George Orwell
«Skotskij Khutor»

The first edition in Russian language

Translated by Marija Kriger and Gleb Struve

By Daniel J. Leab:

Skotskiy khutor [Animal Farm], probably Frankfurt-am-Main, although no place of publication given: Posev, 1950, translated into Russian by Mariya Kriger and Gleb Struve. The translator's copy with a pencilled note by Mariya Kriger:

M. Kriger (M. Struve) [in Russian]
M. Kriger (M. Struve) [transliterated]
My husband and I translated this
book The inscription above
is in Gleb Struve's hand.

Vladimir Gorachek, publisher of Possey[*], a Russian emigré weekly in West Germany, in 1949 obtained Orwell's permission to publish Animal Farm in Russian in order to “distribute it gratis among Russian readers behind the ‘Iron Curtain’”. Gorachek planned to sell “about 1,000 - 2,000 copies” in West Germany in order “to be able to cover the expenses of sending the bulk through...” Orwell accepted no royalties and donated money to support the printing of the edition, having failed to persuade the British Foreign Office to contribute the 2,000DM needed by Possey. Struve, an expert on Soviet literature, had come into contact with Orwell after the war, and in the course of their correspondence had introduced him to the 1922 futurist Russian novel We, often referred to as a source for Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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Visit ‘The Daniel J. Leab Collection Of Books And Manuscripts By And About George Orwell:’
URL [wrapped; too long]: http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/
University_Library/libs/hay/collections/orwell/leab.html

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[*] Mr. Leab wrote “Possey” but correct name (transliteration) is “Posev” (in Russian: “Посев”).