This is a beautiful story of a young Turkmen, who tries to save, or perhaps, uplift his tribe of people, referred to as dzhan, which means soul. Chagataev is abandoned by his other, and ends up in Moscow. He does marry but returns alone to his group in Turkemenistan to lead his people away from their drudgery into the presumed brightness of the Stalin's Soviet system. He leads them through desert, initially with much hope, but really into much privation. At one point in the story, they run into a flock of feral sheep, who allow a portion of themselves to be slaughtered for food, but then escape. Chagataev tries to find them, and eventually loses his way. Eventually he and his tribe are reunited, but Chagatev's fear of their decimation doesn't occur. They survive by a residency of soul in their being. The old Sufyan represents their stalwartness, the young Aidym represents the flower and resourceful of youth, and the contemporary Nur-Mohammed represents idealism gone bleak. The story has an "all-well" ending which some believe was Platonov's effort to have a good spin with the Soviet government. ( )

Soul was written by Platonov in Soviet Russia during the thirties, but was only finally published in un-bowdlerised form in 1999. This might be surprising, given its ostensible plot of a young man, an analogue of Stalin, sent from Moscow to spread socialism to the 'nation' he was born in, and his (probable, depending on which of Platonov's endings one accepts) success. But Soul subverts the epic hero narrative so fundamentally that it was impossible for it to be accepted in Soviet Russia.

I found reading it a strange experience - most of my understanding of it seems to have popped out fully formed having been fermenting in my subconcious (although no doubt abetted by the helpful introduction) while I followed Chagataev and the Dzhan on their journey back to their 'hell' of a homeland. Platonov's description of the bleak desert through which they travel and the unremitting hardship of their poverty is spare but perfect, but its underlying theme of a search for a place and a people to belong and be useful in is far wider than the Dzhan or Soviet Russia.

If I had known more about the grim subject matter before beginning Soul, I would perhaps have avoided it, which would have been a terrible waste; despite the harshness of the narrative, the novel has a strangely compelling lightness to it. I am only disappointed that the British edition only includes Soul - I will be seeking out the NYRB edition which also includes a number of Platonov's short stories.

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2006/08/soul.html ( )