Andrei Platonov
Soviet writer whose major works were banned for decades.
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Unknown author · Public domain
According to an OGPU informer's report of 11 July 1931, Stalin read Platonov's work carefully and added marginal comments calling the author "fool, idiot, scoundrel".[1] After his death in 1951, Vasily Grossman spoke at his funeral.[2] On 30 October 1921, the Party expelled Platonov, labeling him an "unstable element".[3] Maksim Gorky, in 1934, secured Platonov's participation in a "writers' brigade" dispatched to Central Asia.[4]
What the cited sources add
Tolstaya noted that Platonov created his own peculiar, unique language using only standard Russian, without resort to a single neologism.[5] Tolstaya stated that the central theme running through Platonov's work is the happiness of the mind and the happiness of the heart in their complex interaction.[5] The New York Review Books account for Soul states that Platonov weaves together Sufi philosophy, Persian travelogue, socialist realism, and the language of Soviet bureaucracy.[6] The New York Review Books account for The Foundation Pit describes it as Platonov's most overtly political book, written in direct response to the brutalities of Stalin's collectivization of Russian agriculture.[7]
The New York Review Books account for Happy Moscow notes that the novel first appeared in Russian only in 1991.[8] According to Tolstaya, Platonov's protagonist throws all his energy into a vital task, but then a mistaken calculation, a blunder, or a catastrophe ruins what he has accomplished.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Andrei Platonov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: The regime and the artistic intelligentsia: Central Committee and Cheka-OGPU-NKVD documents about cultural policy, 1917–1953, Moscow, 1999, p. 150 (in Russian), (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Andrei Platonov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kalder, "Andrei Platonov: Russia's greatest 20th-century prose stylist?", The Guardian, 18 February 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Andrei Platonov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Alexei Varlamov, "Platonov and the Party", quoted in Online diary of Svetlana Koppel-Kovtun, 4 December 2016 (in Russian). (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Andrei Platonov" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Platonov, Andreĭ Platonovich, 1899–1951., "Soul and other stories", New York Review Books, 2008 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Tolstaya, "Out of this World", New York Review of Books, 13 April 2000. facts only, no text reused. nybooks.com
- "Soul", New York Review Books. facts only, no text reused. nyrb.com
- "The Foundation Pit", New York Review Books. facts only, no text reused. nyrb.com
- "Happy Moscow", New York Review Books. facts only, no text reused. nyrb.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Andrei Platonov (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Andrei Platonov (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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