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Orwell and the Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm by [Chalupa, Andrea, Keis, Olexji]

Orwell and the Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm Kindle Edition

by Andrea Chalupa (Author), Olexji Keis (Author), Molly Crabapple (Illustrator),

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This book began as a speech I was asked to give at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on March 5th, 2012, which happened to be the anniversary of Stalin's death. I collected more research than I could present in my 30 minute talk, and so I compiled this inspiring true story into Orwell and the Refugees, with original cover art by illustrator and activist Molly Crabapple.

After having spent years working on the manuscript, George Orwell struggled to find a publisher for Animal Farm. An anti-Soviet satire was not welcome at a time when the West needed Stalin to fight Hitler, and leading intellectuals still believed in the promise of the Russian Revolution. Orwell managed to publish his "fairy tale" in 1945 at a small press for £100. Six months later, a copy ended up in the hands of Ihor Ševčenko, a Ukrainian refugee who recognized its profound meaning.

Ševčenko wrote to Orwell in London, and, working with him by letter, published Animal Farm in Ukrainian. In March 1947, Ševčenko printed around 5,000 copies to distribute among the Ukrainian refugees in the displaced persons camps of postwar Germany and Austria. But only 2,000 books were given out; U.S. soldiers, suspecting the books of being anti-Stalin propaganda, confiscated the rest and handed them over to Soviet authorities to be destroyed.

Though my mother and father were born in Ukrainian displaced persons camps, after their parents had escaped the Soviet Union through the hell of the Eastern Front, it had never occurred to me that out of the 2,000 copies that survived among the 200,000 or so Ukrainian refugees, that my family might have one. As I discovered while researching my family's history, my uncle had picked up a copy in the refugee camp when he was a teenager, and brought Orwell's masterpiece with him when he immigrated to the United States. I decided to explore the history behind this family heirloom and share it as a reminder of the humanitarian importance of speaking truth to power.

"Chalupa has produced a moving story about artistic and spiritual resistance."
--Nelson George, author of Hip Hop America
writer & director of Brooklyn Boheme

"This is the kind of story that makes you appreciate the power of coincidence. It keeps you engaged the whole way through."
--Ian Spector, New York Times bestselling author, The Truth About Chuck Norris

Length: 70 pages

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Page Flip: Enabled

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Product Details

File Size: 2658 KB
Print Length: 70 pages
Publication Date: March 11, 2012
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B007JNKF5G
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Not Enabled

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Lending: Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,535 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #101 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Arts & Photography
- #389 in Books > Arts & Photography > History & Criticism > Criticism
- #106953 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks

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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

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Top Customer Reviews

Amazing true story

ByOlga Landwijton July 11, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book covers a story that is important politically, literarily and personally. It has a perpective on Orwell and the politics of WWII. The West needed the Soviets to win the war. The truth about the Soviets was inconvenient. This book also sheds light on the life of an important writer who has an impact on today. Personally I am moved by this history, partly because I was born in Heidenau, the DP camp mentioned in the book.

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Great Book

ByArthuron June 3, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

Orwell and the Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm An interesting take on Orwell and Ukrainian expats after the Second World War. I have read Homage to Catalonia and Animal Farm and found this book to be a fascinating continuation and explanation of Orwell's work and reasoning. Well worth reading.

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orwell and the refugees

Bybill g palmini jron March 14, 2012

Format: Kindle Edition

I have read many many books in my life time , but, I just completed reading this fabulous book about real life and real people and found it very informative
and ''eye opening''. i especially enjoyed the style and the way it was written so you could ''live''
and 'feel' the diffrent situations..a master piece

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Orwell and the Refugees: The Untold Story of Animal Farm (Kindle Edition)

ByTetaLon June 20, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

My parents were in the Displaced Person's camp Heidenau at the same time as Andrea Chalupa's family, and I grew up hearing similar stories as told in this book. What I did not know was George Orwell's interest in refugees like my parents in the post World War II era. "Orwell and the Refugees" does an excellent job of explaining the remarkable series of events that led to Orwell's permission to translate his book "Animal Farm" into Ukrainian. In his preface to the Ukrainian translation, Orwell made a point of relating to the DPers by recounting his own struggles as a participant in the Spanish Civil War and his doubts about the Soviet system. In the latter case, he was preaching to the choir. These refugees had lived through it all and come out intact on the other side, albeit a bit war bruised. I loved this book for putting the spotlight on an extraordinary author and the remarkable people who lived through WWII and then were able to go on and live happy and productive lives.

