P Platonov what is good about the first one. Platonov, Andrey Platonovich - short biography

Name: Andrey Platonov (Andrey Klimentov)

Age: 51 years old

Activity: writer, poet, playwright

Marital status: was married

Andrey Platonov: biography

Andrei Platonovich Platonov - Soviet prose writer, poet, publicist, playwright. Most best works the author was published after his death.

Andrei Platonovich was born in August 1899 in Yamskaya Sloboda (Voronezh). The boy was the first-born in the family of a railway worker. The father of the future writer, Platon Firsovich Klimentov, was a locomotive driver and mechanic; he was twice awarded the title of Hero of Labor. Mother Maria Vasilievna Lobochikhina was the daughter of a watchmaker. After marriage, the woman took care of the housework.


The Klimentov family was large. During her life, Maria Vasilievna gave birth to eleven children. Platon Firsovich spent almost all his time in the workshops. Older children with youth They helped their father earn money to feed his family.

At the age of seven, Andrei was enrolled in a parochial school. In 1909, the boy entered the city four-year school. At the age of 13, the future writer began working for hire. The young man tried different professions Until the age of eighteen, he managed to work in many workshops in Voronezh.

Creation

Andrei Klimentov entered the railway technical school in 1918. The Civil War prevented the young man from completing his studies. A new period of life has begun for Andrey. He went through the Civil War in the ranks of the Red Army. October Revolution became for young man an impetus for creativity.

In the early twenties, Klimentov changed his last name and began to collaborate with the editors of various magazines and newspapers in Voronezh. He tried himself as a poet, publicist, critic, columnist. In 1921, Andrei Platonov’s first book, entitled “Electrification,” was published. His stories from earlier times are characterized by aggressiveness. A change of tone in the writer’s work occurred in 1921 after meeting his future wife.


In the year of the birth of his first child, Platonov published a collection of poems, Blue Depth. In 1926, the writer completed work on the manuscript of the story “Epiphanian Gateways”. The move to Moscow and a certain amount of fame inspired the author. The next year was very fruitful for Platonov. From the pen of the writer came the stories " Hidden Man", "City of Gradov", "Ethereal Route", as well as stories " Sandy teacher", "How Ilyich's lamp was lit", "Yamskaya Sloboda".

Platonov created his main works at the turn of the thirties of the last century. In 1929, he completed work on the novel “Chevengur”, and in 1930, on the social parable “The Pit”. During the writer's lifetime, these works were not published. His relationship with the authorities and censorship was very strained. The writer repeatedly fell into disgrace. The story “For Future Use,” published in 1931, caused strong discontent. The politician demanded that the writer be deprived of the opportunity to publish.


Illustration for Andrei Platonov’s story “The Pit”

In 1934, the pressure from the authorities eased a little. Platonov went with his colleagues on a trip around Central Asia. Inspiration came to the writer after visiting Turkmenistan, and he wrote the story “Takyr,” which caused a new wave of disapproval and criticism. When Stalin read some of Platonov's works, he left notes in the margins like swear words characterizing the author.


Writer Andrey Platonov

Despite the dissatisfaction of the authorities, the writer was able to publish several of his stories in 1936. After the outbreak of World War II, a place for the front-line theme appeared in his work. In the fifties, Platonov focused his attention on literary processing folk tales.

Personal life

Andrei Platonov got married at the age of 22. His chosen one was Maria Kashintseva. The girl was the writer's first serious hobby. 6 years after start family life Platonov wrote the story “The Sandy Teacher,” which he dedicated to his wife. The plot is based on facts from the biography of Maria Alexandrovna.


Andrei Platonov with his wife Maria Kashintseva

The writer's future wife left for the outback in 1921 to avoid a relationship with Platonov. This “escape from love” formed the basis of the story about the teacher. Maria lived sixty kilometers from the city. The writer visited the bride two or three times a month. Maria's pregnancy finally decided the issue of her relationship with Platonov. The writer, with his persistence, persuaded the girl to marry in 1921. In 1922, a son was born into the family; the boy was named Plato in honor of the writer’s father.


In the same year, the prose writer’s brother and sister died from poisoning with poisonous mushrooms. He experienced severe mental anguish, torn between the happiness of married life and family grief. The writer's mother did not find common language with his daughter-in-law, Andrei Platonovich ended up in difficult situation. He never managed to reconcile the two main women in his life.

In 1929, at the age of 54, the prose writer's mother died. Seven years after her death, Platonov wrote the story “The Third Son,” dedicated to Maria Vasilievna.


The life of the Klimentovs’ grandson turned out to be short and tragic. Plato was sick a lot as a child and grew up as a capricious and uncontrollable young man. At the age of fifteen he went to prison. While in prison, Plato fell ill with tuberculosis. The young man died of consumption at the age of twenty. Shortly before his death, Platon Andreevich became a father.

The writer's personal life was reflected in Platonov's works. His heroes suffered with him, loved with him, went crazy and died. Platonov became a grandfather, but the loss of his son broke his inner core.


In 1944, Maria Alexandrovna decided to have a second birth. The writer's daughter Masha was born. Platonov at that time was already ill with consumption. Photos of the last years of the writer’s life give a clear idea of ​​the state of his soul and body.

Death

During World War II, Andrei Platonovich, with the rank of captain, served as a front-line correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. The writer took part in hostilities, did not sit in the rear, and was modest in the life of a soldier. According to one version, Platonov contracted consumption during the war. The life of a soldier helped the writer collect material for front-line stories and essays that were published in the Red Star magazine.

In 1943, the writer's only son died. Platonov looked after him for a long time, but the young man was never able to recover from his imprisonment. According to one version, the writer contracted tuberculosis from his son.


In 1946, Platonov was demobilized due to illness. In the same year, he finished work on the story “The Ivanov Family,” which appeared in print under the title “Return.” A wave of criticism again overwhelmed Platonov. He was accused of slandering the victorious soldiers and was excommunicated from the press.

In the last years of his life, Platonov had to do menial literary work to earn money. The writer's creativity focused around the processing of folk tales. Platonov became interested in children's literature because of his little daughter Mashenka. In 1950, the writer completed work on the fairy tales “The Unknown Flower” and “The Magic Ring”. Based on these works, Soviet animators created in the late seventies animated films.


Monument to Andrei Platonov in Voronezh

The writer died in the winter of 1951 in Moscow from consumption; he was buried in the Armenian cemetery. Ended in 1952 life path the writer's father. Platonov’s wife died in 1983; she outlived her husband by three decades. Their daughter Maria Andreevna devoted her life to publishing her father’s works. She also created one version of his biography.

Platonov's books began to be actively published in the eighties of the last century. The author's works aroused a wave of interest among a new generation of readers. In 2005, Maria Andreevna died and was buried in the Armenian cemetery.

