Vroman " Quiet Don» M. A. Sholokhov waxes poetic folk life, gives a deep analysis of its way of life, the origins of its crisis, which largely affected the fate of the heroes of the novel. The author emphasizes the decisive role of the people in history. According to Sholokhov, it is the people who are the driving force of history. One of his representatives in the novel is Grigory Melekhov. Undoubtedly, he is the main character of the novel.

Gregory is a simple and illiterate Cossack, but his character is complex and multifaceted. The author gives him best features, inherent in the people.

At the very beginning of the novel, Sholokhov describes the history of the Melekhov family. Cossack Prokofy Melekhov returns from the Turkish campaign, bringing with him his wife, a Turkish woman. This is where the “new” history of the Melekhov family begins. The character of Gregory is already laid out in it. It is no coincidence that Grigory is outwardly similar to the men of his kind: “... he looks like his father: half a head taller than Peter, at least six years younger, the same drooping kite nose as his father’s, with slightly slanting cuts in the bluish tonsils of hot eyes, sharp slabs of cheekbones are covered with brown, ruddy skin. Grigory slouched in the same way as his father, even in their smile they both had something in common, a little beastly.” It is he, and not his older brother Peter, who continues the Melekhov family.

From the very first pages Gregory is depicted in everyday peasant life. He, like everyone else on the farm, goes fishing, takes horses to water, falls in love, goes to games, and takes part in scenes of peasant labor. The character of the hero is clearly revealed in the episode of meadow mowing. Gregory discovers love for all living things, acute sensation someone else's pain, the ability to compassion. He feels painfully sorry for the duckling accidentally cut with a scythe; he looks at it “with a sudden feeling of acute pity.”

Grigory has a great sense of nature, he is closely connected with it. “Okay, ah, okay!..” - he thinks, deftly handling the scythe.

Gregory is a man of strong passions, decisive actions and actions. Numerous scenes with Aksinya speak eloquently about this. Despite his father's slander, during haymaking, at midnight he still goes in the direction where Aksinya is. Severely punished by Pantelei Prokofievich and not afraid of his threats, he still goes to Aksinya at night and returns only at dawn. Gregory already shows a desire to reach the end in everything, not to stop halfway. Marrying an unloved woman could not force him to abandon himself, his natural, sincere feelings. He only slightly calmed his father, who sternly announced to him: “Don’t be nasty to your neighbor! Don't be afraid of your father! Don’t wander around, dog!”, but nothing more. Grigory loves passionately and does not tolerate ridicule of himself. He doesn’t even forgive Peter for making fun of his feelings and grabs a pitchfork. "You are an idiot! Damn mad! This is the tortured Circassian who has degenerated into the batin’s breed!” - exclaims the scared to death Peter.

Gregory is always honest and sincere. “I don’t love you, Natasha, don’t be angry,” he frankly says to his wife.

At first, Grigory protests against escaping from the farm with Aksinya, but his innate stubbornness and the impossibility of subordination nevertheless forced him to leave the farm and go with his beloved to the Listnitsky estate. Grigory is hired as a groom. But such a life away from his native nest is not for him. "Easy well-fed life spoiled him. He became lazy, put on weight, and looked older than his years,” says the author.

Gregory contains enormous inner strength. A clear indication of this is the episode of his beating of Listnitsky Jr. Despite Listnitsky’s position, Grigory does not intend to forgive him for his insults: “Having intercepted the whip, he beat him in the face and hands with the whip, not allowing the centurion to come to his senses.” Melekhov is not afraid of punishment for his actions. He also treats Aksinya harshly: when he left, he never looked back. Gregory is characterized by a deep sense of self-worth. His strength lies in him, and it is capable of influencing other people, regardless of their rank and position. In the duel with the sergeant at the watering hole, Grigory undoubtedly wins, not allowing the senior in rank to hit himself.

The hero is ready to stand up not only for his own, but also for the dignity of others. He turned out to be the only one who stood up for Franya, who was abused by the Cossacks. Finding himself powerless against evil, he “for the first time in a long period of time almost cried.”

