His father was a metal fitter (and amateur inventor) employed in the railroad workshops and his mother was the daughter of a watchmaker. Platonov was born in the settlement of Yamskaya Sloboda on the outskirts of Voronezh in the Chernozem Region of Central Russia. This was followed by a reissue of The Foundation Pit in 2009, and in 2012 by Happy Moscow, an unfinished novel (not published in Platonov's lifetime). In 2007, New York Review Books reissued a collection of Platonov's work including the novella Soul (1934), the short story 'The Return' (1946), and six other stories. In 2000, the New York Review Books Classics series issued a collection of short stories, including his most famous story, 'The Potudan River' (1937), with an introduction by Tatyana Tolstaya. During 1970s, Ardis published translations of his major works, such as The Foundation Pit and Chevengur.

The short story collection The Fierce and Beautiful World was published in 1970 with an introduction by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and became Platonov's first book in English. His famous works include the novels Chevengur (1928) and The Foundation Pit (1930). Although Platonov regarded himself as a communist, his principal works remained unpublished in his lifetime because of their skeptical attitude toward collectivization of agriculture (1929–1940) and other Stalinist policies, as well as for their experimental, avant-garde form infused with existentialism. Novelist, philosopher, playwright, poet, engineerĪndrei Platonovich Klimentov ( Russian: Андре́й Плато́нович Климе́нтов 28 August 1899 – 5 January 1951), known by the pen name Andrei Platonov (Russian: Андре́й Плато́нов, IPA: ), was a Soviet Russian novelist, short story writer, philosopher, playwright, and poet. Voronezh, Voronezh Governorate, Russian Empire

The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov