Long ago, in ancient times, an old-looking man lived on our street. He worked in a forge on a large Moscow road; he worked as an assistant to the chief blacksmith, because he could not see well with his eyes and had little strength in his hands. He carried water, sand and coal to the forge, fanned the forge with fur, held the hot iron on the anvil with tongs while the chief blacksmith forged it, brought the horse into the machine to forge it, and did any other work that needed to be done. His name was Efim, but all the people called him Yushka. He was short and thin; on his wrinkled face, instead of a mustache and beard, sparse White hair; His eyes were white, like a blind man’s, and there was always moisture in them, like never-cooling tears.
Yushka lived in the apartment of the owner of the forge, in the kitchen. In the morning he went to the forge, and in the evening he went back to spend the night. The owner fed him for his work with bread, cabbage soup and porridge, and Yushka had his own tea, sugar and clothes; he must buy them for his salary - seven rubles and sixty kopecks a month. But Yushka didn’t drink tea or buy sugar, he drank water and wore clothes long years the same one without a change: in the summer he wore trousers and a blouse, black and sooty from work, burned right through by sparks, so that in several places he could be seen white body, and barefoot, in winter he put on a sheepskin coat over his blouse, which he inherited from his deceased father, and shod his feet in felt boots, which he hemmed in the fall, and wore the same pair every winter all his life.
When Yushka walked down the street to the forge early in the morning, the old men and women got up and said that Yushka had already gone to work, it was time to get up, and they woke up the young people. And in the evening, when Yushka went to spend the night, people said that it was time to have dinner and go to bed - and Yushka had already gone to bed.
And small children and even those who became teenagers, seeing old Yushka walking quietly, stopped playing in the street, ran after Yushka and shouted:
There comes Yushka! There's Yushka!
The children picked up dry branches, pebbles, and rubbish from the ground in handfuls and threw them at Yushka.
Yushka! - the children shouted. - Are you really Yushka?
The old man did not answer the children and was not offended by them; he walked as quietly as before, and did not cover his face, which was hit by pebbles and earthen debris.
The children were surprised that Yushka was alive and was not angry with them. And they called out to the old man again:
Yushka, are you true or not?
Then the children again threw objects from the ground at him, ran up to him, touched him and pushed him, not understanding why he didn’t scold them, take a twig and chase after them, like everyone else big people do. The children did not know another person like him, and they thought - is Yushka really alive? Having touched Yushka with their hands or hit him, they saw that he was hard and alive.
Then the children again pushed Yushka and threw clods of earth at him - he’d better be angry, since he really lives in the world. But Yushka walked and was silent. Then the children themselves began to get angry with Yushka. They were bored and it was not good to play if Yushka was always silent, did not scare them and did not chase them. And they pushed the old man even harder and shouted around him so that he would respond to them with evil and cheer them up. Then they would run away from him and, in fear, in joy, would again tease him from afar and call him to them, then running away to hide in the darkness of the evening, in the canopy of houses, in the thickets of gardens and vegetable gardens. But Yushka did not touch them and did not answer them.
When the children stopped Yushka altogether or hurt him too much, he told them:
What are you doing, my dears, what are you doing, little ones!.. You must love me!.. Why do you all need me?.. Wait, don’t touch me, you hit me with dirt in my eyes, I can’t see.
The children did not hear or understand him. They still pushed Yushka and laughed at him. They were happy that they could do whatever they wanted with him, but he didn’t do anything to them.
Yushka was also happy. He knew why the children laughed at him and tormented him. He believed that children loved him, that they needed him, only they did not know how to love a person and did not know what to do for love, and therefore they tormented him.
At home, fathers and mothers reproached their children when they did not study well or did not obey their parents: “Now you will be the same as Yushka! “You will grow up and walk barefoot in the summer and in thin felt boots in the winter, and everyone will torment you, and you will not drink tea with sugar, but only water!”
Elderly adults, meeting Yushka on the street, also sometimes offended him. Adults had angry grief or resentment, or they were drunk, then their hearts were filled with fierce rage. Seeing Yushka going to the forge or to the yard for the night, an adult said to him:
Why are you walking around here so blessed and unlikeable? What do you think is so special?
Yushka stopped, listened and was silent in response.
You don't have any words, you're such an animal! You live simply and honestly, as I live, and don’t think anything secretly! Tell me, will you live the way you should? You will not? Aha!.. Well okay!
And after a conversation during which Yushka was silent, the adult became convinced that Yushka was to blame for everything, and immediately beat him. Because of Yushka’s meekness, the adult became embittered and beat him more than he wanted at first, and in this evil he forgot his grief for a while.
Yushka then lay in the dust on the road for a long time. When he woke up, he got up on his own, and sometimes the daughter of the owner of the forge came for him, she picked him up and took him away with her.
It would be better if you died, Yushka,” said the owner’s daughter. - Why do you live? Yushka looked at her in surprise. He didn't understand why he should die when he
born to live.
“It was my father and mother who gave birth to me, it was their will,” Yushka answered, “I can’t die, and I’m helping your father in the forge.”
Another would be your place found, what a helper!
People love me, Dasha! Dasha laughed.
Now you have blood on your cheek, and last week your ear was torn, and you say - the people love you!..
