"Chevengur" by Andrei Platonov, summary Automatic translate

This book is a philosophical epic, written in 1927. The text tells the story of people who believed in the possibility of immediately halting the course of history for the sake of literally establishing communism in a single, poor county.

The Wanderings of Zakhar Pavlovich and Sasha Dvanov

Zakhar Pavlovich is a craftsman with no family or home. He wanders through villages, mending utensils and crafting wooden pans. He has no attachments in life, save for his love of ingenious machines. Zakhar Pavlovich moves to the city and works as a laborer at a locomotive depot, where he sincerely admires the power of locomotives. He takes in a little boy, Sasha Dvanov, to raise. Sasha’s biological father, a fisherman from Lake Mutevo, drowned voluntarily. The fisherman tied a strong rope to his feet and jumped into the water, wanting to see what lay beneath the surface of death.

Before meeting Zakhar Pavlovich, Sasha had lived in Prokhor Abramovich’s foster home, where a practical boy named Proshka grew up. Later, the orphan went begging. Zakhar Pavlovich saved Alexander from death. Sasha grew up and read technical books with interest. Then the revolution happened. Zakhar Pavlovich searched for the most correct political party, but doubted the sincerity of its members. Alexander Dvanov joined the Bolsheviks. The Party sent him to the front lines of the civil war, to Novokhopersk.

Along the way, a military train derails due to the engineer’s fright. Alexander Dvanov wanders through the province on foot and contracts typhus, which progresses to pneumonia. Zakhar Pavlovich manages to build a sturdy coffin for his adopted son. Alexander miraculously recovers, and the wooden coffin is used for firewood. Dvanov meets a young woman named Sonya Mandrova, and a timid attraction develops between them. Soon, the provincial executive committee assigns Dvanov to travel to remote districts to uncover the spontaneously emerging elements of socialism there.

The road to Chevengur

In the steppe, Alexander is captured by Mrachinsky’s anarchist gang. The anarchist Nikitok shoots Dvanov in the leg. Alexander is saved from certain death by Stepan Kopenkin. This wandering commander of Bolshevik field forces rides a mighty horse named Proletarian Force. Kopenkin lives solely on the memory of the murdered Rosa Luxemburg. He considers the revolution to be the living remnant of Rosa’s body and hacks at her enemies with his sabre. Kopenkin and Dvanov travel together in search of a comfortable new life.

Along the way, they encounter poor settlements. In the village of Petropavlovka, they encounter a man who has declared himself a god and subsists on dry clay. A lame commissioner rules the village of Khanskie Dvoriki. He has renamed himself Fyodor Dostoevsky, registers peasants under the names of Columbus and Franz Mehring, and distributes other people’s livestock to the poor. The travelers visit the "Friendship of the Poor" commune. The people there have long administrative names and sow nothing. Kopenkin and Dvanov discover the revolutionary preserve of Comrade Pashintsev. He wears medieval knight’s armor over his bare skin and sleeps on empty bombs.

Dvanov and Kopenkin travel to the district town of Chevengur. Chepurny, chairman of the revolutionary committee, is in charge there. The city’s ideology is formulated by the now-adult Prokofy Dvanov. Chepurny desires the immediate advent of communism. Prokofy drafts a circular about the second coming of the bourgeoisie. The entire petty bourgeoisie is brought out into the square. The head of the Cheka, Piyusya, shoots the wealthy residents, aiming for their throats to quickly vent their souls. The survivors are driven into the steppe. The town empties. The Chevengur Bolsheviks await the proletariat.

Life of the proletariat in communism

The Bolsheviks declare the sun to be the world’s only toiler. People are freed from work. The Chevengurians organize subbotniks (workdays) — moving wooden houses to new locations and uprooting orchards to physically cleanse Chevengur of its historical legacy. Prokofy sets out into the steppe and brings the population to the city. These are the so-called "others." Vagrants, orphans, nameless people who grew up without fathers in abject poverty. The others feed on steppe weeds and sleep on the ground, hugging each other to keep warm.

The people of Chevengur reject any useful creative endeavor. They sincerely believe that all labor breeds class contradiction and leads to capitalism. The townspeople wander the surrounding steppes, foraging for meager plant food and wearing shabby clothing. They revel in their liberation from mental and physical control. Chepurny sleeps outside and tends a fire in a clay tower so that the poor wandering in the steppes can find their way to Chevengur. The Bolsheviks Zheyev, Kirey, and Kesha guard the outskirts of the town at night, fearing a surprise attack by Cossack bands.

They settle into the empty houses of Chevengur. They have no need for property. Their only meaning is friendship and being with living comrades. Old Yakov Titych sleeps in a house with a lonely cockroach, pitying it as if it were his own. The pedestrian Lui calls for communism to be a continuous movement and heads off toward Petrograd. A roadside beggar woman enters the city with an exhausted boy. The child is gravely ill. Chepurny hopes that under the conditions of ready-made communism, the boy will recover immediately. The mother lays the child on the bed. The boy groans and soon dies. Chepurny tries to revive him, but the child is dead. Kopenkin is disappointed.

The other citizens grow bored with inactivity and ask for wives. Prokofy brings a convoy of emaciated women from the villages, aged by grief. The women become more like mothers and sisters to the others. Only Prokofy takes the plump Klavdyusha for himself and appropriates the town’s property, storing it in a brick house. Simon Serbinov arrives in Chevengur on assignment from Moscow. He left behind a casual girlfriend, Sofia Alexandrovna, for whom he felt a cynical attraction. Serbinov searches for weed-overgrown fields. Simon records the town’s strange life, writes a mocking report to the governor, and remains to wait.

Dvanov feels a deep responsibility for the people gathered in the town. He pities them and strives to ensure their peaceful existence. Alexander decides to build a dam on a dried-up stream to irrigate the steppe for future harvests. Piyusya readily helps him dig the earth. Gopner cares for the ailing Yakov Titych, building him a warm frame in the house and a greenhouse. Two young gypsy women quietly arrive in Chevengur, hoping to find husbands and shelter there. But the others are embarrassed by them, and the gypsy women leave the town, disappearing into the wilderness of the steppe.

The Death of Chevengur

Dvanov, along with the old craftsman Gopner, are attempting to make a wooden disc for throwing stones to defend Chevengur. Gopner makes fire by friction with a dry wooden pump. Suddenly, Chevengur is attacked by a detachment of Cossacks. A battle on horseback and on foot ensues. Piyusya, Chepurny, Pashintsev, and many others die, fiercely defending the town. Serbinov fires a lady’s revolver, and a cavalryman slashes his stomach with a sabre. Serbinov falls dead. Kopenkin fights in the thick of the enemy on the Proletarian Force. He is mortally wounded. Dvanov carries Kopenkin out into the steppe. Kopenkin raves about Rosa Luxemburg and dies quietly on the ground. Dvanov mounts the Proletarian Force and rides away from the ruined Chevengur.

Alexander Dvanov rides horseback to his native Lake Mutevo. He finds an old, forgotten fishing rod on the shore. Alexander dismounts, wades into the water, and drowns, following in the footsteps of his dead father. Proletarian Power returns to the deserted Chevengur. Old Zakhar Pavlovich arrives there, searching for Sasha. In the dead city, Zakhar Pavlovich finds a weeping Prokofy. Prokofy sits alone among his collected belongings. Zakhar Pavlovich asks him to find Sasha Dvanov and offers him a ruble. Prokofy promises to bring Alexander for free and leaves to search.