Andrey Platonov (1899–1951)
Author of The Foundation Pit
About the Author
Andrei Platonov was born in Yanskaya, Sloboda, Russia. An engineer and land-reclamation specialist, Platonov was also a writer. He His first poems were published in the 1920s. Stories and folk tales followed. He became a member of the Pereval group of the 1920s and early 1930s. This group of show more writers was influenced by the humanistic, cultivated ideas of the critic Voronsky. After World War II, the more extreme proletarian writers and critics of the time vehemently attacked Platonov for what was considered his ideological mistakes. Platonov was forced to stop publishing. Russians knew only a portion of his real output until the 1960s when he became popular again. During the 1970s, publication of Platonov's writings in the West revealed him to be an important figure in modern Russian prose. His key novels, The Fountain Pit (1975), and Chevengur (1978), explored the bitter ironies of a land of triumphant socialism-a new Utopia-which systematically deforms language. Profoundly pessimistic, the novels reveal a man deeply skeptical of attempts to remold human nature and highly sensitive to the dark underside of Stalin's grandiose economic projects. (Bowker Author Biography) Andrei Platonov was born in Yanskaya, Sloboda, Russia. An engineer and land-reclamation specialist, Platonov was also a writer. He His first poems were published in the 1920s. Stories and folk tales followed. He became a member of the Pereval group of the 1920s and early 1930s. This group of writers was influenced by the humanistic, cultivated ideas of the critic Voronsky. After World War II, the more extreme proletarian writers and critics of the time vehemently attacked Platonov for what was considered his ideological mistakes. Platonov was forced to stop publishing. Russians knew only a portion of his real output until the 1960s when he became popular again. During the 1970s, publication of Platonov's writings in the West revealed him to be an important figure in modern Russian prose. His key novels, The Fountain Pit (1975), and Chevengur (1978), explored the bitter ironies of a land of triumphant socialism-a new Utopia-which systematically deforms language. Profoundly pessimistic, the novels reveal a man deeply skeptical of attempts to remold human nature and highly sensitive to the dark underside of Stalin's grandiose economic projects. (Bowker Author Biography) Alvar Aalto is considered the father of modernism in Scandinavia. He was born in Kuortane, Finland. His reputation as an architect has spread far beyond the bounds of his native country, where he built the major part of his work. He is perhaps Finland's greatest architect and certainly one of the major figures of twentieth-century architecture. As early as 1923, Aalto built in a typical Scandinavian style, relying heavily on native materials-timber in Finland's case-and produced such masterworks as the Library at Viipuri (1927-35), the Paimio Sanitarium, and the Villa Mairea. In 1932 he invented the process for making bent wood furniture. After World War II, his work began to be noticed internationally as he developed his own singular style, and he built some of his finest works-the Finlandia Concert Hall, in Helsinki, and the Baker Dorms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his only building in the United States, (1947-49). His style is based on irregular and asymmetric forms with many curved walls and single-pitched roofs and with a highly imaginative use of natural materials. Aalto is also known for the design of several classic styles of chairs, tables, and glassware. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: ©The Random House Group
Series
Works by Andrey Platonov
Võlusõrmus : [muinasjutud] 3 copies
Избранные произведения 2 copies
Razmyšlenija čitatelja 2 copies
Избранное 2 copies
Повести и рассказы 2 copies
Сокровенный человек 1 copy
Dżan i inne opowiadania 1 copy
不死 プラトーノフ初期作品集 1 copy
白い汽船――ソヴェト作品集 — Author — 1 copy
ポトゥダニ川 1 copy
Osada Pocztyliońska 1 copy
Деревянное растение 1 copy
Powrót i inne utwory 1 copy
" Masterskai͡a". 1 copy
Волшебное кольцо 1 copy
Utwory wybrane 1 copy
La primavera della morte 1 copy
В прекрасном и яростном мире 1 copy
Il mare della giovinezza 1 copy
U chelovecheskogo serdtsa 1 copy
Von der Feuerstätte bis zum Reaktor — Illustrator — 1 copy
Fro 1 copy
Sobranie 1 copy
O zlé carevně 1 copy
O hloupém Ivanovi 1 copy
Associated Works
Meesters der vertelkunst : zevenenderdig verhalen uit de moderne wereldliteratuur (1975) — Contributor — 2 copies
ソヴェート文学 Советская Литература No.17 / 1968 1月号 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Klimentov, Andrei Platonovich
- Other names
- Платонов, Андрей Платонович
- Birthdate
- 1899-08-28
- Date of death
- 1951-01-05
- Burial location
- Armenian Cemetery, Moscow, Russia
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Russia
- Birthplace
- Voronezh, Russian Empire
- Place of death
- Moscow, Russia, USSR
- Places of residence
- Voronezh, Russia
Moscow, Russia - Education
- Voronezh Polytechnic Institute
- Occupations
- journalist
writer
engineer - Short biography
- He was married to Maria Aleksandrova Kashintseva, with one son, Platon, and one daughter, Maria.
