Answering a question from a random Australian acquaintance, Russian emigrant Zakhar Sazonov admits that his image of the USSR is not Orwell’s “1984”, but rather 1985. Why? In response, Zakhar, a former surveying engineer, talks about a dramatic and eventful year in his life. The narrative develops against the backdrop of a year in the life of a country tending to collapse. Despite the personal and industrial troubles that have come together, Zakhar Sazonov remembers this year not with condemnation, but with sympathy. Contains obscene language.