Problems of A. Platonov's story "Pit"

A. Platonov's story "The Pit" describes the events of industrialization and collectivization that took place in Russia in the 20-30s of the last century. As you know, this time in the history of our country was distinguished by dramatic excesses and absurdities, which turned into a tragedy for the vast majority of people. The era of the collapse of all the old foundations became the subject of the author's attention in the story. Platonov chooses very specific form for the presentation of events - everything in his story is turned upside down, everything is distorted, hypertrophied and full of paradoxes.

Thus, Platonov's form also becomes content. The paradoxical presentation of events and the Russian language distorted by official clichés shows how stupid, absurd and scary everything that is happening in the country is.

Platonov made the scene of action an unknown town and its environs, as well as an unnamed village. Throughout the development of action, people work. They hardly rest. They are digging a pit, as if they want to "be saved forever in the abyss of the pit." And here a paradox immediately arises: how can one be saved at the bottom of the abyss, and even forever? People live scary and terrible life, which is even difficult to call existence. The author constantly compares them with the dead: they live “without an excess of life”, they are “thin as the dead”, fall after work, “like the dead”, and sometimes sleep in coffins. immured dead woman in a stone crypt, the worker Chiklin says: "The dead are people too." All this is reminiscent of Dead Souls Gogol: the dead are spoken of as living, and the living are likened to the dead. Only in Platonov's story does Gogol's symbolism acquire an even more terrible and eerie meaning.

The next paradox is that people, digging ever deeper down and deepening the foundation pit, are building a gigantic high "general proletarian house". The deeper they dig, the harder it is to believe that huge house- the tower will be built on the site of this pit. In relation to the people working on the construction of the foundation pit, a very interesting parallel arises with the heroes of Gorky's play "At the Bottom". The diggers also live at the bottom of life, and each of them came up with an "idea of ​​escape from here." One wants to retrain, the second - to start studying, the third (the most cunning) to join the party and "hide in the leadership apparatus." The question involuntarily arises: what has changed since the writing of the play? People live in the same, and even worse conditions, and they cannot rise to the surface.

The characters hardly think about what they are doing. The whole rhythm of life does not allow them to do this, and aimless work dulls them so that not a single thought simply remains. However, the story has its own hero-truth seeker. We look at what is happening through his eyes. This is Voshchev, a man who cannot find a place for himself in the new world precisely because he is constantly thinking about the purpose of everything that happens. Already his surname is associated with the word "generally".

He is looking for the meaning of common existence. He says that his life is not a mystery to him, he wants to see some common sense life. He does not fit into life and does not want to submit to thoughtless activities. Voshchev was fired from the factory "due to ... thoughtfulness in it in the midst of common labor." He firmly believes that "without thought, people act senselessly." He utters a very important phrase: "It is as if one or a few of us have extracted a convinced feeling from us and taken it for themselves." People live only according to orders from above. They put on the radio to “listen to achievements and directives,” and the activist “with the lamp still on” is always on duty, because he is waiting for someone to drive up in the middle of the night with another instruction.

Voshchev is not even worried about the exhausting work that he has to do, like everyone else. He worries that his soul "has ceased to know the truth." The word "truth" is perceived in the story as something embarrassing big picture meaninglessness. One of the heroes, Safonov, is afraid: "Isn't truth a class enemy?" And if it is avoided, then it can be dreamed or presented in the form of imagination.

In Voshchev's surname one can guess not only a hint of the word "in general", the word "futility" is clearly heard in it. Indeed, all attempts by the protagonist to find the truth remain in vain. Therefore, he envies the birds that can at least "sing the sadness" of this society, because they "flyed from above and it was easier for them." He "yearns" for the future. The very combination of incompatible words already suggests the idea of ​​what kind of future awaits people.

The theme of the future is embodied in the image of the girl Nastya, whom the workers bring to the pit after her mother died (either because she is a "bourgeois woman, or from death"). Safonov, making an "active-thinking face", says: "We, comrades, must have here in the form of childhood the leader of the future proletarian world."

The name of the girl - Nastya - also turns out to be speaking for Platonov. Anastasia is translated from Greek as "resurrected". Thus, it embodies the hope of resurrection. The theme of resurrection also becomes very important in the story.

