He sent the manuscript to Berlin to Grzhebin's publishing house, with which he was connected by contractual relations. In 1923 the publisher sent a copy for translation into English. The novel was first published in New York in 1924 in English. Maybe that's why he influenced the English-language dystopias of Huxley and Orwell.
Due to the publication of the novel abroad in 1929, a campaign of persecution of Zamyatin began, his works were not published, and the plays were removed from the repertoire and banned from being staged. The persecution ended with Zamyatin's departure abroad after his written appeal to Stalin.
Literary direction and genre
The novel belongs to the genre of social dystopia. It began the heyday of anti-utopias of the 20th century, describing the life of a person in a totalitarian state: Platonov's Chevengur, Orwell's 1984, Huxley's Brave New World. Despite the fantastic plot, the novel is closest to the direction of realism. It is a social critique of existing ideas and social change.
Dystopia is always a reaction to social transformations and polemics with already existing utopias. Dystopias are called social predictions because the authors describe social relationships that have not yet formed, guessing events very accurately.
But Zamyatin, having, like his hero, engineering thinking, did not guess anything. It was based not so much on the rationalistic utopias of the new time (T. Mora), but on the existing and very popular in the 20th century. socialist utopias of the proletarians, in particular Bogdanov and Gastev. They believed that the whole life and thinking of the proletariat should be mechanized. Gastev even suggested assigning numbers or letters to people in order to exclude individual thinking.
The idea of a global transformation of the world and the destruction of the human soul and love, which can interfere with utopia, was also born from the ideologists of the proletcult. Zamyatin's parodies are subjected to the ideas of the proletarians about the limitless possibilities of science, about conquering the universe and subordinating it to the ideas of socialism and communism.
Zamyatin was based not only on the ideas of the proletcult. Houses made of glass and concrete are reminiscent of those described in the novel What Is To Be Done? Chernyshevsky, as well as the cities of the future, invented by the futurists (Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh). The United State arose more than once in urban utopias. And the image of a technically perfect machine (“Integral”) is described in the works of contemporaries (Platonov, Mayakovsky).
Zamyatin's novel, unknown in the USSR, was sharply criticized. It was called an evil pamphlet, and Zamyatin himself was considered afraid of the advent of socialism. Zamyatin remained faithful to the ideas of socialism until the end of his life, but his novel is a logical bringing these ideas to an absurd limit.
Issues and conflict
The United State sets itself the task of making happy not only its citizens, but also the inhabitants of other planets. The problem is that only a not free person can be happy, and freedom is painful. Leads to pain. But it is freedom and pain that each time a person chooses.
social problem. which rises in the novel - the interaction of the individual, which becomes the cog and wheel of the totalitarian state, and this state itself. Personality is devalued to the point of complete disappearance: either physical, like those killed in the Benefactor's Machine, or moral, like people without a soul, as those who are operated on in the novel become.
The external conflict between the One State and the supporters of Mephi intensifies towards the end of the novel, as does the internal conflict of the hero, who, on the one hand, feels like a number, and on the other, strives more and more for freedom.
Plot and composition
The action of the novel takes place 1000 years after the Bicentennial War - the last revolution on earth. The reader could catch a hint of the recent revolution. Thus, the novel describes approximately the 32nd century in the history of mankind.
The action of the novel begins in the spring and ends in the autumn, during the collapse of hopes.
The novel is written in the first person by the main character, a mathematician, a civil engineer of the "Integral" - a perfect mechanism that should bring the ideas of the One State into the universe, integrate it, make it the same everywhere.
The novel is a summary of 40 entries, which the hero begins in order to glorify the One State and its idea of \u200b\u200buniversal happiness in the universe, and continues to reliably describe events for the inhabitants of other planets. He speaks of the structure of the State as something taken for granted. Therefore, this information is scattered across various records, interspersed with reports of events and the hero's logical reasoning.