Bibliography:

  • 1920 - story “Chuldik and Epishka”
  • 1921 - story “Markun”, brochure “Electrification”
  • 1922 - book of poems “Blue Depth”
  • 1927 - stories “City of Gradov”, “The Hidden Man”, “Ethereal Route”, stories “Yamskaya Sloboda”, “Sandy Teacher”, “How Ilyich’s Lamp Was Lighted”
  • 1929 - novel “Chevengur”
  • 1929 - stories “State Resident”, “Doubting Makar”
  • 1930 - “The pit”, “Hurdy organ” (play)
  • 1931 - “Poor Peasants’ Chronicle” “For Future Use”, plays “ High voltage" and "14 red huts"
  • 1934 - stories “Garbage Wind”, “Juvenile Sea” and “Jan”, story “Takyr”
  • 1936 - stories “The Third Son” and “Immortality”
  • 1937 - stories “Potudan River”, “In a Beautiful and Furious World”, “Fro”
  • 1939 - story “The Motherland of Electricity”
  • 1942 - “Spiritualized People” (collection of stories)
  • 1943 - “Stories about the Motherland” (collection of stories)
  • 1943 - “Armor” (collection of stories)
  • 1945 - collection of stories “Towards the Sunset”, story “Nikita”
  • 1946 - story “Ivanov’s Family” (“Return”)
  • 1947 - books “Finist - Clear Falcon”, “Bashkir Folk Tales”
  • 1948 - play “Lyceum Student”
  • 1950 - fairy tale “The Unknown Flower”

Andrei Platonov, a famous playwright, writer, poet and publicist, is familiar to Russian readers for his interesting stories and publications. Based on his stories, films have been made and theater productions have been staged.

Andrei Platonov (Klimentov) was born in Voronezh on August 28, 1899 in the family of an ordinary worker. His father was a mechanic and also worked on a steam locomotive; his mother did not work and raised her children at home. Andrei was the eldest child in the family and was the breadwinner and support for his family.

At the age of seven, his studies begin; he attends a church school. After studying for 3 years, he enters another school in the city of Voronezh. In 1913, he began his working career, starting as a day laborer, then as an assistant driver, foundry worker, and craftsman.

Andrei Platonov's writing talent first appeared in 1918, when he worked in the editorial office of a local magazine. He works as a special correspondent, and since 1919 he has published his first publications in the city newspaper. In 1921, Andrei Platonov wrote his first thin book, Electrification. In 1921 he married, and in 1922 his son Plato was born. It was in the 20s that he changed his surname Klimentov to the pseudonym Platonov, in honor of his father’s name.

Its real creative works reflected in the story “The Pit” and in the novel “Chevengur”, which were written in 1928 - 1931, but, unfortunately, they were not published. During the times of repression, his works were criticized by Stalin, his articles were not accepted in local newspapers. A big blow for him is the arrest of his son in 1938, when he was only 15 years old. After much trouble, after 2 years the son was released from prison, but seriously ill with tuberculosis. After living in prison for another 3 years, Plato dies. The father greatly and deeply grieves for his deceased, very young son. Due to the fact that he himself cared for his son during his illness, being in close contact with him, Platonov also fell ill with tuberculosis.

During the Great Patriotic War, he interviews military personnel, collects facts and information about the war and soldiers, and publishes his stories in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. In 1946 he returned to Moscow. In Moscow newspapers his stories are not accepted, they are criticized, and he is left without a livelihood. This is how a talented person, unrecognized, without money, died in poverty, sick from tuberculosis on January 5, 1951 in Moscow.

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Andrey Platonov (real name Andrey Platonovich Klimentov) (1899-1951) - Russian Soviet writer, prose writer, one of the most original Russian writers in style of the first half of the 20th century.

Andrey was born on August 28 (16), 1899 in Voronezh, in the family of a railway mechanic Platon Firsovich Klimentov. However, traditionally his birthday is celebrated on September 1st.

Andrei Klimentov studied at a parish school, then at a city school. At the age of 15 (according to some sources, already at 13) he began working to support his family. According to Platonov: “We had a family... 10 people, and I am the eldest son - one worker, except for my father. My father... could not feed such a horde.” “Life immediately turned me from a child into an adult, depriving me of my youth.”

Until 1917, he changed several professions: he was an auxiliary worker, a foundry worker, a mechanic, etc., which he wrote about in early stories“The Next One” (1918) and “Seryoga and Me” (1921).

Participated in the civil war as a front-line correspondent. Since 1918, he published his works, collaborating with several newspapers as a poet, publicist and critic. In 1920, he changed his last name from Klimentov to Platonov (the pseudonym was formed on behalf of the writer’s father), and also joined the RCP (b), but a year later at will left the party.

In 1921, his first journalistic book, Electrification, was published, and in 1922, a book of poems, Blue Depth. In 1924, he graduated from the polytechnic and began working as a land reclamation worker and electrical engineer.

In 1926, Platonov was recalled to work in Moscow at the People's Commissariat for Agriculture. He was sent to engineering and administrative work in Tambov. In the same year they wrote “Epiphanian Gateways”, “Ethereal Route”, “City of Grads”, which brought him fame. Platonov moved to Moscow, becoming a professional writer.

Gradually, Platonov’s attitude towards revolutionary changes changes until they are rejected. His prose ( "City of Gradov", "Doubting Makar" etc.) often caused rejection of criticism. In 1929, A.M. received a sharply negative assessment. Gorky and Platonov’s novel “Chevengur” was banned from publication. In 1931, the published work “For Future Use” caused sharp condemnation by A. A. Fadeev and I. V. Stalin. After this, Platonov practically stopped being published. Stories "Pit", "Juvenile Sea", the novel "Chevengur" was released only in the late 1980s and received worldwide recognition.

In 1931-1935, Andrei Platonov worked as an engineer in the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry, but continued to write (the play "High Voltage", story "Juvenile Sea"). In 1934, the writer and a group of colleagues traveled to Turkmenistan. After this trip, the story “Jan”, the story “Takyr”, the article "On the first socialist tragedy" etc.

In 1936-1941, Platonov appeared in print mainly as a literary critic. He publishes in magazines under various pseudonyms." Literary critic", "Literary Review", etc. Working on a novel "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg"(his manuscript was lost at the beginning of the war), writes children's plays "Granny's Hut", "Good Titus", "Step Daughter".

In 1937, his story “The Potudan River” was published. In May of the same year, his 15-year-old son Platon was arrested, having returned from imprisonment in the fall of 1940, terminally ill with tuberculosis, after the efforts of Platonov’s friends. In January 1943 he died.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the writer and his family are evacuated to Ufa, where a collection of his war stories is being published "Under the skies of the Motherland". In 1942, he volunteered to go to the front as a private, but soon became a military journalist, front-line correspondent for Red Star. Despite suffering from tuberculosis, Platonov did not leave the service until 1946. At this time, his war stories appeared in print: "Armor", "Spiritualized People"(1942), "No Death!" (1943), "Aphrodite" (1944), "Towards the Sunset"(1945), etc.

