“Nenužnoe Vremja”: Time in Platonovʼs “Socialist Realist” Stories

The decade since Platonovʼs centennial has seen a surge of interest in his preoccupation with time. The theme is central to Chevengur and figures prominently in ‘Kotlovan’ and other works from the late 1920s-early 1930s. Many of Platonovʼs writings composed for publication after the advent of Socialist Realism are equally concerned with time, temporality, and history, even though one needs to look beyond their more conventional narratives to identify these concerns. Focusing on two representative texts from the late 1930s, the article examines ways in which Platonovʼs “Socialist Realist” oeuvre collides with Stalinismʼs understanding of time. It argues that Platonovʼs use of allegory in stories meant to fit the grid of the Socialist Realist method subtly advances a notion of history vastly different from the one on which the Stalinist master narrative is based.