The United State was created 1000 years ago after the victory in the Great Bicentennial War. In the war between the city and the countryside, the city won, only 0.2% of the population survived. The city is surrounded by a glass Green Wall, behind which is a wild forest. What is happening in it, the townspeople do not know. The hero miraculously learns of the existence on the other side of the Green Wall of people covered with wool, the ancestors of those who survived the war and the fight against hunger. The City switched over to oil food a long time ago. The city is very technological: people use the subway and aero.
The inhabitants of the United State are equal in everything. They do not have names, but only letters (male numbers have consonants, female numbers have vowels) and numbers. Numbers live in the same rooms in houses with glass walls, wear the same uniform - unifs, and must engage in both intellectual and physical labor.
In the United State, everything is strictly regulated. The schedule of life is determined by the Tablet of Hours, everyone gets up, eats, works and goes to bed at the same time. There are 2 personal hours left in the schedule: from 16 to 17 and from 21 to 22. At this time, the numbers can walk along the avenues (in a row of 4), sit at a desk or make love - "a pleasantly useful function of the body."
300 years before the events described, love was defeated. To prevent envy or jealousy from arising, it was proclaimed that each number was entitled to the other number as a sexual product. To use the number you like, you just need to write an application for it and get a book of pink coupons. Having noted the pink ticket from the duty officer in the house, you can lower the curtains on your sexual day (their frequency is determined based on the needs of the body) and connect with another number.
The most important part of the One State is its ideology. The title of the novel explains it. In the State, each individual is subordinate to society, "we". Therefore, the numbers did not even stop working when, during the test of the Integral, about a dozen numbers died under the engine pipes. After all, ten is infinitely small compared to all. Thus, to create laws, the United State uses the so-called mathematical ethics.
The United State replaced the concepts of love, happiness, duty, dignity that existed among the “ancients” (that is, among us). There are Guardians in the society who are looking for the enemies of the One State. It's a great honor to go to the Guardian's Bureau and talk about treason. When a “criminal” is found who disagrees, a “holiday” takes place, at which he is executed in a perfect way, in the Benefactor’s Machine, splitting into atoms, turning into pure distilled water.
But before that, badges with numbers are torn off from the criminals. There is nothing worse for a member of such a society than to stop being a number. Literary works in the United State are indicative. There is a whole State Institute of poetry, which should praise the One State and the Benefactor.
Other works are instructive: "Stanzas about sexual hygiene" or the story of three scapegoats who were released from all work, and after 10 days they drowned themselves with grief.
The whole plot of the dystopia “We”, like any dystopia, is built on the gradual insight of the hero, who first has vague doubts about the correctness of actions, then a “soul” arises that interferes with being a “cog and wheel”. The operation to remove the fantasy turns the hero into a happy mechanism, calmly watching how his beloved is tortured under the Gas Bell.
Heroes of the novel
The main character is the builder of the Integral, 32-year-old D-503. He experiences constant fluctuations from enthusiastic acceptance of the One State to rebellion. In the life of D, everything is turned into formulas or logical arguments. But he sees the world figuratively, endowing people with clear characteristics instead of names (R - non-gross, O - round, pink). The protagonist is sincere, he strives for happiness, but refuses it for the sake of love, he unwittingly betrays his beloved, because after the Operation he ceases to be a man. By the fact that the numbers are in no hurry to cut out their fantasy, D concludes that even a 1000-year-old lack of freedom could not destroy his essence in a person - the soul.
The female images of the novel are represented by two types. O-90 - round, pink, communication with her does not go beyond the limited framework. Her soul has already been awakened, she expects love from D, and when she discovers that he is in love with I, risking her life, she asks to give her a child. Society does not allow the appearance of a child in O, because she does not reach 10 cm from the Maternal Norm.
Children born in society are still selected and brought up according to the science of child breeding. O survives at the end of the novel, and ends up behind a wall, so their child with D is the hope for a change in the situation.
I-330 - sharp, flexible, with white teeth, associated with a whip and a bite to the point of blood. D still does not understand, she chooses him because she loves him, or because he is the builder of the Integral. This is a woman of mystery who likes innuendo, trials, lack of clarity, breaking the rules and playing with fate. She is obsessed with the idea of Mephi - fighters against the One State - and dies for her.