For Platonov’s story “Return” (original title “Ivanov’s Family”), published at the end of 1946, the writer was subjected to new attacks from critics the following year and was accused of slandering the Soviet system. After this, the opportunity to publish his works was closed for Platonov.

At the end of the 1940s, deprived of the opportunity to earn a living by writing, Platonov was engaged in literary adaptation of Russian and Bashkir fairy tales, which were published in children's magazines.

Platonov died on January 5, 1951 in Moscow from tuberculosis, which he contracted while caring for his son.

His book was published in 1954 "The Magic Ring and Other Tales". With Khrushchev's "thaw", his other books began to be published (the main works became known only in the 1980s). However, all of Platonov's publications during the Soviet period were accompanied by significant censorship restrictions.

Some works of Andrei Platonov were discovered only in the 1990s (for example, the novel written in the 30s "Happy Moscow").

PLATONOV, ANDREY PLATONOVICH (1899–1951), real name Klimentov, Russian prose writer, playwright. Born on August 16 (28), 1899 in a working-class suburb of Voronezh. He was the eldest son in the family of a mechanic at railway workshops. The impressions of a difficult childhood full of adult concerns were reflected in the story Semyon (1927), in which the image title character has autobiographical features. He studied at a parochial school, but in 1914 he was forced to leave his studies and go to work. Before 1917, he changed several professions: he was an auxiliary worker, a foundry worker, a mechanic, etc., which he wrote about in his early stories Orchardnaya (1918) and Seryoga and I (1921). According to Platonov, “life immediately turned me from a child into an adult, depriving me of my youth.”

In 1918, Platonov entered the Voronezh Railway Polytechnic School, realizing his childhood interest in machines and mechanisms. For some time, after interrupting his studies, he worked as an assistant driver. In 1921 he wrote the brochure Electrification and after graduating from college (1921) he called electrical engineering his main specialty. Platonov explained the need to learn in the story The Potudan River (1937) as the desire to “quickly acquire higher knowledge” in order to overcome the meaninglessness of life. The heroes of many of his stories (At the dawn of a foggy youth, The Old Mechanic, etc.) are railway workers, whose lives he knew well from childhood and youth.

From the age of 12, Platonov wrote poetry. In 1918 he began working as a journalist in the Voronezh newspapers “Izvestia fortified area”, “Krasnaya Derevnya” and others. In 1918 in the magazine “ Iron way“Platonov’s poems (Night, Longing, etc.) began to be published, his story Regular was published, as well as essays, articles and reviews. From that time on, Platonov became one of the most prominent writers in Voronezh, actively appearing in periodicals, including under pseudonyms (Elp. Baklazhanov, A. Firsov, etc.). In 1920, Platonov joined the RCP(b), but a year later he left the party of his own free will.

Platonov's book of poems Blue Depth (1922, Voronezh) received positive assessment V. Bryusova. However, at this time, under the impression of the drought of 1921, which led to mass starvation among the peasants, Platonov decided to change his occupation. In his 1924 autobiography, he wrote: “Being a technician, I could no longer engage in contemplative work - literature.” In 1922–1926, Platonov worked in the Voronezh provincial land department, working on land reclamation and electrification agriculture. He appeared in print with numerous articles on land reclamation and electrification, in which he saw the possibility of a “bloodless revolution”, a radical change for the better in people’s lives. The impressions of these years were embodied in the story “The Motherland of Electricity” and other works of Platonov in the 1920s.

Chevengur became not only Platonov’s largest work in volume, but also an important milestone in his work. The writer brought to the point of absurdity the ideas of the communist reorganization of life that possessed him in his youth, showing their tragic impracticability. The features of reality acquired a grotesque character in the novel, and in accordance with this, the surreal style of the work was formed. His heroes feel their orphanhood in a godless world, their disconnection from the “soul of the world,” which is embodied for them in ethereal images (for the revolutionary Kopenkin - in the image of the unknown Rosa Luxemburg). Trying to comprehend the mysteries of life and death, the heroes of the novel are building socialism in county town Chevengure, choosing it as a place in which the good of life, the accuracy of truth and the sorrow of existence “occur by themselves as needed.” In the utopian Chevengur, security officers kill bourgeois and semi-bourgeois, and the proletarians feed on the “food leftovers of the bourgeoisie” because main profession a person is his soul. According to one of the characters, “a Bolshevik must have an empty heart so that everything can fit in there.” At the end of the novel main character Alexander Dvanov dies of his own free will in order to comprehend the mystery of death, because he understands: the mystery of life cannot be solved by the methods used to transform it. Reorganization of life is central theme the story Pit (1930, published in 1969 in Germany, in 1987 in the USSR), the action of which takes place during the first five-year plan. The “common proletarian house”, the foundation pit for which the heroes of the story are digging, is a symbol of communist utopia, “earthly paradise”. The pit becomes the grave for the girl Nastya, symbolizing the future of Russia in the story. The construction of socialism evokes associations with the biblical story of the construction of the Tower of Babel. The Pit also embodies Platonov’s traditional motif of a journey, during which a person in this case unemployed Voshchev comprehends the truth by passing space through himself. In the afterword to the American edition of Kotlovan, I. Brodsky noted Platonov’s surrealism, fully expressed in the image of a hammer bear participating in the construction. According to Brodsky, Platonov “subordinated himself to the language of the era, seeing in it such abysses, having looked into which once, he could no longer glide across the literary surface.” The publication of the chronicle story For the Future with a devastating afterword by A. Fadeev (1931), in which the collectivization of agriculture was shown as a tragedy, made the publication of most of Platonov’s works impossible. An exception was the collection of prose The Potudan River (1937). The stories of Dzhan (1935), The Juvenile Sea (1934), the plays written in the 1930s, The Sharmanka and 14 Red Huts were not published during the author’s lifetime. The publication of Platonov’s works was permitted during the Patriotic War, when the prose writer worked as a front-line correspondent for the newspaper “Red Star” and wrote stories in military theme(Armor, Spiritualized People, 1942; There is no Death!, 1943; Aphrodite, 1944, etc.; 4 books were published). After his story The Ivanov Family (another title is The Return) was subjected to ideological criticism in 1946, Platonov’s name was deleted from Soviet literature. Written in the 1930s, the novel Happy Moscow was discovered only in the 1990s. The first book after a long break, The Magic Ring and Other Fairy Tales, was published in 1954, after the death of the author. All publications of Platonov's works were accompanied by censorship restrictions during the Soviet period. Platonov died in Moscow on January 5, 1951.

PLATONOV Andrey Platonovich (1899-1951), Russian writer. In Platonov’s prose, the world appears as a contradictory, often tragic integrity of human and natural existence: the stories “Epiphanian Locks” (1927), “City of Grads” (1928), “River Potudan” (1937). In the novels “Chevengur” (published in 1972, in Russia - 1988), “Happy Moscow” (not finished, published in 1991), the story “The Pit” (published in 1969), “Juvenile Sea” (published in 1979; in Russia both - in 1987), "Jan" (published in 1964) - rejection of the imposed forms of socialist reorganization of life. The originality of Platonov’s style is determined by the “tongue-tied” and “roughness” of the language, which are combined in the fabric of the narrative with abstract concepts and metaphorical images.

