Andrei Platonov definition of Andrei Platonov in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Platonov, Andrei Platonovich

Born Aug. 20 (Sept. 1), 1899, in Voronezh; died Jan. 5, 1951, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer.

The son of a railroad shop metalworker, Platonov began working at the age of 13. In the early 1920’s he changed his surname Klimentov to Platonov. He graduated from the Voronezh Railroad Polytechnicum in 1924. From 1923 to 1926 he worked in the provinces as a land reclamation engineer and directed the construction of the Voronezh electric power plant.

In 1921, Platonov’s journalistic book Electrification was published, followed in 1922 by the poetry collection The Blue Deep. He also wrote the books Epifan Locks (1927), Flow Meadow Experts (1928), The Cherished Man (1928), and The Origin of a Master (1929). Platonov’s powerful and original talent was evident in his earliest books. His heroes are workers who “learned to think during the Revolution” and who try to understand their place and role in the world. Platonov’s “incorrect” verbal flexibility and “uneven” phraseology constitute an original way of thinking aloud, when thoughts are just coming into being and are approaching conformity with reality.

Platonov’s satirical works ridiculed the claims of bureaucrats to “think for everyone” and to replace the people’s creative activity with their own schemes. Examples are the novel Gradov City (1926) and the short stories “The Man of Nation” (1929), “Doubting Makar” (1929), and “Of Profit” (1931). Contemporary critics were unable to evaluate his satire objectively and according to its merits. In the 1930’s, Platonov wrote the short stories “Rubbish Wind,” “The Foundation Pit,” and “Dzhan,” the novella Juvenile Waters, the short story “Fro,” the novella High Tension, the play Pushkin in the Lyceum, and the novella The River Potudan (1937). In 1936 his first literary criticism was published. From 1942 to 1945, Platonov was a special correspondent for the newspaper Krasnaia zvezda. When he died he left a large legacy of manuscripts.

WORKS

Izbr. rasskazy. [Introductory article by F. Levin.] Moscow, 1958.
V prekrasnom i iarostnom mire: Povesti i rasskazy. [Introductory article by V. Dorofeev.] Moscow, 1965.
Izbrannoe. [Introductory article by F. Suchkov; afterword by M. Lobanov.] Moscow, 1966.
Razmyshleniia chitatelia: Stat’i. [Introductory article by L. Shubin.] Moscow, 1970.

REFERENCES

Gorky, M. “Perepiska s A. Platonovym.” In Literaturnoe nasledstvo, vol. 70. Moscow, 1964.
Fadeev, A. “Ob odnoi kulatskoi khronike.” Krasnaia nov’, 1931, nos. 5–6.
“O khoroshikh rasskazakh i redaktorskoi rutine” (editorial). Literaturnyi kritik, 1936, no. 8.
Ermilov, V. “Klevetnicheskii rasskaz Andreia Platonova.” Literaturnaia gazeta, Jan. 4, 1947.
Shubin, L. “Andrei Platonov.” Voprosy literatury, 1967, no. 6.
Kramov, I. “V poiskakh sushchnosti.” Novyi mir, 1969, no. 8.
Tvorchestvo A. Platonova: Stat’i i soobshcheniia. Voronezh, 1970.
Bocharov, S. “Veshchestvo sushchestvovaniia”: Vyrazhenie νproze. In the collection Problemy khudozhestvennoi formy sotsialisticheskogo realizma, vol. 2. Moscow, 1971.
Mitrakova, N. M. A. P. Platonov: Materialy k biobibliografii. Voronezh, 1969.
Russkie sovetskie pisateli-prozaiki: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’, vol. 7, part 2. Moscow, 1972.

