The problem of the tragic fate of Russia in A. Platonov’s story “The Pit”

THE PROBLEM OF THE TRAGIC FATE OF RUSSIA IN A. PLATONOV’S STORY “THE PIT”
Andrey Platonov is one of those few Soviet writers, which in their understanding new era managed to move from accepting communist ideas to their denial. Platonov believed in the revolutionary reorganization of the world sincerely, almost fanatically - and in this sense was no different from most of his contemporaries. It seemed to him that for the first time in history it was finally possible to overcome egoism in man and create a society
“higher humanism”, a society in which the good of others will be a prerequisite for one’s own happiness. But already in his first works, Platonov showed himself to be an artist who knows how to see the world ambiguously, who understands the complexity of the human soul. The longing for humanity in Platonov's stories is inseparable from attention to the individual. The writer - willingly or unwillingly - followed the tradition that was laid down in Russian literature by Gogol and Dostoevsky. Platonov’s humanism was very clearly manifested in the story “The Pit”. The theme of Russia in this story is inseparable from the search for humanity, and the writer’s reflections on the problems of the Soviet era are tragic and unusually deep.

In the story “The Pit,” Platonov showed the Russian reality of the late twenties and early thirties as an era of almost irreversible depletion of the soil on which the “culture of life” grows - the culture of humanity accumulated over centuries. And this exhaustion inevitably means the loss of the meaning of human existence.
Platonov’s heroes are digging a foundation pit for a dormitory tower, a home for the happy inhabitants of socialism, selecting for this construction the “best” - the most disadvantaged, the poorest people. But both adults and children die in the story,
“manuring” the soil for others, becoming a “step” to universal happiness, the achievement of which turns out to be impossible without sacrifice. But fanaticism
“builders”, blind faith in ideals does not give them the opportunity to doubt the correctness of what is happening.
Of all the characters in the story, only two know how to look at the era from the outside, know how to doubt: Prushevsky and Voshchev. Prushevsky, like air, needs warmth, humanity, a sense of his necessity in this world, not for everyone, not for a class, but for to a specific person. Voshchev cannot, does not want to feel like a “cog”, to be happy according to orders. He is a Russian truth-seeker, a dual, contradictory nature.
At the beginning of the story, Voshchev leaves to wander around the world, trying to find the meaning of life. He wants to “get to the bottom” of the meaning of everything that exists, to the movement of the stars, to the growth of a blade of grass in a field - and the growth of the tower of the future, the construction of which he finds himself in. And Voshchev wants to know whether it is he, the living, the only, “separate” one, who is needed for the construction of universal happiness, and not the impersonal mass.
But at the same time, he does not protest against the specific inhumanity of the idea; he participates in collectivization. His desire to be an individual is an involuntary challenge to the communist state, and his cruelty is a reflection of the inhumane atmosphere of the era. He is dual, like his time, which combines both the dream of happiness and mass murder.
The story is full of hopeless metaphors. The heroes dig a pit for a house of universal happiness, and they themselves sleep in coffins prepared for themselves by peasants who know what awaits them in the proletarian state. And is it only peasants?
Everyone must turn into sand, into manure on which a flower will grow
"beautiful" future. There is no difference between ages, and the girl who lost her mother and found shelter with construction workers also sleeps in a coffin: she is doomed, like adults.
IN neighboring villages a terrible process of collectivization is underway, the destruction of the peasantry, hated by the proletarians only because the peasant has at least some personal - not common! - property. The houses are empty, the wind is blowing, and at the forge a bear-farmer, a true proletarian, full of hatred for the “owners” and fanatical, blind hard work, is working for everyone. Some stock up on coffins without waiting for death, others are put on rafts and floated out to sea to suffer and die. And especially terrible is the complete submission of the peasantry, only occasionally changing to single outbreaks of rebellion.
Fear and cruelty determine the atmosphere of the time in the story. Fear of the danger of deviating from the general line, instantly turning from one of your own into a traitor - and merciless cruelty towards everyone who can interfere with this line. Such are Chiklin and Safonov - fanatics of the idea. This is an activist, day and night, with terrible impatience, waiting for his superiors’ directives - carrying out any, even the most absurd, instructions, without thinking for a second about its meaning. There, at the top, they know what and how to do for everyone’s happiness; the job of the rest is to follow orders. This is Russia, blinded by an idea, destroying itself.
The violence in the story extends to everything: to wildlife and per person. But the fact is that violence cannot create or build anything.
It is only capable of destruction, and its result is coffins that are stored in one of the niches of the pit. The heroes of “The Pit” do not and never will have a home - there is a barn, near the pit of the pit, a place where they die, a shelter, but there are no walls, a house, or a family: everything is scattered, everything is thrown to the wind. And why is it needed, this never-built house, if there will never be happiness in this house!
There cannot be happiness for everyone; happiness exists only as care for people. And the foundation pit becomes a grave for the child, for the very girl in whose name adults make sacrifices, destroying both themselves and others...

