Platonov's pit brief chapter by chapter. Andrey Platonov, "Pit": analysis

In this article we will look at the work that Andrei Platonov created, we will conduct it, it was conceived by the author in 1929, in the fall, when Stalin’s article entitled “The Year of the Great Turning Point” appeared in print, in which he argued for the need for collectivization, after which he announced in December the beginning of the “attack on the kulak” and the elimination of him as a class. In unison, one of the heroes of this work tells him that everyone needs to be thrown “into the brine of socialism.” The planned bloody campaign was successful. The tasks set by Stalin were completed.

The writer also realized his plans, which is confirmed by the analysis. Platonov's "pit" was conceived as a rethinking of history, the correctness of the path chosen by our country. The result is a profound work with socio-philosophical content. The writer comprehended reality and analyzed it.

Let's begin to describe Platonov's "pit" with a story about the creation of the work.

History of creation

The story, remarkably, was written just during the period active work Stalin - from 1929 to April 1930. In those days, Andrei Platonovich Platonov worked in the land reclamation department in his specialty, in the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, located in the Voronezh region. Therefore, he was, if not a direct participant, then at least a witness to the liquidation of the kulaks and collectivization. As an artist who draws life, Andrei Platonovich Platonov painted pictures of the destinies of people and the events that happened to those caught in the meat grinder of depersonalization and equalization.

The themes of Andrei Platonovich’s works did not fit into the general ideas of building communism; the doubting and thinking hero of the story was subjected to sharp criticism from the authorities, which was picked up by the press. She conducted her own analysis, which was by no means flattering to the author.

This is, in brief, the story that Platonov wrote (“The Pit”), the story of its creation.

Features of presentation

The author's contemporaries, favored by the Bolsheviks - writers Kataev, Leonov, Sholokhov - in their works glorified the achievements of socialism, depicting collectivization with positive side. In contrast to Platonov’s poetics, an optimistic description of pictures of selfless labor and construction was alien. This author was not attracted by the scale of the tasks and aspirations. He was primarily interested in man and his role in historical events. Therefore, the work “The Pit,” as well as other works of this author, is characterized by a thoughtful, unhurried development of events. There are a lot of abstract generalizations in the story, since the author is focused on the thoughts and experiences of his characters. External factors only help the hero understand himself, and at the same time the symbolic events that Platonov tells us about.

"Pit": summary of contents

The plot of the story is typical for works of that time dedicated to collectivization, and is not complex. It consists of dispossession with scenes of assassination attempts on party activists and peasants defending their property. But Platonov managed to present these events from the point of view of a thinking person who found himself unwittingly drawn into the events about which the story “The Pit” tells.

Summary by chapter is not the subject of our article. We will only briefly describe the main events of the work. The hero of the story, Voshchev, after he was fired from the factory because of his thoughtfulness, ends up with the diggers who are digging a pit for the house of the proletarians. Brigadier Chiklin brings an orphaned girl whose mother has died. Chiklin and his comrades eliminate the kulaks by floating them on a raft at sea along with their families. After this, they return to the city and continue their work. The story "The Pit" ends with the death of a girl who found her last refuge in the wall of the pit.

Three motives in Platonov’s work

Platonov wrote that he was struck by three things in life - love, wind and a long journey. All these motives are present in the work in chapters, if you turn to it, it will confirm our idea. But it should be noted that these motives are presented in the author’s original presentation. The plot is tied to the image of a road. However, Voshchev, Platonov’s hero, although he is a wanderer, is by no means in the tradition of Russian literature, since, firstly, he is forced to wander, or rather, wander, due to the fact that he was fired, and secondly, his goal is a search not for adventure, but for truth, the meaning of existence. Wherever this hero goes later, again and again the author returns him to the pit. It’s as if a person’s life closes in and goes in a circle.

Many events make up the story "The Pit", but there are no cause-and-effect relationships between them. The heroes seem to be circling around the pit, dreaming of escaping from this pit. One wanted to go to study, having increased his experience, another expected retraining, the third dreamed of moving to the leadership of the party.

Method of editing episodes of a work

In the composition of the work, Platonov uses the method of montage of diverse episodes: there is a bear-hammer, and an activist who educates village women in politics, and kulaks who say goodbye to each other before going to sea on a raft.

