The concept of man in A. Platonov’s short novel (povest') “Yamskaya sloboda”

In the first third of the 20th century there were disputes in Soviet literature about the new and old way of life, about the “new” man born by the revolution, about the “living,” “rationalistic,” “harmonic” man. Writers were intensively searching for their “hero of our time.” One of the “versions of the topic” (E. Rozhentseva) was the theme of the “little man” who was “placed” in new historical conditions. The image of a “little man” prepared the appearance of a new “great man” of the Soviet era (M. Gorky). The article considers the image of the “little man” in A. Platonov's short novel (povest') “Yamskaya Sloboda” (1927). Following the tradition of Russian classical literature in depicting this type of hero - the “Petersburg short novels” by A. S. Pushkin and N. V. Gogol, the works of F. M. Dostoevsky - Platonov unfolds the action against the background of the First World War and two revolutions. The writer, on the one hand, emphasizes the connection of his hero with the “little people” of Russian literature of the 19th century, on the other - endows him with new features. Platonov's hero is not only a “little man,” but also an “extra person,” a fool, in addition, Filat possesses a Christian virtue - meekness of character. The writer interprets the image of the “new” person in his own way: he actualizes the “old/new” opposition, filled with a biblical context. Filat is the first in a row of Platonov's “spiritual poor,” he is a hero of feelings, instincts, and a kind heart. This is the same “intimate person” of Platonov, whom the revolution forces to transform, to on a modest revolt - leaving the Yamskaya Sloboda. In the short novel, Platonov, like Pushkin and Gogol in their time, raises the issue of the relationship between the state power and the common man. For the writer, the people are not an abstract concept, not a faceless mass: the personalization of each individual “statesman” is the writer's utopian dream. However, Platonov understood how difficult the process of a transformation of an ordinary person into a “new one” was. Showing the first attempts of the hero's “self-standing,” plunging into the fate of the “little man” of the 20th century, revealing his “innermost” and at the same time untimely, A. Platonov tried to formulate his own idea of national happiness and - like his hero - wondered if it was in the revolution.