Vasily Shukshin’s "Kalina Krasnaya" (Summary) Automatic translate

Vasily Shukshin’s tragic film novella was written in 1973. He wrote the text while undergoing treatment in a hospital, and later directed and starred in the film of the same name. The work became a kind of summation of the author’s life — six months after its release, Shukshin passed away.

The film adaptation of the work was a resounding success. In 1974, 62 million Soviet viewers saw the film, making it the absolute top-grossing film at the box office. The film won the Grand Prize at the All-Union Film Festival in Baku and was also awarded the Warsaw Siren Prize by Polish film critics. The film later won awards at the Berlin Film Festival.

Liberation and the first days at liberty

Yegor Prokudin, a forty-year-old repeat offender nicknamed "Gore," is released. During his farewell interview with the prison warden, he confesses his dreams of farming and owning a cow. He shows a photograph of an unknown woman — Lyuba Baikalova, a correspondence student with whom he corresponded during his imprisonment. Yegor heads out, rejoicing in the spring and his freedom. Along the way, he hires a taxi, buys a transistor tape recorder from the driver for three hundred rubles, and enthusiastically recites poems about hunting a wolf, associating himself with the hunted beast. Prokudin asks the driver to stop at a birch grove, strokes the white tree trunks, and calls them his brides, anticipating a new life.

Return to the past

Arriving in the regional center, Yegor visits a thieves’ hangout. His former accomplices, led by Guboshlep, have gathered there. Also present is an old acquaintance of Yegor’s, a pleasant woman with high cheekbones named Lucienne. Tension reigns in the blue-wallpapered room: the bandits are waiting for a call about a successful kiosk robbery. Yegor is carousing, drinking champagne, and dancing with Lucienne. Suddenly, the phone rings — the operation has failed, the accomplices have been apprehended. Guboshlep orders everyone to disperse immediately.

The group tries to escape through the courtyards, but runs into a police raid. Lipslip reaches for his revolver, but Yegor stops him, not wanting to spill blood. Armed with a fresh release certificate, Prokudin decides to divert the patrol’s attention. He escapes, leading them on, waving his gun over fences, and hides in an old cemetery. After hiding among the graves of first-guild merchants, he unsuccessfully tries to find a place to stay with friends on the outskirts of town. Angered by the cold reception and insults, Yegor decides to go to his correspondence student, Lyuba.

Meet the Baikalov family

Lyuba meets Yegor in the village of Yasnoye. They go to the local teahouse. She watches her guest with interest and a hint of mockery. Prokudin initially lies, claiming to be a humble accountant convicted of embezzling funds. However, Lyuba had learned the truth from the prison warden’s letters. Unmasked, Yegor confesses that he is a professional thief. Undeterred, Lyuba leads him to her spacious house on the high riverbank.

Lyuba’s parents, stern peasants, greet the visitor with suspicion. The old man interrogates Yegor, suspecting him of being a murderer or a robber. Prokudin brazenly replies, "See how well we’ve settled into life!" Confounding the old man with accusations of not participating in the Stakhanovite movement. Soon, Lyuba’s silent and stern brother, Pyotr, arrives in a dump truck. Pyotr’s wife, Zoya, panics at the criminal’s presence. During a trip to the bathhouse together, Yegor accidentally scalds Pyotr with boiling water. A shout erupts, and neighbors gather, but the incident is hushed up. That evening, the village relatives gather around the table. The old men debate heatedly about the dispossession of the kulaks in the 1930s, while Lyuba shows Yegor a family photo album, telling him about her brothers who died in the war.

That night, Yegor can’t sleep. The oppressive silence forces him to sneak into Lyuba’s room, but he’s sternly rebuffed. The offended recidivist returns behind his colorful curtain and loudly quotes aphorisms by the German scholar Lichtenberg, frightening the old men.

City revelry

In the morning, Yegor announces he’s going into town to buy clothes. Lyuba dismisses him with hidden sadness. Prokudin promises not to lie: he himself doesn’t know if he’ll ever return. Once in the district center, Yegor dresses stylishly, buying a new suit, hat, and tie. At the post office, he sends a large money order to Guboshlep, while simultaneously trying to flirt with the telephone operator. The money is burning a hole in his pocket, and his soul is yearning for an immediate celebration.