“He loves me without a clue,” said Yushka. - People's hearts can be blind.
Their hearts are blind, but their eyes are sighted! - Dasha said. - Go quickly, or something! They love you according to your heart, but they beat you according to their calculations.
Out of calculation, they are angry with me, it’s true,” Yushka agreed. “They don’t tell me to walk on the street and they mutilate my body.”
Oh, Yushka, Yushka! - Dasha sighed. - But you, my father said, are not old yet!
How old I am!.. I have suffered from breast problems since childhood, it was because of my illness that I made a mistake in appearance and became old...
Due to this illness, Yushka left his owner for a month every summer. He went on foot to a remote remote village, where he must have had relatives. Nobody knew who they were to him.
Even Yushka himself forgot, and one summer he said that his widowed sister lived in the village, and the next that his niece was there. Sometimes he said that he was going to the village, and other times that he was going to Moscow itself. And people thought that Yushkina’s beloved daughter lived in a distant village, just as kind and unnecessary for people, as Father.
In July or August, Yushka put a knapsack with bread on his shoulders and left our city. On the way, he breathed the fragrance of grasses and forests, looked at the white clouds born in the sky, floating and dying in the bright airy warmth, listened to the voice of the rivers muttering on the stone rifts, and Yushka’s sore chest rested, he no longer felt his illness - consumption. Having gone far away, where it was completely deserted, Yushka no longer hid his love for living beings. He bent down to the ground and kissed the flowers, trying not to breathe on them so that they would not be spoiled by his breath, he stroked the bark of the trees and picked up butterflies and beetles from the path that had fallen dead, and peered into their faces for a long time, feeling himself without them orphaned. But living birds sang in the sky, dragonflies, beetles and hard-working grasshoppers made cheerful sounds in the grass, and therefore Yushka’s soul was light, the sweet air of flowers smelling of moisture and sunlight entered his chest.
On the way, Yushka rested. He sat in the shade of a road tree and dozed in peace and warmth. Having rested and caught his breath in the field, he no longer remembered the illness and walked on cheerfully, like a healthy person. Yushka was forty years old, but illness had long tormented him and aged him before his time, so that he seemed decrepit to everyone.
Platonov
2afe4567e1bf64d32a5527244d104cea
"Smart granddaughter" - summary:
Once upon a time there lived a grandfather and grandmother and they had a seven-year-old granddaughter, Dunya. She was a very smart girl, the old people couldn’t get enough of it, she helped them so much. But soon the grandmother died and Dunya was left alone with her grandfather. One day my grandfather went to the city, on the way he caught up with his rich neighbor and they went together. The grandfather rode a mare, and the neighbor rode a stallion. We stopped for the night and that night my grandfather’s mare gave birth to a foal. And the foal climbed under the rich man's cart.
In the morning, the rich man was happy and told his grandfather that his stallion had given birth to a foal. The grandfather began to prove that only a mare could do this; he and his neighbor argued and decided to turn to the king so that he could judge them. But the king wished for them 4 difficult riddles and said that whoever solves them correctly will receive a foal. And while they were solving riddles, the king took away their horses and carts.
The grandfather was upset, came home and told everything to his granddaughter. Dunya quickly solved the riddles and the next day the rich man and Dunya’s grandfather came to the king with the answers. After listening to them, the king asked his grandfather who helped him solve the riddles. The grandfather confessed everything, then the king began to give tasks for his granddaughter. But the smart granddaughter also turned out to be cunning. When the granddaughter came to the king, she reproached him and taught him how to judge the situation with the foal. It was necessary to simply set the grandfather's horse and the rich man's stallion in different directions. Whoever the foal runs after is the one he will stay with. They did so, naturally, the foal ran after its mother. And the king was angry that his seven-year-old smart granddaughter humiliated him so much and sent an angry dog after them. But grandfather affectionately hit the dog first with a whip, and then added a shaft, which beat him off. angry dog all the desire to bite.
Russian folk tale "Smart granddaughter"in Platonov's processing is included in.
Platonov
50c3d7614917b24303ee6a220679dab3
"Hassle" - summary:
The soldier served for 25 years and went home. But before that, he decided to go in and look at the king, otherwise it would not be convenient in front of his relatives. The soldier was very good at composing fairy tales.
Ivan the soldier came to milk Tsar Agey, and that Tsar was very fond of listening to and composing fairy tales, and telling them to others. The king first asked the soldier three riddles, but Ivan quickly solved them. The king liked the soldier and gave him a gift royal coins and asked me to tell a story. But Ivan asked to take a walk first, since he had served for 25 years and wanted to be free for a while, and after the walk he promised Agey to tell a story.
The Tsar let Ivan go for a walk and the soldier went to the merchant's tavern. He quickly spent the royal money there, and when the money ran out, he began to treat the merchant and told him a fairy tale that he was a bear, and the merchant did not notice how he himself became a bear. He was scared, but Ivan told him what to do - invite guests and treat them. The guests arrived in large numbers, emptied the tavern, and left, but the merchant jumped from the floor and lost consciousness. When he woke up, there was no one there, only his tavern stood empty. The merchant went to the king to find the soldier and told Agey what Ivan had done to him. But the king only laughed. But he himself wanted Ivan to tell him such a tale.
