In April, 1967, Vasily Shukshin visited his mother in Srostki. When Pyotr Antipov, who curated Youth Sector at Barnaul Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, found out about that, he called Biysk Young Offenders Institution and ordered, ‘Vasily Shukshin is visiting his mother in Srostki, do not miss this opportunity, arrange a meeting’.
Shukshin was invited to the meeting with BVTK detainees and staff. This photograph depicts the moment when the director was making a speech. Meanwhile, officials and event organisers Ivan Kapyrin, Ivan Kremnev, and Pyotr Antipov were sitting at the table.
Anastasia Pryakhina, who participated in the meeting, remembered, ‘And at last Vasily Shukshin stands before us. Taller than average, with surprisingly strong, confident footsteps. Large features of the open face. He stood behind the rostrum, so simple, real, and yet perfectly mysterious. A keen and perceptive look of deep-set eyes, steep forehead line, his remarkably brief, clear, and fascinating speech — that is what compelled the audience’. As soon as Shukshin started speaking, silence fell around him.
The director spoke about his life: childhood and youth in Srostki village on the bank of Katun River, military service, studies at VGIK, and willingness to make a film about folk hero Stepan Razin. Shukshin did not rush to leave the Institution after the meeting. He wanted to talk to detainees and find answers to his questions: what the hobbies of local adults and youth are. How they are facing their past. Whether those who served their time write letters. If it always happens that people change their way of life after the sentence. Perhaps, this meeting served as the basis for The Red Snowball Tree, the film about a thief and repeat offender Egor Prokudin, who has just finished his sentence in a prison colony.
According to his mother’s memoirs. Shukshin returned home late and looked heavily upset. He told her, “Oh mom, if only you knew how sorry I am for these children… I am thinking about why they became like this. How come? Probably it is due to a boy looking up to an indecent person and messing up. If only he followed a good person, the right path of honesty would definitely lie ahead. I want to write a book or make a film on this subject. And they aren”t such goners as we think they are. They can be reshaped in any way, they are not lost beyond redemption”.
Shukshin was invited to the meeting with BVTK detainees and staff. This photograph depicts the moment when the director was making a speech. Meanwhile, officials and event organisers Ivan Kapyrin, Ivan Kremnev, and Pyotr Antipov were sitting at the table.
Anastasia Pryakhina, who participated in the meeting, remembered, ‘And at last Vasily Shukshin stands before us. Taller than average, with surprisingly strong, confident footsteps. Large features of the open face. He stood behind the rostrum, so simple, real, and yet perfectly mysterious. A keen and perceptive look of deep-set eyes, steep forehead line, his remarkably brief, clear, and fascinating speech — that is what compelled the audience’. As soon as Shukshin started speaking, silence fell around him.
The director spoke about his life: childhood and youth in Srostki village on the bank of Katun River, military service, studies at VGIK, and willingness to make a film about folk hero Stepan Razin. Shukshin did not rush to leave the Institution after the meeting. He wanted to talk to detainees and find answers to his questions: what the hobbies of local adults and youth are. How they are facing their past. Whether those who served their time write letters. If it always happens that people change their way of life after the sentence. Perhaps, this meeting served as the basis for The Red Snowball Tree, the film about a thief and repeat offender Egor Prokudin, who has just finished his sentence in a prison colony.
According to his mother’s memoirs. Shukshin returned home late and looked heavily upset. He told her, “Oh mom, if only you knew how sorry I am for these children… I am thinking about why they became like this. How come? Probably it is due to a boy looking up to an indecent person and messing up. If only he followed a good person, the right path of honesty would definitely lie ahead. I want to write a book or make a film on this subject. And they aren”t such goners as we think they are. They can be reshaped in any way, they are not lost beyond redemption”.