PLATONOV Andrey Platonovich (real name Klimentov), ​​Russian writer.

The beginning of the journey

Born in large family mechanic of railway workshops. He studied at a parochial school, then at a city school. At the age of 14, he began to master blue-collar professions (fitter, foundry worker, assistant locomotive driver) - he needed to support his family. The motif of a steam locomotive ran through all of his work, and his difficult childhood was described in stories about children. Early on he showed interest in technical invention and, at the same time, in literature. His first attempt at writing was youthful poems included in his poetry collection “Blue Depth” (1922). In 1918-1921 he was actively involved in journalism, combining it with work at railway and studying at the Voronezh Polytechnic Institute.

Worker-intellectual. Voronezh

In 1922-1926, Platonov worked as a land reclamation worker in the Voronezh province and on the construction of a power plant. He is passionate about transforming the economy, but stubbornly continues to study literature. He publishes journalistic articles, stories and poems in Voronezh newspapers and magazines and even in the Moscow magazine “Kuznitsa”. In Platonov’s journalism of these years, he is a maximalist dreamer, a fighter against the elemental forces in nature and life, calling for the speedy transformation of Russia “into a country of thought and metal”, for the suppression of sexual desires as an obstacle to universal brotherhood. At the same time, Platonov’s intense philosophical and ethical quests of these years (he was influenced by the ideas of A. Bogdanov, K. E. Tsiolkovsky, N. F. Fedorov, V. V. Rozanov) do not allow him to merge with proletarian literature. Writes stories on topics village life("IN starry desert", 1921, "Chuldik and Epishka", 1920), as well as science fiction stories and novellas ("Descendants of the Sun", 1922, "Markun", 1922, "Moon Bomb", 1926), in which faith in technological progress is combined with the utopian idealism of the artisan-inventor.

From “deed” to “word”

In 1927, Platonov left the service and moved with his family to Moscow: the writer defeated the engineer in Platonov. Soon the story “Epiphanian Locks” appears, which gave the name to the collection of stories (1927). In this story, in the expressively condensed symbolism of the plot and language, a sharp metaphor is given for the tragic and cruel appearance of Russia, the doom of rational undertakings in it. At this time, Platonov subjected to critical revision not only his social utopian views, but also radicalism in the field of gender. The satirical utopian pamphlet Antisexus (1928) ridiculed the idea of ​​abandoning carnal love in favor of social activities, as well as documentary-montage literature of the left.

During this period, Platonov’s poetics crystallized: directness in the expression of ideas gives way to the duality of the author’s position; aspiration to the future is replaced by searches deep meanings life - “the substance of existence”; the heroes are lonely inventors, wanderers, thoughtful eccentrics. A unique linguistic texture is emerging: the master’s style is based on poetic techniques and the word-formation mechanism of language, which reveals the hidden, primary meaning of a word. Platonov’s expressive tongue-tiedness has no precedent in Russian literature, partly relying on the traditions of symbolism, as well as processing the experience of the avant-garde and the newspaper vocabulary of his time.

The new poetics found expression in the stories “Yamskaya Sloboda” (1927), in which Platonov continued the rural theme of his earlier prose, “City of Grads” (1928) - a satire on the Soviet bureaucracy, “The Secret Man” (1928) about the adventures of the “reflective proletarian” during the civil war. In this prose, Platonov moves away from the declarative and illustrative presentation of the utopian idea to an intense search for an algorithm of existence, subordinated to the multi-level unity of man and eternal problems being. Border between inner world person and external environment, between living and inanimate nature becomes permeable, concepts and things come closer, and the essence of life appears on the verge of its disappearance.

Heroics of disrepair

Woven from paradoxes, Platonov’s angular characters, language, and plots found it difficult to gain recognition from his contemporaries. The success of publications in the magazines “Krasnaya Nov”, “ New world” soon gives way to critical reviews, editorial cuts and refusals. Platonov’s situation is aggravated by everyday troubles: the family wanders for a long time in temporary apartments, until in 1931 they settle in a wing of a mansion on Tverskoy Boulevard(now the Herzen Literary Institute). 1929, the year of the “great turning point”, which brought toughening in the field of literary policy, made the atmosphere around Platonov even more alienated. After the publication of the essay “Che-Che-O” and especially the story “Doubting Makar” (1929), Platonov was accused of anarcho-individualism. The writer is no longer published; even an appeal to Gorky does not help.

In 1928, Platonov completed work on the novel “Chevengur”, but it was published in its entirety only in 1972 in Paris. The novel is a multi-faceted narrative in which lyricism and satire are intertwined with philosophical constructs and political allusions. The plot is based on a description of the emergence and death of the city-commune Chevengur, where the heroes of the novel, the son of a drowned fisherman Sasha Dvanov and Don Quixote of the revolution Kopenkin, arrive after a series of adventures. In the Chevengur commune “history has ended” - having cleared the city of the bourgeoisie and “residual bastards”, having destroyed the economy, people feed on the gifts of the earth and the sun. The soldiers attacking the city bring final death to the inhabitants of the city. The novel is permeated with duality: the commune is both an ideal and an object of ridicule; Fedorov's appeals to the brotherhood of man, the resurrection of ancestors, and the reprehensibility of manifestations of sex, to which Platonov was committed in his youth, are ironically defamiliarized here. Poetics in "Chevengur" receives further development: the plot is expressed implicitly, the speech of the characters and the narrator does not differ; the language is “clumsy and aphoristically refined” (E. Yablokov). The flickering of meanings creates a special expressive-viscous environment of unresolved tragic conflict as the basis of existence. This conflict is universal and cannot be reduced only to the gap between the ideal and the practical structure of life, to political and historical realities.

Thirties

However, the social atmosphere was heating up. The publication of the “poor peasant chronicle” “For Future Use” (1931) - an ironic description of collectivization - was followed by a sharp reaction from Stalin, and Platonov was no longer published. Even the anti-fascist story “Garbage Wind” (1934) was condemned for its grotesqueness and “irreality of content.”

In the mid-1930s, Platonov was a writer who wrote mainly on the table. At the same time, the abundance of ideas overwhelms the writer. He works hard. At this time, he wrote the novel “Happy Moscow”, the play “The Voice of the Father”, articles on literature (about Pushkin, Akhmatova, Hemingway, Chapek, Green, Paustovsky). After creating the story “The Juvenile Sea” (published in 1986) and the play “Hurdy Organ”, which is similar in its themes to “Chevengur” and “The Pit,” the writer gradually moves away from large-scale social canvases into the world of emotional experiences and love dramas(stories “The Potudan River”, “Fro”, “Aphrodite”, “Clay House in the District Garden”), in which the psychological modeling of the characters is enhanced; the ironic attitude towards love gives way to the depth of psychological reading. The stories about children are remarkable (Semyon, 1936) - they combine the heroism of “separate existence” with compassion for the orphanhood of humanity.