They found Ivan, brought him to the king, and Ivan began to tell Agey a fairy tale that a flood began and they turned into fish. And the king did not notice how he was drawn into the fairy tale and began to believe Ivan. They swam on the waves, then got caught in fishing nets, Ivan’s scales were torn off, and the king fish’s head was cut off. When the fairy tale ended, the king became angry and kicked Ivan out, and issued a decree that no one would let him into the courtyard.
So Ivan the Soldier walked, wandering from courtyard to courtyard and was not allowed anywhere, even in native home They didn’t let me in because the king didn’t order it. But some people let Ivan in in exchange for a fairy tale, because they knew what a master he was in this matter.
The Russian folk tale "Moroka" in Platonov's adaptation is included in.
Platonov
788d986905533aba051261497ecffcbb
Summary of "Ivan the Talentless and Elena the Wise":
In one village there lived an old woman with her son. The son's name was Ivan, and he was so untalented that nothing worked for him, no matter what he took on. His old mother lamented this and dreamed of marrying him to a business wife.
One day, when the mother and son had finished everything that was in their house, the old woman again began to lament over her unlucky son, while Ivan, meanwhile, was sitting on the rubble. An old man passed by and asked for food. Ivan honestly answered that everything edible in their house had run out, but he washed the old man in the bathhouse and put him to sleep on the stove. And in the morning, grandfather promised Ivan that he would not forget his kindness and would definitely thank him.
The next day, Ivan promised his mother that he would get bread and went to the old man. The old man brought him to his hut in a forest village, fed him a roasted lamb with bread, and sent two pieces of bread and another lamb to Ivan’s mother. After talking and learning that Ivan was not married, the grandfather called his daughter and married her to Ivan.
The old man’s daughter was very smart and her name was Elena the Wise. She and Ivan lived well, Ivan’s mother became well-fed and contented. Grandfather sometimes went on the road, where he collected wisdom and wrote it down in his book of wisdom. One day he brought magic mirror, into which you could see the whole world.
Soon the grandfather got ready for another trip for wisdom, called Ivan and gave him the key to the barn, but strictly forbade him to let Elena try on the dress that hung in the far corner. When his grandfather left, Ivan went to the barn and found chests with gold and other goods there, and in the far closet a magical Nice dress made of gems, I couldn’t resist and called Elena.
Elena really liked the dress and persuaded Ivan to let her try it on. Having put on a dress and expressed a wish, she turned into a dove and flew away from Ivan. Ivan got ready to hit the road and went in search of Elena the Wise. On the road, he saved a pike and a sparrow from death, who promised to thank him.
Ivan walked for a long time and reached the sea. There he met local resident and learned that Elena the Wise lived in this kingdom and came to her palace. There was a palisade around the palace on which were mounted the heads of Elena's suitors, who could not prove their wisdom to her. Ivan met with Elena and she gave him the task of hiding so that she could not find him.
At night, Ivan helped the maid Daria mend magic dress Helen the Wise, for which she was very grateful to him. And in the morning Ivan began to hide. At first he hid in a haystack, but Daria shouted to him from the porch that even she could see him< так как его выдавали собаки. Тогда Иван позвал щуку, которая спрятала его на дне.
However, Elena took advantage of her magic items- a mirror and a book of wisdom and found him. The first time she forgave him and allowed him to hide again. Then Ivan asked the sparrow for help. The sparrow turned Ivan into grain and hid it in his beak. But Elena the Wise found him again with the help of the book of wisdom, breaking her mirror, which could not find Ivan.
And for the second time, Elena did not execute Ivan, but allowed him to hide. This time he was helped by Daria, whom he saved from death by sewing up her dress. Daria turned Ivan into the air and breathed into herself, and then exhaled into the book of wisdom and Ivan became a letter. Elena the Wise looked at the book for a long time, but could not understand anything. Then she threw the book on the floor, the letters scattered and one of them turned into Ivan.
Then Elena the Wise realized that her husband Ivan was not so mediocre, since he was able to outwit the magic mirror and the book of wisdom. And he again began to live, live and make good. And the next morning their parents came to visit them and were happy for them. And Ivan the mediocre and Elena the Wise lived happily ever after, and so did their parents.
The Russian folk tale "Ivan the Talentless and Elena the Wise" in Platonov's adaptation is included in.
Platonov
e7f8a7fb0b77bcb3b283af5be021448f
"Finist - clear falcon" - summary:
There lived a father with three daughters, the mother died. The youngest was called Maryushka and she was a needlewoman and did all the housework. Among all the daughters, she was the most beautiful and hardworking. The father often went to the market and asked his daughters what gifts to bring them. The eldest and middle daughters always ordered things - boots, dresses, and the youngest always asked her father to bring a feather from Finist - the clear falcon.
2 times the father could not find the feather, but on the third time he met an old man who gave him a feather from Finist, the clear falcon. Maryushka was very happy and admired the feather for a long time, but in the evening she dropped it and Finist immediately appeared - clear falcon, hit the floor and turned into a good fellow. They talked with Maryushka all night. And the next three nights too - Finist flew in in the evening and flew away in the morning.
