"The Secret Person" of Platonov: a short summary of the story

Andrei Platonov is an author who is recognized in the domestic literature as a master of the word. In this article we will tell you about the work "The Secret Person" of Platonov. A brief summary will introduce you to this story. It was published in 1928. The story was published in a separate edition (Platonov's "Secret Man"). The summary of the events described in the work is as follows.

Summary: the beginning of events

Foma Pukhov, the main character, was not gifted with sensitivity. For example, he cut cooked sausage on the coffin of his wife, because he was hungry because of the absence of the hostess. Wrapping herself, after her burial, Pukhov goes to bed. Someone is knocking loudly at his door. This is the watchman of the office of his boss, who brings the hero a ticket to clear the snow from the railway tracks. Pukhov at the station signs in this order - try not to sign at that time!

Pukhov clears the way from snowdrifts

Together with other workers who serve the snowplow, which is being carried on two locomotives, the main character begins to clear the way from snowdrifts so that the Red Army armored trains and trains can pass. 60 versts from this place is the front. The snowplow on one snow block obstructs sharply. Smashing their heads, the workers fall. The Assistant to the Engineer is smashed to death . Surrounds the workers of the cavalry detachment of the Cossacks, ordering them to deliver a snowplow and locomotives to the station occupied by whites. Arrived at the place of the red armored train shoots the Cossacks, got stuck in the snow, and frees the comrades.

Rest on the station Liski

They rest at the station Liski three days. Pukhov on the wall of the barrack reads an announcement that a set of mechanics is being conducted on the Southern Front, in the technical parts. He offers Zvorychny, his friend, to go south, explaining this by what to do on the snow-plowing is already nothing: spring is approaching. A revolution will take place, but nothing will remain for the workers. She does not agree with Zvorychny because she does not want to leave her with her son.

The protagonist is sent to the Crimea

Pukhov leaves in a week with five locksmiths to Novorossiysk. On three ships, the Reds equip the troops, consisting of 500 men, to the rear of Wrangel, to the Crimea. Pukhov goes on a steamship called "Shan", serves on it a steam engine. Landing at an impenetrable night passes through the Kerch Strait, but the ships lose each other because of the storm. The raging element does not allow us to land on the Crimean coast. People are forced to return to the city of Novorossiysk.

Life in Novorossiysk

Here comes the news that the Red troops took Simferopol. Pukhov spent four months in the city as a senior mortar base, belonging to the Azov-Black Sea Shipping Company. He misses the lack of work: there are not enough steamships, and the main character is mainly engaged in what reports about breakdowns of mechanisms. Often he walks around the countryside, enjoying nature. The protagonist, remembering the deceased spouse, is sad, buried in the ground, heated by his breath, his face. She greases her with reluctant, rare drops of tears Pukhov - "intimate man" Platonov. The brief content of the story allows only a passing mention of his mental state.

Pukhov in Baku, meeting with Sharikov

Let's continue our story. Andrei Platonov further writes that after a while Pukhov leaves the city of Novorossiysk, but does not go home, but in Baku, in order to walk along the shore of the Caspian Sea, and then along the Volga to his homeland. In Baku, he meets with Sharikov, a sailor who is setting up a shipping company in the Caspian. This person gives him a business trip to the city of Tsaritsyn in order to attract a qualified proletariat to Baku. Having arrived there, the main character shows to some mechanic, who met him at the plant's office, the mandate of Sharikov. This person reads it, then, greasing with saliva, pasting a piece of paper to the fence - an interesting detail that introduces Andrei Platonov. "Innermost Man" Pukhov looks at a piece of paper and drives a nail so that the wind does not tear off the document. After that, he goes to the station, where he sits on the train. Pukhov asks the passengers where they are going. The gentle voice of one person replies that they also do not know. "He's going, and we're with him," he says.

Life at home

Pukhov returns to his homeland, settles in the house Zvorychny, who worked as a secretary of the cell workshops, and serves here as a hydraulic press fitter. He passes in a week to live in his apartment, which he calls "a strip of alienation," since Pukhov is bored here. The protagonist often goes to visit his friend Zvorychnoy and tells him various stories about the Black Sea - to drink tea not for nothing. Thomas, returning home, recalls that a human dwelling is called a hearth. He complains that his house is completely different from the hearth: no fire, no women. Very interesting are the thoughts of the protagonist, who created Platonov ("The Secret Man"). Unfortunately, their analysis is not the subject of this article. However, the transformation that he eventually undergoes, we will try to briefly describe in more detail.

Pukhov's failed undertaking

White approaches the city. Gathered in the detachments, the workers defend themselves. Hurricane fire raids the city armored train of whites. Foma proposes to organize several platforms of sand in order to put them on the armored train from the slope. But they shatter to pieces, without causing him any harm. Workers who rushed to the attack fell under machine-gun fire. Two armored trains of the Red Army soldiers come to the workers in the morning to help: the city is saved.

After these events, the cell is sorted out: is not Pukhov a traitor? And maybe he came up with this stupid idea, because it's just a silly peasant? On that and decided. Foma Pukhov burdens work in the shop - discouragement, and not weight. Remembering about Sharikov, he wrote a letter to him.

Pukhov again in Baku

The answer comes in a month. Comrade invites him to work in Baku at the oil fields. Thomas goes there, serves as a machinist on one of the engines, pumping oil from the oil well. Time goes by, the protagonist is well. He regrets only one thing: that he has aged a little and there is already something desperate in his soul, as it was before.

Awareness of Thomas Pukhov

Once the main character, whose life tells us the story of Platonov's "Intimate Man," went fishing from Baku. He spent the night with his friend Sharikov, to whom the brother returned from captivity. Unexpectedly awakened sympathy for people suddenly becomes clear in Pukhov's soul. He walks with pleasure, feeling the closeness to his body of all other bodies, the luxury of life, as well as the fury of nature, bold, incredible in action, and in silence. Gradually, the main character guesses about the most painful and important: in people, in revolutionary courage passed desperate nature. Soulfulness leaves Pukhov, and he feels the familiar warmth of his homeland, as if from an unnecessary wife he returned to his mother. Heat and light were straining over the surrounding world, gradually turning into human strength. He met the machinist, he says: "Good morning!" He answers: "Revolutionary completely."

Thus ends the "secret man" Platonov. The summary only introduces the reader to the main events. After reading the original of the work, you will get to know the main character better and better understand why Platonov in his respect used such an unusual definition - "the innermost man." Heroes of the story are very interesting. Their characters deserve more detailed consideration.