By the end of the novel, D is surprised to realize that almost all the male figures around him are connected with Mephi: D's friend and R's State Poet; double-curved S, Guardian watching D with gimlet eyes; the thinnest doctor who writes D fictitious medical certificates.
Other numbers remain true to the idea of the One State. For example, Yu, who takes her pupils to the operation to destroy the fantasy and even ties them up, denounces D to the Guardians, fulfilling her duty.
At the end of the novel, D meets the Benefactor and suddenly sees in him not a number from numbers with cast-iron hands, but a tired man with drops of sweat shining on his bald head (whether Lenin was his prototype), the same victim of the United State system.
Stylistic features
The novel is a summary of a mathematician, a person of a logical warehouse. It was not difficult for Zamyatin to convey the mindset of such a person; he wrote D from himself.
Despite the desire of D to explain the situation in the United State as accurately as possible, the events are set out chaotically, there are many sentences with dots, the hero himself cannot always understand what is happening to him and in the world.
Brief, from one or two words, the characteristics of each hero, given by D, indicate that a person cannot do without a name, naming, labels.
There are many aphorisms in the novel, reflecting the point of view of a non-free consciousness: “The wall is the basis of every human being”, “About the shackles - this is what world sorrow is about” ...
Evgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin
Record 1st
Abstract:
Announcement. The wisest of the lines. Poem
I am simply copying - word for word - what is published today in the State Gazette:
“In 120 days, the construction of INTEGRAL is completed. The great, historical hour is near when the first INTEGRAL will soar into world space. A thousand years ago, your heroic ancestors subjugated the entire globe to the authorities of the One State. You have an even more glorious feat: to integrate the infinite equation of the Universe with a glass, electric, fire-breathing INTEGRAL. You have to subdue the beneficent yoke of the mind to unknown creatures that live on other planets - perhaps still in a wild state of freedom. If they do not understand that we bring them mathematically unmistakable happiness, it is our duty to make them happy. But before weapons, we will test the word.
On behalf of the Benefactor, it is announced to all numbers of the United State:
Anyone who feels able is obliged to compose treatises, poems, manifestos, odes or other writings about the beauty and grandeur of the United State.
This will be the first load that INTEGRAL will carry.
Long live the One State, long live the numbers, long live the Benefactor!”
As I write this, I feel my cheeks are on fire. Yes: integrate the grand universal equation. Yes: disperse the wild curve, straighten it tangentially - asymptote - in a straight line. Because the line of the United State is a straight line. The great, divine, precise, wise straight line is the wisest of lines...
I, D-503, builder of the "Integral" - I am only one of the mathematicians of the United State. My pen, accustomed to numbers, is unable to create music of assonances and rhymes. I will only try to write down what I see, what I think - more precisely, what we think (that's right: we, and let this "WE" be the title of my notes). But after all, this will be a derivative of our life, of the mathematically perfect life of the One State, and if so, will it not be a poem in itself, against my will? It will be - I believe and I know.
As I write this, I feel my cheeks are on fire. This is probably similar to what a woman experiences when she first hears the pulse of a new, still tiny, blind man in herself. This is me and not me at the same time. And for many months it will be necessary to feed him with his juice, his blood, and then with pain to tear him away from himself and put him at the feet of the One State.
But I'm ready, just like every, or almost every, of us. I'm ready.
Record 2nd
Abstract:
Ballet. Square Harmony. X
Spring. From behind the Green Wall, from the wild invisible plains, the wind carries yellow honey dust of some flowers. This sweet dust dries your lips - every minute you run your tongue over them - and, must be, the sweet lips of all the women you meet (and men, too, of course). This makes it difficult to think logically.
But the sky! Blue, not spoiled by a single cloud (how wild the tastes of the ancients were, if their poets could be inspired by these ridiculous, careless, stupid heaps of steam). I love - I'm sure I won't be mistaken if I say: we love only such a sterile, impeccable sky. On such days, the whole world is cast from the same unshakable, eternal glass, like the Green Wall, like all our buildings. On such days, you see the bluest depths of things, some hitherto unknown, amazing equations of them - you see them in something so familiar, everyday.