First World War picked up the fate of Gregory and spun it in a whirlwind of turbulent historical events. Grigory, like a true Cossack, devotes himself entirely to battle. He is decisive and brave. He easily captures three Germans, deftly recaptures a battery from the enemy, and saves an officer. Evidence of his courage - St. George's Crosses and medals, officer rank.

Melekhov is generous. In battle, he extends a helping hand to his rival Stepan Astakhov, who dreams of killing him. Gregory is shown as a courageous, skilled warrior. But still, killing a person deeply contradicts his humane nature, his life values“Well, well, I cut down a man in vain and because of him, the bastard, I’m sick in my soul,” he says to brother Peter, “... I’m exhausted in my soul... It’s like I’ve been under a millstone, they crushed me and spat me out.”

Grigory quickly begins to experience incredible fatigue and disappointment. At first, he fights fearlessly and without thinking that he is shedding his own and others’ blood. But war and life confront Melekhov with many people who have fundamentally different views on the world and what is happening in it. Communication with them makes the hero think about both the war and the life he lives.

Chubatiy carries the truth “Cut a man boldly.” He easily talks about human death, about the possibility and right to take a person’s life. Grigory listens to him attentively and understands: such an inhumane position is unacceptable and alien to him.

Garanzha sowed seeds of doubt in Melekhov’s soul. He suddenly doubted previously unshakable values, such as the tsar and Cossack military duty. “The Tsar is a drunkard, the Tsarina is a whore, the master’s pennies are increased from the war, but it’s on our necks...” Garanzha cynically declares. He makes Gregory think about a lot. These doubts marked the beginning of Gregory’s tragic path to the truth. The hero makes desperate attempts to find the truth and meaning of life.

The character of Grigory Melekhov is truly amazing, truly folk.

Cossack Grigory Melekhov is one of central characters historical epic novel by Mikhail Sholokhov “Quiet Don”. At the core storyline of this work lies it life path, the formation and formation of Melekhov as a person, his love, successes and disappointments, as well as the search for truth and justice.

Difficult life trials befall this simple Don Cossack, because he finds himself in a whirlwind of bloody events of the early twentieth century: the First World War, revolution, civil war in Russia. The millstones of war into which the main character finds himself “grind” and cripple his soul, forever leaving their bloody mark.

Characteristics of the main character

(Pyotr Glebov as Grigory Melekhov, still from the film "Quiet Don", USSR 1958)

Grigory Panteleevich Melekhov - the most ordinary Don Cossack. We first meet him at the age of twenty in his native Tatar village of the Cossack village of Veshenskaya, located on the banks of the Don River. The guy is neither from a rich nor from a poor family, one might say he is average, but he lives in prosperity, he has a younger sister Dunya and an older brother Peter. A quarter Turkish through his grandmother, Melekhov has an attractive and slightly wild appearance: dark skin, a hooked nose, jet-black curly hair, expressive almond-shaped eyes.

First Gregory is shown to us as a regular guy living on a farm. He has certain household responsibilities and is immersed in his worries and daily activities. He doesn’t particularly worry about his life; he lives as the traditions and customs of the Cossack village dictate. Even the violent passion that flared up between the young Cossack and his married neighbor Aksinya does not change anything in his life. At the insistence of his father, he marries the unloved Natalya Korshunova, and, as is customary among young Cossacks, begins preparations for military service. It turns out that during this period of his quiet and measured life, he weakly and mechanically fulfills what is destined for him, and does not decide anything special in his life.

(Melekhov at war)

However, everything changes when Melekhov finds himself on the battlefields of the First World War. Here he shows himself as a brave and brave warrior, a defender of the Fatherland, for which he receives the well-deserved rank of officer. However, in his soul Melekhov is the most ordinary worker, accustomed to working on the land, taking care of his farm, but war comes and not a shovel, but a gun is placed in his hands, calloused from work, and he is ordered to destroy the enemy. For Gregory, the first killed Austrian came as a real shock, and his death was a tragedy that he experienced again and again. He begins to be tormented by questions about the meaning of the war, why people kill each other and who needs it, what is his personal role in this bloody chaos? So he begins to grow up and live a more conscious life. Little by little his soul hardens and is tempered by difficult trials, but still in its depths he retains both conscience and humanity.