In 1933-1935, after a trip to Turkmenistan, Platonov created the story “Dzhan”. Its hero, driven by a Promethean passion to save his people dying in the desert, wants to teach people happy life in the commune, but fails. The lyrical and social-utopian layers are combined here into a single whole. The brightness of phrases and words, sound design and rhythm make Platonov’s prose of the 1930s expressively rich.

In 1937, Platonov managed to publish a collection of stories, “The Potudan River,” which was subjected to devastating criticism. Platonov was again in disgrace, his position was aggravated by another event - in 1938, Platonov’s only son, a fifteen-year-old teenager, was arrested on a fabricated case.

War and post-war creativity

IN recent years the life of a writer who is attacked new wave attacks, is forced to look for workarounds - he writes variations of Russian and Bashkir folk tales, works on satirical play on the theme of American reality (with allusions to the USSR) “Noah’s Ark” (not finished). However, Platonov was unable to adapt to the post-war terror: he soon died of tuberculosis, which he contracted from his son, who was released from the camp.

Since the 1980s, the master's vibrant originality has generated a huge wave of interest throughout the world. Most of Platonov's works are still in manuscript. Platonov is an artist of a victorious muse: the “dark will to creativity” and the crushing power of the word many times overcame the narrowness of time and ideas to which he was devoted.

Andrei Platonov's life was short and difficult, and fame came to him only after his death. V. Vasiliev said about this writer: “The reader missed Andrei Platonov during his lifetime in order to get to know him in the 60s and rediscover him in our time.”

Andrei Platonovich Klimentov, whom the reader knows under the name Platonov, was born on August 28 (16), 1899. However, traditionally his birthday is celebrated on September 1st. He changed his last name in the 1920s, forming it on behalf of his father, Platon Firsovich Klimentov, a mechanic at railway workshops in the Yamskaya settlement of Voronezh. Andrei studied first at a parochial school, then at a city school, and began working at the age of thirteen. “We had a family... of 10 people, and I am the eldest son - the only worker, except for my father. My father... could not feed such a horde,” he later wrote in his memoirs.

The young man worked as an assistant driver, foundry worker, and electrical engineer. In 1918, he went to study again - at the Voronezh Polytechnic. But his studies were interrupted by the Civil War, to which he left in 1919. It was then that Platonov began to write. His first book was a collection of essays, “Electrification,” which asserted the idea that “electrification is the same revolution in technology, with the same meaning as October 1917.”

After graduation Civil War Andrei Platonov entered the Polytechnic Institute. After graduating in 1926, he worked as a provincial land reclamation worker, in charge of work on the electrification of agriculture, but did not part with literary activity.

Andrei Platonov's second book, the collection "Blue Depth", was compiled from his pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary poems.

However, the writer’s talent was fully demonstrated in prose. After his move to Moscow in 1927, a book was published, a collection of stories “Epiphanian Gateways”, with which his career as a professional writer began. It contained works of different times published in newspapers and magazines.

At first writer's fate turned out well: he was noticed by critics and approved by Maxim Gorky. Moreover, the latter’s reviews relate specifically to Platonov the satirist: “In your psyche, as I perceive it, there is an affinity with Gogol. Therefore, try yourself at comedy, not drama. Leave drama for personal pleasure.” But the writer did not fully follow this advice, writing only a few satirical works. After the collection "Epiphanian Gateways", the books "The Hidden Man" (1928) and "The Origin of the Master" (1929) were published one after another. However, fortune turns away from him after the story “Doubting Makar” received a sharply negative assessment from Stalin. Publishers reject his works for ideological reasons.

Next book, "Potudan River", appeared only in 1937. It included the stories “The July Thunderstorm”, “Fro”, “The Potudan River”, “At the Dawn of Foggy Youth”, “In a Beautiful and Furious World”, etc., the main themes of which were love, happiness, self-sacrifice for a bright future - the usual universal human motives.

Meanwhile, at the same time, such a major work was born as the novel “Chevengur” (1929, in the first edition - “Builders of Spring”, 1927), a socio-philosophical drama, which, according to the author himself, contains “an attempt to depict the beginning of the communist society." In Russian, the novel appeared in print only in 1989 at the publishing house " Soviet Russia“It reflects, first of all, the writer’s youthful hopes for the revolution as a “living, harmonious organism.” It captures the illusions and fantasies associated with building a new life. The novel reflects the clash of romantic inspirations and youthful idealism with disappointment over the curtailment of the NEP, the decline of democracy, the triumph of the command-bureaucratic system. In 1930, another major work of Platonov was born, also written in the dystopian genre - the story “The Pit”. where a building of a bright future is being erected, a “common proletarian house” for former individual workers. This construction is an attempt to create. man-made world, where people take on the role of the Creator. However, the foundation pit for the house eventually turns into the grave of the future. This story also saw the light many years after the writer’s death.

In 1931-1935, Andrei Platonov worked as an engineer at the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry and continued to write. The play "High Voltage", the story "Juvenile Sea" (1931), and the unfinished novel "Happy Moscow" (1933-1934) about the fate of a girl named Moscow, a beauty who considers herself happy, became crippled when she ended up working on the construction of the metro, appeared.

In 1934, the writer and a group of colleagues traveled to Turkmenistan. After this trip, the story “Jan”, the story “Takyr”, the article “On the First Socialist Tragedy”, etc. appeared.

In 1936-1941, Platonov appeared in print mainly as a literary critic. Under various pseudonyms, he publishes in the magazines "Literary Critic", "Literary Review", etc. He works on the novel "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg" (his manuscript was lost at the beginning of the war), writes children's plays "Granny's Hut", "Kind Titus", "Step Daughter".

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the writer and his family were evacuated to Ufa, where a collection of his war stories “Under the Skies of the Motherland” was published. In 1942, he volunteered to go to the front as a private, but soon became a military journalist, front-line correspondent for Red Star. Platonov falls ill with tuberculosis, but does not leave the service until 1946. During the war, his story “Spiritualized People” was published three times as a separate publication, and three more collections of prose were published: “Stories about the Motherland”, “Armor” (1943), “Towards the Sunset” (1945).

At the end of 1946, one of the best stories Platonov - “Return”, which significantly influenced the fate of the writer. In it, the author, using the example of “Ivanov’s family” (this is the original title), explored the changes that took place in people’s lives in the post-war period. This story was considered slanderous without any reason and put an end to the writer’s lifetime publications.

At the end of the 1940s, deprived of the opportunity to earn a living through literary work, the writer was engaged in processing Russian and Bashkir fairy tales, which were published in some children's magazines.

Despite illness and poverty, in the last years of his life the writer continued to work hard and hard. The main characters of the works are “spiritual people” who are characterized by calm dignity, perseverance, and initiative. The writer’s favorite motives are “the light of life” and “memory of the heart”, which are so necessary for a person for his moral maturation and improvement.

