Stories About Love

Platonov is one of the brightest and most distinctive writers of Russia. He studied in parish and city schools, worked as a day laborer, assistant to a train driver, and as a foundry worker at a pipe factory.

In 1918 he entered the Voronezh Polytechnic Institute. He was a war correspondent.

Platonov’s first book—a brochure titled “Electrification”—was published in 1921. Around the same time, his poems appeared in a collection by various authors, “Poems.”

In the 1920s he changed his surname from Klimentov to Platonov.

At that time, “Epiphany Locks,” “The Ether Tract,” and “The City of Gradov” were also written.

After reading Andrei Platonov’s novella “Makhar the Skeptic” in 1931, Stalin wrote: “A talented writer, but a scoundrel.” Three years later, Platonov was included in a collective writers’ trip across Central Asia—and that was already a sign of trust. From Turkmenistan, the writer brought the story “Takyr,” and persecution began again: a devastating article appeared in “Pravda,” after which journals stopped accepting Platonov’s texts and even returned already accepted ones.

In the 1930s, works such as “Fro,” “Immortality,” “A Clay House in a County Garden,” “The Third Son,” “Semyon,” and “The Potudany River” were published.

In late 1946, Platonov’s story “Return” (“The Ivanov Family”) was printed, for which he was attacked once again and accused of slander. Unable to earn a living by writing, Platonov worked on literary processing of Russian and Bashkir folk tales, which were published in children’s journals.

Platonov died on January 5, 1951, in Moscow, of tuberculosis, which he contracted while caring for his son, who had returned from imprisonment.

Stories:

“Potudany River” (1 hr 27 min)
“Yushka” (21 min)
“Fro” (1 hr 04 min)
“Love for the Motherland, or the Sparrow’s Journey” (26 min)
“The Iron Old Woman” (17 min)