L. A. SHUBIN

Mentioned in	?		References in periodicals archive	?		Encyclopedia browser	?		Full browser	?
No references found	00 Hardcover Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history PG3476 The Foundation Pit, by Russian Soviet writer Andrei Platonov (1890-1951), was a satirical novel following the travails of a group of workers digging out a foundation pit for a gigantic "House for all Proletariat" and is considered by some to have been a significant influence on other state-control dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. A companion to Andrei Platonov's The foundation pit by Reference & Research Book News The fiction of Andrei Platonov, still little known outside Russia, is explored, as are the work of the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and the music of Dvorak. Hold Everything Dear Dispatches on Survival and Resistance by Morpurgo, Horatio / New Internationalist Take, for example, John Berger's discussion of the stories told by Andrei Platonov about the harshness of life in the Soviet Union during the civil war and the forced collectivistion of the 1930s (see 'That have not been asked: Ten dispatches about endurance in face of walls', Open Democracy, February 2005). Ordinary academics standing behind ordinary people: Boris Frankel ... by Frankel, Boris / Arena Magazine	Andrei Nikolaevich Petrov Andrei Nikolaevich Tikhonov Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev Andrei Novodvorskii Andrei Onufrievich Bembel Andrei Osipovich Karelin Andrei Osipovich Novodvorskii Andrei Osipovich Sikhra Andrei Osterman Andrei Ovchinnikov Andrei Parfenovich Zablotskii-Desiatovskii Andrei Passar Andrei Pastukhov Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko Andrei Pavlovich Kuchkin Andrei Pavlovich Lupan Andrei Petrov Andrei Petrovich Ershov Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa Andrei Petrovich Kiselev Andrei Petrovich Kurtsii Andrei Petrovich Riabushkin Andrei Petrovich Semenov-Tian-Shanskii Andrei Petrovich Shidlovskii Andrei Piontkovskii Andrei Platonov Andrei Platonovich Platonov Andrei Polenov Andrei Popov Andrei Potebnia Andrei Pravednikov Andrei Presniakov Andrei Prisiazhniuk Andrei Razmadze Andrei Riabushkin Andrei Rikhter Andrei Romanovich Vlasenko Andrei Rozen Andrei Rublev Andrei Sadovskii Andrei Sakharov Andrei Samoilov Andrei Samoilovich Malyshko Andrei Savinykh Andrei Semenov-Tian-Shanskii Andrei Sergeevich Bubnov Andrei Sergeevich Famintsyn Andrei Sergeevich Lavrov Andrei Sergeevich Monin Andrei Severnyi Andrei Shchegliaev	Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev Andrei Novodvorskii Andrei Onufrievich Bembel Andrei Osipovich Karelin Andrei Osipovich Novodvorskii Andrei Osipovich Sikhra Andrei Osterman Andrei Ovchinnikov Andrei Parfenovich Zablotskii-Desiatovskii Andrei Passar Andrei Pastukhov Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko Andrei Pavlovich Kuchkin Andrei Pavlovich Lupan Andrei Petrov Andrei Petrovich Ershov Andrei Petrovich Kapitsa Andrei Petrovich Kiselev Andrei Petrovich Kurtsii Andrei Petrovich Riabushkin Andrei Petrovich Semenov-Tian-Shanskii Andrei Petrovich Shidlovskii Andrei Piontkovskii Andrei Platonov Andrei Platonovich Klimentov Andrei Platonovich Platonov Andrei Polenov Andrei Popov Andrei Potebnia Andrei Pravednikov Andrei Presniakov Andrei Prisiazhniuk Andrei Razmadze Andrei Riabushkin Andrei Rikhter Andrei Romanovich Vlasenko Andrei Rozen Andrei Rublev Andrei Rublov Andrei Rublyov Andrei Sadovskii Andrei Sakarov Andrei Sakarov Andrei Sakharov Andrei Sakharov Andrei Samoilov Andrei Samoilovich Malyshko Andrei Savinykh Andrei Semenov-Tian-Shanskii Andrei Sergeevich Bubnov

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Encyclopedia browser

Full browser

No references found

00 Hardcover Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history PG3476 The Foundation Pit, by Russian Soviet writer Andrei Platonov (1890-1951), was a satirical novel following the travails of a group of workers digging out a foundation pit for a gigantic "House for all Proletariat" and is considered by some to have been a significant influence on other state-control dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

A companion to Andrei Platonov's The foundation pit by Reference & Research Book News

The fiction of Andrei Platonov, still little known outside Russia, is explored, as are the work of the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and the music of Dvorak.

Hold Everything Dear Dispatches on Survival and Resistance by Morpurgo, Horatio / New Internationalist

Take, for example, John Berger's discussion of the stories told by Andrei Platonov about the harshness of life in the Soviet Union during the civil war and the forced collectivistion of the 1930s (see 'That have not been asked: Ten dispatches about endurance in face of walls', Open Democracy, February 2005).

Ordinary academics standing behind ordinary people: Boris Frankel ... by Frankel, Boris / Arena Magazine

Andrei Nikolaevich Petrov

Andrei Nikolaevich Tikhonov

Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev

Andrei Novodvorskii

Andrei Onufrievich Bembel

Andrei Osipovich Karelin

Andrei Osipovich Novodvorskii

Andrei Osipovich Sikhra

Andrei Osterman

Andrei Ovchinnikov

Andrei Parfenovich Zablotskii-Desiatovskii