“Life was hard for us”: the childhood years of the future writer
Vasily Shukshin with his mother Maria Popova. Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
View of the village of Srostki and the house-museum of Vasily Shukshin (in the center). Photo: Viktor Sadchikov / TASS Photo Chronicle
Vasily Shukshin in childhood. 1942 Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
Vasily Shukshin was born on July 25, 1929 in the village of Srostki, Siberian Territory of the RSFSR (today Altai Territory). His parents Makar Shukshin and Maria Popova were peasants and soon after the birth of their son they joined the local collective farm, where they worked. Vasily was the eldest child in the family. In 1931, the Shukshins had a daughter, Natalya.
In 1933, Makar Shukshin, at that time a thresher operator at the Flame of Communism collective farm, was arrested. He was accused of participating in an anti-Soviet conspiracy, damaging common property and crops. Maria Popova wrote: “They took my husband. They made up something stupid. They came in at night, he jumped out into the entryway, well, and in the entryway three people pounced on him. The guys were scared. Natalya is trembling all over, and Vasily bit his lip until it bled: Mom, where is Father going?” In April 1933, Makar Shukshin was shot.
At first, Maria Popova raised her children alone, and then she remarried, to fellow villager Pavel Kuksin. Vasily Shukshin called him “a man of rare heart,” kind and loving. The family lived poorly.
Life was apparently difficult for us then. They were malnourished. Mom went to work, and left my sister and me with our grandparents. That's where we ate. We suffered from hunger and cold. I have retained my love for my mother throughout my life. I was always terribly afraid that she would die: she was often ill. Then another father appeared in our hut. Life has become easier. And then the war broke out, and our other father was gone: he was killed on the Kursk Bulge. Hard times have come again.
Vasily Shukshin, “The Very First Memories”
In Srostki, Vasily Shukshin went to school. He studied poorly, but read a lot. His mother recalled: “He always had a book tucked under his belt in his trousers. I read it indiscriminately, in a row. I also read at night... once I burned a blanket.” Shukshin took books from school. Sometimes he had to do this in secret: when he got bad grades, his mother forbade him to read fiction.
At school, Shukshin was involved in amateur performances - every week he organized concerts and performed in them himself. At concerts, Shukshin read poetry and acted out skits. His classmate Valentina Bezmenova later wrote: “There was no such thing that our class did not prepare: Vasya insisted.”
Vasily Shukshin: biography, personal life
A boy named Vasya was born to Makar and Maria Shukshin in the summer of July 25, 1929. They lived in the village of Srostki, which is located in the Altai Territory. Some time after the birth of his son Makar Shukshin was arrested. In 1933, the man was unjustly convicted and shot.
After his father was recognized as an enemy of the people, Vasily was forced to take his mother’s maiden name. The boy lived with the surname Popov until he received a passport. The writer remembered his stepfather, who raised Vasily, as a kind and fair man.
Mechanic, sailor and literature teacher
Vasily Shukshin (far left) with peers. Srostki, Biysk district, Altai region. Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
Vasily Shukshin (third from left) among fellow villagers. Srostki, Biysk district, Altai region. Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
Vasily Shukshin while serving in the Black Sea Fleet. 1949 Photo: All-Russian Memorial Museum-Reserve of V.M. Shukshina, Srostki, Altai Territory
In 1944, Vasily Shukshin graduated from the seven-year school and went to Biysk to enroll in an automobile technical school. He studied poorly, received low grades in technical subjects, sometimes played truant and violated discipline: “They give us a lecture, but I want to crow…”
A year before graduation, Shukshin left the technical school, returned to Srostki and got a job at the local collective farm to help his mother and sister. However, already in 1946 he left the village again and went to the Moscow region.
It hurts to remember. I was seventeen years old when I left home early in the spring. I still wanted to run up and ride on my feet on the smooth, light-as-glass ice, but I had to go into a huge unknown life, where there was not a single person close to me or just an acquaintance, it was sad and a little scary. My mother took me out of the village, crossed me onto the road, sat down on the ground and began to cry. And he understood that she was in pain and also scared, but it was even more painful, apparently, for a mother to look at her hungry children. There was also a sister there, she was little. And I could have left. And left.
Vasily Shukshin, from the article “Only this will not be an economic article...”
Shukshin began working at the Soyuzprommekhanizatsiya trust as a mechanic. He was sent to the construction of factories in Kaluga and Vladimir, a power plant and a railway in the Moscow region. In the fall of 1949, the future writer was drafted into the army. He served as a radio operator in the Baltic Fleet. Colleague Vasily Egorov remembered him as a taciturn book lover and a good specialist. In the army, Shukshin began writing his first stories, including “Horses Played Out in the Field” and “Two on a Cart.”