So, Voshchev collects all sorts of "dead" objects and puts them "for the future." He picks up, for example, a “withered leaf”, puts it in a bag and decides to keep it there, like everything that “has no meaning in life”, like himself.

"When something will come!" exclaims a nameless peasant woman. Apparently never. The girl Nastya dies, and one of the walls of the pit becomes her grave. Death "resurrected" ends the story. This is the logical result of the builders of communism. Voshchev, standing over the deceased Nastya, thinks about whether communism is possible in the world and who needs it? It is no coincidence that the author connects the names of these two heroes in the finale. Hopes for a resurrection are futile. The life that the heroes of the pit lead has no meaning, there is no future either - this is the author's deep conviction. And even if this “happy” future is built, who will live in it?

/ / / The problematics and idea of ​​Platonov's story "The Pit"

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

The idea of ​​Andrei Platonov's story "The Pit" is to show the true face of socialism, to revive humanism. The writer creates the main character Voshchev 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 a stage of origin new era era of socialism. Adaptation of people to a new life - the main problem in Platonov's work. The name of the story is symbolic - "The Foundation Pit". The protagonist, traveling around the world, stops in one strange town, where almost everyone is preoccupied with one task - to dig a foundation pit. People are sure that they are doing important work and bringing a brighter future closer. However, in reality they are just digging a hole with no prospects. People, having survived the stormy events of the 1917 revolution, were 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, and the heroes of the story are digging a foundation pit, that is, not just building nothing, but sinking down into the pit.

The main character is that spark of reason that was supposed to ignite everyone else. But resisting the system is not easy. Voshchev can no longer simply work thoughtlessly, he is attracted to meaningful work. He wanders in search of meaning human life. The hero believes that something exists somewhere that will become meaning for 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 even a drop in this difficult monotonous task. common sense. 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 crippled while working. The authorities remained indifferent to this.

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

Platonov was horrified at how the totalitarian machine "broke" people and cut them into new way pleasing to the Soviet ideology.

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

In this article, we will consider the work that Andrei Platonov created, we will spend it was conceived by the author in 1929, in the fall, when Stalin's article entitled "The Year of the Great Turn" appeared in print, in which he argued the need for collectivization, after which he announced in December about the beginning of the "offensive on the kulak" and the liquidation of it as a class. In unison, one of the heroes of this work tells him that everyone should be thrown "into the brine of socialism." The planned bloody campaign was successful. The tasks set by Stalin were fulfilled.

The writer also carried out 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. Happened deep work with socio-philosophical content. The writer comprehended the reality, conducted its analysis.

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

History of creation

The story, which is remarkable, was written just in the period active work Stalin - from 1929 to April 1930. In those days, Andrey Platonovich Platonov worked in the melioration 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 elimination of kulaks and collectivization. As an artist painting nature, Andrei Platonovich Platonov painted pictures of the fate of people and the events that happened to those who fell into the meat grinder of depersonalization and leveling.

Themes of Andrey Platonovich's works general ideas construction of communism did not fit in, the doubting and thinking hero of the story was sharply criticized by the authorities, which was picked up by the press. She carried out her own, far from flattering for the author, analysis.

Such is the short story of the story written by Platonov ("The Foundation Pit"), the history of creation.

Presentation Features

The author's contemporaries favored by the Bolsheviks - writers Kataev, Leonov, Sholokhov - in their works sang the achievements of socialism, depicting collectivization with positive side. Poetics of Platonov, in contrast to them, the optimistic description of the pictures of selfless labor and construction was alien. This author was not attracted by the scale of tasks and aspirations. He was primarily interested in the 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 are many abstract generalizations in the narrative, since the author focuses on the thoughts and experiences of his characters. Only external factors help the hero to understand himself, and at the same time in the symbolic events that Platonov tells us about.

"Pit": content in brief

The plot of the story is typical for the works of that time devoted to collectivization, and is not complicated. It consists of dispossession with scenes of an attempt on the life of party activists and peasants defending their good. But Platonov managed to present these events from the point of view of a thinking person who was involuntarily drawn into the events about which the story "The Pit" tells.

