Dialogue with Gorkiy in the novel by A.P. Platonov “High voltage” (“Declaration of death”)

https://doi.org/10.20339/PhS.6-18.043

Malygina Nina M.,

Doctor of Philological sciences, Professor of the Russian literature,

Researcher of the Department of manuscripts at

A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences

e-mail: ninmal@yandex.ru

Moskovskaya Dar’ya S.,

Doctor of Philological sciences, Deputy Director — Chief researcher,

Head of the Department of manuscripts at

A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences

e-mail: darya-mos@yandex.ru

The article considers the creative dialogue between Platonov and Gorky. It is established that Platonov’s interest in Gorky's personality and work was manifested in a review of the play in 1921. It turns out that this review was written in the context of Platonov’s series of articles on hydration, which he considered the main condition for overcoming hunger. This circumstance gives grounds to put forward a hypothesis that Platonov knew about the activities of Gorky as the initiator of the committee for helping the hungry and the organizer of this assistance abroad. This gives grounds for the conclusion that in 1921 the writers were active participants in the program of real assistance to the starving, and Platonov devoted several years to this activity (the period from 1921 to 1926).

The reasons for the differences between Platonov and Gorky in understanding the goals and tasks of Soviet literature and the work of the Soviet writer are elucidated. The difference in positions was manifested in Gorky's ambiguous play “High Voltage”, which was not published in the Gorky’s almanac and was not staged in the theater, although it is one of the vertices of the innovative dramaturgy of Platonov.

Keywords: Platonov, Gorky, Hydrophilization, Committee for Helping the Hungry, Play “High Voltage”.