Kotlovan. Novellas. Short Stories

A. P. Platonov (1899–1951) was one of the most distinctive Russian writers of the first half of the 20th century in terms of style and language. The novella “The Foundation Pit” is a harsh satire of the Soviet Union during the collectivization era, combining elements of philosophical parable and surrealism. Voshchev, a thirty-year-old factory worker, is fired for his “growing weakness and pensive nature.” Seeking the truth and trying to understand how the world works, he travels to a neighboring town to work on the construction of a “proletarian home,” which is intended to mark the beginning of a city of the “happy future.” The collection includes all the author’s works recommended for school reading: the stories “Yushka” and “The Unknown Flower,” the novella “The Sacred Man,” and others.