Some of the episodes that Platonov’s work “The Pit” tells about seem completely random and unmotivated: suddenly, in the course of the action, insignificant characters pop up in close-up, and just as suddenly disappear. As an example, we can cite an unknown person dressed only in trousers, whom Chiklin brought to the office unexpectedly for everyone. The man, swollen with grief, demanded the return of the coffins, prepared for future use, which were found in the pit of his village.

Grotesque

In the dialogue between peasants and workers, it is surprising how casually they talk about death, with what hopelessness and humility they prepare coffins for themselves and their children. The burial box turns into a “child’s toy”, into a “bed”, ceasing to be a symbol of fear. Such a grotesque reality permeates, in fact, the entire story “The Pit”.

Allegory

The author of the work, in addition to the grotesque, also uses allegory to convey the madness of events. Thanks to this and the previous techniques, the problems of this work are more fully revealed in the story “The Pit”. Not finding a character who could, like Judas, point to wealthy peasant families, he chooses a bear for this role. And given that this animal is in folklore has never been the personification of evil, we can talk here about a double allegory.

The plot of Voshchev's journey is organically intertwined with another - the failed construction of a monumental all-proletarian house. But the workers believed until the last that the local proletariat would live there in a year. This building is associated with Tower of Babel, because it became a grave for its builders, just as the foundation pit of a house for the proletarians turned into a grave for the girl for whom, in fact, it was erected.

Although at the beginning of the work Pashkin claims that happiness will still “come historically,” it becomes clear by the end of the story that there is no hope of finding the meaning of life in the future, since the present is built on the death of a girl, and the adults worked so persistently on the pit as as if they were trying to escape forever in its abyss.

The work “The Pit” leaves a heavy aftertaste on the soul after reading, but at the same time one feels that Andrei Platonovich is a humanist writer who tells us about the sad events of the story with regret, love and deep compassion for the heroes who were hit by the merciless and uncompromising machine of power, trying to turn everyone into an obedient executor of a godless plan.

Description of the characters in the story

Platonov does not give a detailed external description of the heroes, their deep internal characteristics. He, like a surrealist artist who works by breaking logical connections at the subconscious level, only lightly touches with his brush the portraits of characters living in an insubstantial world, devoid of everyday details and interior design. For example, there is no information about the appearance of the main character, Voshchev, only that he is thirty years old at the time of the story. Pashkin’s description indicates an elderly face, as well as a bent body, not so much from the years he has lived, but from the “social” load. Safonov had an “actively thinking” face, and Chiklin had a head, which, according to the author’s definition, was “small stone”; Kozlov had “damp eyes” and a monotonous dull face. These are the heroes in the story “The Pit” (Platonov).

Nastya's image

To understand the meaning of the work, the image of a girl living with diggers during construction is very important. Nastya is a child of the 1917 revolution. Her mother was a potbelly stove, that is, a representative of an obsolete class. Rejection of the past, as is known, means the loss of cultural traditions, historical ties and their replacement by ideological parents - Lenin and Marx. According to the author, people who deny their past cannot have a future.

Nastya’s world is distorted, because her mother, in order to save her daughter, inspires her not to talk about her non-proletarian origin. The propaganda machine has already penetrated into her consciousness. The reader is horrified to learn that this heroine advises Safronov to kill the peasants for the cause of the revolution. What will a child turn into when he grows up if he keeps toys in a coffin? The girl dies at the end of the story, and with her the last ray of hope dies for Voshchev and all the other workers. The latter wins the peculiar confrontation between Nastya and the pit. The dead body of a girl lies at the foundation of a house under construction.

Hero-philosopher

There is a character in the story who is a so-called home-grown philosopher, who thinks about the meaning of life, strives to live according to conscience, and seeks the truth. This is the main character of the work. He is an exponent of the author's position. This character, included in Platonov’s novel “The Pit,” thought seriously and doubted the correctness of what was happening around him. He does not move along with the general line, he strives to find his own path to the truth. But he never finds her.

The meaning of the title of the story "Pit"

The title of the story is symbolic. Not only construction means a foundation pit. This is a huge grave, a hole that workers dig for themselves. Many die here. A happy home for the proletarians cannot be built on a slavish attitude towards human labor and humiliation of personal dignity.