Summary chapter by chapter 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 due to thoughtfulness, gets to the diggers who are digging a foundation pit for the house of the proletarians. Brigadier Chiklin brings an orphaned girl whose mother has died. Chiklin and his comrades liquidate the kulaks by floating them on a raft into the sea along with their families. After that, 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 the work of Platonov

Platonov wrote that three things struck him in life - love, wind and long road. All these motives are present in the work chapter by chapter, if you refer to it, 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 tradition of domestic literature, because, firstly, he is forced to wander, or rather, to wander, due to the fact that he was fired, and secondly, his goal is to search not for adventure, but for truth, the meaning of existence. Wherever this hero then goes, again and again the author returns him to the pit. As if a person's life closes and goes in a circle.

Many events make up the story "The Foundation Pit", but there are no causal relationships between them. The heroes, as it were, are circling around the pit, dreaming of breaking out of this pit. One wanted to go to study, having increased his experience, the other was expecting a retraining, the third dreamed of moving into the leadership apparatus of the party.

The method of editing episodes of a work

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

Some episodes, about which Platonov's work "The Pit" tells, seem completely random and unmotivated: suddenly in the course of action close-up minor characters pop up, just as suddenly disappearing. As an example, one can cite an unknown man 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 the future, which were found in the pit, to 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 "children'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 methods, the problems of this work. Not finding a character who could, like Judas, point to wealthy peasant families, he chooses a bear for this role. And considering that this is an animal in folklore was never the personification of evil, one can speak here of a double allegory.

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

Although at the beginning of the work Pashkin claims that happiness will “come historically” anyway, it becomes clear by the end of the story that there is no hope for finding the meaning of life in the future, since the present is built on the death of a girl, and adults worked with such persistence on the foundation pit, as as if they were striving to be saved forever in its abyss.

The work "The Pit" after reading leaves a heavy residue on the soul, but at the same time it is felt 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 passed through by the merciless and uncompromising machine of power, striving to turn everyone into an obedient executor of a godless plan.

Description of the characters in the story

Doesn't give Plato detailed external description heroes, their deep inner characteristics. He, like a surrealist artist who works by breaking logical connections at the subconscious level, only slightly touches with his brush 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 main character, Voshchev, it is only said that he is thirty years old at the time of the story. In Pashkin's description, an elderly face is indicated, as well as a bent body, not so much from the years lived, but from the "social" load. Safonov had an "actively thinking" face, while Chiklin had a head that was, according to the author's definition, "little stone", while Kozlov had "raw eyes" and a monotonous cloudy face. Such are the heroes in the story "The Pit" (Platonov).

The image of Nastya

To understand the meaning of the work, the image of a girl living with diggers on a construction site is very important. Nastya is a child of the 1917 revolution. Her mother was a bourgeois, that is, a representative of an obsolete class. Rejection of the past is known to mean loss cultural traditions, historical ties and replacing them with ideological parents - Lenin and Marx. According to the author, people who deny their past cannot have a future.

The world of Nastya is mutilated, because the mother, in order to save her daughter, inspires her not to talk about her non-proletarian origin. The propaganda machine has already infiltrated her mind. The reader is horrified when he learns 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 in a kind of confrontation between Nastya and the foundation pit. Dead body girls lie down in the foundation of a 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, strives to live according to his conscience, and seeks the truth. This main character works. He is the spokesman for the position of the author. This character, included in Platonov's novel "The Pit", seriously thought and doubted the correctness of what was happening around. He does not move along with the general line, he seeks to find his own way to the truth. But he never finds her.

The meaning of the title of the story "The Pit"

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

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

Andrey Platonov became famous a wide range readersonly in Lately, although the most active period of his creativestva fell on the twenties of our century. Platonov, asand many other writers who opposed their pointview of the official position of the Soviet government, was for a long timeprohibited. Among his most significant works are the novel "Chevengur", stories "For the future" and “Doubting Makar*.

I would like to focus on the story "Pit". IN The author poses several problems with this work. CentralThe problem is formulated in the very title of the story. The image of the boilerwana is the answer that Soviet reality gave to eternal question about the meaning of life. Workers dig a hole for a bookmark

foundation of the "general proletarian Houses", in which should thenhappy to live a new generation. But in the process of work finds outXia that the planned house will not be spacious enough. catLovan has already squeezed out all the vital juices from the workers: “All sleepingwere thin, like the dead, a cramped place between the skin and bones ofeach was occupied with veins, and the thickness of the veins showed howthey must pass a lot of blood during tension labor." However, the plan called for an expansion of the pit. Here we understandthat the needs for this "house of happiness" will be enormous. foundation pitwill be infinitely deep and wide, and the strength, health and labor of many people will go into it. At the same time, work does not bringsieve these people no joy: “Voshchev peered into the face withoutsleepy sleeper - does it not express the unrequited happiness of oud lethal person. But the sleeper lay dead, deep andhis eyes vanished."