The sisters heard that they younger sister talks to someone at night and told my father, but he didn’t do anything. Then the sisters stuck needles and knives into the window, and when Finist, the clear falcon, flew in in the evening, he began to beat on the window and injured himself, and Maryushka fell asleep from fatigue and did not hear it. Then Finist shouted that he was flying away and if Maryushka wanted to find him, she would need to take down three pairs of cast-iron boots, wear 3 cast-iron staffs on the grass and devour 3 stone loaves.
The next morning Maryushka saw Finist’s blood and remembered everything. The blacksmith made cast iron shoes and staves for her, she took three stone loaves and went in search of Finist, the clear falcon. When she had worn out the first pair of shoes and staff and eaten the first bread, she found a hut in which an old woman lived. There she spent the night, and the next morning the old woman gave her a magical gift - a silver bottom, a golden spindle and advised her to go to her middle sister, maybe she knows where to look for Finist - the clear falcon.
When Maryushka wore out the second pair of cast-iron shoes and the second staff, and devoured the second stone bread, she found the hut of the old woman’s middle sister. Maryushka spent the night with her and in the morning received a magical gift - a silver plate with a golden egg and advice to go to the elder sister of the old women, who certainly knew where Finist, the clear falcon, was.
The third pair of cast-iron shoes was worn out, the third staff was worn out, and Maryushka gnawed away the third stone bread. Soon she saw her older sister’s hut, where she spent the night and in the morning she received a magic golden hoop and a needle as a gift.
Maryushka went back barefoot and soon saw a courtyard in which stood a beautiful tower. A mistress lived in it with her daughter and servants, and her daughter was married to Finist, the clear falcon. Maryushka asked her landlady to work and the landlady took her. She was happy about such a skillful and unpretentious worker. And soon the daughter saw Maryushka’s magical gifts and exchanged them for a meeting with Finist, the clear falcon. But he did not recognize Maryushka - she had become so thin on the long hike. For two nights, Maryushka drove flies away from Finist, the clear falcon, while he was sleeping, but she could not wake him up - her daughter gave him a sleeping potion at night.
But on the third night Maryushka cried over Finist and her tears fell on his face and chest and burned him. He immediately woke up, recognized Maryushka and turned into a falcon, and Maryushka turned into a dove. And they flew to Maryushka’s home. The father and sisters were very happy with them, and soon they had a wedding and lived happily until the end of their days.
Russian folk tale "Finist - the clear falcon" adapted by A.P. Platonova is included in
The text is based on the books:
A. Platonov. Notebooks. Materials for the biography. M.: Heritage, 2000.
A Notebook of Other People's Ideas, Thoughts and Conversations (1936)
All about Andrey Platonov
Biography
Articles about Andrey Platonov:
Orlov V. Andrey Platonov: Recent years
Nagibin Yu. Fragment of the diary. Platonov's funeral
Rassadin S. Why the tyrant hated Zoshchenko and Platonov
Yuryeva A. The main biographers of Andrei Platonov were NKVD-OGPU informants
Andrey Platonov: Memories of friends and colleagues
The most important dates in the life and work of A. Platonov
Wikipedia
Joseph Brodsky about Andrei Platonov:
“Platonov was born in 1899 and died in 1951 from tuberculosis, having become infected from his son, whose release from prison he, after much effort, achieved, only for the son to die in his arms. A thin face looks at us from the photograph, as simple as countryside, looks patiently and as if willing to accept and overcome everything that befalls.” (Brodsky I. “Disasters in the Air”)
Brief biographical sketch
From the book: Mikheev M.Yu. Into the world of Platonov through his language. Assumptions, facts, interpretations, guesses. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 2002. 407 p.
“At the end of 1929, the writer was subjected to “ideological flogging” for the publication (together with B. Pilnyak) of the essay “Che-Che-O”, and then, in 1931, for his own story “Doubting Makar” (published in the magazine “October” by A. Fadeev, for which the editor-in-chief immediately publicly repented and apologized, calling the story “ideologically unrestrained, anarchist”, for which, they say, he “got it right from Stalin.”
Insarov M. Andrey Platonovich Platonov (1899–1951). Life and creative path
Bolot N. Platonov Andrey Platonovich
Mikheev M.Yu. Notebooks and diaries (30s): Mikhail Prishvin, Pavel Filonov, Andrey Platonov, ...
The text is compiled from a lecture course given at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Russian State University for the Humanities in 2002.
“When reading Plato’s notebooks to a reader familiar with his main key themes, sometimes the skeleton of a recognizable plot will flash, and sometimes an unknown variation of some already known character will suddenly appear. Or a thought that is not developed anywhere further, immediately torn off, will rush through, which in the future could be useful to the author and, in the event of a new return to it, would result, perhaps, in a story, tale, etc. But more often than not, it happens that in the notebook Platonov’s thought, not completed (as if “not thought through” and not presented to us, the readers, not understandable due to our lack of awareness), seems to have been stopped by the author halfway.” .
Kozhemyakin A. New pages in the life and work of writer Andrei Platonov
“As I see it, we should compare the activities of the hydromeliorator and electrifier Andrei Platonov with his first literary works.”
Simonov K. Through the eyes of a man of my generation. Reflections on I.V. Stalin
Fragment of the book by Konstantin Simonov (M., APN, 1989).
