We invite you to get acquainted with one of the most famous works of Andrei Platonovich Platonov. This is a socio-philosophical novel, in the first edition entitled "Builders of Spring". Today this work is known as "Chevengur". In 1928, Platonov completed the "Chevengur". A summary of this novel is presented in our article. Some researchers believe that this work can be included in the "philosophical trilogy", which includes, in addition to it, the novel "Dzhan" and "Pit".
Summary
"Chevengur" begins with the story that every 5 years people had to leave villages to cities or forests due to crop failure. At this time, Zakhar Pavlovich was left alone in the village. Many products passed through his hands for his long life - from a frying pan to an alarm clock. However, the hero himself had nothing: no home, no family. One night, Zakhar Pavlovich heard the distant hoot of a steam locomotive. The next morning, he set off for the city.
Service in the engine depot became a new page in the life of Zakhar Pavlovich. Once again, the skilful world that he had long loved was opened for him. The hero decided to stay in this world forever.
Dvanov family
We proceed to get acquainted with the Dvanov family, describing the summary. "Chevengur" Platonov - a work in which some of its members play an important role. In total, 16 children were born in this family, of which only 7 survived. The eighth child was a foster Sasha. His father, a fisherman, drowned out of interest. He just wanted to find out what will happen after death. Reception Sasha - the same age as Proshki Dvanova. When twins were still born in this family in a hungry year, Dvanov sewed a bag for alms to the foster child and sent him to beg.
Sasha went to the cemetery to say goodbye to his father. The receptionist decided that he would pick up a bag of bread, and then dig a dugout for himself near the grave of his father and settle in it, since he had no home.
Sasha becomes the son of Zakhar Pavlovich
Let us briefly outline the content of further events of the novel "Chevengur", the plot of which, as you see, is quite interesting. After some time, Zakhar Pavlovich asks his son, Proshka, to find Sasha. He announces that he is taking the adoptive to his sons.
Zakhar Pavlovich loves the foster all devotion to old age. Sasha is a student at the depot, studying at a locksmith. He reads a lot in the evenings, and then writes, because at the age of 17 he does not want to leave this world untouchable. However, Sasha feels a void inside his body. Life enters and exits through this void, not lingering. Watching his son, Zakhar Pavlovich advises him not to torment himself, since he is already weak.
Zakhar Pavlovich and Sashka become Bolsheviks
Further, in the work created by Andrei Platonov ("Chevengur"), it is said that after some time the war begins, and then the revolution. One night, shooting is heard in the city. In the morning, Zakhar Pavlovich and Sasha go to the city to find the most serious party and sign up for it. In one building all parties are located. Zakhar Pavlovich, choosing the best option, walks around the cabinets. Behind the outer door, located at the end of the corridor, there is only one person sitting, as the others are absent from power. Zakhar Pavlovich asks him if the end will soon come. He replies that socialism will be in a year. Zakhar Pavlovich rejoices and asks to record them with Sasha in this party. Returning home, he explains to the foster child how he understands Bolshevism. In his opinion, the Bolshevik has an empty heart, because of which everything can fit into it.
Sashka's departure
Six months pass. Sasha enters the railway courses, after which he studies at the Polytechnic. However, his teachings soon ceased for a long time. The novel "Chevengur" (summary) continues with the fact that the party is sending Alexander Dvanov to the front of the Civil War - to the city of Novokhopersk, located in the steppe. Zakhar Pavlovich sits at the station with his son for days in anticipation of a passing train. They had already talked about everything, but not about love. When Alexander leaves, his father returns home and begins to read algebra in warehouses, not understanding anything. In this, he gradually finds solace.
Danov in Novokhopersk joins the warring revolution. From the province soon comes the order for the return of Alexander. On the road, Dvanov leads a steam locomotive instead of an escaped train driver. The composition is faced with a counter. By a miracle, Sasha remains alive.
Alexander's return home, illness and meeting with Sonya
Danov, having made a difficult and long journey, finally returns home. The hero immediately becomes ill. For 8 months, he is excluded from life due to typhoid. Desperate, Zakhar Pavlovich makes a coffin for his son. However, Sasha is recovering in the summer. In the evenings, a neighbor Sonya comes to them, an orphan. Zakhar Pavlovich decides to split the coffin into the furnace. He thinks that now it’s time to make a crib, as Sonia will grow up soon, and then she and Sasha may have children.
Acquaintance with Kopenkin and Chepurny
Alexander on the instructions of the Provincial Committee sent to "seek communism" in the province. He gets to the anarchists, but a small detachment, led by Stepan Kopenkin, repels him. The reason for the participation of Stepan in the revolution is his love for Rosa Luxemburg. In the village where Dvanov and Kopenkin drop in, they find Sonya. It turns out she teaches children at a local school.
