Information about the author:
Sergey A. Nikolsky
Sergey A. Nikolsky, DSc in Philosophy, Director of Research, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Goncharnaya St., 12/1, 109240 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2202-2043
E-mail:
Abstract: One of the riddles left by Andrey Platonov in the novel “Chevengur” is the meaning of the collective subject called “others.” This subject is close to the proletariat and the beggars, but not the same. The first ones have the labor force that a capitalist buys, and the second ones had something in the past that they subsequently lost. “Others” are absolute nothingness. They are something on the border of life and death not only in real existence but also from conception and the moment of their birth. “Others” like Platon’s “emptiness” and “nothing” are the super-object and the superpower of the world precisely because they do not originate from anything, do not follow from anything, do not connect to anyone except for their own kind, do not depend on anything, and most importantly remaining alive and living as a whole they are capable to “bring the whole world to its last grave” for the sake of their goal. The article analyzes the historical and philosophical roots and circumstances of the appearance of “others” in Russia and the meaning of the communist utopia they created.