The fateful 1946. The nascency of humanistic prose: K. Paustovsky’s ‘Telegram’ and A. Platonov’s ‘Homecoming’ [‘Ivanov’s Family’]

Abstract

Published in 1946, the short stories ‘Telegram’ by K. Paustovsky and ‘Homecoming’ [‘Ivanov’s Family’] by A. Platonov marked a brief period of spiritual enthusiasm in Soviet society. Both stories are characterized by profound psychologism, unpredictability, and somewhat ‘un-Soviet-like’ behaviour of their protagonists, which made the two works stand out among the typical prose of the day and naturally triggered an angry critical response. Analyzing these short stories in comparison to 1940s prose, the author points out similarities in their poetics — a forerunner of the poetics of late Soviet literature — such as the determination to describe human distress, the depth of soul-searching (the characters often suffer an internal conflict and are driven to contrition by their own bad conscience), the absence of a happy future, the characteristic features of artistic time and space, etc. The author identifies such common traits of Platonov’s and Paustovsky’s short stories as psychologism, used to depict the protagonist’s internal struggle, and emotions of grief and compassion, as well as the topic of stirring conscience. These traits would typify ‘Thaw’ prose years later.