Life throws him from one extreme to another; in the civil war he fights either on the side of the whites, or joins the Budennovsky detachment, or joins bandit formations. He no longer just goes with the flow, but confidently and consciously seeks his path in life. Different sharp mind and with his powers of observation, “honest to the core” Melekhov immediately sees the deception and empty promises of the Bolsheviks, the bestial cruelty of the bandits and cannot in any way understand the “truth” of the officer-nobles. Only one thing matters to him in this crazy chaos of a fratricidal war, this is his father's house and his usual, peaceful work in his native land.

(Evgeny Tkachuk plays Grigory Melekhov, still from the film "Quiet Don", Russia 2015)

As a result, he escapes from Fomin’s disgusted gang and dreams of returning home and living a quiet life with Aksinya, without killing anyone, but simply working on his land. It is precisely for her that he is ready to shed the last drop of blood, to kill anyone who encroaches on her. This is how the war once changed an ordinary hard worker, who keenly felt the beauty of the surrounding nature and sincerely felt sorry for the duckling he accidentally killed.

On the way home, a huge emotional shock awaits him, Aksinya dies from a bullet, his love collapses, his hope for a happy and happy life dies. free life. Crushed and unhappy, he finally reaches the threshold of his home, where he is met by his surviving son and the land, waiting for its owner.

The image of the hero in the work

(Gregory with his son)

The whole truth of that terrible and bloody time in the history of the Cossack Don was shown by the outstanding Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov in the image of a simple Cossack Grigory Melekhov. All his contradictions, complex spiritual tossings and experiences are described by the author with amazing psychological authenticity and historical validity.

It cannot be said unequivocally that Melekhov is negative, or positive hero. Sometimes his actions are terrible, and sometimes they are noble and generous. A simple Cossack and hard worker, accustomed to work from morning to night, he becomes a hostage of those bloody historical events, which the entire Russian people experienced. The war broke and maimed him, took away his closest and dearest people, forced him to do terrible things, but he did not break and managed to retain in himself those particles of goodness and light that were once in him. In the end he realizes that the most main value for a person this is his family, home and motherland, and weapons, murder and death evoke only disgust and horror in him.

The image of Melekhov, a simple “peasant farmer in uniform,” embodies the long-suffering fate of the entire simple Russian people, and his difficult life path is a path of struggle, quest, tragic mistakes and bitter experience, and finally knowledge of the truth and oneself.

Grigory Melekhov is the main character of M. Sholokhov’s epic novel “Quiet Don”. His image cannot be called typical, because it also contains special individual traits.

Grigory Melekhov is an ordinary Don Cossack, who grew up in a fairly wealthy family with a patriarchal way of life. From the very first pages of the novel, he is depicted in everyday peasant life, which helps the reader to immediately see the main character traits of Gregory. He reveals a love for nature and for all living things: “with a sudden feeling of acute pity” he looks at a duckling accidentally cut with a scythe while mowing a meadow. In addition, the hero is characterized by sincerity and honesty. He forever retains his love for Aksinya in his soul, and he immediately admits to his wife Natalya that he feels nothing for her: “And I feel sorry for you... to die, during these days you became close, but there is nothing in your heart... Empty.” However, I think that all this can be attributed to the typical traits of a hero.

In my opinion, the individual traits of Grigory Melekhov include his desire to find his way in life, to find himself. The hero seeks the truth, despite all the difficulties and vicissitudes of fate. He is an uneducated and politically illiterate person, so he is easily instilled with different views on war and life in general. However, Gregory does not give up and, when those around him offer him different paths, he firmly answers: “I myself am looking for an entrance.”

