My Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Taking on the Dystopian Genre: The Influence of Soviet Sovereignty

The twentieth century marked a historical shift in social and economic policies in Russia, inevitably overturning centuries of political regime and dramatically revolutionizing the country’s longstanding principles. By 1917, war-stricken Russia encountered much defeat and discouragement among citizens, which in turn led to poor work morale, in addition to an increasing poverty-stricken population, and a detrimentally failing economy and government; furthermore, the desire to revolt was dramatically increasing under the regime of Nicholas II, ultimately contributing to his abdication to the throne (“Russian Revolution of 1917”). The February Revolution lead a massive revolt of industrial workers that extended for days, which in turn led the government to renounce its duties and create a contingent government in order to squelch the current quandaries (“Russian Revolution”) . Thereafter followed the October Revolution, giving rise to the socialist party known as the Bolsheviks; led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks conclusively overturned the provisional authority and established the rise of the Union Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922 (“Russian Revolution”). This inescapably began the rise of widespread collectivism and the ascending sovereignty of the Soviets.

During the onset uprising of the Soviets, Russian novelist Yevgeny Zamyatin’s creation of We in 1921 satirically adopts similar collectivist ideologies through dystopian story of a Totalitarian State. The narrative is placed one-thousand years into the future with the narrator D-503 offering his thoughts and insight the socialist world known as the One State. There in the community, all outside world is cut off, in addition to every building made of glass and transparent at all times. D-503 is a mathematician and builder of a spaceship named the Integral who unquestionably agrees with the tactics of the Totalitarian State, but later alters his ideas when he falls in love with the heroic I-330, which later turns the strictly governed state into upheaval. All together, D-503 offers an insight to the extreme governed community, the Numbers manifestly stripped of individuality and humanity, forced to live a life according to the dictators, and deprived of having a conscience. Superficially, the science fiction explores a dramatic tail of an authoritarian dictatorship, however, the readers can seemingly distinguish the overlapping parallels between the storyline and the USSR. The vast amount of context in conjunction with the dystopian genre embodies the overall foundation of We, revealing Zamyatin’s examination of the consequences that follow a collectivist government, such as the rising Soviets.

The integration of context begins with the author himself and his utilization of biblical references to denounce Soviet superiority.  Zamyatin was well knowledged in mathematics and naval engineering, along with supporting the Bolsheviks during the 1905 Revolution; however, his encouragement of the Bolsheviks at the time resulted in his imprisonment for several months (“Left Socialist Revolutionaries”). Several years later, Zamyatin returned from his engineering career at the brink of the October Revolution; when returning, he began to disapprove with the Bolshevik’s notion of dictating art and literature (“Left Socialist Revolutionaries”). After his withdrawal from the Bolsheviks, Zamyatin began satirically criticizing Soviet ideologies through his creation of We. D-503 is a mathematician for the One-State who at first thoroughly agrees with the government’s rigid tactics, explaining that the One-State is a divine line; further, he describes “To unbend the wild curve, to straighten it out  to a tangent-to a straight line” (4). The protagonist mathematically describes the State as a perfect straight line, relating to its rigid dictatorship by being uniquely ideal. Zamyatin interwove his background in mathematics with relevance to the rising power of the State. As the storyline develops, D-503 begins to question himself and the hierarchy when he falls in love with the rebellious I-330- a woman who intently contradicts the One State’s orders and persuades D-503 to follow her planned anarchy.  “You looked about you liked an inspired mythical god on the seventh day of creation” (8). I-330 contrasts D-503 to a higher power, alluding that the government is not the one who holds the jurisdiction, but rather humanity does. Though the One State presumes to have the power over all the citizens, infallibly it is individuals who have the true authority over themselves. Zamyatin employs religious allusions to imitate the totalitarian propensities seen in the Soviets post Revolution, in addition to cautioning the readers against the Soviets (“Counterpart of Christ In Zamyatin’s We”). The juxtaposition between an oppressive authority and power is also imminent in Zamyatin’s essay Tomorrow, voicing that “The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy” (University of Chicago Press 51).  Moreover, Zamyatin figuratively negates the Soviets having power over the citizens, and weaves this claim throughout We by creating I-330 as the antagonist and separatist. Furthermore, Zamyatin conjointly alludes to Soviet fallacies through the implement of the Numbers themselves.