Wandering around the province, Kopenkin and Dvanov get acquainted with many people, and each of them in his own way represents a new life and its construction. Alexander meets Chepurny - a man who serves in the city of Chevengur as chairman of the revolutionary committee. The word "Chevengur" is liked by Dvanov. It reminds this hero of the enthralling hum of an unknown country. Chepurny speaks of Chevengur as a place where both the accuracy of truth, and the blessing of life, and the grief of existence happen as necessary, by themselves. Although Alexander dreams of returning home to continue his studies at the Polytechnic, he is fascinated by stories about Chevengur's socialism. He decides to go to this city, a description of which continues with a brief summary.
Chevengur
The city wakes up late, as its residents rest from centuries-long oppression. The revolution won Chevenguru dreams, the main profession in the city made the soul. Kopenkin, having locked the Proletarian Force (his horse’s name) in the shed, is walking around the city. He meets strangers in the face, pale in appearance people. Kopenkin asks Chepurny what these people do during the day. He replies that the main profession is the soul of a person, and its product is partnership and friendship. Kopenkin suggests organizing a little bit of grief so that Chevengur is not very well. He believes that for good taste communism should be caustic.
The heroes appoint a special commission, which is entrusted with compiling lists of the bourgeois who survived during the revolution. These bourgeoisie are shot by the Chekists. Chepurny after the execution rejoices that peace has now come.
After the reprisal, Kopenkin still does not feel the communism that Chevengur is so proud of. A brief summary of the chapters continues with the fact that the KGB begin to identify the half-bourgeois, from whom life should be freed. They are gathered in a crowd, and then driven out into the steppe. The proletarians remaining in the city, as well as those who arrived at the call of the Communists, will soon eat up the remnants of food belonging to the bourgeoisie. They destroy all the hens in Chevengur, after which they eat only plant food in the steppe. Chepurny expects that final happiness will develop by itself, since the happiness of life is a necessity and a fact. Only Kopenkin walks around the city in sadness. He awaits the arrival of Alexander and his assessment of the communism built in Chevengur.
Useless inventions
The following should tell about two inventions, describing the summary. "Chevengur" continues with the fact that Dvanov arrives, but he does not see a new life from the outside: probably, communism has disappeared in people. Alexander guesses why the Bolsheviks-Chevengurts so desire this system: communism is the end of time, the end of history. Only in nature does time pass, but in man is longing. Alexander invents a special device with which you can turn sunlight into electricity. To do this, they take out mirrors from all the frames in the city, and also collect all the glass. However, this device does not work. They build a tower, light a fire on it so that it shows the way for those wandering in the steppe. However, no one comes into the light of the lighthouse.
Check, the arrival of women
Comrade Serbinov comes from Moscow to check the activities of the Chevengurs. He notes that their labors are useless. To justify, Chepurny says that they work for each other, and not for good. Serbinov in his report writes that the city has many happy things, but at the same time useless ones.
Women are brought to Chevengur to continue life. Young residents of the city just bask in with them, as if with their mothers, since autumn has already come and the air is completely cold.
News about the fate of Sophia
Serbinov tells Alexander how he met with Sofia Alexandrovna in Moscow. This is the very Sonya that Dvanov remembered before Chevengur. The girl now lives in Moscow, works in a factory. Serbinov reports that Sophia remembers Alexander as an idea. Serbinov himself does not say that he loves this girl.
Cossacks occupy the city, Dvanov’s departure
A man comes running into the city and says that Cossacks on horseback are heading for Chevengur. The battle begins, in which Serbinov dies, thinking about Sofya Alexandrovna. Chepurny also perishes, like other Bolsheviks. Cossacks occupy the city.
Alexander remains in the steppe near Kopenkin, who is near death. When he dies, Alexander sits on the Proletarian Force and leaves away from the city, in the open steppe. Long rides Dvanov. He passes the village where he was once born. The hero arrives at the lake where his father once died. He notices a fishing pole that he had forgotten as a child on the shore. Dvanov makes the horse go chest-deep into the water, after which he gets off the saddle in search of the road that his father once walked along.
The final
Zahar Pavlovich arrives in Chevengur. He is looking for Alexander. In the city there is none of the people, only the weeping Proshka sits by the brick house. Zakhar Pavlovich asks him to bring him Sasha for money, but Prokofiy promises to do it for nothing and sets off to look for Dvanov.
This concludes the summary. "Chevengur" - a work first published in the USSR only in 1988. Today, finally, we have the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the remarkable writer Andrei Platonovich Platonov. One of his best works is the novel "Chevengur". Reading the summary is not as interesting as getting to know the original of this novel. Of course, Andrei Platonov is an outstanding artist of the word.