Thus, the author debunks the myth of a "bright future",showing that these workers do not live for the sake of happiness, but for the sake of the cauldronon the. From this it is clear that the genre of "Pit" is a dystopia. Horrible pictures Soviet life opposed to ideologies and goals proclaimed by the communists, while showingit is believed that man has turned from a rational being into an appendagepropaganda machine.

Another important problem of this work is closer to the reallife of those years. Platonov notes that for the sake of industrializationcountries were sacrificed thousands of peasants. This is very clearly seen in the story when the workers stumble upon the peasantcoffins. The peasants themselves explain that they prepare these groats in advance.would, as they anticipate an imminent death. Prodrazvyorstka took awaythey have everything, leaving no means of subsistence. This scene is verysymbolic, since Platonov shows that the new life isis on the dead bodies of peasants and their children.

The author especially dwells on the role of collectivization. In descriptionhe points out that people were arrested and sent for re-education even for the fact that they "fell intodoubt” or “wept during socialization”. "Educationmasses" in this yard were produced by the poor, that is, they received powerthe most lazy and mediocre peasants who could not leadnormal economy. Platonov emphasizes that collectivismtion hit the pillar of agriculture, which was the villageViennese middle peasants and wealthy peasants. When describing themtorus is not only historically realistic, but also acts as any psychologist. The request of the peasants for a small delay before being accepted into the state farm in order to comprehend the upcoming changes, according toshows that in the village they could not even get used to the idea of ​​not having their own allotment of land, livestock, property. Landscape withcorresponds to the gloomy picture of socialization: “The night covered the entirevillage scale, the snow made the air impenetrable andnym, in which the chest suffocated. Peaceful cover laid on a dreamcoming all visible earth, only around the stables the snow meltedand the ground was black because the warm blood of cows and sheep came out from under the fence.”

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Image Voshcheva reflects consciousness ordinary person, whichry tries to understand and comprehend new laws and foundations. He and in my thoughts there is no opposing myself to the rest. But he startedmother, and so he was fired. Such people are dangerous to the existingregime. They are only needed to dig a pit. Herethe author points to the totalitarian state apparatus and from lack of genuine democracy in the USSR.

A special place in the story is occupied by the image of a girl. PhilosophyPlatonov is simple here: the criterion of social harmony of societyis the fate of the child. And the fate of Nastya is terrible. Girl don'tknew the name of the mother, but knew that there is Lenin. The world of this reBenka is mutilated, because in order to save her daughter, the mother inspiresto hide her non-proletarian origin. propagandistThe sky machine had already infiltrated her mind. The reader is horrifiedlearning that she advises Safronov to kill the peasants for the cause of the revolutionlucia. Who will grow into a child whose toys are stored in a coffin? At the end of the story, the girl dies, and with her diesand a ray of hope for Voshchev and other workers. In a kind ofin opposition to the foundation pit and Nastya defeats the foundation pit, and at the basefuture home lies her dead body.

The story "Pit" is prophetic. Her main task did not haveshow the horrors of collectivization, dispossession and the hardship of life nor those years, although the writer did it masterfully. The author correctly identified the direction in which society will go. The pit became our ideal and main goal. The merit of Platonov is that he showed us the source of troubles and misfortunes for many years. Our country is still floundering in this pit, and if the principles of life and worldview of people do not change, all forces and means will continue to go into the pit.

DRAMATISM OF JOINING A NEW LIFE(According to the story by A.P. Platonov * Pit)

In the story of A.P. Platonov "Pit" one of thethe most important problems of Russian literature XX century - the problem of introducing a person to a new life.

The hero of Platonov, Voshchev, gets into the brigade, which shoulddig a pit. The reader will learn that Voshchev used to work at a factory, but was fired from there because he thought about the “plan forcabbage soup life." Thus, at the very beginning of the story,traditional for Russian folk art seeker imagehappiness and truth. Indeed, Voshchev is precisely the people's thoughttel, and this is evidenced even by the style in which they are writtenepisodes related to this character. Platonov uses newspaperscliches, because Voshchev, apparently, did not read anything except newspapers andslogans. Voshchev yearns because no one can explainhim what is the meaning of life. However, he soon getsanswer to this question: digging workers explain to him that the meaning life is at work.