Members
Reviews
This is a beautiful and rather mysterious novel that reads like a prose poem. It vaguely follows a woman called Moscow, who personifies all women, or perhaps the city of Moscow, or perhaps socialism, or even all three at once. This is not a book to read for character development, but for philosophical musings and delicate satire. The delicacy of the satire is naturally a function of being written in the USSR during the 1930s. Having read [b:The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia|721038|The Whisperers Private Life in Stalin's Russia|Orlando Figes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312030519s/721038.jpg|3337574] recently throws a frightening light on ‘Happy Moscow’ and the recurrent dissatisfaction of its characters. At the time, Stalinist purges led to untold thousands of arrests, jailings, and arbitrary executions. Platonov is very careful not to criticise the regime on any remotely literal level, he seems instead to examine the paradoxical effects of its stated ideology on individual states of mind. I found the introduction (to be read last, as ever) explained some of the references and themes very helpfully, including some specific scenes that parody speeches by Stalin. ‘Happy Moscow’ wasn’t published until 1991 and is unfinished, another fascinating glimpse into the inner life of those repressed in Stalinist Russia. Although I wouldn’t say that I properly understood it, I enjoyed the juxtaposed yearnings for collectivity and individual happiness, the theme of reinvention and progress, and the untranslatable word ‘toska’. Platonov has a unique and rather playful way with words, which comes through well in this translation. A few examples that struck me, all gently poking fun at the Soviet utopia:
’”My skin always feels cold afterwards,” said Moscow. “Love cannot be communism. I’ve thought and I’ve realised it just can’t. One probably should love - and I will love. But it’s like eating food - it’s just a necessity, it’s not what matters in life.”’… (more)
‘Summer came to an end and the rains began, as long and as dismal as in early childhood in the days of capitalism.’
‘Sometimes Komyagin would think to himself: “In a month or two I shall begin a new life - I’ll finish the paintings and poems; I’ll thoroughly rethink my world outlook; I’ll get my documents in order; I’ll find a solid job and become an exemplary shock-worker; I’ll fall in love with some woman and she can be my wife and a friend to me.” It was his hope that in a month or two something special would happen to time, that it would stop for a moment and take him up in its movement, but the years passed by his window without any pause or fortunate event. And he would get up from his bed and go out, as a member of the volunteer militia, to exact fines from the general public at the sites where it most tended to accumulate.’
