We by Zamyatin: A Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

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The dystopian novel was written in 1920, in the early years after the revolution. It is one of the first dystopian works of the 20th century, predating Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932) and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949).

The novel was not published in the Soviet Union—it was considered anti-Soviet. The work was first printed in English in New York in 1924, and in Russian in an émigré journal in Prague in 1927. In the USSR, the novel was published only in 1988, during perestroika.

Zamyatin created a prophetic work about a totalitarian society of the future, where man is turned into a cog in the state machine, deprived of freedom and individuality. The novel is written in the form of diary entries by the protagonist and is distinguished by complex, expressive language with mathematical metaphors.

Main Characters

D-503 (Д-503) — The protagonist, builder of the spaceship Integral, a mathematician I-330 (I-330) — D-503’s lover, a revolutionary, member of the underground organization O-90 (О-90) — D-503’s other lover, a round and rosy woman R-13 (R-13) — A poet, D-503’s friend, in love with O-90 S-4711 (S-4711) — A “Guardian,” a secret police agent monitoring D-503 The Benefactor — The dictator of the One State The Doctor — A physician, a secret ally of the revolutionaries

Summary

The novel consists of 40 entries (notes) in D-503’s diary. The action takes place in the distant future, in the 26th century, in the One State—a totalitarian society built on the principles of total control, rationalism, and the rejection of freedom.

Entries 1-5. The World of the One State

D-503, a talented mathematician and builder of the Integral (a spaceship intended to spread the ideology of the One State to other planets), begins keeping a diary. He enthusiastically describes the structure of his world.

In the One State, people have lost their names and received numbers. They live in glass houses, where everyone can see everyone—there is no privacy. Life is regulated by the Hourly Tablet—a schedule where every action is planned down to the minute. Everyone gets up, works, eats, and sleeps simultaneously. Personal life is also regulated: pink slips are issued for intimate relations.

The City is surrounded by the Green Wall, beyond which is wild nature and the remnants of old humanity. The State is ruled by the Benefactor. Once a year, elections are held where everyone unanimously re-elects him. The secret police—the “Guardians” in gray uniforms—monitor order. D-503 considers this system ideal, based on mathematical precision and reason.

Entries 6-10. Meeting I-330

On a walk, D-503 encounters a strange woman—I-330. She is unlike the other numbers: she has sharp teeth, a mocking smile, and a provocative gaze. She smokes and acts defiantly. D-503 is simultaneously drawn to her and feels anxiety.

I-330 invites him to the Ancient House—a museum of the old era where objects from the past are preserved. There, among forbidden items, she shows him an old icon and speaks of the soul. D-503 is shocked—he begins to feel something irrational that contradicts his rational worldview.

D-503 has a regular partner, O-90—a rosy, round, gentle woman who loves him. But after meeting I-330, D-503 can think of nothing else. He realizes he is falling in love, and this frightens him—after all, love in the One State is considered a disease, a remnant of the irrational past.

Entries 11-15. Awakening

I-330 continues to meet with D-503. She takes him to underground places where people violate the laws of the One State: they drink alcohol, smoke, and talk about forbidden things. D-503 is horrified but cannot refuse these meetings.

He begins to experience strange symptoms: insomnia, dreams (and numbers should not dream), and irrational feelings. He goes to the doctor, who diagnoses him: he has “developed a soul.” This is a disease, an atavism. The doctor suggests treatment, but D-503 is in no hurry.

O-90 tells D-503 that she wants a child from him, even though she was not given permission for motherhood (she does not meet the parameters). This is a crime, but O-90 is ready to take the risk for love. D-503 is in confusion—his ordered world is collapsing.

Entries 16-20. The Conspiracy

I-330 reveals a terrible secret to D-503: there is an underground organization preparing a revolution against the One State. They want to tear down the Green Wall and return freedom to people. Wild people, descendants of those who did not accept the totalitarian system, live beyond the wall.

I-330 confesses that she is a member of this organization. She fell in love with D-503 not by chance: she needs access to the Integral to seize the ship and use it for the revolution. D-503 must help the conspirators.

D-503 is torn by contradictions. On one hand, he is a loyal citizen of the One State, raised on the ideas of order and rationality. On the other—he loves I-330 and begins to understand that life without freedom, without a soul, is not life but mere existence. He agonizingly chooses between duty and love.

