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Abstract:

This work presents updated information about the writing and publication of the critic A. Gurvich’s article “Andrey Platonov” in 1936–1937. By comparing the typewritten version of this article, which is preserved in the archive of the Iskusstvo publishing house, with two of its publications, we have identified differences in the approach to publishing the text in the magazine “Krasnaya Nov” and Gurvich’s collection of articles “In Search of a Hero” (1938). It has been established that the article initially focused on two unpublished Platonov’s scripts (“Father” and “Sacred Life”). In addition, it examines the attempts to defend Platonov made by the editors of the “Literary Critic” magazine, as well as other factors that helped to mitigate the negative impact of Gurvich’s attacks on Platonov in 1937–1939, such as G. Adamovich’s article “The Overcoat” and the repeated inclusion of Platonov’s name in the Honorary List of Edward O’Brien’s literary yearbooks. The Appendix contains a list of discrepancies between the publications of Gurvich’s article and the typescript, as well as Gurvich’s speech at a meeting of the Presidium of the Union of Soviet Writers in April 1939, which focused on criticism.