Throughout his life, the hero often commits terrible offenses, but Gregory looks for the root of all mistakes in himself, in his actions. He is not without self-condemnation. The war could not destroy his soul and all that goodness that was originally in it. She broke the hero, but did not break him completely. By the end of the novel, the most important values ​​for Melekhov are home, family, and children. War, murder and death only disgust him. Therefore, one can even say that Gregory is an epic hero who takes upon himself all historical responsibility. His image is equal to the image of an entire people. And Melekhov’s path to truth is the tragic path of man’s wanderings, full of mistakes and losses, evidence of man’s deep connection with history. This is the special individuality inherent only in the image of Gregory.

Melekhov is a complex hero, combining both typical and individual traits. However, this gives his image versatility and tragedy, making it memorable and very original.

The literary biography of Grigory Melekhov, according to researchers, is inseparable from the question of the authorship of the texts of the novel “Quiet Don”. Thus, a number of literary scholars are of the opinion that ““co-author” editing” is visible in the manuscripts of the work; hence the “inconsistency and contradictory nature” of the image of the protagonist. Others are convinced that Melekhov’s throwings are connected with the formation of his personality and “are on the rise.”

In the rough drafts of the novel, dated 1925, Grigory Melekhov was not present - he appeared in the final edition, taking the place of the character Abram Ermakov. At the same time, according to the writer Anatoly Kalinin, the name Grigory is often found in early stories Sholokhov; the stories of the heroes acting in his works such as “Kolovert” and “Shepherd” are very far from the fate of Melekhov, but they already reveal “a glimpse of that very young Gregory, who had not yet gotten lost on the roads of harsh hard times.”

Evidence that Melekhov’s “predecessor” was Abram Ermakov is, according to literary critic Felix Kuznetsov, also external similarity (both had “blue convex whites of the eyes” and “curved left eyebrow"), And common features character: both of them were distinguished by their hot disposition and unrestrained actions. Moreover, the two heroes had a common prototype - the Cossack Kharlampy Ermakov, who was shot in 1927 based on the decision of the OGPU board. Sholokhov himself, for several decades after the release of Quiet Flows the Don, answered questions about the prototypes rather evasively, neither confirming nor denying the version about the similarity of the destinies of Ermakov and Melekhov: “Both yes and no... Most likely this is a collective image.”

Researchers have established that Sholokhov was well acquainted with Kharlampy Vasilyevich and communicated very closely with him when collecting materials related to the history of the Civil War in southern Russia. A letter from Mikhail Alexandrovich addressed to Ermakov has been preserved in the archives; it, in particular, mentions the need for a personal meeting to obtain “some additional information regarding the era of 1919.”

The similarities between Gregory and his prototype were repeatedly established by Soviet scientists during their conversations with Ermakov's daughter Pelageya and several Cossacks older than her. Noteworthy testimony came from the White Guard officer Yevgeny Kovalev, who served with Ermakov in the Don Army in the summer of 1919. Kovalev found such a striking similarity between Ermakov and Grigory in terms of their appearance and courage that he wrote an article entitled “Kharlampy Ermakov - the hero of “The Quiet Don””.

Main character“Quiet Don” experiences a complex spiritual evolution throughout the novel. On his way, Melekhov meets several people (Shtokman, Chubaty, Garanzha, Izvarin, Podtelkov) who will influence him, but not so significant as to lead him astray or guide him. He searches for himself, painfully, difficultly, going through terrible trials. And these people are Gregory’s peculiar demons, the influence of which he overcomes along with his own weaknesses and delusions.

The author brings his hero to the end of the novel, prematurely aged, lonely, and having suffered a lot. At the beginning of the first book, Grigory Melekhov is a handsome, talented, hardworking guy who still thinks little about the meaning of his actions, lives like most Cossacks, walking along the beaten path. The author shows him in scenes Everyday life farmer: in the house, while fishing, at a watering place with a horse, in the field. Gregory has a memorable appearance. Like a true Cossack, he is an excellent rider (he jumps onto a horse, slightly touching the withers with his left hand), and took the first prize at the horse races for horseback riding. He sings, or “dishkanit,” as the Cossacks say, “purely a silver thread.” Gregory is talented by nature: in the future he will be a wonderful warrior, a hard-working farmer who loves his work. More than once Gregory will show nobility of soul, conscientiousness of nature, sensitivity to nature and to a loved one, the ability to feel deeply. This replaces lack of knowledge and developed intelligence. Gregory's spiritual growth also occurs outside of the intellectual.

