Born into the family of a railway worker, Andrei Platonovich Klimentov began publishing poetry and essays soon after the 1917 revolution, adopting the pseudonym Andrei Platonov, which was based on his father’s first name. Educated as an engineer, he worked extensively in hydrological projects in Voronezh and Tambov Provinces. In 1927, Platonov published a debut collection of stories Epifanskie shliuzy (The Locks of Epifan) and moved to Moscow to pursue a career as a writer, contributing stories, novels, plays, screenplays, and critical essays, most of which were written in an idiosyncratic style and conveyed an odd view of the world.