receives news of the appearance of a gang of whites in the district, which means that he is back in battle. And Nikolai gloomily reflects: “And here is the gang… Blood again, and I’m already tired of living like this… Everything is disgusted…”
In parallel with the image of Nikolai Koshevoy, the reader learns about the fate of the ataman of the White Cossack gang. For seven years he had not seen his father's house - since he left to fight the Germans: German captivity, service with Wrangel, "Molten Constantinople in the sun", "Kuban reeds" and, finally, a gang of former White Guards, at the head of which he turned out to be. And now his heart is also not calm: “a wonderful and incomprehensible pain sharpens from the inside, fills the muscles with nausea”. The chieftain is tired of the war, his hands remember the plow and scythe, and he has to fight, instead of doing the usual farming. And do not forget this pain, and "do not pour any moonshine".
Stopping at the old miller Lukich, the members of the gang, the Cossacks, "Dissatisfied with Soviet power", offend him by taking the last grain for their driven horses. In addition, the old ataman, disappointed in everyone and not trusting anyone, makes the old man eat the earth in order to prove that he "not for the reds". Lukic imperceptibly from "lacking vodka in the upper room" bandits runs away to the red commander to tell that the gang, which the detachment has been chasing for three days, hid in his mill and "washed away" over it.
And here is the culmination of the story: a battle during which Nikolka, at the head of the squadron, overtakes the gang, but in the end remains one on one with the chieftain. This fight resembles a duel: on the one hand, a seasoned wolf (it’s not for nothing that a wolf appears from the forest at the beginning of this last chapter), and a young commander with "beardless face, twisted with malice, and eyes narrowed by the wind". And if the Ataman's bullet does not take "white-lipped puppy", then the ataman decides to take it by cunning: he swoops in only when Nikolka's clip is over. He flew in like a kite and waved his saber. Only one old chieftain did not know that, pulling off his chrome boots from "dead", he will see on his leg, just above the ankle, a birthmark the size of a pigeon's egg - just like his own.
And then the moment of truth came: it turns out that the father unintentionally kills his own son. Recognizing in the red commander, hacked by him, his son, he hugs him, says kind words to him, in vain trying to bring him back to life, calling him both Nikolushka and "blood", and son. And making sure that the son is dead, “The ataman kissed the freezing hands of his son and, clenching the misted steel of the Mauser with his teeth, shot himself in the mouth ...” Who is to blame? Fatal coincidence? What elemental force standing above people pushes them against each other against their will?
