The exhibition Vasily Shukshin. Life and Work includes four museum halls. The first one is dedicated to Shukshin’s world, his land and people. The writer’s artistic universe, packed with events, stories, and characters, unfolds on the basis of historic moments, real persons and inspirations for his heroes. Second hall, The Emergence, covers studies at Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) and the start of Shukshin’s artistic career — the birth of a writer and director (1954–1969). The Maturity hall (1970–1974) outlines the last five years of Shukshin’s life, which were extremely intense from the work perspective. He wrote the novel I Have Come to Set You Free, directed the films Happy Go Lucky and The Red Snowball Tree, and published three storybooks.
Shukshin was starring in films, writing opinion pieces, giving interviews, and fighting for the production of a film about Stepan Razin. He obtained nationwide recognition at that time. The role of Pyotr Lopakhin in Sergei Bondarchuk’s They Fought for Their Country became Shukshin’s last. He passed away on the set on the 2nd of October, 1974. Final hall is dedicated to Shukshin Days festival: every summer, celebrities in the the fields of cinema, theatre, and literature come to the Altai to visit Mount Piket in Srostki. Furthermore, this hall covers Shukshin’s artistic legacy: his novels, storybooks, movie-essays, theatre plays, opinion pieces, roles, and directed films.
