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Abstract:

The article presents a documented history of A. Platonov’s short novel “Soul” (Dzhan), written as part of Gorky’s “Two Five-Year Plans” project. The initial goal of the study was to clarify the dating and certain aspects of the textual history of Platonov’s short novel. However, familiarization with the project materials allowed us to see its content in the light of the “social mandate” and against the background of other works of the project. As a result, the study of the creative history of the short novel “Soul” (Dzhan) led to the need to reconstruct it in parallel with the history of the entire project, which makes clear Platonov’s behavior and speeches as its participant and characterizes the literary context surrounding the short novel “Soul” (Dzhan). The article consists of two parts and includes both the project materials, collected as fully as possible and arranged in chronological order, and documents relating to Platonov personally. The first part of the article is called “Project Chronology” and its goal is to reconstruct the main stages of the “Two Five-Year Plans” project in documents, including letters, minutes, transcripts, press publications, informal personal impressions in diaries, etc., and to date them. This section of the article contains “pointed” references to Platonov. The second section is entitled “Platonov — a participant in the ‘Two Five-Year Plans’ Project” and includes documents related to Platonov and the short novel “Soul” (Dzhan), set against the background of the entire project, as well as the short novel’s publication history.