Entries 21-25. The Uprising

The Day of Unanimity arrives—the day of the Benefactor’s election. Usually, everyone votes “for” by raising their hands. But this time, the unthinkable happens: several thousand numbers vote “against”! This is an action by the revolutionaries. Chaos begins.

D-503 sees I-330 in the crowd of rebels. The authorities suppress the unrest with difficulty. The Benefactor declares a state of emergency. Arrests begin. All numbers are ordered to undergo the Great Operation—the surgical removal of fantasy, the part of the brain responsible for imagination and freedom of thought.

O-90, pregnant by D-503, is forced to flee beyond the Green Wall with the help of I-330. D-503 says goodbye to her, understanding that he will never see her again. He is drawn deeper into the conspiracy, but his fear of the consequences also grows.

Entries 26-30. The Collapse of Illusions

D-503 helps the revolutionaries prepare to seize the Integral. But the plan fails. S-4711, the Guardian who has long been watching D-503, exposes the conspiracy. Mass arrests of revolutionaries begin.

I-330 goes into hiding. D-503 tries to find her, but without success. He understands that the threat of arrest and execution hangs over him. His diary, where he wrote frankly about his feelings and doubts, could become evidence.

The authorities intensify the pressure. All citizens are ordered to undergo the Great Operation immediately. Those who refuse are declared enemies of the state. The city turns into a war zone. D-503 hides, but understands there is nowhere to run.

Entries 31-35. The Great Operation

D-503 wanders through the city in despair. He sees numbers one after another going for the operation and returning “cured”—with empty eyes, obedient, and faceless. They no longer feel, dream, or suffer. They have become ideal cogs in the system.

D-503’s friend, the poet R-13, has also undergone the operation. Now he writes only propaganda poems and does not remember his feelings for O-90. D-503 is horrified: this is worse than death—it is the destruction of personality, of the soul, of everything human.

But resistance is futile. The system cannot be defeated. The revolution is suppressed. The Green Wall is fortified. All rebels are either arrested or killed. I-330 does not make contact. D-503 realizes that the end is near.

Entries 36-40. The Finale

D-503 is summoned to the Benefactor. The ruler of the One State is not an abstract symbol but a real person, cold and ruthless. He explains the philosophy of the system to D-503: happiness is incompatible with freedom. Freedom makes people unhappy, forces them to doubt, to suffer. The One State has freed people from freedom, giving them the happiness of submission.

The Benefactor orders D-503 to undergo the Great Operation. D-503 can no longer resist. He is led to the operating room. The procedure is quick and painless. When D-503 comes to, he is changed: all his feelings, doubts, love for I-330—everything has disappeared.

He is brought to I-330’s interrogation. She is arrested and tortured. The “new” D-503 is required to testify against her. D-503 coldly tells everything he knows about the conspiracy. He no longer feels pity or love. He simply states the facts.

I-330 does not confess, even under torture. She and the other rebels are executed—placed under the Benefactor’s Bell, where they are slowly killed by vacuum. D-503 watches the execution calmly, without emotion. He is confident that reason has triumphed. Order is restored.

In the last entry, D-503 writes that unrest is still continuing in the West, but he has no doubt: reason will triumph. The One State will bring its happiness to the entire universe. The diary breaks off on this optimistic (for the system) note. The human D-503 is destroyed. Only the number remains.

The Meaning of the Work

We is a warning about the danger of totalitarianism and the loss of human freedom. Zamyatin shows a society where, in the name of “happiness” and “order,” everything human is destroyed: individuality, creativity, love, the ability to feel and dream.

The main conflict of the novel is between the rational and the irrational, between order and chaos, between unfree “happiness” and agonizing but genuine freedom. The One State is built on mathematical logic, but this logic is inhuman. It turns people into mechanisms, depriving them of their soul.

I-330 and the revolutionaries symbolize the aspiration for freedom, for the right to be imperfect, to suffer, to love, to make mistakes. D-503 travels a path from blind faith in the system through the awakening of the soul to a tragic finale—the voluntary renunciation of that soul.

The novel raises eternal questions: what is more important—freedom or security? Can happiness be built on unfreedom? Does the state have the right to cripple people’s souls for the sake of the “common good”? Zamyatin answers unequivocally: a society that takes away a person’s freedom of choice, the right to feel and think, is a dystopia, a nightmare, a prison, no matter what good intentions justify it.