Last piece writer's play "Noah's Ark" remained unfinished.

Its partial return to the reader took place only at the end of the 1950s, and the opportunity to open amazing world His works have been fully presented to us quite recently - since the late 1980s.

Platonov

(1899-1951) - prose writer, publicist, critic.

Born into the family of a mechanic at railway workshops. He studied at a parochial school, then at a college. As a teenager, he wrote poetry, which after the revolution was published in newspapers and magazines. At the same time he acted as a prose writer, critic, and publicist. Participant in the Civil War. Graduated from the Voronezh Polytechnic Institute (1924).

In 1921, the first poems were published, in the same year Platonov’s first journalistic book, Electrification, was published, and in 1922, a book of poems, Blue Depth. In 1927 he moved to Moscow, where in the same year his first collection of short stories, Epiphanian Gateways, was published, which brought him fame.

In 1928, two more books by Platonov appeared - “Meadow Masters” and “The Hidden Man”. Since 1926, he has been working on a great novel about the revolution - "Chevengur". Since 1928, he has actively collaborated in magazines.

Platonov - a poet, publicist, prose writer - is characterized by a complex, tragically intense perception of man and nature, man and other people. Revolution, in the writer’s understanding, is a deeply popular, organic and creative process that brings reason and beauty into a person’s relationship with the “beautiful and furious world". The writer and his heroes, like everyone who “learned to think during the revolution,” are concerned with philosophical questions. Platonov sees the world through the eyes of a working person, painfully and intensely comprehending his life, his place in it, his relationships with nature (in work, in creativity, the creation of machines with the help of which man conquers the elemental forces of nature). A new poetics arises in which the writer’s artistic vision is realized: new hero, most often a worker, an artisan, thinking about his craft, about the meaning of life; extraordinary vocabulary and style. The “incorrect” flexibility of Platonov’s language, his wonderful “tongue-tiedness,” the roughness of phrases, special, so characteristic of folk speech"straightening" -

All this is a kind of thinking out loud, when a thought is just being born, arises, and is “tried on” to reality.

In 1926, Platonov wrote the satirical story "City of Gradov", in 1929 - the stories "State Resident" and "Doubting Makar", in 1931 - the story "For Future Use". Critics considered Platonov's satire inappropriate and even harmful. They almost stopped printing it. But he continues to work. He writes the story "Garbage Wind", the stories "The Pit", "The Juvenile Sea", tries his hand at drama ("High Voltage", "Pushkin at the Lyceum").

In 1936, Platonov began collaborating in the magazines “Literary Critic” and “Literary Review” (under the pseudonyms F. Chelovekov, A. Firsov, under his real name - Klimentov). It is published here critical articles, reviews and two stories "Immortality" and "Fro". In 1937, the book “The Potudan River” was published.

From October 1942 until the end of the war, Platonov, as a special correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, was on the fronts of the Patriotic War. His correspondence and stories are published in newspapers and magazines and published in separate collections.

In the last years of his life, the writer, despite a serious illness, worked a lot: he wrote film scripts, stories, and adapted folk tales. After Platonov's death, a large handwritten legacy remained.

Nowadays, Andrei Platonov is experiencing a special situation, rarely encountered with a posthumous writer, when a new image of him is being created (for readers, for art, for history and the future). From the strange, “sideline”, even “holy fool”, harmful literary phenomenon(as criticism defined him during his lifetime) to a remarkable master - in the opinion of the literature of the last thirty years - he rises into the high circle of classics. Many of his works were released in full form relatively recently. Without “Chevengur,” the writer’s only novel, without the stories “The Pit” and “The Juvenile Sea,” Plato’s work seems incomplete. The artistic world created by the writer - and especially the world of these works - amazes, makes you suffer in thought and feeling; and some are fascinated, and some are stunned, bewildered, and pose riddles.

It is worth opening any story or tale of the writer - and the reader will soon be pierced by the sad sound languishing over the land of Platonov. Everything dies on this earth: people, animals, plants, houses, cars, colors, sounds. Everything deteriorates, grows old, smolders, burns - all living and inanimate nature. Everything in his world bears the stamp of “tormented by death.”

In the city of Chevengur, complete communism was organized, but this communism is completely special - the communism of a people's utopia. To fulfill the innermost aspirations of the soul - this is how the Chevengurians understood communism. A monastery of spiritual camaraderie is being established, a monastery of absolute equality: no domination of man over man - neither material nor mental - no oppression. For this, everything is destroyed - property, personal property, even labor as a source of acquiring something new. Everything except the naked body of a comrade. Only subbotniks are allowed, when gardens and houses are torn up by the roots, and there is “voluntary damage to the petty-bourgeois inheritance.”

In order to “embrace all the martyrs of the earth and put an end to the movement of misfortune in life,” the most unfortunate people on earth are gathered in Chevengur - “others,” homeless vagabonds, who grew up without a father, abandoned by their mother in the first hour of their lives. When the head of the Chevengurs, Chepurny, sees a mass of “others” on the hill at the entrance to Chevengur - almost naked, in dirty rags, covering not the body, but some of its remains, “worn out by labor and etched with caustic grief,” - it seems to him that he will not survive the pain and pity. If there are such people, you cannot be happy. The heart is ready to give up everything to save them. Because the level of well-being of the world should be measured by them, and not comforted by an average figure, deceptive and immoral.

In "Chevengur" - all of Platonov with his "idea of ​​life". The road that appears at the end of the story can lead Chevengur out of a dead end. The road is the highest value in the novel; it contains overcoming oneself, purification, openness to the future, hope for finding new paths. The heroes of the novel try to firmly establish their idea, but painfully hit the limits of the possible, feel sad, ashamed of the pitiful results of their zeal - and are eager to set off.

Platonov also calls on the road: “... the half-asleep man rode forward, not seeing the stars that shone above him from a dense height, from the eternal, but already achievable future, from that quiet formation where the stars moved like comrades - not too far, so as not to forget each other, not too close, so as not to merge into one and not lose their difference and mutual vain passion.”

The heroes of the story "The Pit" believe that by building a "single common proletarian house", they will live wonderful life. Exhausting, exhausting work is digging a pit, a foundation pit for “the only common proletarian house instead of the old city, where people still live in a fenced yard.” This is a dream house, a symbol house. Collapsed on the floor after working day, people sleep side by side, “like the dead.” Voshchev (one of the main characters of the story) “looked closely at the face of the sleeping neighbor to see if it expressed the unrequited happiness of a satisfied person. But the sleeping man lay dead, his eyes were hidden deeply and sadly, and his cold legs stretched out helplessly in his worn out work pants. Except for breathing, in there was not a sound in the barracks, no one saw dreams or talked to memories - everyone existed without any excess of life, and during sleep only the heart remained alive, protecting the person.”

