The Azure Steppe by Mikhail Sholokhov. Short summary

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The main character is Zakhar the shepherd, who is the narrator. He was in the service of a landowner whose son ordered the execution of his grandchildren during the Russian Civil War.

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In his youth, the protagonist of the work, Zakhar, served as a coachman for a kind landlord. Then he began to work for the benefit of another manager, but the latter was distinguished by his cruel temper. The landlord’s son officer had the same temperament.

When a civil war broke out on the territory of the former Russian Empire, the peasants rose up against the landowner’s son, who tortured them — the latter was banished, and the commoners began to divide among themselves the plots of land that belonged to him. But the leader was not willing to put up with such an outcome — he returned with the Cossacks to punish the rioters.

The young landowner orders that all the rebels be shot. Zakhar asks the officer to take pity on his grandchildren. The leader agrees to do this, but in return he demands that the main character’s relatives apologize and serve him faithfully from now on, which they have refused to do…