Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov's 'Tikhiy Don' (The Silent Don] 1928-1940) is analyzed for the designative-nominative, poetic, and aesthetic functions of the personification of animals and attributing animalistic qualities to humans. Excerpts are quoted showing zoonymic attributes, epithets, and comparisons to various forms of fauna made in the description of characters. Such associations are utilized as a stylistic-expressive resource to portray the character and personality of heroes and heroines, their desires and passions, physical appearance, or state of mind. The novel portrays humans and animals as children of the same mother nature, leading parallel lives in the same time and space but according to different laws. The Soviet writer often makes the point that the "reasoned" life of men is sometimes below the laws of nature governing instinctive life in the animal kingdom. (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 2002, vol. 36, n. 4)