Andrei Platonov: new in biography and work

A meeting dedicated to a new book about the life and work of Andrei Platonov took place in the VSU conference hall. «‘The Country of Philosophers’ of Andrei Platonov: Problems of Creativity» is the tenth issue of the collection produced by the research group of IMLI RAS. Natalya Kornienko, head of the Platonov group at IMLI, said that over the past year the team undertook enormous work: from archival research to editing, in order to present the book at the Platonov Arts Festival.
The tenth issue is composed in part of articles by participants of the conference marking the 125th anniversary of Platonov’s birth on the theme «Working humanity in Platonov’s artistic world." The collection unites works by foreign researchers from England, Germany, Italy, Japan, China and domestic contributors from Kaliningrad to Novosibirsk.
Readers can learn new facts about the writer’s biography — about his relationships with critics and publishers. Natalya Umryukhina, the collection’s compiler, notes: «The theme of memory was not the aim, but the volume cohered precisely because of it." Natalya Kornienko’s editorial piece opens the book by reconstructing the history of Platonov conferences and the nine previous issues of «The Country of Philosophers." A special place is given to a new section devoted to the memory of Tamara Nikonova, professor of the Philology Faculty at VSU.
Natalya Kornienko emphasized Platonov’s invaluable contribution to Russian literature and recalled the words of writer Yevgeny Vodolazkin: «All contemporary literature cannot exist without passing through Platonov.»
Graduates and faculty of VSU’s Philology Faculty attended the meeting. Oleg Aleynikov, Candidate of Philological Sciences and a lecturer at VSU, presented a Voronezh collection: «Andrei Platonov ‘Enlightened People’," which also includes works by researchers of the writer’s oeuvre. The meeting concluded with an exchange of books about the Voronezh author.
Photo — Nikita Paukov