One day, right at sea, Shukshin became ill - his ulcer worsened. Despite the bad weather, his colleagues took him to shore and took him to the doctor. After treatment, the medical commission declared the writer unfit for service.
Shukshin returned to Srostki again. In the village he received treatment and prepared for exams - the writer wanted to receive a matriculation certificate. Shukshin's grades were again poor: he received A's only in the history of the USSR, the Constitution of the USSR and geography. In other disciplines the writer was given Cs and Bs. He also received “satisfactory” in the Russian language exam. However, a few months after passing the exams, Shukshin was invited to work at a local school for working youth - to teach both Russian and literature.
To be honest, I was not an important teacher (without special education, without experience), but I still can’t forget how kindly and gratefully the boys and girls who had worked hard during the day looked at me when I managed to tell them something important, interesting and interesting (I taught Russian language and literature). I loved them at such moments. And in the depths of my soul, not without pride and happiness, I believed: now, in these moments, I am doing a real, good thing. It's a pity that we don't have such moments in our lives. They make up happiness.
Vasily Shukshin, “Monologue on the stairs”
Soon Shukshin was appointed acting director of the school and secretary of the Komsomol organization. He was involved in agitation, gave lectures to workers and collective farmers and encouraged them to study. At the same time, his works were published for the first time in the local regional newspaper “Battle Cry” - these were pedagogical articles “More attention to evening school students” and “It’s never too late to study.”
Vasily Shukshin, children
Vasily Shukshin is a talented writer, director and actor, not only for his time. His work stands far above time; it has no statute of limitations. The most popular and beloved film by the audience, shot by this famous person, is “Kalina Krasnaya”. There were many women in Vasily Shukshin’s life, but there was only one legal wife. There are still various rumors about which of them the great master truly loved, and with whom there were only fleeting romances. However, the legal wife, fellow villager Maria Shumskaya, never gave her husband heirs, since the marriage was more of a formality than a fact. But the children of Vasily Shukshin from actress Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina subsequently became very famous personalities.
In the photo - Ekaterina Shukshina
Everyone knows that in his marriage to the actress, the writer and director had two daughters - Maria and Olga, with a difference of only a year. But many have already forgotten, and some never knew that Vasily Shukshin has another daughter, Ekaterina, from his union with the writer-critic Victoria Sofronova. She practically does not remember her father, since her parents separated almost immediately after her birth, and meetings were very rare. She even began to bear her father’s surname only before entering school. It was then that Vasily Shukshin officially registered it through the registry office. Now Ekaterina Shukshina is translating books. She is married to a German who is also closely associated with literature. Unfortunately, there are no children in their family. Catherine does not communicate with her younger sisters Maria and Olga.
In the top photo - Maria Shukshina, in the bottom - Olga Shukshina
The eldest daughter of Vasily Shukshin and Lydia Fedoseeva Shukshina Maria is now a very popular actress and TV presenter. Probably, the genes of her talented father and actress mother were reflected in her. Her sister Olga Shukshina also graduated from a theater university and acted in films for some time, but then abruptly gave up everything and went to a monastery, where she spent 15 long years atonement for her sins. She named her son Vasily in honor of his famous father. Now, having returned from voluntary confinement in a monastery, Olga Shukshina lives quietly and calmly in Sergiev Posad. All of Vasily Shukshin’s daughters know about each other’s existence, but they make no attempts to establish communication.
And in general, a practically unknown fact is that Vasily Shukshin considered his little nephews (the children of his mother’s sister) Nadezhda and Sergei to be his own children. He actually replaced their father, whom the children lost in early childhood. Nadezhda Zinovieva remembers with gratitude that Vasily Shukshin showed them the country when he took them with him on filming and on expeditions, and also helped them get a decent education, and helped their mother move from the village to the city, and much more that is impossible to list. The nephews treated the actor, writer and director like their own father.
“Soviet Dream”: Vasily Shukshin - VGIK student
Vasily Shukshin is a student at VGIK. 1958 Photo: State Museum of the History of Literature, Art and Culture of Altai, Barnaul
Vasily Shukshin (left) and actress Irma Raush (right) at VGIK. Second half of the 1950s. Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
Vasily Shukshin (right) as Fyodor the Great in Marlen Khutsiev’s feature film “Two Fyodors” (1958)
In the summer of 1954, Vasily Shukshin left his job in Srostki and went to Moscow to enter the Literary Institute. However, there the writer learned that applicants were required to have published stories or poems. He didn't have it. Then Shukshin decided to take exams at the Historical and Archival Institute. And shortly before them, I met director Ivan Pyryev, who advised the writer to submit documents to VGIK. In the oral exams, Shukshin was rated low. He recalled: “My preparation left much to be desired, I did not shine with special erudition and with my whole appearance I caused bewilderment of the selection committee.” However, the writer received excellent marks for written work - a discussion about the work of Vladimir Mayakovsky, a review of the film “True Friends” by Mikhail Kalatozov and an essay on the topic “VGIK during the admissions campaign.” Shukshin’s last work, a few years later, was published as a story entitled “Whales, or About how we became familiar with art.” The writer was accepted into the directing department of VGIK in the workshop of Mikhail Romm.