The pessimism that Platonov did not hide (the story “The Pit” and other works) could not, of course, fit into the vigorous pace of Russian literature of that time with positive images of party members, meetings and overfulfillment of plans. This author was not at all in step with the times: he was ahead of them.

The dystopian story “The Pit” by Andrei Platonov was written in 1930. We suggest reading a summary of “The Pit” chapter by chapter. The plot of the work is based on the idea of building a “common proletarian house”, which will become the beginning of an entire city of a “happy future”.

Using philosophical, surreal grotesquery and harsh satire of the USSR during collectivization and industrialization, Platonov exposes the most acute problems of that period, showing the meaninglessness and cruelty of totalitarianism, the inability to achieve a bright future through the radical destruction of everything old.

Main characters of the story

Main characters:

Voshchev, a thirty-year-old worker, ended up in the pit after he was fired from a mechanical plant. I thought about the possibility of happiness, the search for truth and the meaning of life.
Chiklin, an elderly worker, the eldest in the team of diggers with enormous physical strength, found and took the girl Nastya to his place.
Zhachev, a crippled craftsman without legs, who moved on a cart, was distinguished by “class hatred” - could not stand the bourgeoisie.

Other characters:

Nastya is a girl whom Chiklin found near his dying mother (the daughter of the owner of a tile factory) and took with him.
Prushevsky is an engineer, a worker who came up with the idea of a common proletarian house.
Safronov is one of the workers at the pit and a trade union activist.
Kozlov, the weakest of the artisans in the pit, became the chairman of the commander-in-chief of the cooperative.
Pashkin is the chairman of the regional trade union council, a bureaucrat official.
The bear is a hammer hammer in the forge, a former “farm laborer.”
Activist in the village.

Platonov “The Pit” very briefly

Pit summary for reader's diary:

On the day of his thirtieth birthday, Voshchev was fired from a mechanical plant due to “weakness” and thoughtfulness. This gives rise to doubts in his soul, he does not know how to live further and goes to another city. After a day spent on the road, he falls asleep in a deep, warm hole. Voshchev is woken up by a mower who sends him to sleep in the barracks, telling him that a huge building will be built on the site of this pit.

Voshchev wakes up with the artisans, who tell him that they are building a house that is intended for the local proletariat. He joins the work, assuming that he will be able to survive here.

Mr. Pashkin, chairman of the regional trade union council, often appears at the construction site and hurries the men, urging them to speed up the pace of work. In the evenings, after work, Voshchev thinks a lot about a bright future. One of the workers, Safronov, wants to find a radio somewhere to keep abreast of advances.

Chiklin comes to a tile factory and finds a little girl sitting next to her dying mother. He recognizes the woman as the daughter of the owner of this factory, who kissed him a long time ago. She dies, and Chiklin takes the girl with him to the barracks.

Pashkin calls on the artisans to fight against the collective farm capitalists; they send Safronov and Kozlov to the village, where they are killed. The artisans hold a meeting at which a list of peasants who are transferred to the collective farm and a list of the “kulak sector”, those who are put on a raft and “sent along the river to the sea,” are read out.

After these events, the girl Nastya became very ill and died. After this, Chiklin decides that it is necessary to dig an even larger pit so that there is enough space in the dream house for the entire proletariat. Zhachev refuses to take part in this and crawls into the city to kill Comrade Pashkin.

Read also: The story “In a Beautiful and Furious World” by Platonov was written in 1938, and originally had a different title - “Machinist Maltsev”. For better preparation For the literature lesson, we recommend reading the summary "". The work reflects the personal experience of the writer, who in his youth worked as an assistant driver. Brief retelling The story will also be useful for the reader's diary.

A short retelling of “The Pit” by Platonov

« On the day of the thirtieth anniversary personal life Voshchev was given a settlement from a small mechanical plant, where he obtained funds for his existence. In the dismissal document they wrote to him that he was being removed from production due to an increase in weakness and thoughtfulness in him amid the general pace of work».

