p In Sholokhov’s earlier publicist writings two basic fields of interest become immediately apparent: a wide range of vital contemporary concerns, including the urgent needs of our economy and of collective farmers; and questions of general culture, including literature and art. These two fields may be given the highly contingent definitions of “Life” and “The Writer”. However, as we have seen, the war took Sholokhov’s mind off these fundamental interests and started him on a series of articles in which the note of love or hate predominated: love for the socialist Motherland and hatred for its enemies. This was publicist material written in direct response to the events of the war years and later, with the ending of the war, to the struggle for peace throughout the whole world.

p Sholokhov’s postwar publicist writings have been characterised by a clear return to his earlier basic themes. A more and more sharply defined place has also come to be occupied by the subject of youth, of traditions handed on from one generation to the next and of the communist and patriotic education of young talent. In recent years, his personal contacts with the youth have been intensified, and articles addressed to the most varied sections of Soviet youth appear with growing frequency.

p A brief survey of certain aspects of Sholokhov’s literary activity in the 1920s and 1930s is highly instructive in this context. The satirical newspaper sketches “The Test”, “Three” and “The Government Inspector”, which represent his first published works, are all directly connected with the life of Soviet young people at the beginning of the 1920s.

p By 1938 Sholokhov, then 33, had acquired world fame with the appearance of two volumes of stories, three books of And Quiet Flows the Don and the first book of Virgin Soil Upturned. He had the right and even to some extent the obligation to talk to young people of Komsomol age as an elder brother, as one who wished, if only humorously, to be young again:

p “Dear Soviet boys and girls!

p “The Komsomol is celebrating its twentieth birthday, and it’s an occasion I cannot miss. An old man, walking past a crowd of merrymaking young people, will pause for a minute and as he listens to the tune played on the accordion and gazes smilingly at the happy young faces he seems to feel years younger himself. It’s the same with me. I, too, feel younger just 29 thinking of you, my dear readers, and also a little sad because I am already thirty-three and will look like a pretty old bird at your wonderful holiday.”

p Sholokhov devoted the most outstanding part of his speech to the 3rd Congress of Kazakhstan Writers to the problems of educating young writers and ensuring that they have the opportunity to work creatively. The author’s words were imbued with a fatherly concern for those still taking their first steps; nevertheless, the views he expressed were in no way indulgent and many listeners were struck by the dominant image of his speech, characteristic of a writer whose work has always been distinguished by its soaring symbolism:

p “I was once told how the golden eagle teaches its young to fly. He makes them take wing and without letting them come down forces them to climb higher and higher, driving them until they are utterly exhausted. Only thus will a young golden eagle learn to soar in the sky.. . . We have to use this method to teach our young writers, forcing them to climb higher and higher, so that eventually they’ll shape into real eagles in literature and not wet crows or domestic hens. But the golden eagle does not break the wings of its young for not being able to or being afraid to climb to the required height at the first try. Nor do our critics have the right to break the budding writers’ wings.”

p The message that Sholokhov sent to the 13th Congress of the YCL has a ring which would be not inappropriate to a prose poem; it was printed in Komsomolskaya Pravda, and here is an extract from it:

p “You are my own youth now past, you are the justified hopes of our country and our Party! Permit me on the eve of your congress to greet you, embrace you and wish you, the pride of my country, every success and happiness in your work, study and personal lives.”

p At the 3rd Ail-Union Congress of Collective Farmers Sholokhov spoke again in the concluding part of his speech of Soviet youth as the hope and pride of their country. Among young writers, he said, many genuine talents were to be found from whom works of significance might naturally be expected.

p In view of the features specific to Sholokhov’s publicist writings this book has been divided into three sections, entitled “Life”, “The Writer" and “Young People”.

p The first section is naturally the most extensive, not only because of its greater thematic variety but because of the vital importance of the subjects raised. We concluded that little 30 benefit would be derived from subdividing this section further: for example, into “Creative Work" and “The War”. The second section is also the second in scale. The third section includes articles, speeches and messages of greeting which were either directly addressed to or relating to young people.

By assigning the material to different categories we wanted to make it easier for the reader to use this book. However, Sholokhov often touches upon a series of questions relating to the most varied fields of human activity in the course of a single speech. An article may begin with a number of general problems, and end with a message addressed directly to the youth. Included in the third section are Sholokhov’s speeches made at the Lenin Prize presentation, at the 22nd Party Congress, the 4th Congress of Soviet Writers, and the 3rd AilUnion Congress of Collective Farmers as a significant part of each of these addresses is devoted to young people, their education, their duty to the people and to history, for they are the future of our Soviet state.