Kovrov M. Mystic of Russian victory (To the 100th anniversary of the birth of Andrei Platonov)
Dystopia is no worse than life
Conversation between correspondent G. Litvintsev and professor of Voronezh state university Vladislav Svitelsky, author of the collection of articles “Andrei Platonov Yesterday and Today.”
“It seems that if the author had ready-made answers, his works would not be so compelling and would not have such depth and power. He searched for the truth along with his heroes and his time. The crossroads of his thoughts are no less complex and tragic than the crossroads of history itself. Platonov lived in his questions and doubts. At the turn of the 20-30s, he made the necessary rethinking of ideology and practice Soviet era, to which we have only broken through on a large scale today.”
Iovanovic M. Genius at the fork in the road
From the notes of a literary critic.
“The most painful thing for the “impatient” Platonov and his heroes was the question of questions - the search for happiness (universal happiness). Russian literature, following Kant, who placed the moral law above eudaimonia (the desire for happiness), did not know this category; her heroes behaved like Pushkin, seeking not happiness, but peace and freedom. Platonov wanted to evade this tradition, to “invent” happiness both for the individual and for entire nations.”
Gumilevsky L.I. "Fate and Life"
“It’s not difficult to assume that readers’ assessments will be different. Some will be attracted by colorful pictures of the past, recreated using seemingly mundane, but artistically meaningful details. Others will be more interested in portraits of writers (we especially note the pages dedicated to Andrey Platonov)".
Basinsky P. No violinist needed
“Someday, of course, it will be modern. Someday... a day Last Judgment. When material grievances become meaningless, when it doesn’t matter where this day finds you, in a Merc or a Zaporozhets, when a shrimp seems no sweeter than a stale crust, and a luxurious car no smoother than a country road. When money won’t be needed.”
Malaya S. Platonov Andrey Platonovich
Works of Platonov
Electronic library "Librusek"
Most full meeting works by A. Platonov.
Library of Maxim Moshkov
Stories. Stories. Inhabitant of the State. Blue Depth (Book of Poems).
Classica.ru
Stories.
Stories: “The pit”, “The Potudan River”, “ Hidden Man", "Juvenile Sea".
Novels: “Happy Moscow”, “Chevengur”.
Fiction: online collection of works
“Anti-sexus”, “For future use”, “City of Gradov”, “State Resident”, “The Pit”, “Meadow Masters”, “Moscow Violin”, “Inanimate Enemy”, “Once in Love”, “Father-Mother” (script) , “Potudan River”, “Semyon”, “The Hidden Man”, “Happy Moscow”, “Doubting Makar”, “Fro”, “Chevengur”, “Juvenile Sea”.
Collection of rare texts
Once loved
Andrei Platonov in the documents of the OGPU-NKVD-NKGB.19301945 (Publication by Vladimir Goncharov and Vladimir Nekhotin)
Machinist (libretto)
Father-Mother (script)
In a beautiful and furious world (Machinist Maltsev)
Return (Ivanov Family)
City of Gradov
Pit
“Voshchev grabbed his bag and went into the night. The questioning sky shone over Voshchev with the tormenting power of the stars, but in the city the lights had already been extinguished, and whoever had the opportunity slept, having eaten his fill of dinner. Voshchev went down the crumbs of earth into the ravine and lay down there with his stomach down to fall asleep and part with himself. But sleep required peace of mind, trust in life, forgiveness of past grief, and Voshchev lay in the dry tension of consciousness and did not know whether he was useful in the world or whether everything would work out well without him? A wind blew from an unknown place so that people would not suffocate, and with a weak voice of doubt a suburban dog made its service known.”
Sandy teacher
“Four years have passed, the most indescribable years in a person’s life, when the buds burst in a young chest and femininity, consciousness blossoms, and the idea of life is born. It's strange that no one ever helps at this age young man overcome the anxieties that torment him; no one will support the thin trunk, which is torn by the wind of doubt and shaken by the earthquake of growth. Someday youth will not be defenseless.
Mary, of course, had both love and a thirst for suicide, and this bitter moisture waters every growing life.”
Hidden Man
Happy Moscow
“The clear and ascending life of Moscow Chestnova began with that autumn day, when she was sitting at school by the window, already in the second group, she looked into the death of leaves on the boulevard and read with interest the sign of the opposite house: Workers' and Peasants' Library-Reading Room named after A.V. Koltsova".
Doubting Makar
Fro
“The young woman stopped in surprise in the midst of such a strange light: in the twenty years of her life, she did not remember such an empty, shining, silent space, she felt that her heart was weakening from the lightness of the air, from the hope that her loved one would come back.”
Chevengur (in the first edition - “Builders of the Country”)
“A man appears with that vigilant and sadly emaciated face who can fix and equip everything, but he himself lived his life unequipped. Any product, from a frying pan to an alarm clock, has not escaped the hands of this man. He also did not refuse to throw out soles, pour wolf shot and stamp fake medals for sale at rural antique fairs. He never made anything for himself, neither a family nor a home.”