Voshchev goes to another city. In a vacant lot in a warm pit, he settles down for the night. At midnight he is awakened by a man mowing grass in a vacant lot. Kosar says that construction will soon begin here, and sends Voshchev to the barracks: “Go there and sleep until the morning, and in the morning you will find out.”

Voshchev wakes up with an artel of artisans, who feed him and explain that today the construction of a single building begins, where the entire local class of the proletariat will enter to settle. Voshchev is given a shovel, he squeezes it with his hands, as if wanting to extract the truth from the dust of the earth. The engineer has already marked out the pit and tells the workers that the exchange should send fifty more people, but for now the work must begin with the leading team. Voshchev digs along with everyone else, he “looked at people and decided to live somehow, since they endure and live: he came into being with them and will die in due time inseparably from people.”

The diggers are gradually settling in and getting used to working. Comrade Pashkin, the chairman of the regional trade union council, often comes to the pit and monitors the pace of work. “The pace is quiet,” he tells the workers. - Why do you regret increasing productivity? Socialism will manage without you, and without it you will live in vain and die.”

In the evenings, Voshchev lies with his eyes open and yearns for the future, when everything will become generally known and placed in a stingy feeling of happiness. The most conscientious worker, Safronov, suggests installing a radio in the barracks to listen to achievements and directives; the disabled, legless Zhachev objects: “It’s better to bring an orphan girl by the hand than your radio.”

The excavator Chiklin finds in an abandoned building of a tile factory, where he was once kissed by the owner's daughter, a dying woman with a little daughter. Chiklin kisses a woman and recognizes from the trace of tenderness on her lips that this is the same girl who kissed him in his youth. Before her death, the mother tells the girl not to tell anyone whose daughter she is. The girl asks why her mother is dying: from a potbelly stove, or from death? Chiklin takes her with him.

Comrade Pashkin installs a radio speaker in the barracks, from which every minute demands are heard in the form of slogans - about the need to collect nettles, trim the tails and manes of horses. Safronov listens and regrets that he cannot speak back into the pipe so that they know about his sense of activity. Voshchev and Zhachev become unreasonably ashamed of the long speeches on the radio, and Zhachev shouts: “Stop this sound! Let me answer it!” Having listened to the radio enough, Safronov sleeplessly looks at the sleeping people and says with grief: “Oh, you mass, mass. It's hard to organize a skeleton of communism out of you! And what do you want? Such a bitch? You tortured the entire avant-garde, you bastard!”

The girl who came with Chiklin asks him about the features of the meridians on the map, and Chiklin replies that these are fences from the bourgeoisie. In the evening, the diggers do not turn on the radio, but, having eaten, sit down to look at the girl and ask her who she is. The girl remembers what her mother told her and talks about how she doesn’t remember her parents and that she didn’t want to be born under the bourgeoisie, but how Lenin became - and she became. Safronov concludes: “And deep is our Soviet power, since even children, not remembering their mother, can already smell Comrade Lenin!”

Activists designate people according to a list: the poor for the collective farm, the kulaks for dispossession. To more accurately identify all the kulaks, Chiklin takes to help a bear who works in the forge as a hammerman. The bear remembers well the houses where he used to work - these houses are used to identify the kulaks, who are driven onto a raft and sent along the river current to the sea. The poor people remaining in the Orgyard march in place to the sounds of the radio, then dance, welcoming the arrival of collective farm life.

In the morning, people go to the forge, where they can hear the hammer bear working. The members of the collective farm burn all the coal, repair all the dead equipment and, sad that the work is over, sit by the fence and look at the village in bewilderment about their future lives. Workers lead villagers to the city.

In the evening, travelers come to the pit and see that it is covered with snow, and the barracks are empty and dark. Chiklin lights a fire to warm the sick girl Nastya. People pass by the barracks, but no one comes to visit Nastya, because everyone, with their heads bowed, is constantly thinking about complete collectivization. By morning Nastya dies. Voshchev, standing over the calmed child, thinks about why he now needs the meaning of life if there is no this small, faithful person in whom the truth would become joy and movement.

Only Zhachev does not work, grieving for the death of Nastya. “I’m a freak of imperialism, and communism is a child’s business, that’s why I loved Nastya... I’ll go and kill Comrade Pashkin now as a farewell,” says Zhachev and crawls away on his cart to the city, never to return to the foundation pit.

