Andrei Platonov (1899–1951), the most mysterious and irregular Russian writer of the 20th century, passed almost unnoticed past the brilliant literary mirrors of the era. However, in no other writer’s life has the national life of Russia manifested itself so acutely, and in no other work has the tragedy of a people orphaned by the revolution expressed itself so deeply and fully. Novels, stories, stories, articles, plays by Andrei Platonov, most of which were published many years after his death, became artistically compelling evidence and a heartfelt understanding of what happened to the Russian people in the great and terrible decades of the past century. The fate and personality of Platonov were never limited to literature alone and are known to the general reader much less than his work. Meanwhile, the circumstances of his life make it possible to see and understand a lot in Plato’s books, which are difficult to understand. Alexey Varlamov, a famous prose writer and literary historian, presents to the readers the biography of Andrei Platonov, created on the basis of a significant number of archival documents and texts, including those that have recently been discovered, traces the creative path and recreates the personal, everyday traits of his hero, who, in the words of Viktor Nekrasov, “in life I was not a writer, but in my writing I always remained a man.”