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Abstract:

The article reconstructs the chronology of Platonov’s work in the cinema during the pre-war months and the first months of the Great Patriotic War. During this time, the writer began collaborating with a new cinematic division, the Screenplay Studio, and proposed several topics for writing screenplays. The studio signed a contract for a screenplay based on the short story “The July Thunderstorm.” However, with the outbreak of war, the studio’s plans were revised, and Platonov’s screenplay remained in development for several months. Simultaneously with his attempt to rework and include a military episode in “The July Thunderstorm,” Platonov wrote applications for short war films: “The Red Army Soldier’s Sister” and a film about a cunning old man who helps the Red Army (based on the story “The Old Man Nikodim”). The military version of the script “The July Thunderstorm,” which included an episode from the story “Grandfather the Soldier,” was discussed at the Script Studio on the eve of the mass evacuation from Moscow in the first half of October 1941. The film was never produced.