“The One Who Left Does Not Come Back”: The Context of the Publication of the Short Story ʽTakyr’ in Almanac Aiding-Giunler

The article attempts to contextualize the short story “Takyr” by Andrei Platonov. The details of its publication history allow us to evaluate links and contacts that place the story into the literary situation of Turkmen writers’ brigade. The story is put into three perspectives: its place in the almanac, its reflection in the local press, and critical reception. The latter tells that at some point “Takyr” provoked a reaction similar to one provoked by Turkmen text from the next almanac (Turkmenia, 1936). The article also presents a newly found folklore citation. The usage of archival sources, such as Grigory Sannikov’s collection in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (F. 3256), allows us to establish connections necessary to further annotation. The summarized contextualization leads to a conclusion that “Takyr,” being significantly different from the other texts in the almanac, can still be put in a larger perspective of complex links. The article mildly corrects Katharine Holt’s hypothesis of “collective authorship” on Platonov’s prose.