Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (1905–1984) was a distinguished Russian novelist best known for his epic work And Quiet Flows the Don, which vividly depicted the life and fate of Don Cossacks during the tumultuous periods of the Russian Revolution, the civil war, and collectivization. His exceptional storytelling won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1965, honoring his "artistic power and integrity" in capturing a historic phase in the life of the Russian people.