There's a new English translation of a Russian novel compared to "1984"

There’s a new English translation of a Russian novel that some have connected to George Orwell’s 1984.

Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, like 1984, takes place in a future authoritarian society (though the former is much farther into the future than the latter).

We originally came out in 1920 and was first translated into English a few years later, but Bela Shayevich — who has worked on one of Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich’s books — has now tried her hand at it.

The Passive Voice shared an excerpt of the New York Times piece on this new translation of We.

His post includes a link to the full version if you’re a subscriber or haven’t hit your paywall limit yet … and there’s also a comment by a reader pushing back on the description of We as inspiring 1984, versus merely being a single influence.

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