We

Zamyatin . . . did more than predict some of the specific characteristics of totalitarianismhe predicted its defining condition: the destruction of the individual. . . . [He] found the word for it: We. Masha Gessen, from the Foreword The best single work of science fiction yet written. Ursula K. Le Guin [Zamyatins] intuitive grasp of the irrational side of totalitarianismhuman sacrifice, cruelty as an end in itselfmakes [We] superior to Huxleys [Brave New World]. George Orwell At this dystopian moment in world politics, everyones talking about 1984, but take a look at the novel that inspired it (or, at least, which George Orwell reviewed soon before he wrote 1984)Yevgeny Zamyatins We. . . . The dystopia Zamyatin painted has, alas, many echoes with todays surveillance societyjust think of Chinas budding social credit program, which monitors citizens movements. Big Brother was a piker, compared to Xi Jinping. Zamyatin saw it coming. Lit Hub

Yevgeny Zamyatin (Author) Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) was a naval engineer by profession and writer by vocation, who made himself an enemy of the Tsarist government by being a Bolshevik, and an enemy of the Soviet government by insisting that human beings have absolute creative freedom. He wrote short stories, plays and essays, but his masterpiece is We, written in 1920-21 and soon thereafter translated into most of the languages of the world. Clarence Brown (Introducer, Translator) Clarence Brown was a pioneer of Russian literature studies and translation. His brilliant translation of We was based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.

We Introduction: Zamyatin and the Rooster Notes to Introduction Suggestions for Further Reading WERecord 1 Announcement The Wisest of Lines An Epic Poem Record 2 Ballet Harmony Squared X Record 3 Jacket Wall The Table Record 4 Savage with Barometer Epilepsy If Record 5 Square Rulers of the World Pleasant and Useful Function Record 6 Accident Damned "Clear" 24 Hours Record 7 An Eyelash Taylor Henbane and Lily of the Valley Record 8 The Irrational Root R-13 Triangle Record 9 Liturgy Iambs and Trochees Cast-Iron Hand Record 10 Letter Membrane Hairy Me Record 11 No, I Can't... Skip the Contents Record 12 Limitation of Infinity Angel Reflections on Poetry Record 13 Fog Familiar "You" An Absolutely Inane Occurrence Record 14 "Mine" Forbidden Cold Floor Record 15 Bell Mirror-like Sea My Fate to Burn Forever Record 16 Yellow Two-Dimensional Shadow Incurable Soul Record 17 Through Glass I Died Hallways Record 18 Logical Labyrinth Wounds and Plaster Never Again Record 19 Third-Order Infinitesimal A Sullen Glare Over the Parapet Record 20 Discharge Idea Material Zero Cliff Record 21 An Author's Duty Swollen Ice The Most Difficult Love Record 22 Frozen Waves Everything Tends to Perfection I Am a Microbe Record 23 Flowers Dissolution of a Crystal If Only Record 24 Limit of Function Easter Cross It All Out Record 25 Descent from Heaven History's Greatest Catastrophe End of the Known Record 26 The World Exists A Rash 41 Centigrade Record 27 No Contents - Can't Record 28 Both Women Entropy and Energy Opaque Part of the Body Record 29 Threads on the Face Shoots Unnatural Compression Record 30 The Final Number Galileo's Mistake Wouldn't It Be Better? Record 31 The Great Operation I Have Forgiven Everything A Train Wreck Record 32 I Do Not Believe Tractors The Human Chip Record 33 (No Time for Contents, Last Note) Record 34 Those on Leave A Sunny Night Radio-Valkyrie Record 35 In a Hoop Carrot Murder Record 36 Blank Pages The Christian God About My Mother Record 37 Infusorian Doomsday Her Room Record 38 (I Don't Know What Goes Here, Maybe Just: A Cigarette Butt) Record 39 The End Record 40 Facts The Bell I Am Certain Translator's Notes