Chevengur
Chevengur by Andrey Platonov, published by New York Review of Books on January 2, 2024, is a significant work of fiction that explores the complexities of revolutionary fervor and despair in Soviet Russia. This edition, consisting of 592 pages, presents the full version of the novel in English for the first time, allowing readers to engage with Platonov’s intricate narrative about a craftsman, Zakhar Pavlovich, who journeys through the U.S.S.R. in search of ways to alleviate human suffering through his inventions.
In Chevengur, readers will follow Zakhar and his adopted son, Sasha Dvanov, as they navigate a landscape filled with counterrevolutionaries and visionaries, ultimately reaching the town of Chevengur, where communism is believed to have been realized. The novel employs a comic, ironic, and grotesque tone, utilizing poetic language to convey the profound sorrow of its characters. As the story unfolds, it reflects on the transformative aspirations of industry and revolution, set against the backdrop of 20th-century Russia. This edition offers a fresh perspective on Platonov’s ambitious narrative, making it a notable addition to the canon of world literature.
Official synopsis Publisher
A sort of Soviet Don Quixote, this novel about a craftsman who wanders the U.S.S.R. hoping to ease human misery with his inventions is considered one of the most important novels of the Soviet era, and is now available in its full version in English for the first time.
Chevengur is a revolutionary novel about revolutionary ardor and despair. Zakhar Pavlovich comes from a world of traditional crafts to work as a train mechanic, motivated by his belief in the transformative power of industry. His adopted son, Sasha Dvanov, embraces revolution, which will transform everything: the words we speak and the lives we live, souls and bodies, the soil underfoot and the sun overhead. Seeking communism, Dvanov joins up with Stepan Kopionkin, a warrior for the cause whose steed is the fearsome cart horse Strength of the Proletariat. Together they cross the steppe, encountering counterrevolutionaries, desperados, and visionaries of all kinds. At last they reach the isolated town of Chevengur. There communism is believed to have been achieved because everything that is not communism has been eliminated. And yet even in Chevengur the revolution recedes from sight.
Comic, ironic, grotesque, disturbingly poetic in its use of language, and profoundly sorrowful, Chevengur—here published in a new English translation based on the most authoritative Russian text—is the most ambitious of the extraordinary novels that the great Andrey Platonov wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, when Soviet Russia was moving from revolutionary euphoria to state terror.
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