The Cossacks and the Eskimos - And Quiet Flows the Don - The Movie Review

The Cossacks and the Eskimos – And Quiet Flows the Don – The Movie Review

The Nobel Laureate Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov’s four volume epic Novel titled “And Quiet  Flows the Don” tells the story of placid waters and the Cossacks who lives in the Don river valley, and the life of Siberian inhabitants Eskimos.

The Novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” was adapted to make   the Movie titled in the same name in 1957.  A six hour long epic (original Director’s cut) about the life of Don Cossacks   in a village in Southern Russia between 1912 and 1928.

The Russian language film was released in USA on 1st January, 1960. The six hours long movie was cut down to 1 hr. 47 minutes for international audience.

 I would like to review the epic movie at the end of this Blog post.

                         
        


              

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokov was a Russian writer who won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1965 for his book “And Quiet Flows the Don”.   The Novel also won Stalin Prize in 1941.  He was born in the land of Cossacks, Vyoshenskaya, Russia on 24^th May, 1905 and died on 21^st February, 1984.   He had four children out of the wedlock with Maria Petrovna  G.,  two sons and two daughters.

 The Novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” is considered to be one of the significant works of 20^th Century Russian literature.  It depicts the lives and struggles of Don Cossacks during the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War.

 This story of a Group of Cossacks living along the Don River – a primitive, virile and unbelievably brutal people – centers about Gregor  Melekhov a young Cossack with Turkish blood in his veins.  His home life, unhappy marriage life and impassioned love affair, and his military adventures and experiences in the revolution are told with frank naturalism, from a Bolshevik point of view.  Host of other characters crowd the pages of a powerful novel of war and revolution.

The book deals not only with the struggles and sufferings of the Cossacks but also the landscape itself, which is vividly brought to life.  There are also many folk songs referenced throughout the Novel. 

Cossacks

The Cossacks played an important role in the historical and cultural development of Russia and Ukraine.  Many Cossacks served as Cavalrymen in the armies of the Czars.

     

The novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” is an epic picture of Russian life during a time of crisis and examines it through political, military, romantic and civilian lenses.

His eminent works are -

1.                And Quiet Flows the Don
2.       The Don Flows Home to the Sea
3.       Tales from the Don
4.       Virgin Soil Upturned
5.        Fierce and Gentle Warriors 

The short stories -

1.         The Colt      
2.         The Rascal        
3.         The Fate of a Man

Eskimos

The Eskimos are found in North East Siberia (Russia).  They are also found in Greenland, Northern Canada and Alaska.   They generally lived in northern arctic regions.  The Eskimo is a slang word meaning “Raw Meat Eaters”.   The Eskimos are short, stockily built and has light-brown complexion.

“AND QUIET FLOWS THE DON” -   A  Movie  Review  

                 

Based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov, “and quiet flows the don” the movie was released on 1^st   January, 1957 and directed by Sergie Gerasimov.   This sprawling epic chronicles the life of Grigori (Pyotr Glebov), a Cossack who lives in the River Don valley during the early 20^th Century.   When Grigori begins an affair with the married Aksinia (Ellina Bystritskaya) wife of Stepan Astakhov (Alexander Blagovestav), a family friend, it begins a long feud between two families which plays out during a particularly unstable time in Russian politics.  As their romance blossoms, it is threatened by the outbreak of both World War I and Bolshevik Revolution.  The Cossacks are shown as traditional farmers and warriors who are suffering through the most dramatic events in the history of Russia. Grogori’s father finds a suitor in Natalya (Zinaida Kiriyenko) and arranged the marriage between Grigori and Natalya.  However, Grigori continues the affair with Aksinia.  Aksinia was continuously beaten by her husband Stepan and there was no love between them. One day Grigori elope with Aksinia and that leads to flare up of the family feud of the two.  The outcome of this romance is the focus of the plot as well as the impending World and Civil wars which draw up the best and young Cossack men for what will be two of the bloodiest wars in Russian history. 

For the drama, which is the latest consignment in the United States-Soviet Union Cultural  Exchange Programme, is merely a fragmentary slice of the pastoral and bloody, romantic and sedentary lives and loves of the villagers of Tastarskaya on the Don that is for the most part, portrayed in obvious, flamboyant style.

The lyric for the folk song “Where Have all the Flowers Gone?” by Pete Seeger and Joe Hickersen were adapted from a Cossack folk song mentioned in the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”.

In 1958 the film won Crystal Globe Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Best Film Award at the All-Union Film Festival.