Well, at least this. This morning I was at the boathouse where the Integral is being built, and suddenly I saw the machines: with closed eyes, selflessly, the balls of regulators were spinning; bloodworms, sparkling, bent to the right and to the left; the balance beam proudly shook its shoulders; in time with the inaudible music, the chisel of the slotting machine squatted. I suddenly saw all the beauty of this grandiose machine-made ballet, bathed in a light blue sun.
And then with himself: why is it beautiful? Why is dance beautiful? Answer: because it is not a free movement, because the whole deep meaning of the dance lies precisely in absolute, aesthetic subordination, ideal non-freedom. And if it is true that our ancestors gave themselves up to dance in the most inspired moments of their lives (religious mysteries, military parades), then this means only one thing: the instinct of unfreedom has been organically inherent in man since ancient times, and in our present life we are only consciously...
You will have to finish after: clicked the numerator. I raise my eyes: O-90, of course. And in half a minute she will be here herself: follow me for a walk.
Sweet Oh! - it always seemed to me - that she looks like her name: 10 centimeters below the Maternal Norm - and that is why she is all round-turned, and the pink O - mouth - is open to meet my every word. And one more thing: a round, puffy fold on the wrist - such things happen in children.
When she entered, the logical flywheel was still buzzing in me, and out of inertia I started talking about the formula I had just established, which included all of us, and the machines, and the dance.
- Wonderful. Is not it? I asked.
- Yes, wonderful. Spring, - O-90 smiled pink at me.
Well, if you like: spring ... She is about spring. Women... I stopped talking.
Down below. The avenue is full: in such weather, we usually spend our afternoon personal hour on an extra walk. As always, the Musical Factory sang the March of the United State with all its pipes. In measured rows, four at a time, enthusiastically beating time, there were numbers - hundreds, thousands of numbers, in bluish unifs, with gold plaques on their chests - the state number of each and every one. And I – we four – are one of the countless waves in this mighty current. To my left is O-90 (if one of my hairy ancestors wrote this a thousand years ago, he probably would have called her that funny word "mine"); on the right - two unfamiliar numbers, female and male.
Blissfully blue sky, tiny children's suns in each of the plaques, faces not overshadowed by the madness of thoughts ... Rays - you understand: everything is from some kind of single, radiant, smiling matter. And the brass beats: “Tra-ta-ta-tam. Tra-ta-ta-tam”, these copper steps sparkling in the sun, and with each step you rise higher and higher, into the dizzying blue…
And now, just as it was in the morning, on the boathouse, I again saw, as if only now for the first time in my life, I saw everything: immutable straight streets, the glass of pavements splashing with rays, the divine parallelepipeds of transparent dwellings, the square harmony of gray-blue ranks. And so: as if not whole generations, but I - it was I - who defeated the old God and the old life, it was I who created all this, and I am like a tower, I am afraid to move my elbow so that fragments of walls, domes, cars do not fall down ...
When Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote the novel “We”, the ideas of communism were just beginning to be realized - the year was 1920. But the writer already then saw what utopian ideas about this state system could lead to - and created a dystopia. In it, he showed what would happen to society if these ideas did become a reality. It is interesting that the work was created in revolutionary Russia - but after the author visited England, he saw a “different life”.
Zamyatin's novel "We" is interesting to read, although a little difficult, because the characters do not have names, instead they have "numbers". Through the diary of an ordinary “number” from the future, the writer shows the ordinary life of people living in glass houses so that everyone can see each other, but at the same time fenced off from the world by the Green Wall. What is happening in the described world can be easily correlated with real communism: for example, the Tablet is an obvious allusion to the “Code of the Builder of Communism”, etc.
