George Orwell & Russia

For those like author Masha Karp who grew up in Russia during the Soviet era, Orwell’s masterpieces Animal Farm and 1984 were not dystopian fever dreams but rather accurate descriptions of nightmarish reality. In George Orwell & Russia, she explores how Orwell’s work was received in Russia in its own time, and how deeply the components and ideas of totalitarianism took root in Russia and its larger sphere of influence. She fleshes out the fascinating context—involving a rich array of chance encounters, friendships, and family ties—in which Orwell’s understanding of communism grew, including the conflicts with leftwing circles in the English-speaking world which made it uncommonly hard for him to find publishers for his most famous books.

Orwell as he emerges in Karp’s book is a crucial ally for those currently struggling to grasp what is happening both in Russia under Vladimir Putin and in the United States during the Trump era. Ultimately, George Orwell & Russia is an invitation to reconsider Orwell's penetrating inquiries in the contemporary context: How does a whole society lose its ability to think, speak, and act freely? Can such losses be reversed? And what forms of resistance offer hope?

Masha Karp is a political journalist and scholar on the work of George Orwell. A member of the St Petersburg Writers Union and Literary Translators Guild, she is the author of a biography of Orwell in Russian as well as the Russian translator of Animal Farm. After leaving Russia, she was a features editor at BBC Russia for over a decade and is now a freelance writer based in London, a member of the board of the Orwell Society, and the editor of its journal.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Clio's Books