In this article we will consider the work that Andrey Platonov created, we will analyze it. Plotonovās āfoundation pitā was conceived by the author in 1929, in the fall, when Stalin published an article entitled āThe Year of the Great Breakā, in which he argued for the need for collectivization, after which he announced in December that he would begin āattacking the fistā and eliminate it as class. In unison, one of the heroes of this work tells him that everyone needs to be thrown "into the brine of socialism." The planned bloody campaign was successful. The tasks set by Stalin were completed.
The writer realized his ideas, which confirms the analysis. Plotonov's āPitā was conceived as a rethinking of history, the correctness of the path chosen by our country. The result was a deep work with a socio-philosophical content. The writer comprehended reality, conducted its analysis.
Weāll begin to describe Plotonovās āPitā with a story about the creation of a work.
History of creation
The story, which is remarkable, was written just during the period of Stalin's active work - from 1929 to April 1930. In those days, Andrei Platonovich Platonov worked in the land reclamation department in his specialty, in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, located in the Voronezh Region. Therefore, he was, if not a direct participant, then at least a witness to the elimination of the kulaks and collectivization. As an artist painting natures, Andrei Platonovich Platonov painted pictures of the fate of people and events that occurred with the depersonalization and leveling that fell into the meat grinder.
The theme of the works of Andrei Platonovich did not fit into the general ideas of building communism, the doubting and thinking hero of the story was sharply criticized by the authorities, which was picked up by the press. She conducted her own analysis, which was by no means flattering for the author.
Platonov's āPitā was first published only in 1987, during the time of Gorbachev, in the journal Mir. During this period, the Soviet Union was once again rebuilt.
Such, in short, in the story written by Platonov ("Pit"), is the history of creation.
Presentation Features
The contemporaries of the author, endeared by the Bolsheviks, the writers Kataev, Leonov, Sholokhov, in their works sang the achievements of socialism, portraying collectivization on the positive side. To the poetics of Platonov, in contrast to them, the optimistic description of the paintings of selfless labor and construction was alien. This author was not attracted by the scale of tasks and aspirations. He was primarily interested in man and his role in historical events. Therefore, the work "Pit", as well as other creations of this author, is characterized by a thoughtful, unhurried development of events. There is a lot in the narrative of abstract generalizations, since the author is focused on the thoughts and experiences of his heroes. Only external factors help the hero understand himself, and at the same time also in symbolic events, which Platonov tells us about.
Pit: summary in summary
Typical plot of the story for the works of the time devoted to collectivization, and uncomplicated. It consists of dispossession with scenes of assassination of party activists and peasants, who are defending their good. But Platonov was able to present these events from the point of view of a thinking person who was involuntarily drawn into the events about which the story "Pit" tells.
A summary of the chapters is not the subject of our article. We will only briefly describe the main events of the work. The hero of the story, Voshchev, after he was fired from the factory because of his reverie, gets to the diggers who dig a pit for the house of the proletarians. Brigadier Chiklin brings an orphaned girl whose mother died. Chiklin and his comrades liquidate the kulaks, rafting them on a raft in the sea with their families. After that, they return to the city and continue their work. The story āPitā ends with the death of a girl who found her last refuge in the pit wall.
Three motives in the work of Platonov
Platonov wrote that in life he was struck by three things - love, wind and a long journey. All these motifs are present in the work "Pit". A summary of the chapters, if you refer to it, will confirm our idea. But it should be noted that these motives are presented in a peculiar presentation of the author. The plot is tied to the image of the road. However, Voshchev, the hero of Platonov, although he is a wanderer, is by no means in the traditions of Russian literature, because, firstly, he is forced to wander, or rather, to wander, because he was fired, and secondly, his goal is the search is not adventure, but truth, the meaning of existence. Wherever this hero later goes, the author again and again returns him to the pit. As if the life of a person is closed and goes in a circle.
Many events make up the story "Pit", but there is no causal relationship between them. Heroes seem to circle around the pit, dreaming of breaking out of this pit. One wanted to leave to study, having increased his experience, the other was expecting a re-qualification, the third dreamed of moving to the party leadership.
Method of editing episodes of a work
Platonov in the composition of the work uses the method of editing diverse episodes: there is a hammer-throat bear, an activist who educates village women in politics, and fists who say goodbye to each other before being sent to the sea on a raft.
