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Did Huxley Know Zamyatin? Several Approaches to the Issue

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  • DOI:

    https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2026-40-320-347
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/GRTYCX
  • УДК / UDK: 821.161.1.1
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • Received: 11.02.2026
  • Approved after reviewing: 10.03.2026
  • Date of publication: 25.06.2026
  • Issue:

    no. 2 (40), 2026
  • Author: Irina V. Golovacheva
  • About the author:

    Irina V. Golovacheva, Doctor Hab. in Philology, Professor, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya Emb. 7/9, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia; Russian Christian Academy for the Humanitie, Emb. Fontanka River, 15, 191023 St. Petersburg, Russia.

    ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3873-490X

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Funding Sources:

    The research has been supported by grant from the Russian Science Foundation (No 25–28 00584; URL: https://rscf.ru/en/project/25-28-00584/); Russian Christian Academy for Humanities named after Fyodor Dostoevsky.
  • Abstract:

    This article offers a historical-biographical and comparative approach to the questions that have long preoccupied the readers of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” (1932). The first question is: Did Aldous Huxley know of Yevgeny Zamyatin and specifically of his utopia “We”? The second question is: Did Huxley read Zamyatin’s novel prior to 1931, i.e., before he started writing his own utopia “Brave New World”? The paper provides a comprehensive history of the issue by chronologically tracing the debate over Huxley’s presumed ‘plagiarism.’ The author views and critically assesses all the “pro et contra” arguments pertaining the hypothesis of Huxley’s borrowings from “We.” It is argued that Huxley learned about Zamyatin’s novel in 1927 from Rene Fülöp-Miller’s “The Mind and Face of  Bolshevism”, from the book devoted to politics, life and culture in the USSR which Huxley studied closely.

    The paper examines numerous similarities in the plots and imagery of the two utopias. The author claims that the parallels, however, do not give us any sufficient ground to assert Huxley’s conscientious borrowings from Zamyatin’s novel, much less his plagiarism. Rather, as the article argues, the similarities result from a ‘genetic’ kinship, namely, from the shared literary heritage of the writers. Indeed, both “We” and “Brave New World” owe much to H.G. Wells and F.M. Dostoevsky. Another major source of inspiration for Zamyatin and Huxley was the Soviet utopian project which played a significant role in shaping the ideological message and poetics of both utopias. It is Huxley’s interest in the “new world” of the communist utopia and in Soviet cultural realities that explains his attention to Zamyatin’s article “The Future of Theatre” (1932). Huxley devoted an essay to this text by Zamyatin. The Russian translation of Huxley’s essay is included in the paper.

    Finally, the article tackles the following question: why didn’t Huxley ever comment on Zamyatin’s “We”?
  • Keywords: Aldous Huxley, Evgeny Zamyatin, “Brave New World,” “We,” borrowings, similarities, Zamyatin’s interviews, “The Future of the Theatre,” “New World Drama”.
  • For citation:

    Golovacheva, I.V. “Did Huxley Know Zamyatin? Several Approaches to the Issue.” Literaturnyi fakt, no. 2 (40), 2026, pp. 320–347. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2026-40-320-347
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