The Foundation Pit
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| The Foundation Pit | |
| Author | Andrei Platonov |
|---|---|
| Original title | котлован (Kotlovan) |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
| Publication date | 1929–1930 (written); 1969(pub'd in London); 1987(pub'd in USSR) |
| Pages | 141 |
| ISBN | 1860460496, 0810111454 |
The Foundation Pit (1929–1930) (Kotlovan) is a gloomy symbolical and satirical novel by Andrei Platonov. The plot of the novel concerns a group of workers in the early Soviet Union attempting to dig out a huge foundation pit, on the base of which a gigantic House for all Proletariat will be built. The workers dig daily, but they slowly cease understanding meaning in their work; the enormous foundation pit sucks out all their energy.
Along with Zamyatin, Platonov created one of the first state-control dystopias of the 20th century that had influence on such consequent masterpieces as Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World.
The Foundation Pit is a representation of the conflict that occurred between the individual and the collectivized State in the late 1920s. The only existence one has is being part of a whole.
Due to censorship, "The Foundation Pit" was not published in the Soviet Union until 1987.