THE PROBLEM OF THE TRAGIC FATE OF RUSSIA IN A. PLATONOV’S STORY THE PIT Andrei Platonov is one of those few Soviet writers who, in their understanding of the new era, managed to move from accepting communist ideas to their denial. Platonov believed in the revolutionary reorganization of the world sincerely, almost fanatically, and in this sense was no different from most of his contemporaries. It seemed to him that for the first time in history it was finally possible to overcome egoism in man, to create a society of higher humanism, a society in which the good of others would be a prerequisite for one’s own happiness.

But already in his first works, Platonov showed himself to be an artist who knows how to see the world ambiguously, who understands the complexity of the human soul. The longing for humanity in eternity in Platonov’s stories is inseparable from attention to the individual man. The writer, willingly or unwillingly, followed the tradition that was laid down in Russian literature by Gogol and Dostoevsky. Platonov’s humanism was very clearly manifested in the story Pit. The theme of Russia in this story is inseparable from the search for humanity, and the writer’s reflections on the problems of the Soviet era are tragic and unusually deep.

In the story Kotlovan, Platonov showed the Russian reality of the late twenties and early thirties as an era of almost irreversible depletion of the soil on which the culture of life, the culture of humanity, accumulated over centuries, grows. And this exhaustion inevitably means the loss of the meaning of human existence. Platonov’s heroes are digging a foundation pit for a tower-common living, a home for the happy inhabitants of socialism, selecting the best, most disadvantaged, poorest people for this construction.

But both adults and children in the story die, manuring the soil for others, becoming a step towards universal happiness, the achievement of which turns out to be impossible without sacrifices. But the fanaticism of the builders, blind faith in ideals does not give them the opportunity to doubt the rightness of what is happening. Of all the characters in the story, only two they know how to look at the era from the outside, they know how to doubt Prushevsky and Voshchev. Prushevsky, like air, needs warmth, humanity, a sense of his necessity in this world, not for everyone, not for a class, but for a specific person.

Voshchev cannot, does not want to feel like a cog, to be happy according to orders. He is a Russian truth-seeker, a dual, contradictory nature. At the beginning of the story, Voshchev leaves to wander around the world, trying to find the meaning of life. He wants to get to the bottom of the meaning of everything that exists, the income of the luminaries, the growth of a blade of grass in a field and the growth of a tower of the future, on the construction of which he finds himself .

And Voshchev wants to know whether it is he, the living, the only, separate, and not the impersonal mass who is needed for the construction of universal happiness. But at the same time, he does not protest against the specific inhumanity of the idea, he participates in collectivization. His desire to be an individual is an involuntary challenge to the communist state, and his cruelty is a reflection of the inhuman atmosphere of the era. He is dual, like his time, combining both the dream of happiness and mass murder. The story is full of hopeless metaphors.