Zamyatinsky’s novel “We” is useful to read online for another reason: this is not just a warning to the builders of communism, it very clearly traces the idea that happiness cannot be forced, and this idea is relevant for any time and for any system. The imagery of the novel, which today can be downloaded for free, is built on contrast: on the one hand, the characters do not have names, on the other hand, they have clearly written characters instead. This artistic feature is especially well seen in the example of female heroes.
Zamyatin's work is much wider than its era - it shows how dangerous any idea that grows without a critical look - it completely absorbs society and turns people not even into slaves, because slaves are at least aware of their sad situation, but into obedient cogs of the system. When these screws stop working, they are “repaired” or replaced by others - such an unenviable fate awaits not only the heroes of the novel “We”, but also everyone who is ready for weak-willed submission and is happy to accept it.
A chic novel, which I read last in a series of dystopias. Went in reverse chronological order 🙂 The action takes place approximately in the thirty-second century. This novel describes a society of strict totalitarian control over the individual (names and surnames are replaced by letters and numbers, the state controls even intimate life), ideologically based on Taylorism, scientism and the denial of fantasy, controlled by the “Benefactor” who is “elected” on an uncontested basis. However, in many respects the situation is beginning to materialize.
“Real literature can exist only where it is made not by diligent and complacent officials, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, skeptics” (article “I'm afraid”). This was Zamyatin's writing credo. And the novel "We", written in 1920, became its artistic embodiment.
At that time, the novel was not published in Soviet Russia: literary critics perceived it as an evil caricature of the socialist, communist society of the future. In addition, the novel contained allusions to some events of the civil war (“the war of the city against the countryside”). In the late 1920s, a campaign of persecution by the literary authorities fell upon Zamyatin. Literaturnaya Gazeta wrote: “E. Zamyatin must understand the simple idea that the country of socialism under construction can do without such a writer.
The novel "We", known to readers of America and Europe, returned to its homeland only in 1988. The novel influenced the work of George Orwell (the novel "", 1949), and Aldous Huxley (the novel "", 1932)
The novel “We” by Zamyatin can be downloaded without problems at the link:
Further, do not read the article if you were not looking for a summary of the novel “We” by Evgeny Zamyatin!
The novel is built as a diary of one of the key figures of a hypothetical society of the future. This is a brilliant mathematician and chief engineer of the latest achievement of technical thought - the INTEGRAL spacecraft. The State Newspaper called on everyone to contribute to writing a message to the inhabitants of distant planets, who should meet the future INTEGRAL crew. The message should contain agitation for the creation on their planet of the same brilliant, absolute and perfect society, which has already been created in the person of the One State on Earth. As a conscientious citizen, D-503 (there are no more names - people are called “numbers”, they shave their heads smoothly and wear “unif”, i.e. the same clothes, only the color of which indicates belonging to the male or female sex) intelligibly and in detail describes life under totalitarianism on the example of his own. At the beginning, he writes in the way a person usually thinks, who is blissfully ignorant of any other way of life and social order, except for the one established by the authorities in his country. It is obvious that the United State has existed in an unshakable form for more than one hundred years; and everything seems to be calibrated with unmistakable accuracy. The "Green Wall" separates the giant city-state from the surrounding nature; The “Table of the Hour” minute by minute regulates the regime of society; all apartments are exactly the same with their glass walls and an ascetic set of furniture; there is a law of “pink tickets” and “sexual hour”, which guarantees the right of everyone to everyone (so that no one has the slightest attachment to anyone); The "Guardians' Bureau" ensures state security and, in the event of execution, destroys the criminal with the help of a special machine instantly, by turning into a puddle of water; the all-powerful ruler, called the "Benefactor", is elected unanimously on a non-alternative basis.
From the very beginning, it is clear that the state still could not completely eradicate the human from people. So, there is still attachment to loved ones. In particular, the protagonist prefers to spend his "sexual hours" with O-90 - a rosy-cheeked, puffy and short girl who herself does not seek to apply for someone other than D-503. However, she also has another sexual partner - the poet R-13. But he and D-503 are friends, and in his diary, the Chief Builder calls O and R his family.
