The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Literature

The Stalin years 219

narrative to celebrate the experiment, in earnest and single-voiced fashion. Shvarts produced ironic, double-voiced but also strangely inspirational fairy tales that required a miracle to bring off their happy ending. Platonov suspended the experiment, ran it in slow motion almost below the voice barrier, and was barely heard in his own time. After Stalin’s death in 1953 and the first Thaw in 1956, a broader and more public coming to terms began.