Zamiatin: "We"

Evgenii Zamiatin's seminal antiutopian satire "We" (written 1920-1) is one of the most celebrated works of twentieth century Russian literature. Set one thousand years in the future, it is a witty yet terrifying picture of a future society in which reason is all-conquering and mankind has been enslaved by a dictator called 'the benefactor'. This new study presents both a synthesis of existing criticism and a new reading of the novel. The first section deals with "We" in the context of the Russian Civil War, showing how Zamiatin's contemporaries interpreted it as a satire on life in Soviet Russia. The major trends in the diverse body of modern criticism are then surveyed. The longer second part of the study consists of a detailed reading of the novel based on close textual analysis of the forty 'entries' of its narrator's diary.