
About this episode
Show Notes:
This week, Cameron dives into Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur, covering chapters 1 through 25. Through the late Russian Empire into the early Soviet Union, Sasha Dvanov is finally orphaned when his fisherman father drowns in an attempt to understand his all-knowing, deathless fish. Growing up in the shuffling shadow of the new world, he joins the Bolshevik party and seeks to spread communism.
This episode covers his adventures trying to find out if the peasants have, after the abdication of the Tsar, suddenly begun to embrace communist lives. From anarchist militias to a Bolshevik Fyodor Dostoevsky, he finds little to approve of in the countryside.
Check out our old episode covering The Cow and the Third Son.
A Companion to Andrei Platonov’s “The Foundation Pit” by Thomas Seyfrid.
Time out of line: Sequence and plot in Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur by by Hallie A. White
The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.
Our links: Website | Discord
Socials: Instagram | BlueSky | Twitter | Facebook
Questions, comments, want to hear your voice on a bonus episode? Send us an email at [email protected].
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Get every episode summarized
Each time The Slavic Literature Pod publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from The Slavic Literature Pod

Mosquito by Akhmet Baitursynov (with translator Jake Zawlacki)
The Slavic Literature Pod

Sofia Petrova by Lydia Chukovskaya
The Slavic Literature Pod

For Your Consideration: John Williams' Butcher's Crossing (and why I don't think...
The Slavic Literature Pod

The Last Letter (2002) by Frederick Wiseman + What Vasily Grossman and Life & Fa...
The Slavic Literature Pod