I love to delve into the etymologies of Russian surnames. Sometimes they explain things on their speakers that they themselves might never have thought of.
What did the name Shukshin originally mean? Let’s analyze the work of Max Vasmer, author of the largest etymological dictionary of the Russian language. “Shuksha” is “hemp comb,” he briefly explains. Since ancient times, thread was also made from hemp, and not as it is thought today. Hemp thread is thick and strong, so other fibers (linen, cotton) were often added to it. Strong ropes and cords were also made from hemp. Even in the North, “shuksha” was the name given to the deceased child, the last to be born. And finally, Shuksha is a northern tributary of the Sura River.
A whole range of associations. And that’s all, yes! – Vasily Shukshin. In one of the interviews, he opened up: “I had to find out what everyone knows and what I missed in life and for the time being I began to hide, or something like that, the strength I had gained. , somehow twisted and unexpected, I nurtured people’s confidence that, rightly, it is you who should do art, not me. But I knew, I knew in advance that I would be on the lookout for the moment in life when… . Well, I would be richer, and they would be with their own. Endless statements about art will turn out to be groundless. All the time I buried inside myself an unknown person, some kind of secret, indecipherable fighter.
Without taking into account this “inner man”, we will never understand Shukshin’s work. We will not understand his work as a director, from the first film “There is such a guy” to the last “Kalina Krasny”. We will not understand the complexity of the image of Yegor Prokudin in Kalina. But the main thing is that we will not understand how Shukshin managed to transform himself into such different characters in his stories (“Characters” is the name of the best collection of his stories). From the anarchist and village romantic Alyosha Beskonvoyny in the story of the same name to the intellectual bully and village skeptic Gleb Kapustin in the story “Cut”. From the impossible balabol Bronka Pupkov, who came up with the story of his attempt on Hitler’s life in the story “Forgive me, madam!”, to the powerful and spontaneously popular Stepan Razin in the unfinished novel-script “I came to give you freedom”.
It is known that at the end of his life Shukshin dreamed of making his own film about Razin. And, of course, to play the main role in it. They did not give permission, they refused under any pretext, not without reason believing that the content of the film would not fully correspond to canonical Soviet historiography. It is much less known that he auditioned for the role of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and there are photos of screen tests in which he is made up and even in some ways frighteningly resembles Fyodor Mikhailovich. He did not pass the test, so they took Anatoly Solonitsyn.
And finally, it was only from Alexey Varlamov’s book about Shukshin that I learned that throughout his acting career he dreamed of playing… Hamlet. Shukshin, Varlamov believes, was tormented by the Hamlet complex all his life. He spoke of the “Prince of Denmark” in the presence of witnesses: “When our fathers were killed, we kept silent, but he…”
What is he? And he avenged his father!
His own father, a peasant from the village of Srostki Makar Leontyevich Shukshin, was shot in 1933. Shukshin abandoned his father twice. The first time he took the surname of his stepfather Popov (however, his mother did so after remarrying), the second time – when he wrote an application to join the party in 1955, where he indicated that his father had died at the front (in fact, his stepfather died at the front). The statement was written at the end of 1955, and in early 1956 the 20th Party Congress was held, condemning the cult of personality. The father was rehabilitated, and Shukshin remained a member of the party he joined.
He came to conquer Moscow with a complex past, and this probably explains much of his behaviour, his distrust of the capital’s intelligentsia, of “creators” who are convinced that it is they, and not him, who should make art. Although among these people there were those to whom he owed a lot, and he understood this well. For example, director Mikhail Romm, who chose an uneducated Altai boy, a former VGIK sailor, because he recognised his talent and creative nature.
And his intuition did not deceive him. And not only in cinema, but also in literature, which he considered the main work of his life.
Shukshin has a very simple appearance. He is very difficult. But at the same time he is close to the soul of every domestic viewer and reader. From a variety of social backgrounds. And this is also a kind of miracle of his enormous personality.