Chiklin, Safronov and other workers live in appalling conditions. yah, they work as long as there is strength; they "live for the future", "for-

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preparing” his life for the coming prosperity. They don't likeVoshchev’s reflections, because, in their opinion, mental, mentalnaya activity is recreation, not work; think to yourselfwithin yourself is the same as "love yourself" (as does Kozlov). Voshchev joins the brigade, and the hardest workrelieves him of the need to think. So, a new life in hang ti Platonov's "Pit" is "life for the future", constant heavy labour. It is important to note that you can only dig a pitlectively, all together; digger workers have no privacy,there is no opportunity to show individuality, because they all livejust for one purpose.

The symbol of this idea for workers is a little girlNastya. That they see a real baby that's worth it"to live for the future" , inspires them and makes them work harder and more. Digging workers see it as a symbol of communion. Nism: Safronov welcomes the child "as an element of the future." The girl herself is also aware of herself only in connection with communism:“The main one is Lenin, and the second one is Budyonny. When they weren't there only bourgeois lived, then I was not born, because I did not want to. Aas Lenin became, so I became!”

In my opinion, in joining a new life there would be nono drama, if this new life was exhausted by work onpit. However, the digging workers, being communists, had to follow the instructions of the party. At that time was takencourse towards collectivization and dispossession. That is why the earththe molds were sent to the village and the digging of the foundation pit was stopped.

In that part of the story, which is devoted to the organization of the collective farm,the key image, in my opinion, is the image of a bear-hammerfighter. The bear is a fanatic of work, he does not work for the sake of the result. that, but for the sake of the labor process itself. That is why the fact that hetrades, is not suitable for collective farming. In addition, oneof the qualities of a hammerer is bestial cruelty, which is not has no excuse.

In order to understand the reasons for the brutality of the digging workers, whowho treated Nastya with such tenderness and love, it is necessarytalk about those people against whom this cruelty was directedLena. The peasants in the story "The Pit" differ from the workers-landlekops by the fact that they care not about the future prosperity of the world, but aboutyourself. This gives Chiklin and others grounds for considering the peasantsvarnishes, hostile elements. However, in the very first episode de where in question about the peasants, the reader sees what is expressedthis self-care. It turns out that every villager,down to the little ones, they have their own coffin, made exactly to size.The peasants are sure that because of this or that event the Councileven their children will not have time to grow up in any way. Cre styane - beggars, downtrodden people never resisting the violence that is being done to them. The Cruelty of Chiklin, Zhachev and other builders of the "new" life is explained not so much by theirpersonal qualities, as much as what the idea prescribed them to be cruel. New life in the story "Pit" - "life for the future",

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hard work in the team for the sake of the happiness of future generations.The drama of familiarization with a new life for the heroes of Platonovshares the fact that blind adherence to the idea corrupts them, accustoming them toviolence, and levels the personal qualities of each. For the communitycruelty, violence also do not end in anythingroshim. In my opinion, what dies is Nastya, who issymbol of the communist idea, due to the fact that this ideagradually lost in the streams of blood that shed for it. INin the end, the foundation pit becomes not the foundation of future happinessstya, but his grave.

In this article, we will consider the work created by Andrey Platonov and analyze it. The "pit" of Platonov was conceived by the author in 1929, in the autumn, when Stalin's article appeared in print under the title "The Year of the Great Turning Point", in which he argued the need for collectivization, after which he announced in December the beginning of the "attack on the kulak" and its liquidation as class. In unison, one of the heroes of this work tells him that everyone should be thrown "into the brine of socialism." The planned bloody campaign was successful. The tasks set by Stalin were fulfilled.

The writer also carried out 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 was a deep work with a socio-philosophical content. The writer comprehended the reality, conducted its analysis.

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

History of creation

The story, which is noteworthy, 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 melioration 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 kulaks and collectivization. As an artist painting nature, Andrei Platonovich Platonov painted pictures of the fate of people and the events that happened to those who fell into the meat grinder of depersonalization and leveling.

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 subjected to sharp criticism from the authorities, which was picked up by the press. She carried out her own, far from flattering for the author, analysis.