Juvenile Sea
Sea of Youth
Articles about creativity
Section “Platonic Studies” on the website of the CHRONOS project
Articles about Andrey Platonov
Bobrova O. Andrei Platonov is a great Russian writer of the twentieth century. To the 100th anniversary of his birth
“What is there in Platonov’s prose? There is life: its pain and blood, greatness and strangeness, logic and absurdity, its fragility and infinity. This prose seems to push a person into an open, uncomfortable world. Makes you feel loneliness, suffer along with the heroes and struggle to find the truth, the meaning of all things.”
Mikheev M.Yu. Into the world of Platonov - through his language. Assumptions, facts, interpretations, guesses
Platonov created in his works, in essence, something like a religion of new times, trying to resist both traditional forms of religious cult and the fusion of heterogeneous mythologies that formed within the framework of socialist realism.
Lyuty V. About the language of Andrei Platonov
Tarasov A.B. “The Third Kingdom” as an attempt to model the world of “new” righteousness: A. Platonov and M. Tsvetaeva
Surikov V. Free thing by Andrei Platonov
About the works "Chevengur", "Pit".
“It’s a little disgusting, but then it will be good... Who doesn’t know this simplest deception, the elementary exchange of mental suffering for mental comfort, that happens every second in the myriads of human thoughts and actions? Who knows how unbearably difficult it is to resist it in everyday, insignificant things and not to be seduced by the availability of peace? Is it through this exchange that in every act, in every thought, the unsteady, elusive line between good and evil passes? Is this where the danger of mass “temptation” lurks—when some superidea, teasing universal happiness, combines these elementary movements into a mad leap?
Andrei Platonov found himself in a different role - in the role of a doubting participant in the events, who did not want, did not allow himself to step aside and desperately rushed into the very thick of events, into the hottest and most dangerous place.
“You can’t come here, here is an abyss, here is unprecedented bloody suffering, here is brutality, you can only get out of here on four paws.” All this should not have been said, but shouted out to go out in front of the enraged, breaking loose common sense ideas.
What was required was no longer dissent, but code of action.”
Ordynskaya I.N. “Chevengur” by Andrei Platonov is a symbol of love for his people
This is a very thankless task - to write the truth about one’s time; as a rule, no one is forgiven for such attempts, especially talented writers, whose works themselves seem to begin to live. After all, destroying a book is often more difficult than real person. And the images fiction they often remain immortal altogether.
About the novel “Chevengur”
A whole series of terrible sacrifices were made by the commune for the sake of increasing the “stuff of existence”, “stuff of life” repeatedly mentioned in the novel, which is key concept novel.
Joseph Brodsky. Afterword to “The Pit” by A. Platonov
“In our time, it is not customary to consider a writer outside the social context, and Platonov would be the most suitable object for such an analysis if what he does with language did not go far beyond the framework of that utopia (building socialism in Russia), a witness and chronicler which he appears in “The pit”.
About the works “Epiphanian Gateways”, “Ethereal Route”, “City of Grads”
Barsht K.A. Truth in round and liquid form. Henri Bergson in “The Pit” by Andrei Platonov // Questions of Philosophy. – 2007. – No. 4. – P. 144–157.
The idea that in A. Platonov’s “Pit” the percussion is described socialist construction, not so certain. The construction theme only covers, in the form of packaging material, what is hidden inside - a philosophical mystery filled with tension.
Olga Meyerson. Undefamiliarization of Andrei Platonov: danger and the power of inertia of perception
Review of a collection of two special issues of the journal “Essays in Poetics”, which published materials from a conference on the study of Plato’s creative heritage, held in 2001 in Oxford.
Loginov V. “Happy Moscow” by A. Platonov from the point of view of an inexperienced computer user
Henryk Chlystowski. Afterword to the translation of “Happy Moscow” by Andrei Platonov
“What kind of world is created in Platonov’s works? This world (especially in “Happy Moscow”) is completely devoid of history, memory and religion, a world that wants to build everything anew, but deprived of the main foundation is forced to constantly run into the future, into delirious unrealistic fantasies, and place its hopes there. This future is beautiful, wonderful and problem-free, but you need to somehow get to it, break through the inertia of matter and human vices.”
Bulygin A., Gushchin A. “Extraneous space”. Anthroponymy of the “Pit” (fragment)
Pin L.A. Andrey Platonovich Platonov. "Revolution is like a locomotive"
Gracheva E. “Inspiration”: The Unmade Film of Andrei Platonov
For Platonov this was very important. He had just begun to recover from the brutal pogrom that the Rappovites staged for his “poor peasant chronicle” “For Future Use” (“Krasnaya Nov”, 1931, No. 9). Stalin himself decorated the margins of the chronicle with the notes “Bastard!” and “Scoundrel!”, the frightened Fadeev declared that Platonov is “a kulak agent of the latest formation,” and off we go...
In harsh years severe tests that befell the people during the Great Patriotic War, the writer turns to the theme of childhood in order to find and show the most hidden origins in man.
In the stories "Nikita", "Still Mother", "The Iron Old Woman", "Flower on the Ground", "Cow", "Little Soldier", "At the Dawn of Foggy Youth", "Grandfather Soldier", "Dry Bread", By creating images of children, the writer consistently conveys the idea that a person is formed as a social, moral being in early childhood.