The heroes dig a foundation pit for a house of universal happiness, and themselves sleep in coffins prepared for themselves by peasants who know what awaits them in the proletarian state. And is it only peasants? Everyone must turn into sand, into manure, on which a flower of a wonderful future will grow. There is no difference between ages, and the girl who lost her mother and found shelter with the builders also sleeps in a coffin, she is doomed, like the adults. In the neighboring villages there is a terrible process of death. electivization, destruction of the peasantry, hated by the proletarians only because the peasant has at least some personal commonality! property.

The houses are empty, the wind is blowing, and at the forge the bear laborer, a true proletarian, full of hatred for the owners and fanatical, blind hard work, is working for everyone. Some stock up on coffins without waiting for death, others are put on rafts and floated out to sea, to suffer and die. And especially terrible is the complete obedience of the peasantry, only occasionally changing to single outbreaks of rebellion. Fear and cruelty determine the atmosphere of time in the story.

Fear of the danger of deviating from the general line, instantly turning from oneself into a traitor, and merciless cruelty towards everyone who can interfere with this line. Such are Chiklin and Safonov, fanatics of ideas. Such is the activist, day and night, with terrible impatience, waiting for the boss’s directives, carrying out any, even the most absurd, instruction, without thinking for a moment about its meaning. Up there, they know what and how to do for everyone’s happiness, the job of others is to carry out orders.

This is Russia, blinded by an idea that destroys itself. The violence in the story extends to all living nature and humans. But the fact is that violence cannot create or build anything. It is only capable of destroying, and its result is coffins, which are stored in one of the niches of the pit. The heroes of the pit do not and will never have a barn at home, near the pit of the pit, the place where they die, a shelter, nosten, no home, no family, everything is scattered, everything is left to the wind. And why is it needed, this never-built house, if there will never be happiness in this house! There cannot be happiness for everyone; happiness exists only as care for a person.

And the Lovan cat becomes a grave for the child, for the very girl in whose name the adults make sacrifices, destroying both themselves and others.

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/ / / Problems and ideas of Platonov’s story “The Pit”

Works of art should always be considered taking into account the era in which the author lived. Historically accurate or in other words, the realities of that reality are displayed on the pages of books.

The idea of ​​Andrei Platonov's story "The Pit" - show true face socialism, revive humanism. The writer creates the main character Voshchev as unlike others - a thinking and doubting person. At the age of thirty, he was fired from his job due to frequent thoughtfulness. Hence the problem that thinking people were superfluous and dangerous for the totalitarian system.

The heroes of the story "" are experiencing the stage of inception new era- era of socialism. Adaptation of people to a new life - the main problem in Platonov's work. The title of the story is symbolic - “The Pit”. The main character, traveling around the world, stops in one strange town, where almost everyone is preoccupied with one task - digging a foundation pit. People are confident that they are doing important work and bringing a brighter future closer. However, in reality they are simply digging a hole without any prospects. People, having survived the stormy events of the 1917 revolution, became spiritually and physically exhausted, even degenerated. They are no longer able to think sensibly, and obey only general slogans.

In his story, Andrei Platonov expresses doubts about the correctness of Soviet ideals. After all, judging by the slogans, people should build a bright future, but the heroes of the story are digging a foundation pit, that is, they not only don’t build anything, but plunge down into a hole.

The main character is the spark of intelligence that should ignite everyone else. But resisting the system is not easy. Voshchev can no longer just work mindlessly; he is attracted to meaningful work. He wanders in search of meaning human life. The hero believes that somewhere there is something that will become meaningful to him. When he sees people digging a pit, he first joins them, because they said that this would bring them all closer to happiness. However, after a few days he realizes that there is not a drop of common sense in this difficult, monotonous task. For comparison, other characters dug much longer than Voshchev, but never once doubted their mission.

The construction of the pit was hard labor. The workers lived in barracks and ate meager food. But the worst thing is that these people were often injured while working. The authorities remained indifferent to this.

