The image of the Russian peasantry in A. Platonov’s the stories and plays during the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

Fiction embodies the diverse cultural and historical memory of society and offers its own answers about the impact of war on a person, the long-term humanitarian consequences of the war. In his military stories and plays A. Platonov presented a wide panorama of images of the fighting people, among which the image of peasantry occupies a central place. Memory is considered as the leading concept of the writers creativity. Features of perception of war, life and death, good and evil by ordinary soldiers are revealed. A. Platonovs military stories are very significant for the cultural memory of Russian society. Focusing on the peasant roots of the fighting people, the writer warned of the danger of forgetting this. Platonovs constant interest in the memorial aspects of culture is realized in his military prose largely from the point of view of the world picture of Russian peasants. Village and its inhabitants, faith and family, land, bread, labor-symbols of the Motherland in Platonov, the embodiment of historical continuity. These aspects were reflected later in popular memories of the war, in the peasant perception of the war as sacrificial heroism.

Keywords

• culture
• memory
• fiction
• a. platonov
• great patriotic war
• peasantry.