X and Other Stories: Newly Translated and Annotated

by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Hugh Aplin (translator)

As a great fan of 'We', I wondered why Zamyatin's other works are rarely read in English. They can be found, but in books out of print and far too expensive. Here are four short stories—'X,' 'The Dragon,' 'Mamai,' and 'The Cave.'As anyone familiar with Zamyatin would suspect, he's a hard man to translate. His strange, seemingly random punctuation can be deciphered fairly easily. Still, I found it appropriate to use my own strange, seemingly random punctuation at times. English, as you know, is a different language. As to Zamyatin's pushing of Russian grammar to the bleeding edge, his incomplete sentences, his coining of neologisms, many from old Ukrainian roots, his endless use of metaphor—Well, if an infinite number of translators rendered Zamyatin into English, one would surely get it right, whatever that means. That does give the translator a lot of latitude, in case you wonder why my offerings differ from others.At first, I thought I'd translate everything I could find, then decided to focus on his period of fantastic creativity. Mirra Ginsburg, Zamyatin's most noted translator, said that he wrote in many different styles. True enough, but one could also say that a few of his stories are great, and most are merely interesting.So here it my greatest Zamyatin hits. See what you think.

272 pages, Paperback

Published January 14, 2025

About the author

Yevgeny Zamyatin (Russian: Евгений Замятин, sometimes also seen spelled Eugene Zamiatin) Russian novelist, playwright, short story writer, and essayist, whose famous anti-utopia (1924, We) prefigured Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), and inspired George Orwell's 1984 (1949). The book was considered a "malicious slander on socialism" in the Soviet Union, and it was not until 1988 when Zamyatin was rehabilitated. In the English-speaking world We has appeared in several translations.

"And then, just the way it was this morning in the hangar, I saw again, as though right then for the first time in my life, I saw everything: the unalterably straight streets, the sparkling glass of the sidewalks, the divine parallelepipeds of the transparent dwellings, the squared harmony of our gray-blue ranks. And so I felt that I - not generations of people, but I myself - I had conquered the old God and the old life, I myself had created all this, and I'm like a tower, I'm afraid to move my elbow for fear of shattering the walls, the cupolas, the machines..." (from We, trans. by Clarence Brown)
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin was born in the provincial town of Lebedian, some two hundred miles south of Moscow. His father was an Orthodox priest and schoolmaster, and his mother a musician. He attended Progymnasium in Lebedian and gymnasium in Voronezh. From 1902 to 1908 he studied naval engineering at St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. While still a student, he joined the Bolshevik Party. In 1905 he made a study trip in the Near East. Due to his revolutionary activities Zamyatin was arrested in 1905 and exiled. His first short story, 'Odin' (1908), was drew on his experiences in prison.
Zamyatin applied to Stalin for permission to emigrate in 1931 and lived in Paris until his death.

Reviews

[MihaElla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy bullshit or holy satire, one way or another it's possible to deal with what happens in the real life. This is a very nice collection of short stories, yet two of them are pretty lengthy, the first two listed below, so maybe it's better to say they are novellas.

Provincial Life 5*
At the End of the Earth 5*
Cave 5*
X 4*
Mamai 3*
Flood 5*

In Flood, to my ever growing surprise, I have realized that as a matter of fact there exists a female correspondent of celebrated Rodion Raskolnikov, and her name is Sofya. Tremendously gripping and awesomely squeezed to a tale event.
Well, I used to believe that We is the only work I liked of Zamyatin, it was one that hit me strongly. Yet, these stories are worth while to grab a keen reader's attention. I saw many scenes of mingled comicality and seriousness, which chocked me now and again while passing through pages. Nonetheless, the background is muddy, foggy, dark, cold and unutterably wretched in every possible respect. Russian Life had never been an easy one. The characters are utterly impossible to resist, especially as they make the strangest remarks the mind of man can conceive, without any intention of being funny, but rather, unintentionally of course, meaning to be philosophical.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to find this new translation of six of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s short stories, having enjoyed his masterpiece, We so thoroughly and heard from a friend that three of his novellas published in Russian also made for a great read. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Russian and will have to wait for the latter, but in the meantime settled in to this collection from Alma Classics. The introduction gives a taste for some of the things lost in translation, as well as Zamyatin’s use of local vernacular and his goal of concision in writing.

The introduction also provides a brief summary of the difficult period in which Zamyatin wrote – the Civil War having started when he was 33, and the emerging Soviet state keeping a close eye on artistic output. As Margaret Atwood explained in a separate article, Zamyatin had been a Bolshevik but was aghast of the direction they took towards autocracy. In this collection we get tales published beforehand in Provincial Life (1913) and At the End of the Earth (1914), as well as tales published afterwards, including The Cave (1920), Mamai (1920), X (1926), and Flood (1929). Writing under the threat of imprisonment, we certainly see a darker tone to the latter set, as well as a strained sort of hidden meanings. Ultimately Zamyatin would write to Stalin in 1931 to request permission to leave the country, which was granted. Unfortunately, he never real came to terms with living in Paris and died just six years later.

I found the collection uneven, with Zamyatin at his strongest in Provincial Life and Flood, the first and last in the book and both 4 stars, and pretty good in At the End of the Earth, which make up most of it by page count. Among other things, we get colorful characters ala Gogol, reflections on the changing times in Russia (e.g. the comic contrast of traditional street names with those politically inspired), frankness about sex and adultery, and questions of institutions like religion or the army. In X in particular we also get some playful meta types of lines (“The policeman, who had been given no words by the author, was silent.”) I can’t say I was ever blown away and found myself wishing Flood had been a much longer work, but the book was worth reading.

[Dale Medley]

Full disclosure: this is my translation. Personally, I'm crazy about it. I tell all my friends that it's not for everybody. Zamyatin swings between the bizarrely comic to the bizarrely serious. He's a little bizarre.

[Neil Challis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story collection, as usual there are ups and downs, unfortunately more of the latter. I liked X but apart from that they were, I feel, badly translated. Such a shame as I was looking forward to this as I love Bulkagov.
Translated fiction is a love of mine but not this, sorry.

[sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 sterren

alleen t laatste verhaal vond k echt leuk