[trhway]

I've never heard Platonov mentioned in the West when it comes to Russian/USSR literature dealing with ideological totality. Probably Platonov's language is very hard to translate in the way preserving his sound. To me his https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foundation_Pit is if one removed all the fictional elements from "We", removed even any [anti] glory of "dystopia" and any color, got down to the very ground, and what raw core left would be it. On some plane it is close, though much more brutal on the reader, to the Strugatskis' "Snail on the Slope".

[konart]

I deeply hated Котлован (The Foundation Pit) at school. To this day I can't understand why this on is even in school program.

[trhway]

Deep consolations to your fate :) It must have been real torture. Putting it on school program is worse than putting Dostoevsky there. While i was able to read Dostoevsky again later at University, and that time i was enjoying it and started to understand him (at least it was my impression that i was understanding him), i was able to start reading Platonov only when i was doing heavy physical labor 12-14 hours/day 7 days a week while working in summer construction in Siberia ("stroyotryad") - that puts you into the state of mind suitable for Platonov :)