 Several major books – "Notches" (Zatesi), "Mountain Pass", "The Last Respect" (book 1), "Shepherd and His Wife" followed in the early 1970s and won Astafyev (now the Order of the Red Banner of Labour two-times chevalier) the RSFSR State Maxim Gorky Prize in December 1975.A year later "Nash Sovremennik" published "The Tsar Fish", one of his most famous short stories (which gave the title to the compilation).His debut play "The Bird-Cherry Tree" was premiered at the Moscow Yermolova theatre, also in 1976.