Controlled, persecuted, destroyed
Andrei Platonov as a target of the Cheka
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The Cheka, the Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, was founded in 1917. It is the nucleus which engendered the Soviet secret service, a pillar of Stalinism and communist party rule. Writers were monitored particularly closely. In 1930, Andrei Platonov became a target of the Chekists. They created a “Platonov file”, and thanks to the work of their informants, they were aware of what he was thinking and writing, preventing his works from being published. Although he was denounced as an “enemy of the people”, he managed to survive the Great Terror. However, the arrest of his 15-year-old son in the spring of 1938 and his being sent to prison camp for betrayal of the homeland, terrorist and counter-revolutionary activity, destroyed not only Platonov’s son, but also Platonov himself.
(Osteuropa 8-10/2016, pp. 149–163)