At a restaurant, Yegor gives the nimble waiter, Mikhailych, a generous tip and asks him to organize a feast for strangers. That evening, he calls Lyuba, pretending he’s been held up at the military recruitment office. Then, donning an old theater robe, he goes out to meet his invited guests. However, the assembled crowd turns out to be gloomy and unhappy. Yegor tries to rouse them with champagne, delivering halting speeches about spring, love, and the transience of life. He forces the guests to sing "Evening Bells," casting them as the ringing bell. The choir struggles, and the music becomes constantly inconsistent. Frustrated, Yegor abandons the idea, orders Mikhailych to distribute the money to everyone, and returns to the village by taxi that night.

Life in Yasny and a trip to Sosnovka

Arriving in the middle of the night, Yegor wakes Pyotr. The men lock themselves in a black bathhouse by the moonlight, drinking expensive French cognac and singing prison songs. The next morning, Yegor accompanies Lyuba to the farm. He recalls his difficult village childhood and their cow, Manya, whose stomach was pierced with a pitchfork. At the farm, the couple meets the director of the state farm, who offers Yegor a job as a driver. Prokudin agrees, but quickly becomes disillusioned with the job: the sight of his satisfied boss and the need to serve irritate him. He leaves the car at the village club and walks through the birch grove, enjoying the white trunks and spring foliage. Looking at the trees, he tenderly mutters, "Oh, my dears!… And they stand there: hunched over at the edge, standing there."

At home, Yegor asks Lyuba to go with him to the village of Sosnovka in Pyotr’s dump truck. He concocts a cover story: Lyuba is to pretend to be a social security worker and ask a local old woman, Kudelikh, about her life. Upon arrival, Lyuba learns that the grandmother had six children. Three live in cities, and she hasn’t heard anything about the fate of two sons since the ancient famine. All this time, Yegor sits by the door, wearing dark glasses, petrified and silent.

Stepping outside, Yegor presses his head against the cold doorframe in despair. Driving away from the village, he stops the car and falls headfirst onto the steering wheel. Prokudin confesses to Lyuba that the lonely Kudelikha is his biological mother. He asks Lyuba to visit the old woman the next day and give her the money, as he himself cannot face his mother due to the overwhelming shame.

Shadows of the Past

Upon returning to Yasnoye, it turns out Lyuba’s ex-husband, Kolya, a chronic drunkard, had visited her. Yegor, without further ado, throws him down from the high porch and tackles him to the ground. Kolya attempts to stab Prokudin with a broken stake, but retreats before the icy calm and cruel gaze of the recidivist.

Soon, an unexpected guest arrives at the Baikalovs’ house: Shura, a young man from Guboshlep’s gang. He has returned the money Yegor had sent them by mail. Prokudin brutally beats the messenger and orders him to tell Guboshlep that he’s out of the game for good and no longer owes them anything. Lyuba, overhearing the conversation in the hallway, is horrified. She begs Yegor to leave, fearing the bandits’ imminent revenge. Prokudin swears on everything he holds dear that everything will be alright and reassures her with a heartfelt song about the red viburnum.

Tragedy at the Birch Grove

Yegor begins working as a tractor driver. He ploughs his first furrow and feels an incredible sense of peace from the springtime ploughing and the smell of fresh earth. He plans a long life as a farmer, admires the birch trees at the edge of the field, and looks confidently to the future.

During sowing time, a car pulls up to the edge of the field. Inside are Guboshlep, Buldya, Lucien, and another bandit. Leaving the tractor, Yegor walks toward them across the soft earth. Guboshlep mockingly taunts him with his heavy, laborious gait. Lucien begs Yegor to be left alone, to allow him to live peacefully and till the land, but the bandit leader is deaf to her pleas. The bandit cannot forgive this betrayal of the old thieves’ code.

Petro, having learned from his sister about the suspicious visitors, races the dump truck toward the field. Lyuba leaps from the cab and runs toward the birch grove. She sees the wounded Yegor clutching his stomach. Lipslip has fatally wounded him with a bullet. The white trunks of the birches are covered in bright red spots of blood. Petro carefully carries the heavy Yegor into the truck. On the way to the hospital, Prokudin asks the car to stop. He lies down on his back on the ground, asks for money for his mother, sheds his last tear into the grass, and dies.

Lyuba falls onto her lover’s chest and howls terribly with grief. Enraged, Petro wipes away his tears with the sleeve of his sweatshirt, climbs into the dump truck, and drives along an old logging road to intercept the fleeing bandits. He overtakes the killers’ fleeing car on a narrow track. The powerful truck hits the car in the side, violently overturning it.