“Still Mom” was first published in the magazine “Counselor”, 1965, No. 9. “A mother, giving birth to a son, always thinks: aren’t you the one?” Platonov wrote in his notes. Memories of his first teacher A. N. Kulagina acquire in Plato’s prose the inherent high symbolic meaning. “Mother” in the world of Plato’s artistic prose is a symbol of the soul, feelings, “needed homeland,” “salvation from unconsciousness and oblivion.” That is why “still a mother” is the one who introduces the child into the “beautiful and furious” world, teaches him to walk along its roads, and gives moral guidelines.
The writer explains the behavior of an adult as a patriot, a defender of his homeland with this most important and defining childhood experience. For a little person, learning about the world around him turns out to be a complex process of learning about himself. In the course of this cognition, the hero must take a certain position in relation to his social environment. The choice of this position is extremely important, since it determines all subsequent human behavior.
Platonov’s world of childhood is a special cosmos, into which not everyone is allowed to enter on an equal footing. This world is a prototype of the larger universe, its social portrait, blueprint and outline of hopes and great losses. The image of a child in the prose of the 20th century is always deeply symbolic. The image of a child in Platonov’s prose is not only symbolic - it is painfully concrete: it is ourselves, our life, its possibilities and its losses... truly, “the world is great in childhood...”.
“A child learns to live for a long time,” writes in notebooks Platonov, he is a self-taught student, but he is also helped by older people who have already learned to live and exist. Observing the development of consciousness in a child and his awareness of the surrounding unknown reality is a joy for us.”
Platonov is a sensitive and attentive researcher of childhood. Sometimes the title of the story itself (“Nikita”) is given by the name of the child - the main character of the work. At the center of “The July Thunderstorm” are nine-year-old Natasha and her brother Antoshka.
“The Origin of the Master” shows the reader in unforgettable detail the childhood, adolescence and youth of Sasha Dvanov, unique children’s images in other Platonic stories. Afonya from the story “Flower on the Earth”, Aidim from the story “Dzhan”, easily remembered, although not named children from the stories “The Motherland of Electricity”, “Fro”, “Moon Bomb”...
Each of these children is endowed from birth with precious properties necessary for harmonious physical and mental growth: an unconscious feeling of the joy of being, greedy curiosity and irrepressible energy, innocence, goodwill, the need to love and act.
“...In youth,” Platonov wrote, “there is always the possibility of the noble greatness of the future life: if only human society does not disfigure, distort, or destroy this gift of nature, inherited by every baby.”
However, not only a special interest in childhood and adolescence as decisive moments human life, a preferable depiction of a young hero or frank instructiveness, but also by the very essence of his talent, striving to embrace the world as a whole, as if with a single, unprejudiced and all-penetrating gaze, Platonov is close to the young. It is not for nothing that his first books and “The Hidden Man” (1928) were published by the “Young Guard” publishing house, and his last lifetime collections “A Soldier’s Heart” (1946), “ Magic ring"(1950) and others were published by the publishing house "Children's Literature".
It would seem that the circumstances of the lives of two little poor fellows - Sasha and Proshka Dvanov, living in a poor peasant family, are not much different. The only difference is that Sasha is an orphan and adopted in Proshka’s house. But this is enough for little by little to form characters that are, in the main, diametrically opposed: the selfless, honest, recklessly kind and open to all people Sasha and the cunning, predatory, on his own, resourceful Proshka
Of course, the point is not that Sasha is an orphan, but that with the help good people- Proshkina's mother, but most of all Zakhar Pavlovich - Sasha overcomes his biographical orphanhood and social orphanhood. He called it “the country of former orphans” Soviet Russia Platonov in the 30s. As if about Sasha Dvanov, independent, who knew from childhood true price bread and human kindness, said, looking back from the forties, Mikhail Prishvin in the fairy tale “ Ship thicket": "The time of our people's orphanhood is over, and new person goes down in history with feeling selfless love to his mother - native land- not with full consciousness of one’s cultural world dignity.”
Prishvin's thought is organically close to Platonov. Mother - Motherland - Father - Fatherland - family - home - nature - space - earth - this is another series of supporting concepts characteristic of Plato’s prose. “Mother... is the closest relative of all people,” we read in one of the writer’s articles. What amazingly poignant images of the mother are captured on the pages of his books: Vera and Gyulchatay (“Dzhan”), Lyuba Ivanova (“Return”), the nameless ancient old woman in “The Motherland of Electricity”... It seems that they embody all the hypostases of motherhood, which includes yourself and love, and selflessness, and strength, and wisdom, and forgiveness.
The history of the formation of man as a spiritualized personality is the main theme of A. Platonov’s stories, the heroes of which are children. Analyzing the story "Nikita", where the hero of this story, the peasant boy Nikita, painfully and difficultly overcoming age-related egocentrism, reveals himself in his kindness, is formed as a "Good Whale" (under this title the story was published in the magazine "Murzilka").
A. Platonov’s story “Still Mom” is dedicated to depicting the complex process of a private person’s transition to life “with everyone and for everyone.” The hero of this story, young Artem, through the image of his mother, learns and comprehends the whole world, joins the great community of people of his homeland.