Some of the episodes that Platonovās āPitā tells about seem completely random and unmotivated: suddenly, in the course of the action, minor characters pop up, disappearing just as suddenly. As an example, one can bring an unknown person dressed in pants, whom Chiklin brought to the office unexpectedly for everyone. A man swollen with grief demanded the return of coffins prepared for the future, which were found in the foundation pit, his village.
Grotesque
In the dialogue between the peasants and the workers, it is surprising how ordinary they speak of death, with what hopelessness and humility they prepare coffins for themselves and their children. The funeral box turns into a "children's toy", into a "bed", ceasing to be a symbol of fear. Such a grotesque reality permeates, in fact, the whole story "Pit".
Allegory
In addition to the grotesque, the author of the work also uses allegory to convey the madness of events. Thanks to this and previous tricks, the problems of this work are more fully disclosed in the novel āPitā. Not finding a character who, like Judas, could point to the wealthy families of peasants, he chooses a bear for this role. And given the fact that this animal in folklore has never been the personification of evil, we can speak here of a double allegory.
The plot of Voshchevās journey is organically intertwined with another - the failed construction of a monumental universal proletariat. But the workers believed to the last that the local proletariat would live in it in a year. This building is associated with the Tower of Babel, because it became a grave for its builders, just as the foundation pit of the house for the proletarians turned into a grave for a girl, for which, in fact, it was erected.
Although at the beginning of the work Pashkin claims that happiness āwill come historicallyā, it becomes clear towards the end of the narrative that there is no hope of gaining a meaning in life in the future, since the present is built on the death of a girl, and adults worked so hard on the foundation pit as as if eager to escape forever in his abyss.
After reading the āPitā, after reading it leaves a heavy residue on my soul, but at the same time it feels that Andrei Platonovich is a humanist writer who tells us about the sad events of the story with regret, love and deep compassion for the heroes, who went through a ruthless and uncompromising machine of power, seeking to turn everyone into an obedient executor of a godless plan.
Description of the characters in the story
Plato does not give a detailed external description of the heroes, their deep internal characteristics. He, as a surrealist artist who works by breaking logical connections at the subconscious level, only slightly touches with his brush the portraits of characters living in an immaterial world, devoid of everyday details and interior. For example, there is no data on the appearance of the protagonist, Voshchev, only that he was thirty years old at the time of the story was told. In the description of Pashkin, an elderly person is indicated, as well as a bent body, not so much from years lived, but from the load of "social". Safonov had an āactive-thinkingā face, and Chiklin had a head that, according to the authorās definition, was āsmall stone,ā Kozlov had āraw eyesā and a monotonous muddy face. Such are the heroes in the story "Pit" (Platonov).
Image of Nastya
To understand the meaning of the work, the image of a girl living with excavators in construction is very important. Nastya is a child of the 1917 revolution. Her mother was a potbelly stove, that is, a representative of an obsolete class. The rejection of the past, as you know, means the loss of cultural traditions, historical ties and the replacement of their ideological parents - Lenin and Marx. People who deny their past cannot have, according to the author, a future.
The world of Nastya is disfigured, because the mother, in order to save her daughter, inspires her not to talk about her non-proletarian origin. A propaganda machine had already taken root in her mind. The reader is horrified to learn that this heroine advises Safronov to kill the peasants for the cause of the revolution. What will the child turn into when he grows up if he has toys in his coffin? The girl at the end of the story dies, and with her dies for Voshchev and all other workers the last ray of hope. The latter wins in a kind of confrontation between Nastya and the foundation pit. The dead body of the girl lies at the base of the house under construction.
Philosopher hero
There is a character in the story, who is the so-called homegrown philosopher who thinks about the meaning of life, seeks to live by conscience, seeks the truth. This is the main character of the work. He expresses the position of the author. This character, included in Platonovās novel "Pit", seriously thought and doubted the correctness of what was happening around. He does not move along with the general line, seeks to find his own path to the truth. But he never finds her.
The meaning of the name of the story "Pit"
The name of the story is symbolic. Not only construction means pit. This is a huge grave, a hole that workers dig for themselves. Many here also perish. It is impossible to build a happy home for the proletarians on the basis of slavery to human labor and the degradation of personal dignity.
Pessimism, which Platonov did not hide (the novel "Pit" and other works), of course, could not fit into the vigorous tread of Russian literature of that time with positive images of party members, collections and overfulfillment of plans. This author did not keep pace with the times: he was ahead of him.