Andrei Platonov was born in the village of Ilyinsky, in the Ryazan province, on September 29, 1891. As a boy he was interested in the Russian folklore and told stories and poems he had composed to his classmates and teachers. With his childhood friend, Sergey Yesenin, he formed a literary group that published their verses and stories in various magazines. At twenty-five, after graduating from law school and working as a lawyer in the provincial capital of Ryazan for several years, he began to write fiction
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The first story was published in 1911 under the pen name "Platonov" (a Latinized version of Platonov). It was an unsuccessful attempt at developing an original story with fantastic elements. He went on to publish a series of short stories under this pen name until 1915, when a full-length novel was published under the pen name "Platonov," but with a title that could not be contained within it: "The Days of the Turbins," a grotesque tale about life in a peasant village.
The book received considerable local acclaim, but failed to attract any attention from abroad because of its obscure language. In 1916 Platonov again tried his hand at publishing short stories under his own name, but these were also unsuccessful. He spent many months writing another novel based on folklore material from Ryazan province, which he finished only after the February Revolution of 1917.
This novel did not appear until 1924—after a long delay caused by a series of physical and mental illnesses that had plagued him since 1913—and again failed to find a publisher. In 1923 Platonov began writing about his native village of Ilyinsky, which he had visited during his lifetime as well as during moments of exile from Russia. In 1925 the short story "The Grasshopper" appeared in an underground magazine.
In 1926 it was published by Gorky's literary magazine Novy Mir under the pen name "Fedot Alekseevich." This novel continued to be published in various versions over the next few years by many different publishers, with the author's permission. In 1927 Platonov became seriously ill with tuberculosis and could not continue work on "The Grasshopper." During this period Platonov traveled extensively throughout Europe. On returning to Russia he lived briefly in Moscow with Sergei Gorodetsky before moving with his wife to Stalingrad where they both worked as doctors at local hospitals through most of 1928 and 1929.
During this
