This article presents the research on three issues. First, revealing the features of Russian culture’s semantic picture of the world in relation to a person’s positioning in society and attitudes toward work, as they are expressed in A. Platonov’s writings. Second, identifying Platonov’s contribution to understanding and expressing a “Russian” attitude toward life and work. Third, determining the prospects of this kind of motivation toward life and labor activity, along with its compatibility with the transformation of social reality we are experiencing today.