Having fallen in love with Aksinya Astakhova, his married neighbor, Grigory does not yet realize the significance of this feeling in his life and does not think about the consequences. His passion is all-enthralling in a youthful way, elemental in a pagan way, “so frantically they burned with one shameless flame.” It is no coincidence that in the description of the first date between Grigory and Aksinya there is such a comparison: “Grigory threw her into his arms with a jerk - like a wolf throws a slaughtered sheep onto his backbone - tangled in the flaps of his open zipun, he went out of breath. However, at the same time, he agrees to marry according to his father’s choice, then cruelly offends Aksinya in a conversation with indifference to her future fate and the desire to finish this story off.”

Gregory is quick-tempered and wild, the author draws attention to the wolfish grin of Gregory’s teeth both in anger and in a smile. And yet he stands out from among the Cossacks not only in his talents and beauty, but also in his originality. In the wedding scene one can already feel his separateness and resistance to the generally accepted. Depressed by the wedding rites,” he looks at Natalya and those around him with hostility. Grigory does not want to live a double life, as many did, so he leaves his native farm with Aksinya, from the land to become hired workers for the landowner Listnitsky, serving as a groom. Such a life, of course, is not for a Cossack; the author writes: “An easy, well-fed life spoiled him. He became lazy, put on weight, and looked older than his years.”

However, even during this period, Gregory experiences strong emotions that shape his character. Hunting, jealousy, Aksinya’s birth and fear for her life, longing for the farm, for the Don, its “flowing water,” the “sharp, pinching excitement” of fatherhood and the suspicions associated with it, pity for the abandoned Natalya, who attempted her own life.

In the service, Grigory Melekhov is also alone in his search for truth and justice. He does not allow the sergeant to hit him, he single-handedly tries to stop his regiment comrades from brutalizing Franya, and when he fails, he almost cries from powerlessness. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Gregory to resist the general malice, the evil that has spread throughout the world.

With the start of the war the internal contradictions hero Sholokhov. A desperately brave, courageous warrior, he is grieving the murder of an Austrian, which he committed “inflamed by the madness that was happening all around,” “His step was confused and heavy,
as if he was carrying an unbearable baggage on his shoulders; disgust and bewilderment crumpled the soul.” During the war, Grigory was faithful to his duty, showing miracles of courage: he captured three Germans and an Austrian officer, recaptured a battery, saved the officer and Stepan Astakhov, earned a full bow of St. George's crosses, four medals and an officer's rank. But at what cost did all this come to him! It was precisely when Gregory “could not find a foothold in his soul,” he
met with the cold killer Chubaty, who coldly chopped down prisoners. He raises his gun at him, as if in Chubaty Melekhov sees the focus of that blind force of evil with which he is trying to fight. Grigory perceives his injury as a relief.

Once in an eye hospital in Moscow, Melekhov yearns for the Don region, big city has an overwhelming effect on him. In such a vague state, he argues with Garanzha, an evil Ukrainian who was destroying “all his previous concepts about the king, homeland, Cossack military duty,” “all those foundations on which Gregory’s consciousness rested.” Only returning home, to the Don, cured him of his deep doubts. “Grigory felt an inexplicably familiar, warm feeling from the familiar words of an old Cossack song that he had played more than once.” However, misfortunes awaited him at home: the death of his daughter, Aksinya’s betrayal. Having dealt with Listnitsky and turning away from Aksinya’s outstretched hands, Melekhov returns to his home, to his wife.

Then war again. The author writes: “Grigory firmly guarded the Cossack honor, seized the opportunity to show selfless courage, took risks, acted extravagantly, went disguised to the rear of the Austrians, removed the outposts without bloodshed, the Cossack horse-rided and felt that he had left
irrevocably the pain for a person that crushed him in the first days of the war.” He understood at what price fame was bought, “he knew that he would no longer laugh as before,” “he knew that it was difficult for him, when kissing a child, to look openly into clear eyes.” And Gregory changes outwardly, his eyes are sunken, they shine “dimly, like fragments of anthracite”: “the war bent Gregory, sucked the color from his face.”

