Prodigal Son Vasilii Shukshin in Soviet Russian Culture

A wildly prolific director, actor, and writer, Vasilii Shukshin (1929-74) reached more Soviets in more media than perhaps any other artist in the post-Stalinist USSR. This first English-language study of Shukshin and his work is thus a portrait of the culture of Soviet Russia after Stalin. John Givens begins with Shukshin's position between cultural realms and social strata: his abandoned peasant heritage in Siberia as the son of a purged kulak on the one hand and his life as a successful artist in Moscow on the other. Givens shows how this clash of cultures and identities was both a burden and the driving force of Shukshin's art -- and how it represents a central dichotomy between rural and urban culture in Soviet Russia.This work provides new terms for rereading the culture of Shukshin's time -- terms that take up notions of demographic displacement, class difference, and blurred boundaries among genres, audiences, and arts.Givens, John is the author of 'Prodigal Son Vasilii Shukshin in Soviet Russian Culture' with ISBN 9780810117709 and ISBN 0810117703.