The River Potudan (1937), should introduce the student of Russian to the complex thought and ideas that writers like Platonov, despite the severity of the times, were able, and brave enough, to convey. This story concerns a soldier returning from war, who with the support of a community of friends and family, builds a new life in Communist Russia. Complex issues are at stake: the hero has been emasculated by his experience; not harmony, but disintegration and alienation are characteristic of the Soviet society presented.