Vasily Shukshin - famous Russian writer, film director, actor, was born in the village of Srostki, Altai Territory.

Shukshin's literary activitybegan in the army, it was there that he first tried to write stories that he read to his colleagues. In 1953 he was dismissed from the fleet due to a stomach ulcer and returned to the village of Srostki.

In his native village, Vasily Makarovich passed exams for a certificate of maturity at Srostinskaya secondary school No. 32 as an external student. He went to work as a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Srostkinskaya school of rural youth. For some time he was even the director of this school. As Vasily Makarovich himself admitted, he was a “unimportant” teacher.

In 1954, Shukshin went to Moscow to enroll in VGIK. To raise money for the trip, his mother sold the cow. 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 to send his stories to the capital's publications. In 1958, the magazine "Smena" published his first story "Two on a cart".

In 1956, Shukshin made his film debut:in the film by S. A. Gerasimov "Quiet Don"(second series) he played in a tiny episode - he portrayed a sailor looking out from behind a wattle fence. With this sailor, the cinematic fate of Shukshin the actor began.

Heroes of Shukshin's books and films- these are the Russian people of the Soviet countryside, simple workers with peculiar characters, observant and sharp-tongued.

One of his first heroes, Pashka Kolokolnikov ("Such a guy lives") is a village chauffeur, in whose life "there is room for heroic deeds." Some of his heroes can be called eccentrics, people "out of this world" (story "Microscope", "Chudik"), other characters have passed the ordeal by imprisonment (Yegor Prokudin, "Kalina Krasnaya").

In the works of Shukshin, a laconic and succinct description of the Russian village is given, his work is characterized by a deep knowledge of the language and details of everyday life, deep moral problems, Russian national and universal values often come to the fore in him (the stories "The Hunt to Live", lard shmat ").

Since 1977 in the village. Srostki the All-Russian Memorial Museum-Reserve of V.M. Shukshin operates. Today it is one of the most popular museums in the region. Every year, on the last weekend of July, on the eve of V.M.Shukshin's birthday, thousands of people gather on Mount Piket in the vicinity of Srostok.

Shukshin days in Altai- one of the most significant annual events in the cultural life of the region, which is attended by famous film actors, writers, poets and playwrights, as well as thousands of fans of the work of our fellow countryman.

Vasily Shukshin Museum

Photo: still from the film "Kalina Krasnaya", Ruslan Olinchuk