Chiklin digs a deep grave for Nastya so that the child will never be disturbed by the noise of life from the surface of the earth.

This is interesting: Platonov wrote the story “Yushka” in the 30s of the twentieth century. You can read it on our website. In the story, Platonov touches on the themes of universal love and compassion. Main character works, the holy fool, becomes the embodiment of human kindness and mercy.

The plot of the story “The Pit” with quotes

Platonov's Pit summary with quotes from the work:

“On the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life, Voshchev was given a settlement from a small mechanical plant” due to “the growth of weakness and thoughtfulness in him amid the general pace of work.” He felt doubt in his life, “he could not continue to work and walk along the road without knowing the exact structure of the whole world,” so he went to another city. After walking all day, in the evening the man wandered into a vacant lot and fell asleep in a warm hole.

At midnight, Voshchev was awakened by a mower, who sent the man to go to sleep in the barracks, because this “square” would “soon disappear forever under the device.”

In the morning, craftsmen woke up Voshchev in the barracks. The man explains to them that he was laid off, and without knowing the truth he cannot work. Comrade Safronov agrees to take Voshchev to dig a pit.

Accompanied by an orchestra, the workers went to a vacant lot, where the engineer had already marked out everything for the construction of a pit. Voshchev was given a shovel. The diggers began to work hard, the weakest of all was Kozlov, who did the least work. Working with the others, Voshchev decides to “live somehow” and die inseparably from people.

Engineer Prushevsky, the developer of the pit project, which would become “the only common proletarian house instead of the old city,” dreams that “in a year the entire local proletariat will leave the small-property city and occupy a monumental new home».

In the morning, the chairman of the regional trade union council, Comrade Pashkin, comes to the diggers. Seeing the foundation pit being started, he noted that “the pace is quiet” and it is necessary to increase productivity: “Socialism will manage without you, and without it you will live in vain and die.” Soon Pashkin sent new workers.

Kozlov decides to switch to “social work” so as not to work in the pit. Safronov, as the most conscientious of the workers, proposes to put on a radio “to listen to achievements and directives.” Zhachev answered him that “It’s better to bring an orphan girl by the hand than your radio.”

Chiklin comes to the tile factory. Entering the building, he finds a staircase “on which the owner’s daughter once kissed him.” The man noticed a distant windowless room where a dying woman was lying on the ground. A girl sat nearby and rubbed a lemon peel over her mother’s lips. The girl asked her mother: is she dying “because it’s a potbelly stove or from death”? The mother replied: “I got bored, I was exhausted.” The woman asks the girl not to tell anyone about her bourgeois origin.

Chiklin kisses a dying woman and “by the dry taste of her lips” understands “that she is the same” girl who kissed him in his youth. The man took the girl with him.

“Pashkin supplied the diggers’ home with a radio speaker,” from which slogans and demands are constantly heard. Zhachev and Voshchev were “unreasonably ashamed of the long speeches on the radio.”

Chiklin brings the girl to the barracks. Seeing a map of the USSR, she asked about the meridians: “What are these – fences from the bourgeoisie?” Chiklin answered in the affirmative, “wanting to give her a revolutionary mind.” In the evening, Safronov began questioning the girl. She said that she did not want to be born until Lenin came to power, because she was afraid that her mother would be a potbelly stove.

After a while, when the diggers found a hundred coffins hidden for future use by the peasants, Chiklin gave two of them to the girl - he made her a bed in one, and left the other for toys.

“The mother place for the house of the future life was ready; now it was intended to put rubble in the pit.”

Kozlov became chairman of the commander-in-chief of the cooperative, now he “began to greatly love the proletarian masses.” Pashkin informs the artisans that it is necessary to “start a class struggle against the village stumps of capitalism.” The workers send Safronov and Kozlov to the village to organize collective farm life, where they are killed. Having learned about what happened, Voshchev and Chiklin come to the village. While guarding the corpses of his comrades in the village council hall at night, Chiklin falls asleep between them. In the morning, a man came to the village council hall to wash the corpses. Chiklin mistakes him for a murderer of his comrades and beats him to death.