Shukshin took the height on the first attempt, which, of course, cannot but be regarded as a miracle, but one thing must be immediately clarified: he did everything to make it happen, and in general his entire life, starting from demobilization, is an example of the incredibly accurate strategy of a man who ... believes that only glory will save him, and strives for success with the inevitability of salmon going to spawn. Shukshin in this sense is a purely Soviet phenomenon, a Soviet dream realized.
Literary critic Alexey Varlamov, “Shukshin”, series “Life of Remarkable People”
Vasily Shukshin received excellent marks in exams, although it was difficult for him to study. He was embarrassed by his village dialect and gaps in knowledge. He wrote to his mother: “Study, whatever you say, is still a bit difficult. I have a significant gap in my studies. But I won’t leave others behind. The exams are coming soon. I think there will be only excellent marks.” In 1956, Shukshin made his film debut: he played the main role in Andrei Tarkovsky’s educational film “The Killers” based on the story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway.
While studying at VGIK, Shukshin joined the CPSU and began to participate in party meetings of the institute. Shukshin hid information about his repressed father, in all questionnaires he indicated his mother and stepfather, who died in the Great Patriotic War, as relatives. However, in 1956, when the writer was in his second year, his father was rehabilitated. Shukshin said to Alexander Gordon, a student at Romm’s workshop: “I was ashamed of my father all my life, but it turned out that he was not guilty of anything. How can I live now with my guilt towards him?
The following year, 1957, on the advice of Andrei Tarkovsky, Marlen Khutsiev invited the young actor to work on the film “Two Fedoras” about a soldier who returned from the war to his homeland. Initially, Shukshin was an assistant director - he conducted tests, selected documentary materials from which the script was drawn up, and supervised make-up artists and costume designers. However, soon Khutsiev invited him to play the main role in the film: “Because I felt individuality, which was expressed by face, voice, and gesture.”
The actor approached filming responsibly: he did not abandon his duties as an assistant and was present even at those rehearsals in which his hero was not involved. The film was released in 1958. Shukshin almost missed the premiere. Because of “disagreements with the police,” they did not want to let him out of the station, where he often ended up because of fights. Marlen Khutsiev stood up for Shukshin: he persuaded the police to release the leading actor.
After the premiere, the writer began to be invited to the cinema - critics and colleagues wrote about the “utter naturalness” of his acting and his ability to get used to the role. Over the next few years, the writer acted a lot. He played in the films “Golden Echelon”, “A Simple Story”, “Alenka” and others.
While studying at VGIK, Shukshin's stories began to be published in Soviet newspapers and magazines. Mikhail Romm advised the writer to contact the editorial office. In 1958, Smena published the story “Two on a Cart,” and a little later the works “Truth,” “Exam,” and “Stepka’s Love.”
In 1959, Shukshin passed his final exams, but did not receive a diploma. As a directing student, he needed to create his own film. The writer didn’t even start - after all, he was constantly filming. And only in 1960 he began to write a script for a film about the work of a rural district committee. Shukshin believed that none of the VGIK students knew village life as well as he did. In his thesis entitled “From Lebyazhye they report,” the writer was the director, screenwriter and leading actor. Shukshin received an excellent exam for this film, but the film was not released. He wrote: “I experimented further: the film rental does not buy. They say: people are nothing, people exist, they are alive, but this is not a novella. The bow with which they are accustomed to presenting a picture to the viewer is missing.”
Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Makarovich Shukshin - Soviet writer, film director, actor, screenwriter.
Vasily Shukshin was born in the village of Srostki, Biysk District, Altai Territory, into a family of individual peasants. The head of the family, the father, Makar Leontyevich Shukshin, enjoyed well-deserved respect in the village and worked as a machine operator on threshing machines. After his arrest, his mother, Maria Sergeevna, was left without a breadwinner with two children in her arms. She remarried to a fellow villager, Pavel Kuksin. Vasily Shukshin remembered his stepfather all his life as a man of rare kindness. But just as life began to improve in the family, war broke out and my stepfather went to the front, and a year later a funeral came to the house. So, as a thirteen-year-old teenager, Vasily became the main man and breadwinner in the house.
From 1945 to 1947, he studied at the Biysk Automotive Technical School, but was unable to graduate - he had to feed his family and get a job.
