We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
"We" is a dystopian novel written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1920, which explores the life of a highly controlled society governed by strict regulations and collective conformity. The narrative is presented through the journal entries of D-503, an engineer who is working on a spaceship called Integral, intended to extend the United State's rigid social order to other worlds. The society he describes is meticulously organized, with every aspect of life scheduled by the Book of Hours, including work, recreation, and personal relationships, which are limited to state-sanctioned encounters for efficiency.
As the story unfolds, D-503 encounters I-330, a woman who introduces him to aspects of individualism and pleasure that challenge the tenets of his society. Through her influence, D-503 grapples with his emerging feelings of love, jealousy, and doubt, which conflict with his ingrained sense of duty as a rational citizen. The novel delves into themes such as the tension between individuality and collectivism, the nature of freedom, and the cost of a perfectly ordered society. The narrative culminates in D-503's forced transformation into an obedient subject devoid of imagination, leading to profound questions about the value of humanity in a conformist state. Zamyatin's "We" serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked authority and the suppression of personal freedoms.
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We
First published:My, written, 1920-1921; corrupt text, 1927; complete text, 1952; first published in the Soviet Union as My, 1989 (English translation, 1924)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—dystopia
Time of work: About 2900
Locale: Earth, inside the Green Wall
The Plot
Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote We in 1920 but could not find a Russian publisher, so in 1924 he had it published in translation in Great Britain. Russians came to know of We through readings by the author and through hand-typed copies that were circulated. The first Russian edition was published in Czechoslovakia; publication was blocked in Soviet Russia for six decades. The best English version for general readers is a translation by Bernard Guerney published in 1960 in An Anthology of Russian Literature in the Soviet Period from Gorki to Pasternak.
The novel consists of journal entries made by an engineer named D-503. He heads a project to build a spaceship named Integral, by which the superior social order of his land, the United State, will be spread throughout the universe. That order is based on the logic of the Book of Hours, a timetable that organizes every aspect of life, from getting up and marching off to work in the morning to eating lunch and taking the mandatory walk before returning to work. Even sleeping is considered a solemn duty. On designated evenings, a personal hour is allotted, during which numbers (people) engage in fifteen minutes of sex with a previously selected partner “so that work is performed more efficiently during day hours.”
D-503 by chance meets a female number, I-330, who introduces him to artifacts of Earth’s barbaric past: piano music, wood furniture, wine, and unsanctioned intimate personal contacts. Eventually, she leads him out beyond the Green Wall, a kind of force shield set up around their city to keep away bad weather, wild beasts, and the few remaining uncivilized humans. There, D-503 learns of a plot by a shadowy group, the Mephis, to destroy both the perfectly ordered society of the United State and its dictator, the Benefactor. Although he knows he is duty-bound as a “rational citizen” to report to the “medical authorities” anyone mad enough to think up such a desperate act, he realizes that his growing love for I-330 now competes with his sense of duty.
D-503 is frightened as much as he is intrigued by his “other self,” the one who knows love, jealousy, and even doubt. His painful self-reevaluation is interrupted by an unexpected announcement by the Guardians, the United State police. They have developed a cure for the disease standing in the way of the creation of a perfectly content society, an operation that removes from the brain all powers of fantasy. In his last journal entry, D-503 describes how he was picked up at random and subjected to the operation. Now, saved from his own imagination, he stands passively by as I-330 dies in a torture device called the Gas Jar for her refusal to reveal the names of other Mephis. Whether the revolution will succeed is not discussed, though in his present state, D-503 is unable to imagine (and so cannot report) anything but the certain victory of the State.
Bibliography
Brown, Edward J. Brave New World: Essays in Criticism, 1976.
Collins, Christopher. Evgenij Zamjatin: An Interpretive Study, 1973.
Richards, David John. Zamyatin, a Soviet Heretic, 1962.
Shane, Alex M. The Life and Works of Evgenij Zamjatin, 1968.
Struve, Gleb. “Zamyatin,” in Russian Literature Under Lenin and Stalin, 1917-1953, 1971.