They bring Chiklin a note from a girl with the words: “Eliminate the kulaks as a class. Long live Lenin, Kozlov and Safronov. Hello to the poor collective farm, but no to the kulaks.”

People gathered at the Organizational Court. Chiklin and Voshchev put together a raft from logs “to eliminate classes” in order to send the “kulak sector” along the river to the sea. There is a cry in the village, people are grieving, slaughtering livestock and overeating until they vomit, just so as not to give their farm to the collective farm. An activist reads out to the people a list of who will go to the collective farm and who will go to the raft.

In the morning Nastya is brought to the village. To find all the kulaks, Chiklin takes the help of a bear - “the most oppressed farm laborer”, who “worked for nothing in the households of the property, and now works as a hammerman at the collective farm forge.” The bear knew which huts to go to, since he remembered who he served with. The discovered kulaks are driven onto a raft and sent down the river.

In the organizational courtyard, “music calling forward began to play.” Welcoming the arrival of collective farm life, people began to joyfully stomp to the music. The people danced without ceasing until the night, and Zhachev had to throw people onto the ground so that they could rest.

Voshchev “collected all the poor, rejected objects around the village” - “not fully understanding”, he accumulated “material remains of lost people” who lived without truth and now, presenting things for inventory, he “through the organization of the eternal meaning of people” sought “revenge for those who lie quietly in the depths of the earth.” The activist, having entered the rubbish into the income statement, gave it to Nastya as toys for signature.

In the morning the people went to the forge where the bear worked. Having learned about the creation of the collective farm, the hammer hammer began to work with even greater enthusiasm. Chiklin helps him and in the rush of work they do not notice that they are only spoiling the iron.

“The collective farm members burned all the coal in the forge, spent all the available iron on useful products, and repaired all dead equipment.” After the march at the Organizational Yard, Nastya became very ill.

A directive arrived saying that the activist was an enemy of the party and was being removed from the leadership. In frustration, he takes the jacket given to Nastya, for which Chiklin punches him and he dies.

Elisha, Nastya, Chiklin and Zhachev returned to the foundation pit. Arriving at the place, they saw “that the entire pit was covered with snow, and the barracks were empty and dark.” By morning Nastya dies. Soon Voshchev arrived with the entire collective farm. Seeing the dead girl, the man would be in bewilderment and “no longer know where communism will be in the world now if it does not first exist in a child’s feeling and in a convinced impression.”

Having learned that the men wanted to enroll in the proletariat, Chiklin decided that it was necessary to dig an even larger pit. “The collective farm followed him and continuously dug the ground; all the poor and average men work and with such zeal for life, as if they wanted to escape forever in the abyss of the pit.” Zhachev refused to help. Saying that now he doesn’t believe in anything and wants to kill Comrade Pashkin, he crawled into the city.

Chiklin dug a deep grave for Nastya, “so that the child would never be disturbed by the noise of life from the surface of the earth,” and prepared a special granite slab. When the man was carrying her to be buried, “the hammerman, sensing movement, woke up, and Chiklin let him touch Nastya goodbye.”

“On the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life, Voshchev was given a settlement from a small mechanical plant, where he obtained funds for his existence. In the dismissal document they wrote to him that he was being removed from production due to an increase in weakness and thoughtfulness in him amid the general pace of work.” Voshchev goes to another city. In a vacant lot in a warm pit, he settles down for the night. At midnight he is awakened by a man mowing grass in a vacant lot. Kosar says that construction will soon begin here, and sends Voshchev to the barracks: “Go there and sleep until the morning, and in the morning you will find out.”

The diggers are gradually settling in and getting used to working. Comrade Pashkin, the chairman of the regional trade union council, often comes to the pit and monitors the pace of work. “The pace is quiet,” he tells the workers. – Why do you regret increasing productivity? Socialism will manage without you, and without it you will live in vain and die.”

In the evenings, Voshchev lies with his eyes open and yearns for the future, when everything will become generally known and placed in a stingy feeling of happiness. The most conscientious worker, Safronov, suggests installing a radio in the barracks so that he can listen to achievements and directives; the disabled, legless Zhachev objects: “It’s better to bring an orphan girl by the hand than your radio.”