Shukshin’s first place of work was the Soyuzprommekhanizatsiya trust. Having worked there as a rigger, Shukshin was soon sent first to a turbine plant in Kaluga, and then to a tractor plant in Vladimir.
In 1949, Shukshin was called up to serve in the Navy. He served as a sailor in the Baltic Fleet and as a radio operator in the Black Sea Fleet. There the literary activity of the future writer began: for the first time he tried to write stories that he read to his colleagues.
Returning to his native village in 1953, Vasily Makarovich passed the matriculation exams as an external student at local secondary school No. 32. For some time he worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Srostinsky school for rural youth.
In 1954, Shukshin left for the capital to enroll in VGIK. To raise money for the journey, his mother sold a cow. At first, Shukshin applied to the screenwriting department, but then decided to enter the directing department and graduated in 1960 (workshop of M.I. Romm). While studying at VGIK, on the advice of Romm, Shukshin began sending his stories to metropolitan publications. His first story, “Two on a Cart,” was published in 1958 in the magazine “Smena.”
The graduate work of the VGIK graduate, the short film “They report from Lebyazhye,” went unnoticed. Many of Shukshin's colleagues considered the film outdated, even boring.
Shukshin's acting career, as opposed to his directing career, was much more successful. Shukshin starred in the film “Two Fyodors”, after which invitations to appear in films rained down on him from all sides. In a short period, Shukshin starred in a number of films: “Golden Echelon” (1959), “A Simple Story” (1960), “When the Trees Were Big,” “Alenka,” “Mishka, Seryoga and Me” (1962), “We , two men" (1963), etc.
Since his third year at VGIK, he has been sending out his stories to all editorial offices in the capital. And already in the 1960s, one after another, Shukshin’s literary works began to be published. Among them: “Truth”, “Bright Souls”, “Styopkina Love” were published in the magazine “October” - in 1961. The work “Exam” - in 1962; “Crankshafts” and “Lelya Seleznyova from the Faculty of Journalism” also appeared in magazines in 1962.
In 1963, the publishing house “Young Guard” published V. Shukshin’s first collection entitled “Rural Residents.” In the same year, two of his stories were published in the New World magazine: “Cool Driver” and “Grinka Malyugin” (the cycle “They are from Katun”).
Based on these stories, Shukshin soon wrote the script for his first full-length film, “There Lives Such a Guy.” This picture was released in 1964 and received enthusiastic responses from the public. For unknown reasons, the film was classified as a comedy and, having been sent to the Venice International Film Festival that same year, it was entered into a competition for children's and youth films. And although the film was awarded the main prize, Shukshin was not satisfied with this turn of events. Vasily Makarovich even had to appear on the pages of the Cinema Art magazine with his own explanation of the film.
Meanwhile, Shukshin's creative energy was transformed into a number of new literary and cinematic projects.
Firstly, a new book of his stories was published entitled “There in the distance...”, secondly, in 1966 his new film appeared on the screens - “Your Son and Brother”, for which Vasily Makarovich was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after his brothers a year later Vasiliev.
In 1971, Shukshin was awarded the USSR State Prize for playing the leading role in the film “By the Lake” directed by S.A. Gerasimova.
In the last years of his life, Shukshin was obsessed with staging a film about Stepan Razin. Filming was already scheduled for the summer of 1967. Vasily Makarovich was so captivated by him that he abandoned all his other affairs: he stopped acting in films, despite the invitations of many famous directors.
But everything turned out to be in vain - the cinematic authorities suddenly changed plans and stopped filming. The director's explanation included the following arguments: films about modernity are more important at the moment, and a two-part film on a historical theme will require large financial expenditures. Shukshin had a hard time experiencing the situation; a psychological breakdown occurred in his life.
On October 2, 1974, Vasily Makarovich died of heart failure on the set of the film “They Fought for the Motherland.” Shukshin was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. In 1976, posthumously, the writer was awarded the Lenin Prize for his creative achievements.
Fantasy in the author's work.
In the writer’s work there are two fairly large works, the plot of which contains fantastic and fairy-tale elements.
The story “Point of View” was first published in the magazine “Star” (1974, No. 7). In the writer's surviving manuscripts there are several options for subtitles: “A fairy tale for children over school age”; “experience of a modern fairy tale”; “experience of a modern stage fairy tale”; "an experience of a modern cinematic fairy tale." Shukshin himself described his work as follows: “ This will be a modern fairy tale-parable
" The main characters of the story, two young men - a Pessimist and an Optimist, look at life differently. One proves that everything in life is gloomy and uninteresting, the other believes that difficulties and adversity are easily overcome. They turn to the Sage to resolve the dispute. He invites the heroes to quietly visit the house of the girl to whom the matchmakers are supposed to come. Moreover, each of the heroes will have to see what is happening from their own point of view. To do this, just wave a magic twig. Then, in the bride’s house, events develop according to three scenarios, and three real alternative realities are born.
