Educated at the Lebedian Progymnasium, the Vornezh gymnasium and the St Petersburg Polytechnic Institute where Zamyatin studied naval engineering. While still a student he joined the Bolshevik Party and, due to his revolutionary activities, was arrested and exiled in 1905. He returned to St Petersburg illegally and graduated in 1908. That year he also published his first short story, Alone which drew on his experiences in exile. He was rearrested and exiled in 1911, but was given amnesty in 1913. In 1916, he went to England to supervise icebreaker construction, but when the October Revolution began, he returned to Russia. His experiences in England resulted in the satirical works The Islanders (1918) and The Fisher of Men. In 1913, he had published A Provincial Tale, which was critical of the regime and which brought him popularity among its detractors. During the initial years of the Soviet regime, Zamyatin wrote articles for various Socialist newspapers and edited some journals. He was also employed as an editor of the World Literature Publishing house. By 1921, Zamyatin had become disillusioned with the Soviet regime and its oppression of freedom. In 1922, he published The Cave, concerning war-torn Petrograd and which was harshly treated by the censors. During the 1920's, Zamyatin came under regular attack by the Communist Party and eventually he had to give up his position as leader of the All-Russian Writer's Union. His works were banned and he was unable to work. At last, in 1931, after writing a letter to Stalin and with the help of Gorky, Zamyatin and his wife were allowed to leave the country. They settled in Paris where they lived in poverty. His most influential work was undoubtedly We, a future fiction piece which strongly influenced Orwell in his 1984 and Huxley in Brave New World. His other works include Robert Maier (1922), Blokha (1926), Attila (1927) and Les Bas-Fonds (1936). |
Chrysoma Associates Limited
