Vasily Makarovich Shukshin (; 25 July 1929 – 2 October 1974) was a Soviet and Russian writer, actor, screenwriter and film director from the Altai region who specialized in rural themes. A prominent member of the Village Prose movement, he began writing short stories in his early teenage years and later transitioned to acting by his late 20s.

Biography

Vasiliy Makarovich Shukshin was born on 25 July 1929 to a peasant family of assimilated Moksha Mordvin origin in the village of Srostki near Biysk in Siberian Krai, Soviet Union (now in Altai Krai, Russia). In 1933, his father, Makar Leontievich Shukshin, was arrested and executed on the charges of participating in an "anti-kolkhoz plot" during the Soviet collectivization. He was only rehabilitated 23 years later, in 1956. His mother, Maria Sergeyevna (née Popova), thus had to look after the survival of the entire family. By 1943, Shukshin had finished seven years of village school and entered an automobile technical school in Biysk. In 1945, after two and a half years at the school but before finishing, he quit to work in a kolkhoz.

In 1946, Shukshin left his native village and worked as a metal craftsman at several enterprises in the trust Soyuzprommekhanizatsiya: at the turbine plant in Kaluga, at the tractor plant in Vladimir, etc. In 1949, Shukshin was drafted into the Navy. He first served as a sailor in the Baltic Fleet, then a radio operator on the Black Sea. In 1953, he was demobilized due to a stomach ulcer and returned to his native village. Having passed an external exam for high school graduation, he became a teacher of Russian, and later a school principal in Srostki.

Shukshin died suddenly of a supposed heart attack on 2 October 1974, on the motor ship Dunai, on the Volga River, while filming They Fought for Their Country. He is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

English translations

  • I Want to Live, Progress Publishers, 1978.
  • Snowball Berry Red and Other Stories, Ardis Publishers, 1979.
  • Short Stories, Raduga Publishers, 1990.
  • Roubles in Words, Kopeks in Figures, Marion Boyars, 1994.
  • Stories from a Siberian Village, Northern Illinois University Press, 1996.

Theatre adaptation

Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis adapted eight of Shuksin's short stories for stage, in a collaboration with the Theatre of Nations in Moscow, entitled Shuksin's Stories or Shuksin's Tales. it is still touring the world, having first being staged in around 2009, and has won several awards. Starring Yevgeny Mironov, the play was staged at The Barbican in London in October 2019.

Filmography

  • 1956: The Killers () (Short) as Ole Andreson
  • 1957: And Quiet Flows the Don () as minor role (uncredited)
  • 1958: Two Fyodors () as Great Fyodor
  • 1959: The Golden Eshelon () as Andrey Nizovtsev
  • 1960: A Simple Story () as Ivan Lykov
  • 1961: Mission () as combine operator
  • 1962: Alyonka () as Stepan Revan
  • 1962: When the Trees Were Tall () as chairman of the kolkhoz
  • 1963: We, Two of Men () as Mikhail Gorlov
  • 1964: There Is Such a Lad () (director, screenwriter)
  • 1965: Your Son and Brother () (director, screenwriter)
  • 1967: The Journalist ()
  • 1967: The Commissar () as The Commandant
  • 1968: Three Days of Viktor Chernyshov () as Kravchenko
  • 1969: Strange People () (director, screenwriter) as Nikolay Nikolayevich Larionov
  • 1970: By the Lake () as Vasily Chernykh
  • 1970: Liberation I: The Fire Bulge () as Gen. Konev
  • 1970: Liberation II: Breakthrough () as Gen. Konev
  • 1970: Lyubov Yarovaya () as Roman Koshkin
  • 1971: Dauria () as Vasily Ulybin
  • 1971: Liberation III: Direction of the Main Blow () as Gen. Konev
  • 1971: Liberation IV: The Battle of Berlin () as Ivan Konev
  • 1971: Liberation V: The Last Assault () as Ivan Konev
  • 1971: Soldier Came From The Front () (screenwriter)
  • 1972: Happy Go Lucky () (director, screenwriter) as Ivan Rastorguyev
  • 1974: The Red Snowball Tree () (director, screenwriter) as Yegor Prokudin
  • 1974: If You Want To Be Happy () as Vladimir Fedotov
  • 1974: Fellows () (screenwriter)
  • 1975: They Fought for Their Country () as Piotr Lopakhin
  • 1976: I Want the Floor () as Fedya, plawright (final film role)
  • 1977: Call Me To The Light Far () (screenwriter)
  • 1988: Yolki-palki () (writer)
  • 2004: High Boots () (writer)

References

  • Vasily Shukshin: Personality and Legend
  • О чувашских корнях выдающегося писателя