George Orwell and Russia

For those living in the Soviet Union, Orwell’s masterpieces Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four were not dystopias, but accurate fictional depictions of reality. Here, the Orwell scholar and Russian political expert Masha Karp – head of the BBC’s Russian Service for nearly a decade – explores how Orwell’s work was received in Russia, and how it affects the political reality of totalitarianism today. The book reveals for the first time new contextual articles and letters written by Orwell which provide explanation for his naming of fellow communists to the authorities in the 1940s, and shows how Orwell’s ideas percolated in Russia even under censorship. Karp also demonstrates why The Road to Wigan Pier – Orwell’s famous exploration of British poverty – was never published in Russian, and how the ideas of totalitarianism laid out in Orwell's writings have taken root in Russia today. As Vladimir Putin’s actions continue to shock the west, it seems clear we are witnessing the next transformation of totalitarianism, as predicted and described by Orwell. Now over 70 years after Orwell’s death, his writing, at least as far as Russia is concerned, remains as timely and urgent as it has ever been.