Importantly, in the story there is a girl named . She is the daughter of a “potbelly stove,” and therefore, in order to survive in the new society, she is forced to abandon her relatives and her past. But how can a person build a future by abandoning the past? After all, it contains the foundation of human consciousness. For the main character, this girl was still a hope of finding the meaning of life, but the foundation pit took away both the girl herself and Voshchev’s hopes.

Platonov was horrified by how the totalitarian machine “broke” people and cut them into new way, pleasing to Soviet ideology.

Andrei Platonov wrote a story that was ahead of his own time.

In this article we will look at the work that Andrei Platonov created, we will conduct it, it was conceived by the author in 1929, in the fall, when Stalin’s article entitled “The Year of the Great Turning Point” appeared in print, in which he argued the need for collectivization, after which he announced in December the beginning of the “attack on the kulak” and the elimination of him as a 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 also realized his plans, which is confirmed by the analysis. Platonov's "pit" was conceived as a rethinking of history, the correctness of the path chosen by our country. The result is a profound work with socio-philosophical content. The writer comprehended reality and analyzed it.

Let's begin to describe Platonov's "pit" with a story about the creation of the work.

History of creation

The story, remarkably, was written 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 Voronezh region. Therefore, he was, if not a direct participant, then at least a witness to the liquidation of the kulaks and collectivization. As an artist who draws life, Andrei Platonovich Platonov painted pictures of the destinies of people and the events that happened to those caught in the meat grinder of depersonalization and equalization.

The themes of Andrei Platonovich’s works did not fit into the general ideas of building communism; the doubting and thinking hero of the story was subjected to sharp criticism from the authorities, which was picked up by the press. She conducted her own analysis, which was by no means flattering to the author.

This is, in brief, the story that Platonov wrote (“The Pit”), the story of its creation.

Features of presentation

The author's contemporaries, favored by the Bolsheviks - writers Kataev, Leonov, Sholokhov - in their works glorified the achievements of socialism, depicting collectivization with positive side. Platonov’s poetics, in contrast, were alien to an optimistic description of pictures of selfless labor and construction. This author was not attracted by the scale of the tasks and aspirations. He was primarily interested in man and his role in historical events. Therefore, the work “The Pit,” as well as other works of this author, is characterized by a thoughtful, unhurried development of events. There are a lot of abstract generalizations in the story, since the author is focused on the thoughts and experiences of his characters. They only help external factors the hero understands himself, and at the same time, the symbolic events that Platonov tells us about.

"Pit": summary of contents

The plot of the story is typical for works of that time dedicated to collectivization, and is not complex. It consists of dispossession with scenes of assassination attempts on party activists and peasants defending their property. But Platonov managed to present these events from the point of view of a thinking person who found himself unwittingly drawn into the events about which the story “The 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 thoughtfulness, ends up with the diggers who are digging a pit for the house of the proletarians. Brigadier Chiklin brings an orphaned girl whose mother has died. Chiklin and his comrades eliminate the kulaks by floating them on a raft at sea along with their families. After this, they return to the city and continue their work. The story "The Pit" ends with the death of a girl who found her last refuge in the wall of the pit.

Three motives in Platonov’s work

Platonov wrote that he was struck by three things in life - love, wind and long road. All these motives are present in the work in chapters; if you turn to it, it will confirm our idea. But it should be noted that these motives are presented in the author’s original presentation. The plot is tied to the image of a road. However, Voshchev, Platonov’s hero, although he is a wanderer, is by no means in the traditions Russian literature, because, firstly, he is forced to wander, or rather, wander, due to the fact that he was fired, and secondly, his goal is not to search for adventure, but for truth, the meaning of existence. Wherever this hero goes later, again and again the author returns him to the pit. It’s as if a person’s life closes in and goes in a circle.

Many events make up the story "The Pit", but there are no cause-and-effect relationships between them. The heroes seem to be circling around the pit, dreaming of escaping from this pit. One wanted to go to study, having increased his experience, another expected retraining, the third dreamed of moving to the leadership of the party.

