Information about the author:
Natalia V. Umryukhina
Natalia V. Umryukhina, PhD in Philology, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4260-4764
E-mail:
Abstract:
The article describes, for the first time, the history of A. Platonov’s appeals to the USSR Literary Fund, an organization created for the writers’ material and consumer services, which included medical care and sanatorium treatment, improvement of housing conditions, the issuance of allowances, loans and scholarships, etc. A survey of the foundation of this organization in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art for the period from 1934 to 1954 revealed numerous references to Platonov, as well as three of his previously unpublished letters. The article contains extracts from the minutes of meetings of the Board of the Literary Fund and other documents, which record decisions on issues of assistance to Platonov. A separate group consists of materials related to the posthumous period: estimates for funerals, decisions on the installation of a tombstone monument, petitions of the commission on literary heritage, etc. The published documents allow us to reconstruct some details of Platonov’s biography, supplement the chronicle of his life and work, as well as the history of perpetuating the writer’s memory.
