The paper deals with the research of the symbolic potential of the figure of the father in V.M. Shukshin's creation. The type of the father in the writer's works has a sequence of conventional properties, such as physical strength, supremacy complex and traditional world-order guarding. The fact that the paternal origin is thought as necessary may be considered the peculiarity of Shukshin's figurative system, that's why in the case when the real father lost there appears a figure of a "quasi-father" in his works. The writer's autobiographical short stories present a step father, a mother's fiance or an uncle as candidates for the father to the orphaned boy. And yet the early-grown up son becomes the support for his mother. In the social context regulating and repressive functions of the father are taken upon by the institution of power and their representatives. In this connection the paper examines the transformation of the soviet myth about "the great family" in the writer's prose. The paper underlines the

semiotic richness of the family sphere in Shukshin's artistic world and points out the promising character of the research in this area.