Method of editing episodes of a work

In the composition of the work, Platonov uses the method of montage of diverse episodes: there is a bear-hammer, and an activist who educates village women in politics, and kulaks who say goodbye to each other before going to sea on a raft.

Some of the episodes that Platonov’s work “The Pit” tells about seem completely random and unmotivated: suddenly, during the course of the action, insignificant characters pop up in close-up, and just as suddenly disappear. As an example, we can cite an unknown person dressed only in trousers, whom Chiklin brought to the office unexpectedly for everyone. The man, swollen with grief, demanded the return of the coffins, prepared for future use, which were found in the pit of his village.

Grotesque

In the dialogue between peasants and workers, it is surprising how casually they talk about death, with what hopelessness and humility they prepare coffins for themselves and their children. The burial box turns into a “child’s toy”, into a “bed”, ceasing to be a symbol of fear. Such a grotesque reality permeates, in fact, the entire story “The Pit”.

Allegory

The author of the work, in addition to the grotesque, also uses allegory to convey the madness of events. Thanks to this and the previous techniques, the problematics in the story “The Pit” are more fully revealed of this work. Not finding a character who could, like Judas, point to wealthy peasant families, he chooses a bear for this role. And given that this animal is in folklore has never been the personification of evil, we can talk here about a double allegory.

The plot of Voshchev's journey is organically intertwined with another - the failed construction of a monumental all-proletarian house. But the workers believed until the last that the local proletariat would live there in a year. This building is associated with Tower of Babel, after all, it became a grave for its builders, just as the foundation pit of a house for the proletarians turned into a grave for the girl for whom, in fact, it was erected.

Although at the beginning of the work Pashkin claims that happiness will still “come historically,” it becomes clear by the end of the story that there is no hope of finding the meaning of life in the future, since the present is built on the death of a girl, and the adults worked so persistently on the pit as as if they were trying to escape forever in its abyss.

The work “The Pit” leaves a heavy aftertaste on the soul after reading, but at the same time one 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 were hit by the merciless and uncompromising machine of power, trying to turn everyone into an obedient executor of a godless plan.

Description of the characters in the story

Platonov does not provide detailed external description heroes, their deep internal characteristics. He, like a surrealist artist who works by breaking logical connections at the subconscious level, only lightly touches with his brush the portraits of characters living in an insubstantial world, devoid of everyday details and interior design. For example, there is no information about the appearance of the main character, Voshchev, only that he is thirty years old at the time of the story. Pashkin’s description indicates an elderly face, as well as a bent body, not so much from the years he has lived, but from the “social” load. Safonov had an “actively thinking” face, and Chiklin had a head, which, according to the author’s definition, was “small stone”; Kozlov had “damp eyes” and a monotonous dull face. These are the heroes in the story “The Pit” (Platonov).

Nastya's image

To understand the meaning of the work, the image of a girl living with diggers during 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. Giving up the past, as we know, means loss cultural traditions, historical connections and replacing them with ideological parents - Lenin and Marx. According to the author, people who deny their past cannot have a future.

Nastya’s world is distorted, because her mother, in order to save her daughter, inspires her not to talk about her non-proletarian origin. The propaganda machine has already penetrated into her consciousness. The reader is horrified to learn that this heroine advises Safronov to kill the peasants for the cause of the revolution. What will a child turn into when he grows up if he keeps toys in a coffin? The girl dies at the end of the story, and with her the last ray of hope dies for Voshchev and all the other workers. The latter wins the peculiar confrontation between Nastya and the pit. The dead body of a girl lies at the foundation of a house under construction.

Hero-philosopher

There is a character in the story who is a so-called home-grown philosopher, who thinks about the meaning of life, strives to live according to conscience, and seeks the truth. This main character works. He is an exponent of the author's position. This character, included in Platonov’s novel “The Pit,” thought seriously and doubted the correctness of what was happening around him. He does not move along with the general line, he strives to find his own path to the truth. But he never finds her.