The story “Until the Third Roosters” (“The Tale of Ivan the Fool, how he went far away to gain his wits”) was first published after Shukshin’s death in the magazine “Our Contemporary” (1975, No. 1). In the collection “Fantastica, 79” the work appeared as a fairy tale. The heroes of this fairy tale are literary characters from books that come out “into the world” after the library is closed. The main character is Ivanushka the Fool, who went to the Sage for a certificate confirming that he is smart. Highly intelligent characters don't want to be next to a hillbilly. The work is replete with satire on the realities of life of that time: philistinism, bureaucracy, hypocrisy.
Films by Vasily Shukshin
Vasily Shukshin as Ivan Rastorguev and Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina as Nyura Rastorgueva in Vasily Shukshin’s feature film “Stoves and Benches” (1972)
From left to right: actor Leonid Kuravlev, Vasily Shukshin and poetess Bella Akhmadulina on the set of Vasily Shukshin’s feature film “There Lives Such a Guy.” 1963 Photo: All-Russian Memorial Museum-Reserve of V.M. Shukshina, Srostki, Altai Territory
Vasily Shukshin as Vasily Chernykh in the feature film “By the Lake” by Sergei Gerasimov (1969)
In 1963, Vasily Shukshin began work on his first professional film - the film “There Lives Such a Guy.” The plot was based on his stories “Cool Driver”, “Crankshafts” and “Grinka Malyugin”. Shukshin wrote to his mother: “I started working as a film director - I’m making a film according to my own script. I’ll be filming it in Altai, probably in Srostki... My film will be about the driver of the Chuysky tract, so, naturally, it needs to be filmed there.” The writer invited famous actors, Nina Sazonova and Anastasia Zueva, and beginners, Rodion Nakhapetov and his classmate Leonid Kuravlev, to work on the film. The film was released in 1964. In the USSR, it was watched by 27 million viewers, and at the Venice Film Festival, the film “There Lives a Guy Like This” won the prize for best film for children.
After the success of the first film, Shukshin wrote the script for the second - the film “Your Son and Brother”. The basis was again the writer’s stories, this time from the book “Village People”. In the film, Shukshin decided to show the “world of the intelligentsia” through the eyes of a man from the village. The magazine "October" called the tape too simple and superficial.
I didn’t want to go out to the audience with a film that was full of questions, like a pretty head in curlers. (In the end, these glands will be removed from the head, and they will become curls; a coquette film released from the studio will go on screens.) I don’t believe that the artist consciously set out to be incomprehensible. For some, yes it works. We forget that when we very persistently begin to offer the viewer role models, we arouse in him a feeling of protest, irritation. We just have to try so that we don’t lie, don’t reveal what the viewer has known for a long time without us, don’t show him: this is good.
Vasily Shukshin, article “Questions to yourself”
After this, Shukshin almost stopped acting and began writing a script for a film epic about the uprising of Stenka Razin. He studied documents and consulted with Sigurd Schmidt, a specialist in the history of Russia in the 17th century. He wrote in his review of Shukshin’s work: “Shukshin’s script is, first of all, a masterful work of art with great thought and great power of emotional impact. Let V. Shukshin’s plan be translated into a movie as soon as possible.” The script for the two-part historical film “I Came to Give You Freedom” was recognized by the Screen Writers Guild as the best of 1967, but the writer did not receive permission to shoot from the Cinematography Committee of the USSR Council of Ministers due to the high cost of film production.
For his third film, “Strange People,” the writer again reworked several of his stories, including “Mille Pardon, Madame!”, “Freak,” and “Thoughts.” Shukshin divided the picture into three parts, each of which told about a new hero - a villager. The film was ready by the beginning of 1969, but was released only a year later. All this time was taken up by editing - after censorship, some of the episodes were cut out of the tape. It failed at the box office, and critics wrote negative reviews about it.
They didn't watch the film well and even left. You can't work like that. This is wastefulness... I sat in the auditorium and was executed. I felt more than ever that the spectator experience is a great thing. I neglected it - and the conversation with the viewer did not work out. Yes, even if you are three times modern and even get ahead of yourself with “questions” - you still have to be interesting and understandable. Turn yourself inside out, tie yourself in a knot, but don’t scream in an empty hall. Kind, sincere, human words should also thunder.
Vasily Shukshin, “Before an audience of millions” (magazine “Art of Cinema”, 1971, no.
Vasily Shukshin continued to receive many invitations from directors. In 1970, he played one of the main roles in Sergei Gerasimov’s film “By the Lake”. Readers of the magazine "Soviet Screen" recognized it as the best film of the year, and the director and leading actors - Vasily Shukshin, Oleg Zhakov and Natalya Belokhvostikova - received USSR State Prizes.
