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A Soviet Heretic: Essays
English (translation)Original Russian
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
8 people are currently reading
442 people want to read
About the author
Yevgeny Zamyatin
315 books1,556 followersYevgeny 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.
"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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 8, 2018
Love Zamyatin. His words are razors.
*bleeds*
*bleeds*
November 19, 2021
“Organic chemistry has already obliterated the line between living and dead matter. It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write, walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes, and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in search, in questions, in torment.”
September 5, 2007
Oy, I loved the cartoons and the essays on writing. If I were to be compared to an alcoholic, swill swigging, buffoon X patriot or had my choice to be an emigre begging for Stalin's stamp on my divorce papers, I'd prefer Yevgeny Zamyatin ten-times over Earnest Hemingway, even if he did get all the sinioritas.
April 19, 2013
What a fascinating and astute writer. He payed dearly for his ideals and yet his powerful and inspiring writings live on as they should.
May 8, 2022
A Soviet Heretic is a series of essays, reviews, letters, autobiographical accounts and an overall insight into the life of the author of We, a revolutionary and a heretic. It is presented in five parts:
I. Zamyatin about Himself is the autobiography that Zamyatin never wrote. It comprises of brief renditions of his life. The one written in 1922 and 1924 are sketches of his life. 1929 is much more fleshed out.
And so you insist on my autobiography. But you will have to
content yourself with a purely external view, with perhaps a fleeting glance into darkened windows: I rarely invite anyone to
come inside. And from the outside you will not see much.
Short as they are, they give insight albeit briefly, into the mind of the artist who created the utopian dystopia in We and was persecuted brutally not so much for his ideals as for bravely and staunchly upholding them.
II. The State of Russian Literature are literary critic, essays and lectures published in a variety of literary journals. Zamyatin is scathing, concise, relentless and bold in his observations.
III. The Writer's Craft comprises of three lectures and one essay by Zamyatin on the art of writing. The Psychology of Creative Work correlates the power to creation to the creation of a dream. Zamuatin speaks of the “condenstaion of thought” and draws a parallel between the two processes. Theme and Plot is on the conception of plot and the development of its embryonic form through inductive crystallisation or deductive construction. On Language points out certain base mistakes incorporated by authors in their art and weighs the pros and cons of plotless aesthetic literature which is considered dull more often than not, as opposed to base works that carry better with the ever-changing audience and asserts the timelessness of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Backstage was an untitled essay later abridged in the Litsa and takes us through the figurative backstage: while the previous essay speaks of authors as accomplished actors, backstage is an insight of the very creative process as these “actors” get into their roles.
As a whole, this section is a comprehensive idea on writing presented in a simple, concise flow that it should be enlightening not only for aspiring and current writers, but also for reviewers and critics who analyse literature. Zamyatin cites examples both from his own works and hoards of other Russian authors to augment his essays.
IV. Eight Writers and One Painter are not literary criticisms or review but accounts of Zamyatin’s friendship and meetings with them. They chronicle the life of popular writers and the artist Kustodiev, including the obituary of Anatole France. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Zamyatin edited multiple Russian translations of works and authors O. Henry and H. G. Wells ate included amongst these eight.
V. Two Letters includes the Letter of Resignation from the Writers' Union and the Letter to Stalin. Boldly worded, these eclipse the life of Zamyatin as an author in Russia.
I. Zamyatin about Himself is the autobiography that Zamyatin never wrote. It comprises of brief renditions of his life. The one written in 1922 and 1924 are sketches of his life. 1929 is much more fleshed out.
And so you insist on my autobiography. But you will have to
content yourself with a purely external view, with perhaps a fleeting glance into darkened windows: I rarely invite anyone to
come inside. And from the outside you will not see much.
Short as they are, they give insight albeit briefly, into the mind of the artist who created the utopian dystopia in We and was persecuted brutally not so much for his ideals as for bravely and staunchly upholding them.
II. The State of Russian Literature are literary critic, essays and lectures published in a variety of literary journals. Zamyatin is scathing, concise, relentless and bold in his observations.
