The Modern Novel

Biography

Yevgeny Zamyatin was born in 1884 in Lebedian, about two hundred miles south of Moscow. His father was a priest and schoolteacher and his mother was a musician. He studied naval engineering in St Petersburg but was then arrested for his Bolshevik activities. Despite further arrests, he continued working as a writer and naval engineer, including a period in England. Much of his writing was satire, which got him into trouble with the authorities. After the Revolution, he edited various journals and translations of English writers. However, he was now critical of the Revolution. His most famous work – Мы (We) – was criticized by the Soviet authorities. He now had difficulty publishing his work in the Soviet Union and asked Stalin to be allowed to leave the country. Surprisingly this was granted and he emigrated to Paris, where he died in 1937, in poverty, his only real contribution having been to a screenplay by Jean Renoir. He is now mainly remembered for Мы (We), a novel which influenced George Orwell in writing 1984.

Books about Yevgeny Zamyatin

Alex M. Shane: Life and Works of Evgenij Zamjatin

Other links

Yevgeny Zamyatin
Zamyatin Evgeny Ivanovich
The Russian writer who inspired Orwell and Huxley
Shostakovich, Zamyatin, Goldstein, and The Bolt
Imagining the Future: Zamyatin and Wells
Zamyatin, Yevgeny Ivenovitch (in Russian)
Yevgeny Ivenovitch Zamyatin (in Russian)