In January 1917, Melekhov was promoted to the cornet, and after the October Revolution he was appointed to the post of commander of the hundred. An unprecedented career for an ordinary Cossack. It was then that on the way of Gregory he meets the centurion Efim Izvarin, a Cossack-Augonomist, gifted and educated, who confuses Gregory with talk of the separation of the Don from Russia. Immediately after the coup, Melekhov encountered another Cossack, the Bolshevik Fyodor Podtelkov, after conversations with whom Grigory
“I tried painfully to sort out the confusion of thoughts, to think through something, to decide.” Political changes threatened the Cossacks with the loss of land and the destruction of the age-old way of life. There was a lot to think about.

The civil war forced Grigory and his comrades to turn their arms against their brothers, odnostanitsa, odnokhutorniks. Trying to find a way out, Melekhov at first “almost” “accepts the red faith,” but inevitably comes into conflict with Podtelkov,
reveling in their power and ordering the slaughter of prisoners. A terrible scene of the extermination of prisoners, in which the author’s sympathies are clearly on the side of the courageous
Chernetsov and the officers, shocks Grigory and forces him to grab the revolver to point it at Podtelkov.

“In the midst of the struggle for power on the Don,” wounded and slightly healed, Grigory leaves his unit and returns home in a confused state: “Grigory could neither forgive nor forget the death of Chernetsov and the extrajudicial execution of captured officers. He could not “at least outline the future with milestones”; he dreamed of rest. “I wanted to turn away from everything seething with hatred, hostile and incomprehensible world.” The inconsistency of what was happening tormented him with the thought: “Who should I lean against? "The Cossack's soul was yearning
on the ground, on the plow, on the usual peasant work. “I wanted peace and silence.” Returning home stirred up the past, moved Gregory to tears, there was peace and silence here. However, the struggle for power on the Don is becoming more and more fierce, and the war is approaching Gregory’s native village. Melekhov witnesses the execution of Podtelnov and his squad. “A disgusting picture of destruction. drove the shocked Gregory away from the place of execution.

As part of the Don Army, the cornet Melekhov defended the villages from the Reds, towards whom he gradually became imbued with anger: “they invaded his life as enemies, took him away from the land!” However, he did not take part in the general looting, “being disgusted by the robberies,”
He held his hundred harshly, spared prisoners, and therefore “with his excessive gentleness caused discontent among the Cossacks and the regimental authorities,” and was removed from the hundred.

“Participating in the war, Gregory indifferently watched its progress.” He yearned for Aksinya, whom he could not forget, for the “soft arable furrow”, for the “wine-like smell of the autumn earth raised by the plow. Death walked nearby: three horses were killed near Gregory,
The overcoat is holed in five places. Tormented by thoughts and the hopelessness of the situation, Grigory makes a decision and voluntarily leaves the regiment and returns home again.

It was not possible to stay on the sidelines, the Cossacks retreat, and the Red Army soldiers come to Grigory’s house. It takes him a lot of effort to endure their defiant presence and provocations. Having suppressed his pride, he understands “that in spirit he is ready for any test and humiliation, just to save his life and those of his loved ones.”

The choice between red and white turned out to be too difficult for Gregory. For him, “both communists and generals are the same yoke.” He cannot find a way out, “and because he stood on the brink in the struggle of two principles, denying both of them, he gave birth to a dull, incessant irritation. He understands that there is no one truth, “which of the boor is a hundred times worse,” so
for people like Shtokman, thinking Grigory is “more dangerous than the rest combined.” It is Gregory and others like him that Shtokman seeks to destroy.

Melekhov is hiding from the Bolshevik authorities, and his wanderings come to an end when an uprising breaks out on the Don. He felt a surge of joy and strength, “it seemed that his path from now on was clear, like a path illuminated by the month.” The desire to fight for the land, for his home, hatred of the enemies who destroyed his world, brought Gregory to the rebel camp, blinded him and made him cruel.

