Information about the author:
Elena A. Papkova
Elena A. Papkova, PhD in Philology, Docent, Senior Researcher, А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5776-1802
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Abstract: The article is the first to examine the theme of “superfluous men in the revolution” in Platonov’s novel “Chevengur” and in the literature of the 1920s, namely in the works of L. Leonov, A. Tolstoy, K. Fedin, Vs. Ivanov and other writers. The origins of the theme of “superfluous men” may be found in the socio-political situation in the country and the world. The article analyzes the responses of critics to the works of the 1920s, conveying the “decadent mood” of former Red Army soldiers and Red partisans, and the influence of classical writers on Soviet ones. It allows us to reveal the difference between Platonov’s and his contemporaries’ interpretations of the topic.