The meaning of the title of the story "Pit"

The title of the story is symbolic. Not only construction means a foundation pit. This is a huge grave, a hole that workers dig for themselves. Many die here. A happy home for the proletarians cannot be built on a slavish attitude towards human labor and humiliation of personal dignity.

Pessimism, which Platonov did not hide (the story "The Pit" and other works), in the vigorous pace of Russian literature of that time with positive images Party members, meetings and exceeding plans, of course, could not fit in. This author was not at all in step with the times: he was ahead of them.

Each piece of art, one way or another, reflects the time in which it is created. The author rethinks some historical phenomenon and on the pages of his creation he gives his own vision of what is happening.
In the story “The Pit” A. Platonov questions the correctness of the path chosen Soviet Russia. “The pit” with deep socio-philosophical content in an allegorical form tells about the construction of a huge building - happiness. More precisely, so far only the foundation pit for this symbolic structure is being built. The action focuses mainly in two places - on the collective farm named after the General Line of the Party and on a construction site.
Many people, led by Chiklin’s brigade, gather to build the pit. And the story begins with an acquaintance with one of its representatives - Voshchev. The man worked and worked, lived and lived, and suddenly “on the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life” he was fired from a mechanical plant due to weakness and “thoughtfulness amid the general pace of work.”
He tries to know his happiness so that “from spiritual meaning» Labor productivity would increase. Voshchev is not a parasite who shirks work. For some time now he has simply begun to realize that the “secret of life” cannot be limited to his meaningless existence on the factory floor. From Voshchev’s remark “Without thought, people act senselessly,” a peculiar conflict ensues between the “general pace of work” and “thoughtfulness.”
As soon as builders begin to think, they lose their “pace of work.” This tendency characterizes not only Voshchev, but also Chiklin, Safronov, and Morozov. Voshchev's yearning soul is in a state of search for a rational beginning, happiness. Because a worker expresses his thoughts out loud, he is fired from the factory and ends up working on the construction of a house.
During the construction of the pit, hard labor is used, depriving people of the opportunity to think and enjoy memories. The diggers live in terrible barracks conditions, their daily food is very meager: empty cabbage soup, potatoes, kvass. At the same time, the bosses live happily ever after. The writer critically portrays the life of Russian society in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century.
The worst thing in the story is the death of the heroes. Platonov does not believe in socialism that maims or kills people. The class struggle did not pass by the party faithful. Kozlov and Safronov are killed by irresponsible elements in the village. Zhachev lost faith in a bright future.
To understand the meaning of the story, the image of Nastya, a little girl living on a construction site with the diggers, is important. Nastya is a child October revolution 1917. The girl had a mother, but she was a “potbelly stove,” an outdated class. But abandoning the past means losing historical ties, cultural traditions and replacing them with ideological parents - Marx and Lenin. People who deny the past cannot have a future.
Nastya’s world is disfigured, because in order to save her daughter, her mother inspires her to hide her non-proletarian origin. The propaganda machine has already penetrated her consciousness. The reader is horrified to learn that she advises Safronov to kill the peasants for the cause of the revolution. What kind of person will a child whose toys are kept in a coffin grow up to be? At the end of the story, the girl dies, and along with her, a ray of hope for Voshchev and other workers dies. In a peculiar confrontation between the pit and Nastya, the pit wins, and her dead body is laid at the foundation of the future house.
The title of the story is symbolic. The foundation pit is not just a construction site. This is a huge hole, a grave that workers dig for themselves. This is where many die. It is impossible to build a happy common proletarian home on a slavish attitude to work and humiliation of human dignity.
Plato's pessimism could not fit into the vigorous pace of Soviet literature with positive images of communists, party meetings and overfulfillment of planned plans. The author of "The Pit" did not keep up with the times - he was ahead of that very time.