The war on the Don became extremely cruel, people lost human form, both camps exterminated each other mercilessly, with blind hatred. Pyotr Melekhov dies at the hands of his godfather. Grigory commands a division, shows talent as a strategist and commander, but cannot completely suppress doubts and thoughts about the purpose of his actions. Often the general bestiality overwhelms him too. To get away from dark thoughts and drown out his consciousness, Grigory starts drinking.

The feeling of doom and the immediate proximity of death force Gregory to think about the past, about the meaning of life. Fatigue and emotional distress resulted in a nervous attack that happened to Grigory after the terrible cutting of the sailors. “Brothers, there is no forgiveness for me!.. Put me to death...! ..” - asks
he is comrades.

It devastates a warrior’s soul, burns him black, and his feelings of guilt and sick conscience tear him apart. Gregory's heart. He tells Natalya: “Life is going wrong, and maybe I’m to blame for this too...” The revived relationship with Aksinya cannot fill the emptiness in his heart. However, with the news that Ivan Alekseevich and Mishka Koshevoy, who shot Peter, are being taken to the farm for execution, he hurries to help them out: “Blood has fallen between us, but are we not strangers?! " Having driven his horse, Grigory galloped to the farm and was late.

The outcome of the uprising no longer worries Melekhov. The connection with the Volunteer Army further cooled his military ardor. An awareness of other values ​​comes to him: the chirping of children on his lap brings tears, the appearance of Natalya, the wife who suffered so much because of him, the mother of his children, awakens “a mighty wave of tenderness.” But again he has to leave his home, this time with heavy forebodings .

Upon learning of Natalya's death, Gregory for the first time felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his heart and ringing in his ears. He is tormented by remorse, the loss brings him closer to his children. I suffered from typhus, Grigory becomes softer: “for a long time a simple-minded, childish smile did not leave his lips,
strangely changing the stern appearance of the face, the expression of the brutal eyes, softening the hard folds in the corners of the mouth.”

The protracted war, the Cossacks’ longing for the land, the reluctance to go further than their farm, the lack of internal unity led to the disintegration of the Volunteer Army and defeats; the Army was retreating. With the wave of retreaters, Grigory reached Novorossiysk, where he joined Budyonny’s Cavalry Army, accepting a squadron. He became happier because now he was fighting not with his own people, but with the Poles. The war is coming to an end, and reprisals by the victorious against the vanquished begin. Grigory returns to his empty house, where Dunyashka’s husband Mishka Koshevoy is already in charge.

The demobilized Red commander Melekhov “went home to eventually get to work, live with the children, with Aksinya.” But even now Gregory did not have the chance to return to peaceful life. Koshevoy's vindictiveness and anger haunt him. Gregory moves with the children to Aksinya. He lives without interest, his soul does not lie in anything due to the uncertainty of the situation. Warned about Dunyashka's arrest, Grigory is forced to run again, hide, until chance leads him to Fomin's gang.

He is also a stranger in the gang: robberies and drunkenness are disgusting to Grigory. Kaparin’s offer of betrayal after the defeat of the gang and the murder of the wounded Sterlyadnikov, even at his request, is disgusting. Grigory leaves Fomin’s gang and makes his way to his native farm to pick up Aksinya and flee with her to Kuban or further.

The death of Aksinn in the steppe from a random bullet deprived Gregory last hope for a peaceful life. He realized “that it was all over, that the worst thing that could happen in his life had already happened.” Gregory said goodbye to Aksinya in the firm conviction that they would not be parting for long, and when he raised his head, he saw above him the black sky and the dazzlingly shining black disk of the sun.” Having joined the deserters, Melekhov lived with them for almost a year, but longing again drove him to home. Not
Waiting for the May Day amnesty, Gregory returns home for the last time, where he has only his son left. This is how the epic novel “Quiet Don” ends, but Gregory’s path does not end there. The author leaves his hero on the doorstep of the house. Is this the last return of Gregory?

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