ABSTRACT
The appearance in 1937 o f the collection Reka Potudan' (The River Potudan) constituted a remarkable moment in Platonovs life and literary career.2 To be sure, a number o f his works had appeared in print in the previous few years, but the publication o f this slim volume o f short stories marked his most visible return to print since the virulent campaigns against him in the early 1930s. Platonovs rehabi litation was, however, to be exceedingly provisional: the collection appeared in a print-run o f some 5,000 copies; critical reaction to it was far from complimentary;3 and instead o f pursuing a second career as the creator o f exquisitely crafted miniatures, Platonov was obliged to turn to literary criticism, most o f which was published under a variety o f ingenious pseudonyms.4 Ultimately, however, it was to be stories such as ‘Fro’ (‘Fro’) and ‘Reka Potudan'’ (‘The River Potudan’) which won for him some sort o f literary reputation in postStalinist Russian letters, and even today these works have retained their popularity with readers.
