Platonov is our comrade. Book review: Malygina N.M. Andrey Platonov and literary Moscow: A.K. Voronsky, A.M. Gorky, B.A. Pilniak, B.L. Pasternak, Artem Vesely, S.F. Budantsev, V.S. Grossman. Moscow, Saint-Petersburg: Nestor-Istoriya Publishing House, 2018. 592 p

This review of the book by a well-known specialist in Russian literature of the 1920s-1930s, N.M. Malygina, “Andrey Platonov and Literary Moscow: A.K. Voronsky, A.M. Gorky, B.A. Pilniak, B.L. Pasternak, Artem Vesely, S.F. Budantsev, V.S. Grossman” sets the methodological principles of analysis of literary biographies of Platonov, considered in the context of the literary process of the 1920-1940s. It is established that the study was carried out by combining contextual, motivational, “genetic” methods of analysis of the literary process of the 1920-1940s and the works of Soviet writers of the 1920-1940s, with whose works Platonov’s texts are compared. The review raises the problem of studying the Moscow literary environment and creative connections of A. Platonov. The author reveals the novelty of Malygina’s research, which consists in the fact that the writer’s Moscow connections were revealed long before the beginning of the Moscow period of his life and work. The author reveals the originality of the peer-reviewed monograph, due to the combination of research in the chronological order of the key events of the literary process of the 1920-1940s, in which Platonov took part, with a deep analysis of the poetics of the works by A. Voronsky, M. Gorky, B. Pilniak, B. Pasternak, Artem Vesely, S. Budantsev, V. Grossman. Establishing the nature of his participation in the events of the literary life of the capital, in each chapter of the monograph, the researcher analyzes the poetics of his works in the context of the Soviet literature of the 1920s and 1940s. In the monograph, in the process of analyzing the events of Moscow literary life, Platonov’s creative ties with contemporary writers are revealed. In the book by N.M. Malygina, the study of Platonov’s Moscow literary environment is not limited to revealing Platonov’s personal contacts and creative connections with his contemporaries. The review raises the problem of the need to systematize the facts of literary life, to identify their cause-and-effect relationships in the understanding of contexts and the process of creativity. It is shown that the special value of the study is to refer to archival materials presented for the first time. These are the documents supplementing data on Voronsky’s biography and creative heritage, materials from A.M. Gorky’s archive, materials from S.F. Budantsev’s archive, texts of V.S. Grossman’s letters verified with autographs stored in RSALA.