List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Note on Translation List of Abbreviations Part 1. ‘I Have Regarded This Regime With Plain Horror...’ 1. The First Vaccination. 2. ‘We’re All Socialists Nowadays…’ 3. Stalinism in Spain. 4. The Totalitarian Enemy. 5. The Russian Myth. Part 2. ‘Don’t Let It Happen. It Depends on You.’ 6. Opposing the Soviet Menace. 7. ‘As I Understand It.’ 8. ‘Over the Heads of their Rulers.’ 9. ‘Alone with the Forbidden Book.’ 10. ‘To Arrest the Course of History.’ Bibliography Index
The first book to show how Orwell's political writing was received in the Soviet Union, and how Orwell's vision of totalitarianism is reproduced in Russia today
Masha Karp is a political journalist and a leading scholar on the work of George Orwell. She worked for the BBC Russian Service between 1991 and 2009, first as producer and then as Features editor. A member of the St. Petersburg Writers' Union and the Literary Translators Guild in Russia, she translated Animal Farm and its original preface ‘The Freedom of the Press’ into Russian. Her biography of Orwell, the first to be published in Russia, was a finalist for the ABS Literary Prize. She is a member of the board of the Orwell Society and the editor of its journal.
‘Many people over the decades believed that Orwell must have lived
or at least been to the Soviet Union, because of his deep
understanding of totalitarianism. In her brilliant and informative
book, Masha Karp suggests that not much has changed and that the
Russia of today under President Putin proves the point that Orwell
made following his experience during the Spanish Civil War and his
comments in his controversial list of 1949 where he names people in
England ‘sympathetic to communism’.'
*Richard Blair, George Orwell’s adopted son, Patron of The Orwell
Society and member of The Orwell Foundation Council*
In George Orwell and Russia, Masha Karp explores the relationship
between totalitarianism, as imagined by Orwell, and
totalitarianism, as it really existed in Soviet Russia. As Russia
slides backwards into a new form of authoritarian dictatorship,
this book is a timely reminder of what came before.
*Anne Applebaum, Staff writer for The Atlantic and author of
'Gulag, A History'*
Karp's Russian view of Orwell is unorthodox and makes a novel case
for the continuing relevance of this controversial writer in the
age of Putin.
*Michael Scammell, Author of 'Koestler: The Literary and Political
Odyssey of a Twentieth Century Skeptic'*
In 2022, sales of George Orwell's "1984" went sky-high across
Russia as people sought to discover more about the reality they
were now living in - a reality in which "war is peace, freedom is
slavery, ignorance is strength". In truth, this reality was long in
coming - from the moment a former officer of the Soviet
"thought-police" came to power and re-instated the Stalin-era
national anthem back in 2000. It was a straight road from then on.
Masha Karp's new book offers a timely and important insight into
how Europe's largest country has descended in the 21st century into
a truly Orwellian reality - and a warning against failing to
recognise such obvious signs of danger in the future. A
must-read.
*- Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian politician, historian, journalist;
political prisoner since April 2022, arrested for his anti-war
speech at the Arizona House of Representatives; winner of 2022
Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize awarded by PACE*
Those who dared to read 1984 in Eastern Europe and the USSR during
the Cold War era always felt that it was a “miracle” that George
Orwell so deeply and fully grasped the nature of a society that he
had never stepped foot in: the totalitarian tyranny of Stalin’s
Russia. Equally miraculous, his nightmarish vision continued to be
eerily apposite to the USSR of later decades--just as it is to
Russia today. In George Orwell and Russia, Masha Karp works wonders
in explaining his mirabilia of imaginative insight as she charts
how Orwell’s hard-won experience of collectivism’s corruptions
enabled him to conjure a terrifying world whose numerous
catchphrases are bywords in the cultural lexicon. This outstanding,
path-breaking book should be read by all those who care about the
Soviet past, agonize about the Russian present, and worry about the
world’s future.
*John Rodden, Author of 'Becoming George Orwell: Life and Letters,
Legend and Legacy'*
[Karp] relishes the details of exactly how, when, and what Orwell
would have learned about Soviet Russia, and how his attitudes
towards Russia changed over time, especially in relation to his
continued belief in the ideals of socialism... her book is most
impressive on account of how judiciously she selects her material,
erring on the side of factual accuracy and abundance.
*Owen Boynton, Meduza*
Valuable for those interested in literature, political philosophy,
and Soviet history.
*CHOICE*
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