We, Yevgeny Zamyatin

📘 About This Book

We is a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin completed in 1921. One thousand years after the One State's conquest of the entire world, the spaceship Integral is being built in order to invade and conquer extraterrestrial planets. Meanwhile, the project's chief engineer, D-503, begins a journal that he intends to be carried upon the completed spaceship.Like all other citizens of One State, D-503 lives in a glass apartment building and is carefully watched by the secret police, or Bureau of Guardians. D-503's lover, O-90, has been assigned by One State to visit him on certain nights. She is considered too short to bear children and is deeply grieved by her state in life.O-90's other lover and D-503's best friend is R-13, a State poet who reads his verse at public executions.While on an assigned walk with O-90, D-503 meets a woman named I-330. I-330 smokes cigarettes, drinks alcohol, and shamelessly flirts with D-503 instead of applying for an impersonal sex visit; all of these are highly illegal according to the laws of One State.Both repelled and fascinated, D-503 struggles to overcome his attraction to I-330. I-330 invites him to visit the Ancient House, notable for being the only opaque building in One State, except for windows. Objects of aesthetic and historical importance dug up from around the city are stored there. There, I-330 offers him the services of a corrupt doctor to explain his absence from work. Leaving in horror D-503 vows to denounce her to the Bureau of Guardians, but finds that he cannot.He begins to have dreams, which disturbs him, as dreams are thought to be a symptom of mental illness. Slowly, I-330 reveals to D-503 that she is involved with the Mephi, an organization plotting to bring down the One State. She takes him through secret tunnels inside the Ancient House to the world outside the Green Wall, which surrounds the city-state. There, D-503 meets the inhabitants of the outside world: humans whose bodies are covered with animal fur. The aims of the Mephi are to destroy the Green Wall and reunite the citizens of One State with the outside world.Despite the recent rift between them, O-90 pleads with D-503 to impregnate her illegally. After O-90 insists that she will obey the law by turning over their child to be raised by the One State, D-503 obliges. However, as her pregnancy progresses, O-90 realizes that she cannot bear to be parted from her baby under any circumstances. At D-503's request, I-330 arranges for O-90 to be smuggled outside the Green Wall.

📖 Summary

We, published in 2019 across 173 pages, presents Yevgeny Zamyatin's seminal dystopian vision completed originally in 1921. Set one thousand years after the One State achieves total conquest of the entire world, the narrative unfolds within a hyper-regulated, intensely monitored society. The technological marvel known as the spaceship Integral is currently under construction, designed with the ambitious purpose of invading and conquering extraterrestrial planets to spread the One State's influence into the cosmos. At the center of this world is D-503, the chief engineer of the Integral project, who begins keeping a personal journal intended to be carried aboard the completed spaceship as a testament to the glory of his society. Like every other citizen of the One State, D-503 resides within transparent glass apartment buildings where privacy is entirely nonexistent and life is subject to the constant observation of the secret police, known as the Bureau of Guardians. Personal relationships and domestic arrangements are similarly administered by the ruling regime. D-503's assigned lover is O-90, a woman permitted to visit him on designated nights. O-90 carries a deep personal grief because her physical stature has caused the State to deem her too short to bear children, leaving her isolated and pained within a culture that values conformity above all else. Adding complexity to their social circle is R-13, who serves as both D-503's best friend and O-90's other lover. R-13 holds the esteemed position of a State poet, whose public duties include reading his verse at state-sanctioned public executions. Through D-503's perspective, the novel explores a world where individuality has been eradicated in favor of mathematical precision, collective harmony, and absolute obedience. The daily routine of the citizens is dictated by the Table of Hours, and names are replaced by alphanumeric designations, effectively reducing human beings to cogs in a massive societal machine. As D-503 continues his journal entries while working on the spaceship, he begins to confront the rigid boundaries of the One State, chronicling the tension between human emotion, freedom, and authoritarian control. This foundational work of speculative literature examines the ultimate consequences of prioritizing total state control and technological progress over human nature and individual spirit, echoing timeless questions about freedom versus security.

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