On November 15, the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow played host to presentation of facsimile publication of the manuscript “And Quiet Flows the Don”, a novel by the Russian prominent 20th-century writer Mikhail Sholokhov. “And Quiet Flows the Don” is the most popular work by the writer devoted to events of the 1917 revolution and subsequent civil war. Mikhail Sholokhov was awarded with the Nobel Prize for this particular novel. Despite this disputes were held for quite a long time if Sholokhov is the genuine author of the novel. What caused apprehension was Sholokhov’s age: he began to write the novel when he was 20; so, many doubted if the young author could have such versatile knowledge of life and portray it so profoundly.
What fed the rumours was the fact Sholokhov’s archive in the south of Russia was practically ruined during World War II. Only in 1999 manuscripts of the first two of the novel’s four volumes were found in Moscow in the family of the writer’s friend. After careful international expertise scientists came to the conclusion that Mikhail Sholokhov was the author of the novel, there is no denying it.
A fellow-member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, philologist Felix Kuznetsov, says that after the facsimile publication of the manuscript everyone will be convinced that Sholokhov is the author of the novel. This is what he says: “Facsimile publication of the manuscript has crossed all “Ts” in the dispute who is the author of “And Quiet Flows the Don” which continued in the second half of the 20th century. The publication gives a chance to all those interested and doubting to look at, to read, to appreciate and to consider the text.”
Facsimile publication of the manuscript is provided with commentaries on the history of creating the novel, the writer’s biography and a comparative analysis of the novel’s text with prose of those writers who were believed to be hypothetical authors of “And Quiet Flows the Don”.
“The Russians and the Swiss” is the title of the book whose presentation was recently held in Moscow. Its author is the first Russia’s ambassador to Switzerland and Lichtenstein Andrei Stepanov. In his book the Russian diplomat gives a description of Swiss economy and culture, considers the model of Swiss confederation and analyses the consequences of the country’s “eternal neutrality”. The author sees his book as “an additional source of information about the country whose experience is instructive”.
According to the veteran of Russian diplomacy Yury Fokin, “professor Stepanov’s book is a map of Russian-Swiss relations. So far many Russians knew little about Switzerland, the new book allows us to get a better idea of that most interesting country”. Andrei Stepanov intends to continue his studies of Switzerland.
In the Moscow Autograph of the Century publishing house a richly decorated book appeared telling about outstanding Russian cultural figures, scientists and sportsmen. It contains 25 essays written by our contemporaries whom Russians today call “living legends”. The essays are provided with photos from family archives. Among the authors are world-famous stage director Yury Lyubimov, opera singer Yelena Obrazstova, writers Fazil Iskander and Boris Strugatsky, cosmonaut Georgy Grechko, hockey-player Vladislav Tretyak, figure-skater Irina Rodnina and patriarch of Russian culture artist Boris Yefimov who recently marked his 106th birthday. Every book of the circulation of 250 copies is provide with autographs of the authors and their addresses to readers and good wishes, including those in verses.