After meeting with the female number I-330 (thin, dry and wiry actress), D's life changes dramatically. From the first meeting with her, the hero feels an unconscious threat to his former life. I-330 is persistent, and their meetings occur more and more often - including at the wrong time (when everyone is at work). The hero, by magnetic will I, also violates other laws of the One State: in the "Ancient House" (an open-air museum - an apartment of the 20th century preserved in its original form), she gives him a taste of alcohol and tobacco (in the One State, any addictive substances are strictly prohibited) . In the course of further communication with her, the protagonist realizes that he fell in love absolutely in the "ancient" sense of the word - "cannot live without her", obeys her instructions, although their criminality is obvious to him (according to the laws of the One State). She admits that she works in the interests of the revolution. To the exclamation of the hero that the last revolution happened long ago and led to the formation of the United State, I ardently objects that there can be no last revolution, just like the last number. It turns out that not only the old woman - an employee of the museum, but also the doctor (and even some of the Guardians!) are covering for the revolutionaries. All these numbers in one way or another contribute to the meetings of D with I.
O suddenly comes to D without a ticket and demands to give her a child (in the One State - "children", children study in schools where teachers are robots; each adult must fulfill a certain "Maternal and Father's Norm"; it is obvious that O boldly transgresses law). O-90 becomes pregnant with D-503.
Shocked by recent seemingly unthinkable recent events, D-503 decides to be examined by doctors - and in the end it turns out that, according to a psychotherapist from the Medical Bureau, he has "formed a soul." Moreover, the doctor notes that recently such cases are becoming more and more. Meanwhile, I-330 confides D in the secrets of the revolution. She leads him beyond the Green Wall, where, as it turns out, people also live - "savages" overgrown with unnaturally long hair. This happened as a result of the historical development of the Earth, when the establishment of the United State was preceded by the Great Bicentennial War. Back then, billions of people died of starvation, disease, and directly in the course of hostilities. The last few million have adapted to a fundamentally new life, when even food is a product of oil distillation and is distributed equally among everyone in the form of identical cubes. Races have ceased to exist, and only individual anthropological traits give out certain traits of ancestors in numbers. For example, D-503 has increased body hair, and his friend R-13 has thick, "Negro" lips. Millions of residents of the city-state firmly believed that, apart from them, there were no more people on Earth. Relying on the masses of "savages", the revolutionaries (self-name - "Mephi") want to undermine the Green Wall in many places and, as it were, throw nature itself into battle against the city-state that has become unaccustomed to the natural environment. But beforehand, on the “Day of Unanimity” (the main state holiday is the re-election of the Benefactor, on which everyone unanimously votes “For” the re-election, personifying this unity), I-330 and quite a lot of numbers vote against. Since this is the first time this has happened in centuries, panic sets in among the non-Mephi, but the Guardians manage to keep order. The hero sees how his friend, the poet, carries away I-330, knocked down and almost trampled down by a frightened crowd, in his arms, which may indicate that he is with Mephi ... When the Guardians go from apartment to apartment and arrest every suspicious person, D-503 almost did not become a victim of his own diary, but the Guardians read only the top page, where the engineer managed to write several chaotic sentences to the glory of the Benefactor.
The revolutionaries are preparing an unheard of audacity plan - to seize the newly built "INTEGRAL", which is equipped with a powerful weapon capable of crushing the United State. D-503, obsessed with feelings for I, actively cooperates. However, during the first flight, when the INTEGRAL is supposed to fall into the hands of Mephi, several Guardians in hiding on board claim that the authorities are aware of the insidious plan. Once the Mephis see they can't catch the Enforcers by surprise, they cancel the operation. The protagonist decides that he was only used. However, later he visits apartment I for the first time and sees a lot of pink tickets there, as it seemed to him at the beginning, only with his number. But, seeing another one, not even remembering the numbers, only the letter "F", he runs out of the room in a rage.