III. The Writer's Craft comprises of three lectures and one essay by Zamyatin on the art of writing. The Psychology of Creative Work correlates the power to creation to the creation of a dream. Zamuatin speaks of the “condenstaion of thought” and draws a parallel between the two processes. Theme and Plot is on the conception of plot and the development of its embryonic form through inductive crystallisation or deductive construction. On Language points out certain base mistakes incorporated by authors in their art and weighs the pros and cons of plotless aesthetic literature which is considered dull more often than not, as opposed to base works that carry better with the ever-changing audience and asserts the timelessness of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Backstage was an untitled essay later abridged in the Litsa and takes us through the figurative backstage: while the previous essay speaks of authors as accomplished actors, backstage is an insight of the very creative process as these “actors” get into their roles.
As a whole, this section is a comprehensive idea on writing presented in a simple, concise flow that it should be enlightening not only for aspiring and current writers, but also for reviewers and critics who analyse literature. Zamyatin cites examples both from his own works and hoards of other Russian authors to augment his essays.
IV. Eight Writers and One Painter are not literary criticisms or review but accounts of Zamyatin’s friendship and meetings with them. They chronicle the life of popular writers and the artist Kustodiev, including the obituary of Anatole France. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Zamyatin edited multiple Russian translations of works and authors O. Henry and H. G. Wells ate included amongst these eight.
V. Two Letters includes the Letter of Resignation from the Writers' Union and the Letter to Stalin. Boldly worded, these eclipse the life of Zamyatin as an author in Russia.
June 5, 2022
Great reading, highly recommended. This personal Biography shows amazing details about his life, self victories as a writer, overwelling challenges, and giving the inspiration to live by his conviction.
Quotes:
“True literature can exist only where it is created, not by diligent and trustworthy functionaries, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and skeptics.”
"Zamyatin also expressed his faith in brotherly love, in a humanism that would establish universal peace among men (hence the warmth of his appreciation of Wellsian humanism)"
"The philosophic conception of energy and entropy became the central thesis in We, where the heroine 1-330 states that "There are two powers in the world-entropy and energy. One leads to blissful rest, to a happy equilibrium; the other-to the destruction of equilibrium; to a tormentingly endless movement."
"Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number. The social revolution is only one of an infinite number of numbers: the law of revolution is not a social law, but an immeasuraby greater one. It is a cosmic, universal law-like the laws of the conservation of energy and of the dissipation of energy (entropy). Someday, an exact formula for the law of revolution will be established. And in this formula, nations, classes, stars-and books-will be expressed as numerical quantities."
"My father and my mother are gone, they will never come back, I am alone forever. I sit on a gravestone in the sun, crying bitterly. For a whole hour I live in the world alone."
“It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write, walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes, and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in search, in questions, in torment.”
“There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, whereas a book explodes a thousand times.”
Quotes:
“True literature can exist only where it is created, not by diligent and trustworthy functionaries, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and skeptics.”
"Zamyatin also expressed his faith in brotherly love, in a humanism that would establish universal peace among men (hence the warmth of his appreciation of Wellsian humanism)"
"The philosophic conception of energy and entropy became the central thesis in We, where the heroine 1-330 states that "There are two powers in the world-entropy and energy. One leads to blissful rest, to a happy equilibrium; the other-to the destruction of equilibrium; to a tormentingly endless movement."
"Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number. The social revolution is only one of an infinite number of numbers: the law of revolution is not a social law, but an immeasuraby greater one. It is a cosmic, universal law-like the laws of the conservation of energy and of the dissipation of energy (entropy). Someday, an exact formula for the law of revolution will be established. And in this formula, nations, classes, stars-and books-will be expressed as numerical quantities."
"My father and my mother are gone, they will never come back, I am alone forever. I sit on a gravestone in the sun, crying bitterly. For a whole hour I live in the world alone."
“It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write, walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes, and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in search, in questions, in torment.”
“There are books of the same chemical composition as dynamite. The only difference is that a piece of dynamite explodes once, whereas a book explodes a thousand times.”
May 3, 2021
Solid 3.5/5
I've only read this for my dissertation.
I've only read this for my dissertation.
February 13, 2018
Bel libro su un aspetto poco conosciuto della storia della fisica. Zamyatin è l'autore di Noi, meriterebbe maggiore conoscenza.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews