Book Review
Title: Chevengur
Author: Andrey Platonov
Publisher: New York Review Classics (NYRB Classics)
Date: January 2, 2024 (first full-text publication 1972, first in English 1978, written in 1928)
ISBN: 978-1681377681
Platonov’s epic saga Chevengur is set in a fictional town in the late 1910s/1920s in the Soviet Union. It spans the Russian Civil War (1918–1921) and Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) that started in 1921.
The first third of the novel follows the youth, development, and maturation of one of the heroes, Alexander “Sasha” Dvanov . Early in the book, Dvanov’s father commits suicide by drowning in a lake, in order to experience the afterlife. An elder Zakhar Pavlovich becomes Dvanov’s father figure (who resembles the author’s actual father). Pavlovich dominates the storyline in the first third of the novel. He is a master craftsman and mechanic. We see examples of his perfectionism and skill. He loves the technological advancements of humanity, especially as manifested in the engineering of factories and steam locomotives, especially the latter. Meanwhile Dvanov studies in school, then to polytechnic, and reaches adulthood by the end of the first section.
Throughout the book, especially in the earlier parts, the chronology is mixed up with many flashbacks and memories of events that often merge into the present. Overall these meanderings help develop the characters and the otherworldly atmosphere of revolution, civil war, and pervasive confusion.
The last two-thirds of the novel features two main heroes, Alexander “Sasha” Dvanov and Stepan Kopionkin, the latter sometimes interpreted as a Don Quixote figure. I disagree with characterizing Kopionkin as a Don Quixote figure. His actions are far from tilting at windmills. In fact, he proves to be a fierce warrior in the final battle at the end of the book. Throughout much of the book, Dvanov and Kopionkin roam from town to town across the steppes, seeking examples of the new Communism in Russian villages. They have many conversations about politics, the meaning of life, and religion during their travels.
After various adventures, about halfway through the novel, Dvanov and Kopionkin arrive in a small town that serves as an experimental proto-communist village called Chevengur. In Chevengur, the working class poor believe that Communism will bring the Paradise of nature and bring out the best in everyone, a brotherhood of mutual camaraderie throughout the land. They have stopped working as they view work as part of the corruption of the old capitalist system.
Various characters come in and out of prominence during the second half of the book in Chevengur. Dvanov is missing during large parts of it, and Kopionkin becomes the center of the story. The central characters try to figure out whether “Communism was present in Chevengur or not.” Sometimes they were sure it was, and they had meetings to discuss why this was so. At other times they are equally sure that Communism had not arrived in Chevengur, and it was a failed village. The reasoning in both cases was simple minded to the point of absurdity. It is reminiscent of the old cliché that the inmates are running the asylum, à la Edgar Allan Poe’s “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.” The village leaders seem oddly nonsensical much of the time.
These quasi de facto leaders of the village did their best to exterminate all people who were labeled as “bourgeoises” in order to help expedite the accomplishment of Communism. They implement various rounds of confiscating property and mass killings to purify the population and exterminate the middle classes who are corrupted by the practice of owning property.
Eventually Dvanov returns to Chevengur and Kopionkin is delighted to see his old comrade. Dvanov helps guide Kopionkin and the others on how to proceed towards the next stages of Communism.
In the end, it is all for nothing. Chevengur is destroyed and most people are killed by a marauding Russian cavalry. The identity of the cavalry is intentionally left unclear: presumably it was either the White Guard or the Red Army. The defending forces are referred to as Bolsheviks—Bolsheviks are Red Army. So the Chevengur inhabitants defending the village were Red Army. But that doesn’t mean the attackers were not also Red Army. In this time of chaotic absurdity, it is perfectly possible that a town’s defenders and attackers identify as Red Army. The author communicates many instances of ambiguity throughout the novel, viz. convulsions of violence and anarchy in these chaotic times, where nothing makes sense. The attackers could’ve been Red or White, and it doesn’t make any difference.
(Spoiler Alert) Almost everyone in the town is killed. Dvanov survives the battle, but in the end, he rides his fallen comrade Kopionkin’s horse back to the land of his birth. Dvanov rides into the lake where his father had killed himself decades ago, slides down off the horse and into the lake to rejoin his father.
The novel is translated from Russian. Nevertheless, the phrases, sentences, and paragraphs are masterfully written, vividly bringing characters to life, making experiences very real for the reader. The author lived in Russia during the time period of the novel. He was a witness to the realities on the ground during the Russian Revolution and Civil War in the late 1910s to early 1920s. Platonov gives us a true insider’s perspective, and a compelling first-hand account, though recast as a fictional narrative. The book serves as another example of the truism that good fiction books convey the past more fully and accurately than history books.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading a deep, meaningful, thought-provoking story, and especially for anyone interested in the period in history.