By Daniel J. Leab:

KOLGHOSP TVARYN [Animal Farm], translated (translation based upon 1945 English language edition of author's work) into Ukranian by Ivan Chernjatinskij (pseudonym of Igor Shevchenko), with a preface written by Orwell. Leaves of bookseller's correspondence removed and filed separately in the manuscripts collection. One letter refers to “a letter to Arthur Koestler dated Sept. 20, 1947 [where] the American authorities in Munich had seized some 1,500 copies and turned them over to Soviet authorities. More than a few did get through, however.”

Among the earliest translations into an East European language of an Orwell work, it is of special significance because Orwell at the translator's request specifically wrote an introduction for this edition, in which he presented his personal history and what had led him to write Animal Farm. His aim was less to attack Stalin's regime than as Robert Conquest puts it “to expose the delusions of intellectuals” — Orwell wanted the world to see the Soviet regime “for what it really was.” Shevchenko, later a Professor of Byzantine Literature at Harvard University, undertook this translation on his own, convinced Orwell to write the preface, and oversaw the production of this edition which was meant for Ukranian refugees in occupied Germany in Displaced Persons camps. According to Orwell about 2,000 copies were distributed but American military authorities seized the rest and turned them over to the Soviet repatriation people. At his insistence Orwell received no royalties for this edition, nor of any other translation intended for people too poor to buy them.

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By Penguin (Edition 2000):

The Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm was intended for Ukrainians living in the camps for Displaced Persons in Germany under British and American administration after World War II. These, as indicated in a letter from the man who organised the translation and distribution, Ihor Szewczenko [Igor Shevchenko], were people who supported the October Revolution and who were determined to defend what had been won, but who had turned against ‘the counter-revolutionary Bonapartism of Stalin’ and the ‘Russian nationalistic exploitation of the Ukrainian people’. They were simple people, peasants and workers, some half-educated, but all of whom read eagerly. For these people he asked Orwell to write a special introduction. The English original has been lost and the version reproduced here is a recasting back into English of the Ukrainian version. Orwell insisted that he receive no royalties for this edition, nor for other translations intended for those too poor to buy them (e.g., editions in Persian and Telugu). Orwell himself paid the production costs of a Russian-language edition printed on thin paper, which was intended for soldiers and others behind the Iron Curtain.