In 1972, Shukshin made his fourth film - a comedy about the journey of a married couple, “Stoves and Benches”. The writer again created the script for the film himself. At the Film Studio. M. Gorky approved it: “... can become a good basis for staging a comedy based on the life of our contemporaries.” The film was shot in the summer and autumn of 1971 in Yalta and Altai, near the village of Srostki, the main roles in it were played by the writer himself and his wife Lydia Fedoseeva. Several episodes were cut from the film: the management of the film studio demanded that scenes of drunkenness be removed from the film. Shukshin wrote about this in Goskino: “I beg you to leave the prologue (of the dancing man on the road). I will remove the glass from his head and the impression that he is drunk will disappear. But the comic theme of the film will remain... As you can see, I don’t hold on to something that can be sacrificed without damaging the film, but it cannot be removed.” They didn't listen to the director. Despite this, reviews of the film were positive. Shukshin was criticized only in his small homeland. The newspaper “Altaiskaya Pravda” wrote: “Some kind of patriarchalism suddenly begins to waft from the screen, and Shukshin does not notice this, as if even defending the imaginary purity and charm of the supposedly shady village morality... Knowing our villagers well, we can safely say: they are not like that they are “village” now, as Shukshin showed them.”
Biography of Vasily Shukshin
In 1947-1949 he worked as a rigger and laborer at factories in Kaluga and Vladimir.
In 1949-1953 he served as a sailor in the Baltic Fleet and as a radio operator in the Black Sea Fleet.
In 1953, he was demobilized from the navy due to a stomach ulcer and returned to the village of Srostki. Passed the matriculation exams as an external student at the Srostkino secondary school.
From 1953 to 1954 he worked in a rural school as a teacher of Russian language, literature and history, while simultaneously serving as director.
In 1960 he graduated from the directing department of the All-Union State Institute (now university) of cinematography, workshop of Mikhail Romm.
Shukshin’s film debut as an actor took place in 1956 in Sergei Gerasimov’s film “Quiet Don,” where he played in an episode - he portrayed a sailor peeking out from behind a fence. Then Shukshin played the main role in Marlen Khutsiev’s film “Two Fedoras” (1959). In a short period, Shukshin starred in a number of films - “Golden Echelon” (1959), “A Simple Story” (1960), “When the Trees Were Big” (1961), “Alenka” (1961), “Mishka, Seryoga and Me” (1961), “We Two Men” (1962). As an actor, Shukshin also starred in the films “Journalist” (1967), “Commissar” (1967), “By the Lake” (1969), “Liberation” (1970-1971) and others.
In parallel with his success in cinema, Shukshin’s literary destiny also developed quite successfully. From his third year at the institute, on Romm’s advice, he began sending out his stories to all the capital’s editorial offices in the hope that one of them would pay attention to his works. And he was not mistaken. In 1958, his story “Two on a Cart” was published in the Smena magazine. However, this publication went unnoticed by either critics or readers, and the dejected Shukshin temporarily stopped sending out his works. In the early 1960s, Shukshin’s literary works began to be published one after another - the stories “Truth”, “Bright Souls” and “Stepka’s Love”. In 1963, the publishing house “Young Guard” published Shukshin’s first collection entitled “Rural Residents.”
In the same year, two of his stories were published in the New World magazine: “Cool Driver” and “Grinka Malyugin.” Based on these stories, Shukshin soon wrote the script for his first full-length film, “There Lives Such a Guy,” which was released in 1964. The main role of the driver Pasha Kolokolnikov was played by a classmate studying at VGIK Leonid Kuravlev, whom Shukshin filmed in his diploma work “They report from Lebyazhye” (1960). The film received enthusiastic responses from the public and won the main prize at the Venice International Film Festival in the competition for children's and youth films.
Shukshin’s stories were collected in several collections: “Village People” (1963), “Over There” (1968), “Countrymen” (1970), “Characters” (1973), “Conversations under a Clear Moon” (1974).
In 1965, his novel “The Lyubavins” was published about the paths and destinies of the peasantry. The novel “I Came to Give You Freedom” (1971) was written in parallel with the film script about Stepan Razin, but Shukshin never had the chance to make a film.
In 1966, Shukshin’s new film “Your Son and Brother” appeared on the screens, which was awarded the State Prize of the RSFSR named after the Vasilyev brothers.
In 1972, the film “Stoves and Benches” was shot, where Shukshin again acted as director, screenwriter and leading actor.
In the early 1970s, Shukshin wrote dramatic works “A Tale for the Theater”, “Energetic People” (1973), and the story “And in the Morning They Woke Up” (1973, not completed). He turned to the genre of philosophical parables in the fairy tales “Point of View” (1974) and “Until the Third Rooster: The Tale of Ivan the Fool, How He Went Far Away to Gain His Wits.”
