Alexander Burry, Northwestern University
In this paper, I will examine Platonov's povest' Kotlovan by focusing on the plot trajectory involving Prushevskij, the engineer of the all-proletarian home. In the description of the main events of the plot, the digging of the foundation pit and the forced collectivization of the peasants, Platonov satirizes Soviet utopian projects largely by revealing their barbaric and absurdly grandiose, impractical aspects (the pit winds up serving as a burial ground rather than as a foundation for a great communal structure). In this secondary plotline concentrating on the engineer's personal, individual struggle, however, he seems to critique the utopia from another angle, highlighting memory, psychological trauma and the difficulty of overcoming class roots.
Prushevskij's melancholy and preoccupation with his memory of a bourgeois girl interfere with his enthusiasm for his work and weaken his convictions regarding the future. His obsession with a "forbidden" past continually compromises the dedication to the building of a utopian society required by the Soviet State. As I will show, Prushevskij's obsession in turn permeates much of the work, as his memory impels the quintessential proletarian Chiklin to explore his own youthful recollection, ostensibly of the same girl, and recreate his personal past. Thus Prushevskij, as both the engineer of a utopian construction and a former bourgeois, symbolizes a conflict between past and future which is central to the work, and to Platonov's criticism of Soviet utopian projects. The utopia will fail, Platonov argues implicitly, if it does not take into account the forces of memory and the past, personal conflict, and the simple need for meaningful, concrete human interaction.
An important issue I will discuss in this connection is the transformation Prushevskij undergoes towards the end of the work, becoming a teacher of the cultural revolution as a result of his encounter with a young Pioneer girl. This incident offers a somewhat surprising contrast to the gloom and despair of the rest of the povest'. I will explore the question of how this ending relates to Prushevskij's struggle, the main portion of the plot, and Platonov's ideas on utopia in general. I will also discuss the transformation in the context of construction novels of the period such as Gladkov's Cement.