The story of A. Platonov - we offer its summary - “Doubted Makar” was written in 1929. It, in fact, describes the process of the emergence of bureaucracy in a young state. And an ordinary person - the main character - becomes an impersonal employee.
Village Life
Standing out among the other workers were Makar Ganushkin, with an empty head, but who loved crafts, and Leo Chumova, the smartest among the villagers, but empty-handed. The first often entertained in the countryside. Either they’ll come up with a carousel, then they’ll try to arrange a self-propelled car. As a result, Chumova repeatedly chided him for public concern. And after Makar received iron from the ore mined in the well, Leo fined the hero for concealing the “discovery of national economic significance”. So begins his story A. Platonov.
The doubted Makar leaves for Moscow
To pay the fine, Makar had to go fishing. He was without a ticket - this was the case back in 1919, when he last traveled by rail - caught a train going to Moscow. True, he was more interested in how they work during the movement of the wheel, because it is located on the hitch. But only he tried to think - the strength of the hands that did not do anything moved to the head - as the guard told him to get off at the station for lack of a ticket. Makar decided that he needed to go further so as not to violate the technical properties of the car, and hid under the car. So he got to the station, from where the capital was visible, and decided to continue on foot.
On the way to Moscow
In order not to get lost, the hero went along the road and witnessed phenomena incomprehensible to him. Here is a summary of them.
The doubted Makar was surprised at the abundance of "spoiled good", i.e. garbage lying near the platform. “A man lives and gives birth to a desert near him,” he thinks with displeasure. He did not see the science and technology that they talked about so much, and at the station where milk cans were unloaded. Makar tried to prove to the boss that their actions lead to waste. Indeed, in one direction the cans are driven full, and back - empty. He proposed to build a milk pipe so as not to drive equipment. In Moscow, there are the smartest, who deal with these issues - there was an answer (this is its summary). The doubted Makar growled and went on.
Acquaintance with Moscow
The hero entered the capital in the late morning. People fled somewhere, and Makar thanked everyone for dressing and shoeing the country. “But why not work at home - ... you don’t have to spend energy,” thought the doubted Makar again.
A brief summary of exploring the big city is as follows. The hero climbed into the tram, from which he was expelled by the mistress who checked the tickets. Looking at the huge houses, he sympathized with the Soviet authorities: it is difficult to maintain such tackle intact. Seeing how a policeman with an outstretched hand with his fist pointed the way to a cart with rye flour, he decided that in Moscow they were "fed white whores". Having reached the center, he leaned against a large stone and was imbued with respect for himself and the whole state. These are the impressions of the hero from a meeting with the capital and their summary.
The doubted Makar went to the bank of the river, where he saw the construction of an eternal house - one of the workers said so. Here he was called to the hut and given to eat.
Conscientious longing
After the porridge, the hero went to the construction site. He was interested in technology - a symbol of future life. It seemed that everything was going smoothly: piles were clogging, concrete was pouring into trays ... But Makara did not leave a feeling that something was missing here. Finally, he realized that during construction, concrete was packed manually in iron frames. And where is the technique? - again doubted Makar thought. Analysis of what he saw led the hero to the conclusion: you need to make a pipe-gut, through which concrete will flow up. Then the workers will not get tired.
At the Moscow Scientific and Technical Office and the Trade Union
Makar decided to talk about his hunch. He found an office where the scribe sent him to the chief engineer. He listened and sent for the ruble in grub and a return ticket. But Makar was not going to go home and in the next room he took paper to the union - there they could give money for the gut.
Only in the evening Makar waited for the chief. He gave him a piece of paper-appeal to some Lopin - he was supposed to help in his discovery.
The road to the proletariat
The house where it was necessary to look for Lopin turned out to be a shelter-shelter with pillows and a roof. The hero liked what the Soviet government did. Finding out that he needed seasonal workers, not beggars, Makar remained waiting for the evening.
When the proletariat, who returned from work, went to bed, the hero went into a rooming house and spoke about the disturbances he had discovered. And although dissatisfied remarks were heard, the hero saw a force around him that could not be hostile, Platonov notes. The doubted Makar shared his thoughts about the milk line and the gut, which he himself had invented. But when someone mentioned the soul, the inventor discovered that his affairs were not proletarian, and became discouraged. And in a dream I saw a learned idol, from whom I was trying to find out: what needs to be done so that there will be benefits from its existence? When he climbed the mountain and touched the statue’s hand, it crumbled, and Makar woke up.
Acquaintance with Peter
In the rooming house there was only a pockmarked man. Having talked about Comrade Lenin and the Communist Party, they decided now to act together. We first examined the city, and in the evening decided to eat somewhere. Peter chose a psychiatric hospital, in which he brought the supposedly unhealthy Makar. Here they were fed and left for examination. In the evening, Peter and Makar read Lenin’s letters that “our institutions ... and laws ... shit”, and socialism should be built by the masses, not the pieces of paper of the institutions. And then it dawned on them: you need to go to the RCT, where they found one Leo Chumovoy. For a while, all three sat in the office and received citizens. However, their advice was so simple that anyone could think of it. And soon there was one Chumova left in the RCT, who died among the clerical papers after the commission on the liquidation of the state was created.