The most mature of Shukshin’s major works is the film story “Kalina Krasnaya” (1973), which was filmed by the author in 1974 and became his last directorial work. In the film, Shukshin brilliantly played the main role; the film itself aroused great interest among the audience, becoming a shock for many. At the VII All-Union Film Festival in Baku in April 1974, the film “Kalina Krasnaya” was awarded the main prize.
Shukshin’s last acting work in cinema was the main role of Pyotr Lopakhin in Sergei Bondarchuk’s epic “They Fought for the Motherland” based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov.
On October 2, 1974, during the filming of this film in the cabin of the Danube motor ship in the village of Kletskaya, Volgograd Region, Vasily Shukshin died suddenly. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Vasily Shukshin - Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1969), laureate of the USSR State Prize (1971). Awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1967). In 1976, Vasily Shukshin was posthumously awarded the Lenin Prize.
After Shukshin’s death in 1975, his collections “My Brother” and “Selected Works” were published in two volumes, which the writer managed to compile mainly himself.
A street and the Drama Theater in Barnaul are named after Shukshin.
Since 1976, in his homeland, in the village of Srostki, Shukshinsky readings, later called Shukshinsky days, have been held. An integral part of the days was the All-Russian Shukshin Film Festival, which began to be held annually since 1999.
In 1978, in the homeland of Vasily Shukshin, in the village of Srostki, Altai Territory, the All-Russian Shukshin Memorial Museum-Reserve was opened.
In 2004, in the homeland of the writer and director in the village of Srostki on Mount Piket, a monument to him by Vyacheslav Klykov was erected.
2009 was declared the Year of Shukshin in the Altai Territory.
Vasily Shukshin was married to actress Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina. From this marriage he left two daughters, Maria and Olga.
The director also has a daughter, Ekaterina, from Victoria Sofronova, daughter of the writer Anatoly Sofronov.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
“Quit the movie, you’re a writer”: stories, novels and plays
Vasily Shukshin at work. Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
From left to right: Vasily Shukshin and actor Vladislav Strzhelchik, actor Alexander Kuznetsov, director Georgy Tovstonogov and actor Efim Kopelyan at the rehearsal of the play “Energetic People” at the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater. Photo: All-Russian Memorial Museum-Reserve of V.M. Shukshina, Srostki, Altai Territory
Vasily Shukshin (left) and writer Vasily Belov. Photo: Vologda Regional Universal Scientific Library, Vologda
Vasily Shukshin's writing career developed in parallel with his acting and directing. In 1963, the publishing house “Young Guard” published the writer’s first collection, “Village Residents,” and a few months later, the stories “Grinka Malyugin” and “Red Driver” were published in the magazine “New World.”
When I [Shukshina. — Approx. ed.] I saw it for the first time, I realized that he himself would never have come to the editorial office and would never have brought his stories. Before meeting Shukshin, I had no idea that an actor could be such a shy person. When I told Shukshin that everyone liked his stories and we would publish them, I saw that he was happy. But somehow he was happy for one moment, nodded his head, smiled, and then seemed to forget about his joy.
Asya Berzer, editor of the magazine “New World” (quoted from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov, series “Life of Remarkable People”)
Over the course of several years of collaboration with Novy Mir, Shukshin published seven collections of stories, which included the works “Wolves,” “Crank,” “Mother’s Heart” and others. Despite this, criticism had almost no reaction to the writer’s work. The editor-in-chief of the New World magazine, Alexander Tvardovsky, wrote about Shukshin: “His ear is amazingly sensitive, his author’s speech is weaker.” Literary critic Edward Kuzmin about his characters and “life flair, vigilance, plasticity” of prose.
In 1963, Novy Mir refused to publish the writer’s novel “Lubavina” due to its large volume and complex topic - the book told about the years of the Civil War. The first part of the work was published in 1965 in the magazine “Siberian Lights”, and a few months later it was published as a separate book. “The Lyubavins” is based on family legends and stories of old residents of the village of Srostki about the years of the Civil War and collectivization. In the late 1960s, Shukshin wrote the second part of the book, but its manuscript was discovered and published only after the writer’s death.
During these years, Shukshin made close friends among writers: he communicated with Viktor Nekrasov, Bella Akhmadulina, Vasily Belov. The poet Vasily Belov wrote to Shukshin: “Quit the movie, you’re a writer... Don’t listen to anyone, just write, write, write. I am deeply convinced that the fundamental basis of everything is literature.”
Shukshin used the script of the film about the uprising of Stepan Razin as the basis for a future novel. He completed the work back in 1969 - for the 300th anniversary of the Razin uprising, but it was published in 1971, in the magazine "Siberian Lights".
