A Companion to Andrei Platonov's the Foundation Pit

Written at the height of Stalin's first five-year plan for the industrialization of Soviet Russia and the parallel campaign to collectivize Soviet agriculture, Andrei Platonov's 'The Foundation Pit' registers a dissonant mixture of utopian longings and despair. Furthermore, it provides essential background to Platonov's parody of the mainstream Soviet production novel, which is widely recognized as one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century Russian prose. In addition to an overview of the work's key themes, it discusses their place within Platonov's oeuvre as a whole, his troubled relations with literary officialdom, the work's ideological and political background, and key critical responses since its first publication in the West in 1973. Thomas Seifid (PhD 1984, Cornell University) is Professor at University of Southern California. Author of 'Andrei Platonov. Uncertainties of Spirit' (Cambridge University Press, 1992), 'The Word Made Self: Russian Writings on Language, 1860-1930' (Cornell University Press, 2005), and numerous articles on Russian literature and culture.