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Vital History of Orwell's "Animal Farm" and the History of the Ukrainian Genocide

ByE. L. Van Hineon December 24, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

Incredibly valuable addition to Orwell's biography - the fortuitous discovery in 1946 of the newly-published "Animal Farm", by Ukrainian refugee Ihor Sevcenko, who realized its importance as an allegory of the Soviet regime, who then translated it into Ukrainian and got permission from Orwell to publish it for the Displaced Persons who were held at refugee camps in the American and British Zones of post-World War II Germany. While we who grew up with Orwell as a mainstay of political literature on the subject of totalitarianism, ibook brings into focus the vital importance of his first major work, "Animal Farm" as an allegory of the Russian Revolution and establishment of the totalitarian dictatorship of Josef Stalin.

In the era of Donald Trump, elected through political intervention by the Putin dictatorship of Russia, one statement in this book rings chillingly clear: "Stalin's genocide is a shocking tragedy; if he had been held accountable, it would have sent a message to future evil dictators. If the West had brought Stalin to justice, Hitler would have been shown that he would not be able to get away with his "Final Solution." Instead, Hitler began building his first concentration camp in 1933, on the heels of Stalin's genocide famine -- a news story in Germany during Hitler's rise to power."

Chalupa squarely blames the West's approval of Stalin (and its utter ignorance of the Holodomor ("famine torture") of Ukraine for the rise of Hitler's boldness in carrying out the Final Solution. If the West could stand by in support of Stalin's regime while he systematically starved millions of his own peasants, they were not likely to stand in the way of Hitler doing the same to the Jews and other undesirables in Hitler's Third Reich.

Therein lies the lesson of "Orwell and the Refugees", and the importance of Orwell's little animal book in revealing the truth of Stalin's genocidal regime to the modern world. Time for a reread of Orwell, America.

My only gripe about this book is that it isn't 400 pages longer.

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Great read

ByBrk349on June 3, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

This is an uplifting and well-researched book about the struggle of Ukrainian refugees to heal from the horrors they endured behind the Iron Curtain. It also shows how they lived in fear of being sent back by Allied soldiers. So they rallied around Orwell's "Animal Farm" and launched a cultural movement that ensured their freedom and immigration to the West. A very surprising and compelling story.

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Literary Genius!

ByN. Abdollahzadehon June 3, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

I loved it. This is the kind of book that gives you faith in humanity. During the chaos and trauma in the wake of World War II, the Allies had to organize tens of millions of refugees. Stalin insisted that millions of his Soviet refugees be returned to him. And the millions who were suffered a horrible fate. But the few who were able to resist and remain in the relative safety of the refugee camps created a beautiful life for themselves out of the rubble. Even though this book is researched in-depth I still can't believe that those refugees found George Orwell's home address in London and worked with him to bootleg copies of Animal Farm in Ukrainian. Orwell was a fringe writer at the time, so the chances of them connecting like that is truly amazing. This is an underdog story that should be made into a movie.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

History Coming Out of the Shadows

ByAmazon Customeron June 12, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

This book explores the harrowing lives of Ukrainian refugees of World War II, and how they resisted the very dangerous threat of forced Soviet repatriation. How they formed an independent and politically passionate "nation" in the refugee camps. Orwell's "Animal Farm," released just after the war, couldn't have come out at a better time. Most Ukrainian translated copies of Animal Farm were confiscated, though a few copies survived and gave voice to those refugees. The correspondence between Orwell and a tenacious, fearless group of refugees through the young Ihor Sevcenko, is touching. This is a story not to be missed. Five stars!!!!!

Nadia K. McConnell
President, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

The Personal is Political

Orwell and the Refugees manages to weave two narratives together in an artful, fascinating way: the author's own compelling family history of life in post-World War II Ukraine and...Read more

Published on June 17, 2013 by A. Salazar

An intriguing must-read for any literature or Soviet history lover.

I happened upon this by chance while looking for some stuff on George Orwell. What a find! This book utterly shocked me with the horrors of forced repatriation of Soviet refugees...Read more

Published on June 21, 2013 by Sarita Serup

Firsthand report from Ukraine

This book is mainly personal memoirs of the author's Ukrainian family from WWI to just after WW2. These are moving stories well told, though horrifying, in a sober and...Read more

Published on November 6, 2014 by Jeffrey Huntington

Must Read

I was not aware of the tragedy surrounding the forced repatriation of Soviet refugees after World War II.Read more

Published on June 4, 2013 by Juliette

Regeneration

This is a beautiful story about one of the greatest writers in history. His "breakthrough" novel, "Animal Farm," was first championed by war-ravaged Soviet refugees.Read more

Published on June 10, 2013 by radha

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