The girl who came with Chiklin asks him about the features of the meridians on the map, and Chiklin replies that these are fences from the bourgeoisie. In the evening, the diggers do not turn on the radio, but, having eaten, sit down to look at the girl and ask her who she is. The girl remembers what her mother told her and talks about how she doesn’t remember her parents and that she didn’t want to be born under the bourgeoisie, but how Lenin became – and so she became. Safronov concludes: “And our Soviet power is deep, since even children, not remembering their mother, can already sense Comrade Lenin!”

At the meeting, the workers decide to send Safronov and Kozlov to the village in order to organize collective farm life. They are killed in the village - and other diggers, led by Voshchev and Chiklin, come to the aid of the village activists. While a meeting of organized members and unorganized individual workers is taking place at the Organizational Yard, Chiklin and Voshchev are putting together a raft nearby. Activists designate people according to a list: the poor for the collective farm, the kulaks for dispossession. To more accurately identify all the kulaks, Chiklin takes to help a bear who works in the forge as a hammerman. The bear remembers well the houses where he used to work - these houses are used to identify the kulaks, who are driven onto a raft and sent along the river current to the sea. The poor people remaining in the Orgyard march in place to the sounds of the radio, then dance, welcoming the arrival of collective farm life. In the morning, people go to the forge, where they can hear the hammer bear working. The members of the collective farm burn all the coal, repair all the dead equipment and, sad that the work is over, sit down by the fence and look at the village in bewilderment about their future lives. Workers lead villagers to the city. In the evening, travelers come to the pit and see that it is covered with snow, and the barracks are empty and dark. Chiklin lights a fire to warm the sick girl Nastya. People pass by the barracks, but no one comes to visit Nastya, because everyone, with their heads bowed, is constantly thinking about complete collectivization. By morning Nastya dies. Voshchev, standing over the quiet child, thinks about why he now needs the meaning of life if there is no this small, faithful person in whom the truth would become joy and movement.

Zhachev asks Voshchev: “Why did you bring the collective farm?” “The men want to join the proletariat,” Voshchev answers. Chiklin takes a crowbar and a shovel and goes to dig at the far end of the pit. Looking around, he sees that the entire collective farm is constantly digging the ground. All the poor and average men work with such zeal as if they want to escape forever in the abyss of the pit. The horses don’t stand either: the collective farmers use them to carry stone. Only Zhachev does not work, grieving for the death of Nastya. “I’m a freak of imperialism, and communism is a child’s business, that’s why I loved Nastya... I’ll go and kill Comrade Pashkin now as a farewell,” says Zhachev and crawls away on his cart to the city, never to return to the pit.

Chiklin digs a deep grave for Nastya so that the child will never be disturbed by the noise of life from the surface of the earth.

Option 2

The main character, Voshchev, works at a mechanical plant, from where he was fired, citing the fact that he is not strong enough to continue growing and working. Having left for another city, he got a job as a navvy to build a single building where the entire proletariat was supposed to move. Comrade Pashkin often comes there to check how fast the work is going. He is the chairman of the regional trade union council, advocating socialism in all its forms. Sometimes he tells the workers that socialism will do without them, but people will live their lives in vain. Coming after a hard day, Voshchev, lying down, dreams of the imminent happiness that was to come into his life.

One of the workers named Safronov suggests installing a radio in order to learn about new directives earlier than others. Legless disabled person Zhachev is against this. At an abandoned factory, Chiklin found a woman near death with her daughter. Having kissed her, he remembered her lips, they had once met. He took the girl with him. Pashkin installed a radio speaker in the barracks, and now everyone listens to continuous tirades of slogans. Safronov wants to say something in response to the voice from the megaphone. In the evening, after dinner, the workers ask the girl Chiklin brought about her family. But she, remembering her mother’s instructions not to say who her father is, says that she did not want to be born under the bourgeoisie, but was born under Lenin.

Soon Safronov and Kozlov are killed. Voshchev and Chiklin are assembling a raft in order to put the dispossessed people on it and send them to the sea. To help, they take a bear who works in a forge; he remembers well all the houses in which he used to work. Having thrown their fists into the sea and restored order in the village, the workers are sad that the work is over. Returning to the city, it turns out that everything is covered with snow, and little Nastya is sick. By morning the girl died. Voshchev, standing over the girl, does not see any further meaning of existence. Chiklin, taking a shovel, begins to dig diligently.

