REFLECTIONS ON THE FATE OF PEASANTS ON THE “GREAT CONSTRUCTION SITES OF THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN” IN ESSAYS BY F.I. PANFEROV AND V.P. ILYENKOV (1931)

Abstract

. In the article on the example of three essays (“Concrete”, “Coke (fuel). People. Refractory” and “Victory Pit”), created by the Soviet writer Fyodor Ivanovich Panferov in collaboration with Vasily Pavlovich Ilyenkov in 1931, reveals the theme of the tragedy of the fate of peasants during the period of continuous collectivization. Despite the fact that these works were created in the traditions of socialist realism, they are distinguished by the complexity and depth of understanding of the historical processes taking place in the late 1920s – early 1930s in the country. Thousands of people, whose life has been connected with the earth for centuries, left their native places in search of a better life, fleeing the need for a collective present. Finding themselves in an alien environment of workers – builders of a metallurgical plant – the peasants went through a difficult path of restructuring their own consciousness. These essays are representative of that time and allow modern readers and researchers to expand their understanding of both the literary traditions of that time and the lives of ordinary people who became participants in the “great construction of the five-year plan” – Kuznetsk.