Information about the author: 

Abstract:

This publication is the first to present in full the little-known story by A. Platonov, written at the turn of 1941–1942, “How the Fighter Kurdyumov Defeated Four Germans: Hunger, Cold, Lice, and Blat”. The introduction to the publicationdiscussesthestory’sinclusionin Platonov’searliestwartimecollection, “Under the Skies of the Motherland”. This collection was never published, but its title was transferred to another collection by Platonov, which was published in Ufa by the Bashkir State Publishing House in early 1943. It is established that the Bashkir collection was originally titled “The Greatness of Simple Hearts”. In the introduction to the publication, for the first time, information is provided about the radio broadcasts of Platonov’s works during the Great Patriotic War. The history of the first military collection is supplemented by a review written by critic E. Kovalchik after the manuscript of the collection was submitted to the publishing house “Soviet Writer”.

Кeywords: A. Platonov, the Great Patriotic War, collections of short stories “Under the Skies of the Motherland”, “The Greatness of Simple Hearts”.