Meanwhile, the One State strikes back - from now on, the entire population must undergo the "Great Operation", a psychosomatic procedure to remove (with the help of X-rays) the brain's "fantasy center". Those who underwent the operation actually become biological machines. In turn, the Mephis blow up the Green Wall and disable the invisible dome of the force field. Shocked by the widespread intrusion of wildlife, many numbers fall into a mass psychosis, an unimaginable euphoria. Many copulate without lowering their curtains (in contempt for the law of the Sexual Hour).
With the help of D-503 and I-330, in an atmosphere of general chaos, O-90, by this time already in late pregnancy, escapes behind the Green Wall; she did not undergo the Operation and is proud that her child will grow up "free".
Another female number is also found, in love with D-503, but hiding it for the time being. This is Yu, some kind of concierge at the entrance to the house where D's apartment is located. Yu also works in the field of "baby care". She always behaved with D as if he were one of her pupils, tried to warn him, as a child, from rash acts. She loves him as if unconsciously, but quite consciously (albeit with the best of intentions: to protect him from the criminal road!) informs the Guardians about him. When D, having learned about her deed, in a state of passion rushes at her, the elderly Yu throws off her unif and offers him her body. However, he is unable to kill her and leaves his apartment.
Unexpectedly, the Benefactor himself honors D-503 with his audience. Having communicated with the Benefactor for the first time, the hero sees that he is quite elderly and tired of life, but in principle not a very remarkable number. It is obvious that he is the same slave of the system of the United State, like any other, even if formally he is the head of the State. As the chief engineer, the hero is spared and limited to pictorial exhortation. At the same time, the Benefactor raises doubts in him: for I-330, he was used only as the chief engineer of INTEGRAL.
From I-330, he is last seen in his room: she came to find out what they were talking about with the Benefactor, and nothing more. After the meeting, she leaves. The main character is tormented by suffering: he does not understand what to do next. In frustration, he runs to the Guardians Bureau to repent. There he meets Guardian S-471, who has been following him throughout the events. D-503 begins to talk rather chaotically about what is eating him, but in response he sees only a smile. He realizes that S is also at one with the revolutionaries and hastily leaves the Bureau. In his tossing about in the midst of general panic, he meets a number who made a discovery: the universe is not infinite. This is from the number sitting on the toilet next to D in the public restroom. Grabbing pieces of paper from the hands of a neighbor, D-503 makes his last notes in his former mind. However, then everyone who was nearby is herded into the nearest auditorium with the painfully familiar number 112. There they are chained to tables and subjected to the Great Operation. Having lost his imagination, D-503 does his duty (which, in fact, he wanted and did not dare to do before the Operation) - he reports on the revolutionaries, their plans and whereabouts, and about his once so dearly beloved I-330.
The end of the novel is:
... In the evening of the same day - at the same table with Him, with the Benefactor - I sat (for the first time) in the famous Gas Room. They brought that woman. In my presence, she had to give her testimony. This woman was stubbornly silent and smiling. I noticed that she had sharp and very white teeth and that it was beautiful. Then she was led under the Bell. Her face became very white, and since her eyes were dark and large, it was very beautiful. When air was pumped out from under the Bell - she threw back her head, half-closed her eyes, her lips were clenched - it reminded me of something. She looked at me, clutching the arms of the chair tightly, looking until her eyes were completely closed. Then they pulled her out, with the help of electrodes they quickly brought her to her senses and again put her under the Bell. This was repeated three times, and still she did not say a word. Others, brought along with this woman, turned out to be more honest: many of them began to speak from the first time. Tomorrow they will all climb the steps of the Benefactor's Machine.
It is impossible to postpone - because in the western quarters - there is still chaos, roar, corpses, animals and - unfortunately - a significant number of numbers that have betrayed reason.
But on the transverse, 40th Avenue, they managed to construct a temporary Wall from high-voltage waves. And I hope we win. More: I am sure - we will win. Because the mind must win.
This work is not the very first among the dystopian genre, but the first in modern times - yes.
Moreover, Zamyatin inspired eminent writers to create their own anti-utopian works.
Including George Orwell with his famous "1984". George Orwell was not only inspired by Zamyatin, but he used exactly the same idea and storyline in his novel. All iconic moments are identical! Personally, it annoyed me a little.
