![]() ![]() Zamyatin and Platonov did so using two related yet distinct modes: dystopia, in which society is deeply and overtly oppressive, and anti-utopia, in which society hides that oppression beneath superficial perfection. ![]() ![]() Given this, one wonders why and how they and so many other authors of the period criticized the regime indirectly at all. Evgeny Zamyatin’s We (1920–1921) was the first work banned by the Soviet censorship board, Andrei Platonov’s The Foundation Pit (1929–1930) met a similar fate just nine years later, and both writers suffered extreme marginalization afterward. Such a choice would seem prudent, given the era’s extreme censorship, but censors often reacted just as harshly against these works as against others. Many authors used these devices to subtly criticize the regime. From allegory and satire to humor and magical realism, indirect literary expression pervades Soviet literature. ![]()
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