Two-married Mikhail Alexandrovich Sholokhov began writing stories in 1923. In 1925, the collection “Don Stories” was published, where the author reflected the tragic intensity of the class struggle on the Don, when the revolution divided the Cossacks into sharply polar forces. In "Don Stories" Sholokhov conveyed all the cruelty and contradictions of time. In his works, Sholokhov repeatedly emphasizes the need to preserve moral “human” qualities – nobility, complacency and compliance with ethical precepts. The bloody war strikes the author more not even by its cruelty, but by the contradiction of generally accepted norms and rules. In stories, the heroes are often relatives divorced by war, revolution or ideological views on different sides of the “barricades”. The tragedy of such conflicts lies in the need to choose between destroying and remaining true to one’s ideals (often artificial and contrived) or abandoning them, but preserving the sanctity of kinship ties. In such an anti-humanistic way, the events depicted become even more horrifying and cruel. In “Don Stories” Sholokhov develops his own system of values based on humanism, which was later implemented with all force in the story “The Fate of Man” (Valentina H.).
Everyone chooses the hero of Sholokhov’s stories exclusively according to their taste. Everyone likes their hero of their works. This is understandable, because the fate of the heroes, the problems raised by Sholokhov, to some extent consonant with our time. The writer Sholokhov is straightforward, honest, truthful. The truth and his "Don stories." In them, the writer expressed his attitude to the war, which was a tragedy of the people. It is destructive for both sides, brings irreparable losses, cripples souls. The writer is right: it is inadmissible for human beings, intelligent beings, to become barbaric and self-destructive. The very essence of stories makes you think about life. The meaning of them is that people, in order to prove their devotion to ideals, overstep the life and fate of the closest and dearest people. The brother must kill the brother, the son the father. Why didn’t Sholokhov add happiness to his works? Perhaps he wanted to bring us readers a little closer to the realities of war, when there is not a single happy man. Evgeny Semenovich Matveev is a Soviet and Russian theater and film actor, film director, screenwriter, teacher. People’s Artist of the USSR – in his own way reinterpreted “Don Stories”, and brought to the audience his film “The Mortal Enemy”.
To be honest, the impressions of the film are far from unambiguous. On the one hand, there are great acting works that make famous characters sound new. On the other hand, there is a feeling of understatement, underdisclosure. The brightest and most controversial image in Anna Sergeevna Yashchurova. Zhanna Prokhorenko played brilliantly, although from a philistine point of view all her throwing looks strange. However, it is necessary to take into account the mentality of the woman of that time. Married in church, she goes to Cluquin only because her husband has long since come funeral. He lives happily until his legitimate husband returns. Anna's soul is in turmoil. You bet! Because now she's a two-man. Anyone on the farm can point a finger at it and call it bad words. And then the legitimate husband Alexander (Alexander Lazarev) sings sweet songs that is ready to forget everything, and start family life “from scratch”. So Anna’s heart melted, and she returned to her legitimate husband. But very soon I realized that a broken cup cannot be glued together. Once again, the dark clouds covered her heart. Having departed from one shore, she never moored to the other, stopping exactly in the middle in front of the ice hole: there is no way back, and go forward conscientiously.
Against the background of Anna’s emotional tragedy, Evgeny Matveev and his chairman of the village collective Arseny Klyukvin look somewhat faded. It lacks his character's "internal burning." Everything is too simple and everyday: came, said, explained. And his feelings for Anna clearly lose almost animal emotions of Alexander Lazarev. In this picture, it so happened that negative characters look brighter than positive ones. Stanislav Chekan incomparably played the fist Yashchurov. In his eyes, in his words, in his gestures, in his behavior, there is a fierce hatred of Soviet power. His son Alexander is the same - explosive, uncontrollable, cruel. Great supporting roles. Uncharacteristic, but memorable role in Gergiy Vicin. Emotionally played Valentina Vladimirova. Piercing episodes in Maya Bulgakova and Maria Vinogradova. With a weak main storyline, the secondary roles greatly raise the film’s level, making it another bright page demonstrating the validity of the Nobel Committee’s words: “For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks in a critical time for Russia” before awarding Mikhail Sholokhov the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965.