Zhachev is sad about the girl and, reflecting on life and communism, decides that he has no reason to live and finally needs to kill Pashkin. He leaves on his cart for the city. Chiklin digs a deep hole for the girl so that the sounds of life will never reach her.

Essay on literature on the topic: Summary of Platonov’s Pit

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Summary of Platonov's Pit

“On the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life, Voshchev was given a settlement from a small mechanical plant, where he obtained funds for his existence. In the dismissal document they wrote to him that he was being removed from production due to the growth of weakness and thoughtfulness in him amid the general pace of work.” Voshchev goes to another city. In a vacant lot in a warm pit, he settles down for the night. At midnight he is awakened by a man mowing grass in a vacant lot. Kosar says that construction will soon begin here, and sends Voshchev to the barracks: “Go there and sleep until the morning, and in the morning you will find out.”

Voshchev wakes up with an artel of artisans, who feed him and explain that today the construction of a single building begins, where the entire local class of the proletariat will enter to settle. Voshchev is given a shovel, he squeezes it with his hands, as if wanting to extract the truth from the dust of the earth. The engineer has already marked out the pit and tells the workers that the exchange should send fifty more people, but for now the work must begin with the leading team. Voshchev digs along with everyone else, he “looked at people and decided to live somehow, since they endure and live: he came into existence with them and will die in due time inseparably from people.”

The girl who came with Chiklin asks him about the features of the meridians on the map, and Chiklin replies that these are fences from the bourgeoisie. In the evening, the diggers do not turn on the radio, but, having eaten, sit down to look at the girl and ask her who she is. The girl remembers what her mother told her and talks about how she doesn’t remember her parents and that she didn’t want to be born under the bourgeoisie, but how Lenin became - and she became. Safronov concludes: “And our Soviet power is deep, since even children, not remembering their mother, can already sense Comrade Lenin!”

Chiklin digs a deep grave for Nastya so that the child will never be disturbed by the noise of life from the surface of the earth.

Retelling - V. M. Sotnikov

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Pit

“On the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life, Voshchev was given a paycheck from a small mechanical plant, where he obtained funds for his existence. In the dismissal document, they wrote to him that he was being removed from production due to the growth of weakness in him and thoughtfulness amid the general pace of work.” Voshchev goes to another city. In a vacant lot in a warm pit, he settles down for the night. At midnight he is awakened by a man mowing grass in a vacant lot. Kosar says that construction will soon begin here, and sends Voshchev to the barracks: “Go there and sleep until the morning, and in the morning you will find out.”

The diggers are gradually settling in and getting used to working. Comrade Pashkin, the chairman of the regional trade union council, often comes to the pit and monitors the pace of work. “The pace is quiet,” he says to the workers. “Why do you regret raising productivity? Socialism will manage without you, and without it you will live in vain and die.”

Comrade Pashkin installs a radio speaker in the barracks, from which every minute demands are heard in the form of slogans - about the need to collect nettles, trim the tails and manes of horses. Safronov listens and regrets that he cannot speak back into the pipe so that they know about his sense of activity. Voshchev and Zhachev become unreasonably ashamed of the long speeches on the radio, and Zhachev shouts: “Stop this sound! Let me answer it!” Having listened to the radio, Safronov sleeplessly looks at the sleeping people and speaks with sorrow: “Oh, you mass, mass. It’s difficult to organize the skeleton of communism out of you! And what do you want? Such a bitch? You tortured the entire avant-garde, you reptile!”

The girl who came with Chiklin asks him about the features of the meridians on the map, and Chiklin replies that these are fences from the bourgeoisie. In the evening, the diggers do not turn on the radio, but, having eaten, sit down to look at the girl and ask her who she is. The girl remembers what her mother told her and talks about how she doesn’t remember her parents and that she didn’t want to be born under the bourgeoisie, but how Lenin became - and she became. Safronov concludes: “And our Soviet power is deep, since even children, not remembering their mother, can already sense Comrade Lenin!”

Chiklin digs a deep grave for Nastya so that the child will never be disturbed by the noise of life from the surface of the earth.