Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

I Just Translated ‘1984’ Into Russian. I’m Gasping for Air.

George Orwell is relevant again, in a new way, and his most famous book remains as suffocating as ever.

November 26, 2019 at 5:01 AM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Watchful.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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This year, I spent a suffocating four months living inside George Orwell’s “1984.” I didn’t know what I was getting into when a Moscow publisher suggested that I translate the classic dystopian novel into Russian, so I agreed too lightly. Vanity was part of the reason, but I did feel that “1984” had grown relevant to Russians, again.

I’m still coming up for air.