The workers believe in "the onset of life after the construction of large houses." Therefore, they devote themselves so completely to work that sucks the juices out of the body. For the sake of future life You can endure and suffer. Each previous generation endured in the hope that the next would live with dignity. That's why people refuse to finish work on Saturday: they want to bring it closer new life. “It’s a long time until the evening... why waste life in vain, we’d better do something. We’re not animals, we can live for the sake of enthusiasm.”

With the appearance of the girl Nastya, digging a foundation pit seems to acquire some kind of certainty and meaning.

Nastya is the first resident of a dream house, a symbolic house that has not yet been built. But Nastya dies from loneliness, restlessness, and lack of warmth. Adults who saw in her the source of their life did not feel “how the world around us must be gentle... so that she lives." The construction of the dream house turned out to be unrelated to the life of a specific person, for whose sake, for whom everything seemed to be happening.

Nastya died, and the light that flashed in the distance dimmed. “Voshchev stood in bewilderment over this quiet child, and he no longer knew where communism would now be in the world if it was not first in a child’s feeling and in a convinced impression. Why does he now need the meaning of life and the truth of universal origin, if there is no small , a faithful person in whom truth would become joy and movement?

Platonov believed that one must experience someone else’s misfortune in the same way as one’s own, remembering one thing: “Humanity is one breath, one living warm being. If one person hurts, it hurts everyone. If one dies, everyone dies. Down with humanity - dust, long live humanity - an organism... Let us be humanity, and not a person of reality."

Many years later, E. Hemingway, who admired Platonov’s story “The Third Son,” would find the epigraph to the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” in the verses of the 17th century English poet John Donne, speaking about the unity of humanity in the face of grief and death: “There is no man who was as if it were an island in itself; each person is a part of the continent, a part of the land; and if a wave carries a coastal cliff into the sea, Europe will become smaller... The death of each person diminishes me too, for I am one with all humanity, and therefore do not ask; never for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you."

One can only be surprised at the deep consonance of humanistic motives and the almost direct coincidence of the lines:

“the death of every person diminishes me too” and “one dies - everyone dies...” Truly, the words about a true artist can rightfully be attributed to Andrei Platonov:

You are a hostage to eternity

Trapped by time.

Andrei Platonovich Platonov (real name Klimentov; August 28, 1899, Voronezh - January 5, 1951, Moscow) - Russian Soviet writer, prose writer, one of the most original Russian writers in style of the first half of the 20th century.

Andrei Platonovich Klimentov was born on August 28, 1899 in Voronezh, in the family of a railway mechanic Platon Firsovich Klimentov (1870-1952). He studied at a parish school, then at a city school. At the age of 15 (according to some sources, already at 13) he began working to support his family.

Participated in the civil war as a front-line correspondent. Since 1919, he published his works, collaborating with several newspapers as a poet, publicist and critic. In 1920, he changed his last name from Klimentov to Platonov (the pseudonym was formed on behalf of the writer’s father). In 1924, he graduated from the polytechnic and began working as a land reclamation worker and electrical engineer.

In 1926, “Epiphanian Gateways”, “Ethereal Route”, “City of Grads” were written. Gradually, Platonov’s attitude towards revolutionary changes changes until they are rejected.

In 1931, the published work “For Future Use” caused sharp criticism from A. A. Fadeev and I. V. Stalin. After this, Platonov was no longer published. The exception was the story “The Potudan River,” which was published in 1937. In May of the same year, his 15-year-old son Platon was arrested, having returned from imprisonment in the fall of 1940, terminally ill with tuberculosis, after the efforts of Platonov’s friends. In January 1943, Andrei Platonov's son died.

During the Great Patriotic War, Platonov's war stories appeared in print. There is an opinion that this was done with Stalin's personal permission.

At the end of 1946, Platonov’s story “Return” (“Ivanov’s Family”) was published, for which the writer was attacked in 1947 and was accused of libel. After this, the opportunity to publish his works was closed for Platonov. At the end of the 1940s, deprived of the opportunity to earn a living by writing, Platonov was engaged in literary adaptation of Russian and Bashkir fairy tales, which were published in children's magazines. Platonov's worldview evolved from a belief in the reconstruction of socialism to an ironic image of the future.

Platonov died of tuberculosis, which he contracted while caring for his son, on January 5, 1951 in Moscow, and was buried in the Armenian cemetery. A street in Voronezh bears the name of the writer, and a monument has been erected.

Andrei Platonovich Klimentov was born on August 28, according to the new style, 1899 in Voronezh (Yamskaya Sloboda). Klimentov's father Platon Firsovich (1870-1952) worked as a locomotive driver and mechanic in Voronezh railway workshops. Twice he was awarded the title of Hero of Labor (in 1920 and 1922), and in 1928 he joined the party. Lobochikhina's mother Maria Vasilyevna (1874/75 - 1928/29) - daughter of a watchmaker, housewife, mother of eleven (ten) children, Andrey - the eldest. In 1906 he entered the parish school. As the eldest in a family of 11 children, at the age of 14 he began working as a delivery boy, a foundry worker at a pipe factory, and an assistant driver. His first attempt at writing was youthful poems included in his poetry collection “Blue Depth” (1922). In 1918-1921, he was actively involved in journalism, combining it with work on the railway and studying at the Voronezh Polytechnic Institute.

In appearance art world Platonov was noticeably influenced by his image " small homeland" - Yamskaya Sloboda. On one side (a few hundred meters away) there is a narrow-gauge railway, many hours of watching the maneuvers of steam locomotives and the boys' favorite pastime - riding on the steps of the carriages; with others - the Zadonsk tract, with stories of pilgrims about holy places, hagiographic edification and piety. On the one hand - a city of workers and artisans, the ideas of a global social and at the same time technocratic reorganization of the world, on the other - village life, the world of wickerwork and the centuries-old way of life, the value of traditional relationships and connections, a stable community harmony and family joys, children and old people...

IN literary life In Voronezh, Platonov has been actively participating since the fall of 1918: speaking at discussions in the Communist Union of Journalists, publishing articles, poems, stories in newspapers and magazines (“Voronezh Commune”, “Red Village”, “Lights”, “Iron Road”, etc.). In Platonov’s early prose and journalism, many ideas of the era are articulated: calls for complete submission, the dissolution of man in the common cause of socialist construction - and a fierce conviction in the complete creative self-disclosure of the individual under socialism; radical projects for “improving nature” - and awareness of the environmental dangers of these projects; proletcult nihilism - and interest in cultural heritage past.

In 1921, Platonov’s first journalistic book, the brochure “Electrification,” was published in Voronezh; in 1922, in Krasnodar, a collection of poems, “Blue Depth,” was published. Platonov's book of poems Blue Depth received a positive assessment from V. Bryusov. However, at this time, under the impression of the drought of 1921, which led to mass starvation among the peasants, Platonov decided to change his occupation. In his 1924 autobiography, he wrote: “Being a technician, I could no longer engage in contemplative work - literature.” In 1922–1926, Platonov worked in the Voronezh provincial land department, working on land reclamation and electrification of agriculture. He appeared in print with numerous articles on land reclamation and electrification, in which he saw the possibility of a “bloodless revolution”, a radical change for the better in people’s lives. The impressions of these years were embodied in the story “The Motherland of Electricity” and other works of Platonov in the 1920s.

