Maria Kuksina (nee Popova, Kuksina by second marriage) was born in 1909. She survived her son by only four years and three months, and died in 1979. This time was filled with anguish and pain. After her son’s death Kuksina dedicated herself to preserving the memory of him. She kept reading his books, watched his films, and engaged in extensive correspondence with Shukshin’s friends and colleagues, including foreign ones. She visited her son’s grave in Moscow only twice, in 1975 and 1976.
Frail health and old age prevented her from paying more frequent visits to Novodevichy Cemetery. She was worried that her son was left alone in the capital. The grave was tended by Elena Limar, Candidate of Philological Sciences, and assistant professor at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. She wrote to Shukshin’s mother, ‘Dear Maria Sergeevna! Having returned from the cemetery, I had such a drive to talk to You. I dropped everything and began writing this letter. Good Lord, how bad, how empty it feels without him! … Maria Sergeevna, my dear, I feel so sorry for You, how often do I think of You and how I want to somehow ease Your unbearable suffering. Hold on dear, hold on as best you can for his blessed memory, as he always did, as he always tried to stay strong and to encourage others in their darkest hour. Many people tell me and ask to convey to you a feeling of losing their loved one, this is how dear and close he was to us’.
Kuksina wrote reply letters and asked Limar to put them by the grave. The mother wrote of heartache and asked her son to come to her dreams.
A photograph by Anatoly Kovtun was installed at the Shukshin’s grave, taken in the spring of 1974 for TASS photo-essay. The author recalled that Shukshin greatly appreciated this portrait. Kovtun wrote, “I made more than twenty shots, but felt no success. Camera captured and depicted the face from various angles. The tape ended treacherously, but nothing worked. I was nervous, but did not interrupt the shooting, I continued to move the shutter. Eventually Vasily Makarovich, apparently tired of my fruitless attempts to finalise the shooting, retreated into himself and began thinking of something… I quickly raised my camera and pulled the trigger. I tried another take, but the shutter remained in place. It was the last shot, and the best one of all”.
Frail health and old age prevented her from paying more frequent visits to Novodevichy Cemetery. She was worried that her son was left alone in the capital. The grave was tended by Elena Limar, Candidate of Philological Sciences, and assistant professor at Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages. She wrote to Shukshin’s mother, ‘Dear Maria Sergeevna! Having returned from the cemetery, I had such a drive to talk to You. I dropped everything and began writing this letter. Good Lord, how bad, how empty it feels without him! … Maria Sergeevna, my dear, I feel so sorry for You, how often do I think of You and how I want to somehow ease Your unbearable suffering. Hold on dear, hold on as best you can for his blessed memory, as he always did, as he always tried to stay strong and to encourage others in their darkest hour. Many people tell me and ask to convey to you a feeling of losing their loved one, this is how dear and close he was to us’.
Kuksina wrote reply letters and asked Limar to put them by the grave. The mother wrote of heartache and asked her son to come to her dreams.
A photograph by Anatoly Kovtun was installed at the Shukshin’s grave, taken in the spring of 1974 for TASS photo-essay. The author recalled that Shukshin greatly appreciated this portrait. Kovtun wrote, “I made more than twenty shots, but felt no success. Camera captured and depicted the face from various angles. The tape ended treacherously, but nothing worked. I was nervous, but did not interrupt the shooting, I continued to move the shutter. Eventually Vasily Makarovich, apparently tired of my fruitless attempts to finalise the shooting, retreated into himself and began thinking of something… I quickly raised my camera and pulled the trigger. I tried another take, but the shutter remained in place. It was the last shot, and the best one of all”.
