“Reading “1984” closely is both sickening and cathartic because so much is instantly recognizable.”

@Bershidsky just finished the fifth Russian translation of Orwell’s famous novel. This is the book's Russian history https://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

George Orwell’s work was shunned in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

He earned himself a “Trotskyite” label during the Spanish Civil War. Later, he made things worse by writing “Animal Farm” -- and a hard-hitting Ukrainian preface to it http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

“1984” couldn’t be published in the Soviet Union.

Yet, in 1958, the Soviet Communist Party ordered a translation and print run of "1984," strictly for high-ranking party officials who were supposed to know the enemy better than the masses http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

That doesn’t mean other Soviet citizens couldn't read "1984." There were several ways to do it:

In English, if someone smuggled it past the border guards
The first Russian translation published overseas
Unofficial bootleg copies, known as samizdat http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

Orwell’s novel did something important for its Soviet readers: It described the reality around them as something abnormal, and that made it tolerable.

Suddenly, it wasn’t their fault that they saw it all as both criminal and surreal http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

The first two professional translations appeared in 1988 and 1989. Importantly, they rendered Orwell’s words into credible Russian, still used today:

Newspeaknovoyaz
Thoughtcrimemysleprestupleniye
Telescreentelekran
Big BrotherBolshoi Brat http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

. @Bershidsky’s new translation takes a different approach to the linguistic annex.

Thoughtcrime, for example becomes “krivodum”, literally meaning crooked thinking, rather than the cumbersome “mysleprestupleniye” http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

His most controversial choice was translating Ingsoc, the name of the Oceanian ideology.

Previous Russian translators decided on “angsots,” using the first syllables of England and socialism. @Bershidksy chose “Anglism,” which has a more jingoistic feel http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

So why is 1984 suddenly relevant again?

With the shrinking of basic freedoms, the rewriting of history and erosion of language and culture – have Orwell’s prophecies been fulfilled? @Bershidsky says no http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

Regimes, like Russia, try bits of the Oceanian recipe:

Search for external enemies
Demand blind loyalty
Increasingly sophisticated surveillance and propaganda methods

But they continue to be thwarted by those who refuse to think as they’re told http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A 

In 1984, Winston Smith ends up the loser, but thanks to the newspeak annex, we know that the Ingsoc system ultimately lost.

Winston’s rebellion wasn’t entirely wasted http://bloom.bg/35BiP2A