Beginning of career

Vasily Makarovich Shukshin was born on July 25, 1929, into a peasant family. His father, Makar Leontyevich Shukshin (1912—1933), was arrested and shot in 1933 during collectivization. His mother, Maria Sergeyevna (née Popova; in her second marriage — Kuksina) (1909 — January 17, 1979), took on all responsibilities for the family. His sister was Natalya Makarovna Shukshina (November 16, 1931 — July 10, 2005). After his father’s arrest and until he received a passport, Vasily Makarovich was known by his mother’s surname as Vasily Popov.

In 1943, Shukshin graduated from the seven-year school in the village of Srostki and entered the Biysk Automobile Technical School. He studied there for two and a half years, but did not complete the program. Instead, in 1945 he went to work at a collective farm in the village of Srostki. He worked there for a short time and left his native village in 1946. In 1947—1949, Shukshin worked as a fitter at several enterprises of the Soyuzprommekhanizatsiya trust: at the turbine plant in Kaluga and at the tractor plant in Vladimir.

In 1949, Shukshin was drafted into the Navy. First he served as a sailor in the Baltic Fleet, then as a radio operator in the Black Sea Fleet. Shukshin’s literary activity began in the army, where he first tried writing stories that he read to his fellow servicemen. In 1953, he was demobilized from the fleet because of a diagnosed stomach ulcer and returned to the village of Srostki.

In his native village, Vasily Makarovich passed external examinations for a secondary school certificate at Srostki Secondary School No. 32. He went to work as a teacher of Russian language and literature at the Srostki School for Rural Youth. For some time he was the director of this school.

In 1954, Shukshin went to Moscow to apply to VGIK. To raise money for the trip, his mother sold