In the stories “The Iron Old Woman” and “Flower on the Earth” the same hero - a little man, but under a different name - Yegor, Afoni, in the process of learning about the world for the first time encounters good and evil, determines for himself the main life tasks and goals - finally defeat the greatest evil - death ("The Iron Old Woman"), discover the secret of the greatest good - eternal life ("Flower on Earth").
The path to feat in the name of life on earth, its moral origins and roots are manifested in wonderful story“At the dawn of a foggy youth”, which testifies to the unity of problematics and detail in the work of the writer of the war and pre-war years.
About the connections of creativity. Both folklorists and ethnographers wrote about A. Platonov with folklore, without focusing on the fact that the narrator’s thoughts are aimed, first of all, at revealing the moral side of the actions of the heroes of the fairy tale. The connection between A. Platonov’s creativity and folklore is much deeper and more organic. In a whole series of stories ("Nikita", "Still Mom", "Ulya", "Fro"). A. Platonov turns to the compositional scheme fairy tale, described in the classic work of V. Ya. Propp. A. Platonov writes not fairy tales, but short stories, but they are based on archaic genre structures. In that genre originality many stories by A. Platonov, which is explained not only by the stability genre forms, but also by the peculiarities of the writer’s artistic thinking, focused on the analysis and depiction of the root causes and fundamental principles of human existence.
Usually such stylistic means of creating artistic expression, as metaphor, metonymy, personification are considered as elements of poetics. In relation to a number of works by A. Platonov ("Nikita", "The Iron Old Woman", "Still Mother", "At the Dawn of Foggy Youth"), we talk about the usual use of these techniques as stylistic devices it is forbidden. The unusual nature of their use by A. Platonov is that in stories in which children are the heroes, they have become a natural and organic form of perception of the world. We should be talking not about metaphor, but metaphorization, not about metonymy, but metonymization, not about personification, but about personifying apperception and its varieties. This “stylistics” appears especially clearly in the story “Nikita”. The way of knowing and perceiving the world through one or another emotionally charged and ethically significant image-concept is almost the norm for the heroes of A. Platonov’s works.
Thus, the hero of the story “Still Mom” “paves” his way into Big world people of his homeland, armed with one single “weapon” - the image-concept of his own mother. The hero, metaphorically and metonymically trying it on to all unknown creatures, things and phenomena of the surrounding world, through this image expands his inner world. This is how A. Platonov depicts the first meeting of a person with his homeland, complex and hard way self-knowledge and human socialization.
Andrei Platonovich Platonov began writing very early, but during his lifetime his works were published very rarely. He lived in crucial moment history of Russia, and his work reflects the first decades of the life of the people after the revolution.
In 1927, the writer gained fame after his book “ Epifanskie locks", and already in next year he publishes two more books, actively publishes in magazines, and has numerous satirical stories. And those works that revealed the destructive power of bureaucracy in that society were never published.
Themes of Platonov's stories
His novel Chevergun"was not accepted for publication due to censorship, and his famous work « Pit"was also not published. All that was allowed to be published then was derogatory criticism of his stories and novels.
Andrei Platonovich wrote about many things: about the Great Patriotic War, about the labor of peasants and workers, about the intelligentsia, about science and sports, about the personality of man and his freedom. This theme is especially acute in his work of the 1930s. In his stories " Fro" And " Potudan River“He raises themes of true human freedom and a feeling of complete, albeit quickly passing, happiness. Also in his work he touched upon current social topics, which concerned the leadership, power of the country and the system that dominates it.
Story " Across the midnight sky"is dedicated specifically to the danger of the idea of National Socialism, and how such ideas turn out in life ordinary people. The theme of war is revealed in the story “ At the grave of Russian soldiers", in which Andrei Platonovich tries to describe all the cruelty and brutality to which the Russian people were subjected during the time of fascism. Platonov boldly expressed his opinion about Stalin's rule with this story, without directly mentioning his name, and thereby angered the ruler. Platonov's works were banned, they were not published, they were not allowed to be read, like many other writers.
Platonov's language
Platonov, according to the great poet Joseph Brodsky, tested the strength of the Russian language. Pushed him to the limit. Platonov's language, so unusual for simple eye, it's not easy to eat literary style. Platonov's language is a separate world where its own unique person is created. This man is unique in that he has properties that would hardly be useful to him if he lived in our world.
Platonov - writer-philosopher
And despite the seriousness of the themes that the talented and insightful Platonov raised in his works, he did not forget to write about the most important things in a person’s life - about simple, momentary happiness, about justice and honor, about the problem of the meaning of life and its search, about finding Plato's hero of peace for the soul and harmony for the heart. One of these stories is “ Flower on the ground”, telling the story of little bored Athos, who stayed at home with his grandfather. Platonov's symbolism is simple and clear, his allegories evoke an instant understanding of what is happening, and the light and realistic mood of the story reveals a deep concept with captivating simplicity. Platonov speaks about the harmony of life in an almost childish, sincere language; he shows happiness through the eyes of a small, innocent child.
That's why short stories Platonov are just as rich deep meaning and a philosophical idea, like long, serious novels. Platonov, with his characteristic skill, reveals a wide variety of topics in his works, while speaking about them in simple and accessible language. That is why many called and call this talented writer a philosopher.
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