Such is the short story of the story written by Platonov ("The Foundation Pit"), the history of creation.

Presentation Features

The author's contemporaries favored by the Bolsheviks - writers Kataev, Leonov, Sholokhov - in their works sang the achievements of socialism, depicting collectivization from the positive side. Poetics of Platonov, in contrast to them, the optimistic description of the pictures 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 are many abstract generalizations in the narrative, since the author focuses on the thoughts and experiences of his characters. Only external factors help the hero to understand himself, and at the same time in the symbolic events that Platonov tells us about.

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"Pit": content in brief

The plot of the story is typical for the works of that time devoted to collectivization, and is not complicated. It consists of dispossession with scenes of an attempt on the life of party activists and peasants defending their good. But Platonov managed to present these events from the point of view of a thinking person who was involuntarily 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 due to thoughtfulness, gets to the diggers who are digging a foundation pit for the house of the proletarians. Brigadier Chiklin brings an orphaned girl whose mother has died. Chiklin and his comrades liquidate the kulaks by floating them on a raft into the sea along with their families. After that, 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 the work of Platonov

Platonov wrote that three things struck him in life - 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 thought. 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, since, firstly, he is forced to wander, or rather, to wander, due to the fact that he was fired, and secondly, his goal is the search is not for adventure, but for truth, the meaning of existence. Wherever this hero then goes, again and again the author returns him to the pit. As if a person's life closes and goes in a circle.

Many events make up the story "The Foundation Pit", but there are no causal relationships between them. The heroes, as it were, are circling around the pit, dreaming of breaking out of this pit. One wanted to go to study, having increased his experience, the other was expecting a retraining, the third dreamed of moving into the leadership apparatus of the party.

The method of editing episodes of a work

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

Some episodes, about which Platonov's work "The Pit" tells, seem completely random and unmotivated: suddenly, in the course of the action, minor characters pop up in close-up, just as suddenly disappearing. As an example, one can cite an unknown man 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 the future, which were found in the pit, to 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 "children'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 methods, the problems of this work are more fully revealed in the story "The Pit". 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 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 common proletarian house. 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 a house for the proletarians turned into a grave for a girl, for whom, in fact, it was erected.

Although at the beginning of the work Pashkin claims that happiness will “come historically” anyway, it becomes clear by the end of the story that there is no hope for finding the meaning of life in the future, since the present is built on the death of a girl, and adults worked with such persistence on the foundation pit, as as if they were striving to be saved forever in its abyss.

The work "The Pit" after reading leaves a heavy residue on the soul, but at the same time it is felt 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 passed through by the merciless and uncompromising machine of power, striving 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, like a surrealist artist who works by breaking logical connections at the subconscious level, only slightly touches with his brush 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 main character, Voshchev, it is only said that he is thirty years old at the time of the story. In Pashkin's description, an elderly face is indicated, as well as a bent body, not so much from the years lived, but from the "social" load. Safonov had an "actively thinking" face, while Chiklin had a head that was, according to the author's definition, "little stone", while Kozlov had "raw eyes" and a monotonous cloudy face. Such are the heroes in the story "The Pit" (Platonov).

The image of Nastya

To understand the meaning of the work, the image of a girl living with diggers on a construction site is very important. Nastya is a child of the 1917 revolution. Her mother was a bourgeois, 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 their replacement by ideological parents - Lenin and Marx. According to the author, people who deny their past cannot have a future.

The world of Nastya is mutilated, because the mother, in order to save her daughter, inspires her not to talk about her non-proletarian origin. The propaganda machine has already infiltrated her mind. The reader is horrified when he learns 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 in a kind of confrontation between Nastya and the foundation pit. The dead body of a girl lays down in the foundation of a 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, strives to live according to his conscience, and seeks the truth. This is the main character of the story. He is the spokesman for the position of the author. This character, included in Platonov's novel "The Pit", seriously thought and doubted the correctness of what was happening around. He does not move along with the general line, he seeks to find his own way to the truth. But he never finds her.

The meaning of the title of the story "The Pit"

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

The pessimism that Platonov did not hide (the story "The Foundation Pit" and other works), of course, could not fit into the vigorous pace of domestic literature of that time with positive images of party members, meetings and overfulfillment of plans. This author was not at all in step with the times: he was ahead of him.