We is the most renowned work of Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin and one of the most influential dystopian novels of the twentieth century which foreshadowed the worst aspects of Soviet culture.
In a glass-enclosed city composed of absolute straight lines and ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives empty of passion and creativity until D-503, a mathematician, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and influenced works such as George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a loud cry for individual liberties, yet is also a powerful and exciting work of science fiction. We criticises the tendency of government in general to repress dissidents and promote stability over human freedom.
Many critics consider We a response to H G Wells and his 'brand of scientific optimism'. Zamyatin translated several of Wells’s works into Russian; his criticism of Well's utopianism can be found in his repressive depiction of a 'perfect' society.
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