We

We is a 1921 science fiction novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin. In the future authoritarian society of the One State, the novel’s protagonist D-503 is the chief builder of a new rocket, the Integral, which is designed to integrate other planets into the One State’s mathematically perfect happiness. However, this plan is subverted when D-503 meets I-330, a woman who encourages him to break the One State’s rules.

This guide uses a 2022 independently published edition by William Mann, which is based on the first English edition that was translated by Gregory Zilboorg.

Plot Summary

We is divided into 40 short chapters or “records.” In records one to 10, set in the future authoritarian society of the One State, the novel’s narrator and protagonist, D-503, discusses the Integral, a rocket for which he is the chief builder. Near to completion, the purpose of the Integral is to integrate other planets into the perfect happiness of the One State. One State asks its citizens to submit writing meant to persuade citizens of other planets. D-503 writes a journal that documents life in their society. D-503 describes how on a walk with a woman assigned as his sexual partner, O-90, he speaks with a mysterious woman, I-330. Several days later D-503 agrees to go with I-330 to the “Ancient House,” a replica twentieth-century building, where she encourages him to be late for a lecture. D-503 refuses but does not report her to the state police, the Guardians. The day after an execution, D-503 is assigned to be I-330’s sexual partner. However, when D-503 visits her flat she forces him to ingest alcohol when she kisses him. Alcohol is illegal.

In records 11-20, I-330 arranges for D-503 to meet her again in the Ancient House, where they make love. Dealing with strange emotions afterward, D-503 goes to the Medical Bureau, where the doctor tells him that he contracted a soul, but that he should walk to the Ancient House the next morning. The next day in the Ancient House, D-503 sees a closet with a key still in it and enters. He feels himself descend on a platform and finds himself in an underground corridor outside a room from which emerge I-330 and the doctor. I-330 tells D-503 that she will see him tomorrow. The next day, D-503 receives a note from I-330 and a “pink check” from her indicating that she has been assigned to him as a sexual partner that day. She tells him to lower the curtains as if she were there despite her absence. D-503 returns to his flat and finds O-90 waiting. She tells him that she wants his child. D-503 sleeps with O-90 to get her pregnant despite her state-imposed parenthood ban due to her height.

In records 21-30, D-503 discusses the “Day of the Benefactor,” where the citizens of the One State vote in unison for their assigned leader, the “Benefactor.” Yet, on the day itself, thousands of citizens vote against the Benefactor. This sparks chaos and D-503 rescues I-330, who says that she will show him somewhere new the next day. The following day, I-330 reveals how the corridors under the Ancient House lead under the “Green Wall,” which separates the One State from the natural world outside. D-503 and I-330 emerge from beneath the wall and see a community of naked humans, the “Mephi.” I-330 tells these people that they must seize the Integral to stop the One State from erecting more walls in other worlds. Subsequently, I-330 tells D-503 he must help the Mephi by locking up the Integral’s state-assigned crew during its trial voyage. Once the Integral is seized, I-330 then plans to spark a revolution by turning the Integral’s thrusters against the One State city.

In records 31-40, D-503 reads about a state-mandated operation to remove imagination, which he hopes might be a way to redeem himself. When I-330 states that she will leave him if he has the operation, he forgoes the procedure and decides to help the Mephi instead. On the Integral’s maiden voyage, I-330 and members of the Mephi manage to get aboard the rocket. A Guardian discovers their plan and stops D-503 before he can lock the Integral’s crew in the dining area. The next day, the Benefactor summons D-503 and tells him that the Mephi have just been using him because he is the Integral’s builder. I-330 then visits D-503 but realizes he now wants the operation, and they part ways forever. The next morning, D-503 confesses everything to the Guardians and gets the operation to remove his imagination. Afterward, he betrays I-330 to the Benefactor and watches her torture along with that of other suspected Mephi members. In the end, D-503 asserts that the One State, and reason, will inevitably triumph over its enemies.