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Hello all, new to the fourm, long time viewer of the site.
I'm currently doing a research paper on Zamyatin's importance in 20th century Russian culture and would like to get the opinions of anyone that could shed some light. I realize "We" wasn't published in Russia till the glasnost (correct me if i'm wrong :)) so it's hard to find many native views on that novel. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Спасибо,
john
Well, I read it maybe 10 years ago... Truly inspiring thing, however, I read it after George Orwell's "1984", which is technically (as a piece of literature) better. Nevertheless, considering that "We" is more than 20 years older, I was amazed by Zamyatin's foresight and imagination. While Orwell described the world almost as it was in his times, Zamyatin's work was more challenging. The very fact that it was the first 'anti-utopia' in world literature confirms that. "We" inspired Huxley to write his more famous Brave New World and, no doubt, many other writers.
For your research, try this resource (both English and Russian). Also, try to find Orwell's review on "We" (it is on the website above, but only in Russian).
http://www.litra.ru/soch/author/53.html
http://www.bolshe.ru/unit/72/books/263/s/1
Here you can find some works of Russian students. I read this book 3-4 years ago in the University, but don't remember it too good to say someting.
thank you both for those links. Should be very helpful.