80th anniversary of the genius writer, actor and film director Vasily Shukshin will be widely celebrated in 2009 all over Russia and especially in his native Altaic village of Srostki.

The name of Vasily Shukshin seems to be known in Russia to everyone. The unmistakable style of the writer, film director and actor conquered the generation of the 1970s with its originality, sincerity, wisdom and power. The works and personality of Vasily Shukshin stand out till date and still speak live to us.

Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was born on July 25, 1929 in a peasant family, in the village of Srostki, Altay region. In 1949-1953 he served in the navy as a sailor and returned home after demobilization because of illness. For some time he studied and then worked as a teacher of literature and Russian language at school and a school director. In 1954-1960 Shukshin studied at the film direction faculty of VGIK (All-Union State Institute of Cinematography).

When Vasily Shukshin arrived at VGIK, the institute teachers were afraid to matriculate him: they thought his love for truth was risky for them and they could once loose their job because of him. However, film director Mikhail Romm believed in him.

At the exam Shukshin could not answer Romm's question about Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" explaining it by the fact that there was no time to read such a thick book. Romm frowned and wondered how such a non-cultured person could be a school director. Shukshin got offended and started shouting at the examiner: "Do you know what it is like to be a school director? First you sweat the firewood for the school out of the kolkhoz chairman, and then chop the wood so that the kids won't be cold. Scrounge the books, mend the desks, and settle the teachers. The car is on four hooves with a tail and you try to get it. Chop-chop here and there, and through the mud… How can one get down to books!" Other examiners were happy: Shukshin hectored Romm and would be kicked away. But Romm said instead: "Only a very talented person can have such non-traditional views. I give him an excellent mark."

During his studies in VGIK Shukshin played his first main role in Hutsiev's film "Dva Fyodora" (The Two Fedors) in 1958 and published his first short story "Dvoe Na Telege" (The Two on a Horse Wagon) in the magazine Smena.

Shukshin's first book "Village Dwellers" was published in 1963. In this year also he started working on the Gorky film studio. He directed his first movie based on his own script "Zhivyot Takoi Paren" (There Is Such a Lad) in 1965. The film took two awards, in Venice and in Leningrad (St.-Petersburg) and brought fame to Shukshin.

Vasily's widow Lidia Fedoseyeva-Shukshina recollects: "Once I and our daughters visited my husband in the hospital, and he met us with tears in his eyes. I ask him: "What's happened?" and he gives me a notebook "Here. I've written. But not now. Afterwards, at home." I wept while reading it. The telephone rang. I took the receiver but couldn't speak because of tears.
He asks faintly: "Well, shall we film it?"
That was the script of Kalina Krasnaya.

The film Kalina Krasnaya (The Red Snowball Tree) released in 1974 came as a mind-blow: there had been nothing of the kind in domestic cinema before. The story of a former prisoner who decides to break with the criminal world and live a peaceful country life holds a firm place in the gold Russian cinematography, as well as the majority of movies with Shukshin's participation.

Vasily Shukshin died on October 2, 1974 during the filming of "Oni Srazhalis Za Rodinu" (They Fought for Their Country) of a heart attack. There are some suspicions he was poisoned.

The creative potential of Vasily Shukshin was boundless; he managed to implement lots of his bright ideas. You can judge yourself after watching his movies.

Filmography:

• 1958 - Dva Fyodora(The Two Fedors), actor
• 1959 - Zolotoy Eshelon (The Golden Eshelon), actor 
• 1960 - Prostaya Istoria, (Simple Story), actor 
• 1961 - Alenka, actor
• 1961 - Kogda Derevia Byli Bolshimi (When the Trees Were Tall), actor 
• 1961 - Komandirovka (Mission) 
• 1961 - Mishka, Serega and I, actor 
• 1962 - My, Dvoe Muzhchin (We, Two Men), actor 
• 1964 - Zhivet Takoy Paren (There Is Such a Lad), film-director, scriptwriter 
• 1964 - Kakoe Ono, More? (What Is It Like, The Sea?), actor 
• 1965 - Vash syn i brat (Your Son and Brother) director, scriptwriter 
• 1967 - Journalist, actor
• 1967 - Commissar, actor 
• 1967 - Tri Dnia Viktora Chernyshova, actor 
• 1968 - Muzhskoy razgovor(Man's Talk), actor 
• 1968-1971 - Osvobozhdenie (Liberation, aka The Great Battle), actor
• 1969 - Strannyye lyudi (Strange People), director, scriptwriter 
• 1969 - U Ozera (By The Lake), actor 
• 1969 - Ekho dalyokikh snegov (Echo of Distant Snows), actor
• 1970 - Lyubov Yarovaya, actor 
• 1971 - Dauria, actor 
• 1971 - Prishel Soldat s Fronta (A Soldier Returns from the Front), scriptwriter
• 1972 - Pechki-lavochki (Happy Go Lucky, aka The Ship Crowd), actor, director, scriptwriter 
• 1973 - Kalina Krasnaya (The Red Snowball Tree), actor, director, scriptwriter 
• 1974 - Yesli Khochesh Byt Schastlivym (If You Want to Be Happy), actor 
• 1974 - Zemlyaki (Fellows), scriptwriter 
• 1975 - Proshu slova (I Wish To Speak), actor 
• 1975 - Oni Srazhalis Za Rodinu (They Fought For the Motherland, They Fought for Their Country), actor
• 1977 - Pozovi menya v dal svetluyu (Call Me from Afar), actor
• 2003 - A poutru oni prosnulis (And In The Morning They Woke Up), author of the literary basis