Film director and Shukshin fellow student Alexander Mitta recalls such a story. When Shukshin came to enter the WGIC, he believed that people gathered, negotiated and artel made movies. But it turned out that there is the main person that everyone is listening to - the director. Then Shukshin decided to enter the Register Faculty. At the exam, M. I. Rom asked him:
Tell me about Pierre Bezuhov.
“I didn’t read War and Peace,” Shukshin said. A thick book, there was no time.
Do you ever have thick books? I was surprised by Rom.
“I read one,” said Shukshin. “Martin Eden” A good book. Rom was upset:
How did you work as the school director? You are an uncultured person. And you want to be a director!
And then Shukshin exploded:
What is the school director? Get the wood, drink it, put it, put it, so that the children don’t freeze in the winter. Get the textbooks, get the kerosene, find the teachers. And the car is alone in the village — on four copits and with a tail... Even on its own hill... Where the books are thick to read...

Rom gave him “five” and accepted.