 "I decided to quit after 1,5 years, feeling that otherwise I'd just stop respecting myself altogether," he remembered.On 1 October 1958 Astafyev became the member of the RSFSR Union of Writers.In 1959, Astafyev enrolled in the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow; he became friends with Sergey Vikulov, Yevgeny Nosov and a group of Vologda authors.