It powerfully revealed Shukshin’s talent and his ability to organically fuse three main types of literature - epic, lyricism and drama; it was an innovative, bold novel, certainly one of the most significant novels of Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century, with amazing characters, faces, incredible tension, with the deepest historical context, personal suffering, Russian pain, Russian faith, Russian rebellion. And yet, and perhaps precisely because of all this, the editorial board of Novy Mir rejected it.
Literary critic Alexey Varlamov, “Shukshin”, series “Life of Remarkable People”
In 1971, Shukshin wrote the play “Energetic People” about the life of trade workers, which was staged at the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater and the Theater. V. Mayakovsky. He said in an interview with Literaturnaya Gazeta after the premiere of the play: “It seemed to me that theater was less flexible, more cumbersome than cinema, some kind of clumsy art, but it turned out to have stepped forward and is already delving into issues that cinema still I didn’t win.” However, the play was considered a failure. Georgy Tovstonogov, who then directed the Bolshoi Drama Theater, recalled: “For the sake of truth, it must be said that “Energetic People” is, in general, a stage feuilleton, in which Shukshin did not reach the depths of his own prose.”
“Only three times, at most five, he declared his love to me”: personal life
Vasily Shukshin and editor of the Moscow magazine Victoria Sofronova. Illustration from the book “Shukshin” by Alexey Varlamov from the series “Life of Remarkable People”. Moscow: Publishing House "Young Guard", 2015
Vasily Shukshin as Yegor Prokudin and Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina as Lyuba in Vasily Shukshin’s feature film “Kalina Krasnaya” (1973)
Vasily Shukshin. 1972 (?). Photo: State Museum of the History of Literature, Art and Culture of Altai, Barnaul
Vasily Shukshin’s first wife was his fellow villager Maria Shumskaya. They met at school, corresponded for several years, and married in 1956. However, the marriage did not work out: Shumskaya did not follow Shukshin to Moscow, but remained in Srostki. The writer’s mother recalled: “I was pleased with Vasya’s choice, especially since Marusya’s parents were respected people in the village. But Vasya left for Moscow soon after the wedding, and you see what kind of people there are? Especially artists. That’s it, I didn’t return to her.” In 1957, the writer asked Shumskaya for a divorce, but was refused.
Shukshin lived for several years with actress Lydia Alexandrova, who left memories of him. In 1964, the director met the editor of the Moscow magazine, Victoria Sofronova, the daughter of the writer Anatoly Sofronov. They had a daughter, Katerina, who became a translator.
In the same year, on the set of Eduard Bocharov’s film “What is it like, the sea?” Shukshin met with actress Lydia Fedoseeva. In order to marry her, the writer deliberately “lost” his old passport - information about his marriage to Maria Shumskaya was not added to the new one. Shukshin filmed Fedoseeva twice in his films. She played the main roles in the films “Stoves and Benches” and “Kalina Krasnaya”. From his marriage to Fedoseeva, the writer had two children - daughters Maria and Olga. Both became actresses. Lydia Fedoseeva recalled: “In the 10 years of our life, he declared his love to me only three times, maybe five times, and even then - out of resentment or jealousy. And at the same time he knew me well, understood ... "
Personal life
The director's first and only official wife was Maria Ivanovna Shumskaya, whom Vasily met in his youth. Unfortunately, their life paths diverged on their wedding day due to Maria Ivanovna’s refusal to go with Vasily to conquer Moscow. The young wife was frightened by the instability of her future life in the capital. Leaving Maria in his native village, Shukshin went to Moscow himself and returned a few years later to ask for a divorce, since he fell in love with someone else.
At that time, he had already lived for a long time with Victoria Safronova, the daughter of the writer Anatoly Safronov. But Maria never gave her husband a divorce, remaining his only official wife for the rest of her life. To get out of this situation, Vasily Shukshin was even forced to “lose” his passport. In 1965, Anastasia Sofronova gave birth to a daughter, Katerina Shukshina.
In 1964, Shukshin married actress Lydia Alexandrova, who performed the role in the film “There Lives Such a Guy.” Their marriage did not last long. According to Alexandrova’s recollections, the reason for this was the love affairs of the great director and alcohol abuse. Thus, it is known that Shukshin confessed his love to Nonna Mardyukova, but Nonna Borisovna later said that they never reached a serious relationship.
On the set of the film “What a Sea It Is,” Vasily Shukshin meets actress Lydia Fedoseeva. For a long time he cannot give preference to one woman and maintains relationships with two at once. Lydia Fedoseeva bore him two daughters - Maria and Olga, remaining close to her husband until the very last days of his life. Later, Shukshin’s daughters became famous actresses, and Maria Shukshina hosted the popular “Wait for Me” program.
