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Abstract:

This article analyzes American and Western European journal and newspaper reviews of Mikhail Sholokhov’s literary works, firstly the critical reception of the author’s novels dedicated to the Great Patriotic War (World War II). Critical perception of Sholokhov is shown to depend not only on the prevailing political climate but also on the reviewer’s familiarity with the life experiences that informed Sholokhov’s writing. Western critics consistently contextualized Sholokhov’s novels and stories within the tragic framework of World War II. Themes of war and peace in Sholokhov’s works resonated differently within this Western critical discourse. “And Quiet Flows the Don” (“Tikhiy Don”) was interpreted as the evidence of the fierce and resourceful resistance the Russians would mount in defense of their homeland. A comparative analysis of “And Quiet Flows the Don” and “They Fought for Their Motherland” (“Oni srazhalis’ za Rodinu”) led critics to conclude that the 1916 calls for victory, directed at those desiring peace, constituted a negation of that peace. Conversely, in “They Fought for Their Motherland”, the call to fight and achieve victory represented, for Soviet soldiers, the necessary condition for peace and the logical culmination of the war. Critics concluded that Soviet soldiers fought for their land, not merely to fulfill a patriotic duty. The article references the conclusion of Robert Clements, who asserted, following Sholokhov’s Nobel Prize award, that Sholokhov’s work fulfilled the stipulation of Alfred Nobel’s will, which required the prize be awarded to authors of the most outstanding works in an idealistic orientation.

Keywords: Sholokhov, translation, the Great Patriotic War, literary criticism, archive, translation, Soviet literature.