Statue of Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov in Alexandria unveiled

CAIRO – 13 December 2021: On its official social media platforms, Egypt’s Syndicate of Fine Artists published a video of the unveiling of the statue of the Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov.

Sholokhov won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965. One of his most famous novels is "The Quiet Don", which was later translated into Arabic.

The statue was placed in front of the Alexandria Stadium, in the presence of the members of the Russian community and the Director of the Russian Cultural Centers in Egypt. The of the Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov was designed by Osama al-Sarawi.

The ceremony was attended by the Director of the Russian Cultural Center and an accompanying delegation from the Russian Consulate in Alexandria.

Sholokhov grew up in a family of farmers. His father, Alexander Sholokhov, was a merchant, and his mother, Anastasia Chernikova, was a Caucasian woman. Some sources indicate that the mother was illiterate, but she learned to read and write at the age of 40 in order to be able to communicate with her son.

The parents made sure that Mikhail had a decent education, and they had the desire and the money to achieve this. The boy studied in different schools and in different cities.

When he was 17, Sholokov worked as a porter, construction worker, accountant and even a teacher in literacy schools.

In 1925, he began writing his famous novel, “The Quiet Don,” and took 12 years to complete it. Sholokhov's writings were considered the ideal model of socialist realism that dealt with the First World War, the Russian Civil War, and the control of Soviet rule over the region.

“The Quiet Don” describes the impact of the conflict between the armies of the First World War, as well as the social impacts that befell on the novel’s protagonist Melikhov, a character who has gone through many horrors. He suffers great emotional harm as a result of the war and its tragedies.

The readers of the novel at that time, especially supporters of the communists, wanted Sholokhov to conclude his novel with Melikhov joining the ranks of the Red Army.

However, its end did not meet their expectations, and Melikhov lost his family and his land.