So, in his work, Zamyatin describes the events of the distant future of an absolute new society, the structure of which, as it seemed, had reached the ideal. This world is absolutely understandable and logical for most of the inhabitants. In this world there is no place for lyrical digressions, in it everything is simple, understandable, mathematically. And the style of the protagonist D-503 corresponds to their way of life without emotions, without a soul - his thoughts are clear, jerky, and again mathematical.
Zamyatin clearly wanted to show what the pursuit of an ideal society would lead to. And, in principle, he predicted everything correctly. For which he was persecuted by the Soviet authorities.
Considering that Zamyatin wrote "We" back in 1920, when the world was only at the height of technological progress, he did an excellent job of describing the future. Apparently, wanting to make his work relevant for all times, he avoids the concepts characteristic of that time and tries to avoid descriptions as much as possible, which can give out the time of writing the novel.
Orwell wrote "1984" almost 30 years later, but it seems that he licked everything from Zamyatin. Again the most transparent life of society, again a woman pushes a man on the wrong path (what is this? a reference to the biblical story about Adam and Eve?), and again the system suppresses their uprising, depriving us of a happy ending. The only thing is that Orwell seems to have polished his work more, embellishing it, adding more details and making the style "simpler" for the general reader.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from welcome.88 17.10.2018 17:14
The brain draws dummies when reading. Like a book not, but that's how the script will go.
Grade 4 out of 5 stars by Sir Shury 24.08.2018 19:22
For die-hard fans of dystopias, this is a good book. I read it, without much pleasure, at one time.
martyn.anna 21.05.2017 20:13
Came here just to give my opinion about the book. They advised me to read it before preparing for the exam, but after the fleeting "swallowing" of voluminous works such as "Quiet Flows the Don", it was difficult to force myself to read something, but I agreed. I sat down in the evening, and the next morning I didn’t notice how the book ended. Maybe, as some say, the book is somehow "primitive", but it swallowed me up, deeply touched. Moreover, I was surprised by the year of her publishing house, and I inadvertently remembered films like Equilibrium - in fact, shot on the plot of "We". I think this work will remain with me until the last days in my small internal library :)
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from stalker 13.10.2016 21:25
Excellent deep thing,uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubli, please don’t worry fools........
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by Guest 30.09.2016 20:48
I could not rate it.)))) Probably, the novel was good for its time and the time of "great revelations". An interesting idea, but the execution is rather primitive.
natpis_1964 30.08.2016 07:37
a good modern film adaptation is needed, because in fact many American futuristic films are a parody of this work.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by Guest 29.05.2015 09:48
The book was a pleasure. Considering that the author wrote it in 1920, the magnitude of the thought is striking. You involuntarily wonder what the system of social organization leads to when someone decides what is right - only this way, otherwise - wrong, harmful. And this is usually characteristic of our ruling clans: they recognize only their own truth, and if you think otherwise, they will not listen to you at best, and at worst they will declare you an enemy (separatist, agent of influence, etc.).
Smart book.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from autooffer 07.02.2015 12:22
The book is strong
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Vladimir 08/31/2014 18:15
Unique work! I advise. And interesting, and intellectual, and very unusual. The syllable is a separate work of art! One of my most favorite books.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from vicna 20.08.2014 22:13
But Zamyatin did a good job of looking into the future. I think the book is worth the highest rating, because the thing is impressive, it makes you think, think, think and think again about what kind of future you really want.
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by rrrrr 08/19/2014 19:03
There are different opinions about this book, but for me everything is clear. Zamyatin, as an intellectual, was against the coming of the communists to power, and, albeit in an exaggerated form, painted the future of classical communism. Although, logically, communism in its highest form becomes anarchy - classical, when there is no need for a state - here we have a perverted, totalitarian version of socialization.
And Orwell, with his "1984" and "Animal Farm", was clearly inspired - in part - by Zamyatin's nightmare.
The book... is powerful. The syllable - albeit heavy, but perfectly conveys the atmosphere.