“INTENTION OR MISTAKE?”: THE FINALE OF THE NOVEL “AND QUIET FLOWS THE DON” IN THE ASSESSMENTS OF THE CONTEMPORARIES

Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel “And quiet flows the Don” is undoubtedly one of the greatest works of the Russian literature of XX century. The publication in 1940 of the last book of the novel provoked heated discussions in the central periodicals, at meetings of the Critics’ Section of the USSR Writers’ Union and subsequently in the Committee on the Stalin Prizes. This article examines the various views of the writer’s contemporaries regarding the ending of the novel, and Sholokhov’s own reaction to it.