In 1922, Platonov married rural teacher M.A. Kashintseva, to whom he dedicated the story Epiphanian Locks (1927). The wife became the prototype of the title character of the story The Sandy Teacher. After the death of the writer M.A. Platonov did a lot to preserve him literary heritage, publication of his works.

In 1926 Platonov was recalled to work in Moscow at the People's Commissariat for Agriculture. He was sent to engineering and administrative work in Tambov. The image of this “philistine” city, its Soviet bureaucracy, is recognized in the satirical story City of Grads (1926). Soon Platonov returned to Moscow and, leaving his service in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, became a professional writer.

The first serious publication in the capital was the story Epiphanian Locks. It was followed by the story The Hidden Man (1928). The transformations of Peter I described in the Epiphanian Locks echoed in Platonov’s work with the “main” communist projects of the global reorganization of life that were contemporary to him. This topic is the main one in the essay Che-Che-O (1928), written together with B. Pilnyak after a trip to Voronezh as correspondents for the magazine “New World”.

For some time Platonov was a member literary group"Pass". Membership in the Pass, as well as the publication in 1929 of the story Doubting Makar, caused a wave of criticism against Platonov. In the same year, Platonov’s novel Chevengur (1926–1929, published in 1972 in France, 1988 in the USSR) received a sharply negative assessment from A.M. Gorky and was banned from publication.

In the thirties, Platonov's talent manifested itself with greatest force. In 1930, he created one of his main masterpieces - the story “The Pit” (first published in the USSR in 1987) - a social dystopia on the themes of industrialization, a tragic-grotesque description of the collapse of the ideas of communism (a collective grave was built instead of a palace). Platonov “subordinated himself to the language of the era” (I. Brodsky), the tense texture of which determined the theme of the gap between the ideal and reality, the motive for the thinning of existence, the painful-tragic alienation of every living being.

However, the social atmosphere was heating up. The publication of the “poor peasant chronicle” “For Future Use” (1931) - an ironic description of collectivization - was followed by a sharp reaction from Stalin, and Platonov was no longer published. An exception was the story “The Potudan River,” which was published in 1937. In May of the same year, his 15-year-old son Platon was arrested, having returned from imprisonment in the fall of 1940, terminally ill with tuberculosis, after the efforts of Platonov’s friends. In January 1943, Andrei Platonov's son died.

During the war, Platonov was a front-line correspondent for the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. In the stories about the war he created, Platonov’s inherent ambiguity of assessments, the atmosphere of paradoxical existence, internal conflict man and the world. The story “The Ivanov Family” (“Return”) provoked sharp criticism for “slander” against the Soviet family.

In the last years of his life, the writer, who was hit by a new wave of attacks, was forced to look for workarounds - he wrote variations of Russian and Bashkir folk tales, worked on a satirical play on the theme of American reality (with allusions to the USSR) “Noah's Ark” (not finished). However, Platonov was not able to adapt to the post-war terror: he was soon buried in the Armenian cemetery from tuberculosis, which he contracted while caring for his son, on January 5, 1951 in Moscow. A street in Voronezh bears the name of the writer, and a monument has been erected.

Andrei Platonovich Platonov (real name - Andrei Platonovich Klimentov) was born on August 16 (28), 1899 in Voronezh and was the eldest child in a large family. His father is a locomotive driver and mechanic. The mother did housework. She gave birth to children almost every year, so it was difficult for the family. Platonov studied first at a parish church and then at a city school. WITH early years the future writer took part in raising his brothers and sisters. He first got a job as a teenager. Before 1918, Platonov managed to change several professions. Among them are an assistant driver on a locomotive and a foundry worker at a pipe manufacturing plant.

In 1918, Platonov became a student at the Voronezh Technical Railway School. I was able to complete my studies only after three years. A break had to be taken due to the Civil War, during which Platonov served in the Red Army and was engaged in journalism, collaborating with a number of newspapers. In 1921, his debut book, the brochure “Electrification,” was published.

In 1922, the first collection of Platonov's poems was published. The book “Blue Depth” was highly appreciated by Bryusov. Over the next five years, Platonov continued to engage in literary activities, without leaving much more mundane work - in particular, he built several power plants in the province. In 1927, the writer moved to Moscow. In 1929, Platonov completed the novel “Chevengur,” and in 1930, the story “The Pit.” These works are the main ones in his legacy. However, both were not published during the writer’s lifetime.

In the early 1930s, the story “For Future Use” appeared in print, telling about collectivization. She was criticized by Stalin and Fadeev, which led to trouble for Platonov. For several years it was almost not published. The year 1934 was marked by a short respite for him - Platonov was even taken on a collective trip of writers across Central Asia. The thaw did not last long - in 1935, Pravda published a devastating article about Plato’s prose. Because of her, magazines began to refuse to cooperate with Platonov.

In 1936-37, the writer managed to publish a number of stories and the novel “The Potudan River”. In the spring of 1938, Platonov’s 15-year-old son was arrested. It was released only in 1940. The boy was released suffering from incurable tuberculosis, which he infected his father.

During the Great Patriotic War, Platonov served as a war correspondent and published stories on military topics. Often he was on the front line among ordinary soldiers and even took part in battles. At the end of 1946, the story “Return” was published, which was subjected to sharp criticism. Among other things, Platonov was accused of slandering the victorious Soviet soldiers who returned home from the front. At the end of the 1940s, the writer had to earn a living by literary adaptation of fairy tales, since his own works were not published. Platonov died on January 5, 1951 in Moscow; the cause of death was tuberculosis.

Brief analysis of creativity

Key Feature prose works Platonov is an unusual language. Some readers may find it clumsy. For example, in 1931, Stalin wrote about the story “For Future Use” that “this is not Russian, but some kind of gibberish language.” Other readers fall in love with Plato's way of presenting thoughts from the first lines. In fact, it doesn’t matter to them what Platonov wrote, the main thing is how. In Plato's prose there are often deliberate grammatical and lexical errors, similar to children's ones. At the same time, “wrong” speech is characteristic of both the characters and the narrator. In addition, as the writer Anatoly Ryasov noted, for Platonov the word is not so much a tool of communication, “but the possibility of simultaneous touching both Being and Nothingness.”

Plato's works cannot be interpreted unambiguously. This is not least due to the fact that the writer had a very complex worldview. For example, he read the works of Kant, Rozanov and Spengler, created projects for proletarian culture, and was interested in the Old Believers and the Apocrypha. As for the themes of Platonov’s work, there were several motives that were most important to him. Among them is the theme of death. According to Anatoly Ryasov, death for the writer was more intimate and more important than both the revolution and God.

  • “Return”, analysis of Platonov’s story
  • “The pit”, analysis of Platonov’s story