The two most famous dystopian novels are NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1949) by George Orwell, who
acknowledged his debt to Zamyatin’s earlier novel,
and BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932) by Aldous Huxley.
But this earlier Russian novel, unpublished in the
author’s home country until 1988, was certainly the
pioneer, the first serious cautionary novel about the
dangers of a repressive superstate. Zamyatin was
always a bit of a rebel. He was sent into temporary
exile by the czar before the Russian Revolution,
and afterward into a permanent exile by the new
Communist regime. The novel was written in 1921
but was not published until 1924, when it appeared
in the West in an English translation.
The setting is the OneState, a future global
culture dominated by a single Big Brother–like figure, the Benefactor. The two protagonists are a scientist and a rebel whose lives become intertwined.
People do not have names any more, but are identified by numbers, and all pronouns are collective—hence the title. Private property is an alien
concept, and individual personal rights are minimal. Zamyatin was obviously responding to the excesses of the Russian Revolution, but he was also
commenting on the entire body of utopian fiction,
whose elaborate and carefully balanced social systems invariably would have collapsed if real people
had attempted to apply them to their own lives. In
Zamyatin’s novel people emulate machines, and
methods are being devised to eliminate the last
variable, the human imagination. The eventual rebellion fails, but Zamyatin’s humor blunts the blow
somewhat. Although the novel is relatively unsophisticated by modern standards, it has remained
quietly popular ever since its original appearance.
Despite the grim aspect of life in the OneState,
there is an underlying sense of humor and a clear
disdain for totalitarianism that lightens the mood
considerably.