Man, what a discovery! I had never heard of Platonov, but you can safely count him among the greats of Russian literature of the 20th century, along with his patron Vasily Grossman. In the biographical introduction to this collection I read that Andrey Platonov (1899-1951) had a very ambiguous attitude to modernism of which the Soviet regime was a part and expression: he was an enthusiastic supporter of and participant in the Russian Revolution, but had reservations about ruthless violence (in the broad sense of the word) with which an attempt was made to create a new world. This is strikingly expressed in the novel Soul, from 1935, which makes up half of this collection. In it Platonov describes how the main character Nazar Chagataev tries to save his people (Platonov himself uses the word nation); it concerns the Dzhan (literally 'soul'/'vital spark'), of which there are only a few dozen left that survive in very miserable conditions in the reed lands of a delta area in the Central Asian region of Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan. Actually, Chagataev is on official mission to win the Dzhan for communism. But he soon realizes how problematic this is: his fellow citizens are barely able to survive in their great misery (they live by eating grass and sleep), on the contrary, they even think that life simply has no meaning for them. This hopelessness makes Chatagataev constantly think about concepts such as happiness, drive for life, despair and longing. Against his better judgement, he tries to take them back to their homeland, a harsh journey of hundreds of kilometers through desert areas. Platonov describes all this in breathtaking, hallucinatory scenes in which the group, actually a collection of sleep walkers, moves back and forth. In between there are regular references to father Stalin, who lovingly cares for his subjects. In hindsight this is of course easy to interpret in a cynical manner, although I suspect that it is an authentic expression of Platonov's own struggle between the utopian character of Soviet ideology, in confrontation with the harsh reality of life. This must not have escaped the attention of the Soviet censor, that deleted entire passages (the full text was not published until 1999), and Platonov fell completely into discredit as a writer at the end of the 1930s.
As a story, 'Soul' is a bit shaky, but it is a strong piece of literature in which the essence of life is questioned. That Platonov was also a gifted short story writer is also evident from 'Return', which wittily depicts the return of a Soviet soldier from the Second World War and the challenge of regaining control of changed life.… (more)
As a story, 'Soul' is a bit shaky, but it is a strong piece of literature in which the essence of life is questioned. That Platonov was also a gifted short story writer is also evident from 'Return', which wittily depicts the return of a Soviet soldier from the Second World War and the challenge of regaining control of changed life.… (more)
As far as short stories go, this was... fine? Not really memorable in my opinion, but definitely fine. It gave me some things to think about I guess? It was a little bit weird, I wouldn't mind reading more by Platonov but wouldn't go out of my way.
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Statistics
- Works
- 130
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 2,457
- Popularity
- #10,433
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 45
- ISBNs
- 216
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 16
The subject is the arbitrary brutality of collectivisation, which receives closer focus in the second half. This latter half reminded me somewhat of [b:The Four Books|22571886|The Four Books|Yan Lianke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421890260s/22571886.jpg|42038317], a novel about Mao’s Great Leap Forward. However that was written decades after the fact, whereas Platonov composed ‘The Foundation Pit’ in the early 1930s. As the afterword concedes, it may never be possible to fully understand it. The reference points of 1930s Soviet Russia are lost or deliberately concealed; criticism had to be so carefully veiled as to be inaccessible without them. Moreover, Platanov supposedly makes a lot of references to the bible. Nonetheless, a reader who can’t speak Russian, has no biblical knowledge, and with only a broad understanding of collectivisation can still appreciate the suffering being obliquely described here. As the notes at the end point out, the oddness in the novel actually underplays how surreal life under Stalinism could be, citing the real example of a campaign to collect pond slime for paper making.
My favourite image was of the bear who worked in the forge and was brought along to root out kulaks. The afterword and notes point out both that bears did actually sometimes work in forges at the time, while also suggesting a variety of allegorical purposes it may serve. Its presence is certainly a striking image in a text that otherwise makes it difficult for the reader to know how to visualise events. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the poetry of Platonov’s writing:
Nastya the little girl is perhaps the most accessible character to the reader, as she seeks to condense what she sees around her into comprehensible terms. Whether her articulations are right or wrong, they read less like riddles than much of the rest of the dialogue, which has a certain appeal:
I remember reading an essay by George Orwell (in [b:Books v. Cigarettes|4064936|Books v. Cigarettes|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327716910s/4064936.jpg|4112008]) in which he claimed that totalitarian regimes are incompatible with good literature because, ‘The fact is that certain themes cannot be celebrated in words, and tyranny is one of them. No-one ever wrote a good book in praise of the Inquisition.’ Perhaps 'The Foundation Pit' demonstrates that any great literature written under a totalitarian regime can only be truly understood and appreciated by those who have experienced said regimes - despite the unlikelihood of their having access to it. To me, ‘The Foundation Pit’ is highly intriguing but very hard to grasp. Even with a very good explanatory afterword and thorough notes, it remains mysterious.… (more)