We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

We will be reviewing the novel 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin, written in 1920-1921. The novel depicts a future world of conformity and harmony under a unified, encased totalitarian society, The One State.

We follow the life of D-503, a spacecraft engineer in The One State as he begins a journal he intends to be carried on a spaceship he is constructing.

A central theme of 'We' is the rationalisation and mechanisation of society - the application of scientific management and the ideas of Frederick Winslow Taylor to society itself. The novel was seen as a critique of the direction the Soviet Union was taking and inspired George Orwell.

The following article would serve as a good supplementary reading: https://thecharnelhouse.org/2011/12/07/the-ultra-taylorist-soviet-utopianism-of-aleksei-gastev-including-gastevs-landmark-book-how-to-work%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BE-%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C/