South-western gallery continues to illustrate works by Sholokhov

We see a thin, light-haired, freckled boy with bright-blue cunning eyes called Mishka standing on the bank of the Don. It is the main character of M. A. Sholokhov’s story Saucy Kid. The 7-year-old Minka lives with his mom and grandpa in one of the upper Don Cossack settlements. He was nicknamed “Saucy Kid” due to his restless character. He is sharp and squirrelly, he is always getting into a mess. The story is set in the late summer of 1920.

The next, no less interesting mosaic is related to another Sholokhov’s story Foal. It relates a touching story of a foal born at the height of fighting during the Civil War in the Don region in one of the Red Army squadrons. A detachment of Red Army horsemen ride along the bank of the Don River, and the cavalry men turn to look at Cossack women, washing linen in the river. The mosaic picture is done masterfully and with great attention to details: Budenny and Voroshilov, well-recognized among the Red Army men; flirtatious smiles of Cossack women and their reflection in the water. The foal, jumping, mischievous, long-legged, thin, careless, melts hearts of the Cossacks in the horrible period of the Civil War.

On the other side, there is a Soviet emblem of Rostov-on-Don. It is a shield, vertically divided into two equal parts, a blue one and a red one. There is a circle in the center of the shield: the left part of the circle has a form of a spike against the blue background, and the right one has a form of a cogwheel. The spike and the cogwheel are symbols of developed agriculture and mechanical engineering.
Inside the circle, there is a crenelated fortress wall, which highlights the foundation of Rostov-on-Don as a fortress built to defend against nomad tribes in the mid-18th century.

In the lower part of the circle, there is a spiked helmet against the background of crossed sabers, as a tribute to the legendary First Cavalry Army. In the lower part of the shield, there are two horizontal wavy lines symbolizing the Don, which plays an important role in the region’s economy.

A variant of the city’s emblem dating back to 1904 was restored in 1996.