Zamyatin’s abolishment of names in the text correlates implicitly to the overall eradication of individuality in the text, as well as linking the inhumanity of the Soviet command. “I see myself as a part of an enormous, vigorous, united body, and what precise beauty! Not a single superfluous gesture or bow, or turn” (32). Before D-503 began noticing he had a soul, he consistently characterized himself as a miniscule part of the United State-possessing no individuality nor a  sense of personal thoughts and beliefs. The intent of obsolete individuality is created through the identification of numbers instead of names, idealizing the belief that power resides solely with the government and the citizens are not individuals but a number in the eyes of the collectivist state. Zamyatin renders the lack of humanity once more in his essay Tomorrow, concluding that “wars, imperialists, and civil have turned man into material for welfare, into a number, a cipher” (Ginsburg 52). Zamyatin implies through his text that the shortfall of humanity is a result of the collectivist dictatorship of the Soviets, and duplicates this notion through the One-State’s reign of terror and the citizens lack of personal identity. Once D-503 begins to act against the government, he is told that he caught an illness, in exact terms, “apparently a soul has developed in you” (84). The United State abhorrently opposed Numbers possessing any nature of self identity and creative thought, which correlates boundlessly to Bolsheviks confinement of creative arts. Zamyatin believed that “true literature can exist only where it is created” (Ginsburg); although the Soviets did implement the restriction of the arts, Zamyatin continued his literature and wrote We despite the presumed ramifications. The deprivement of the citizen’s names and consciousness is a central concept relating to the inhumanity that follows the Totalitarian State, in addition to centralizing the framework of the dystopian genre. Not only does Zamyatin employ the motif of power through the United State’s use of numbers, he further demonstrates the scarcity of individuality through the daily calendar of each Number.

The circadian schedule rigorously enforced by the One-State correlates notably to the lack of independence, relating mutually to the stringent policies enforced by the USSR. The Table of Hours was designed by the United State to designate a specific time for sleeping, working, walking, while also allowing a miniscule fragment of the day for privacy. “Every morning, with six-wheeled precision, at the same hour, at the same minute, we wake up, millions of us at once” (13). In essence, the Numbers do not posses any control over themselves; the power resides with the government, which similarly corresponds to formation of an economic policy known as “War Communism”. Under the regime of Lenin, the system followed numerous principles that judiciously put the State in control of everything; in other terms, the State owned everyone: all production, labor, businesses were controlled by the State (“War Communism”). Citizens of Russia were controlled by the rising Soviets, in parallel with the Numbers being greatly restrained by the One-State. The storyline continues with influence of the authority and D-503 questioning what life would be like without the Tables- without “precise regulation” (13). The severity of the repression is circulated through the establishment of the set schedule of all the citizens, exploiting their power without exception. The confinement of the citizens is designed in order for the government to be in control at all times, promoting a union to obey the state and obliterate the idea of freedom. Furthermore, the Table of Hours is constructed to strip humanity of individuality, putting entire jurisdiction to the government, inevitably correlating to the political regime of the Soviet’s ideology of total sovereignty.

As Zamyatin explains in one of his Autobiographies, he voices that “perhaps the most interesting and most serious stories have not been written by me, but have happened to me” (Ginsburg 4). The author utilizes much of the occurrences post revolution as a way to express his literature, which ostensibly developed the birth of the anti-uption genre. Though the science fictional novel encompassed a setting and plot that dramatically differed from Zamyatin’s life, it’s long-term message and ideology was seamlessly in parallel with Russia’s heresy. Known as “Possible Words” of science fiction utopias, We embodies the impeccable paradox of a divergent yet the synonymous story to the life of the author (Wegner 96). The main principle of the narrative is to presumably caution the readers on the discrepancies following collectivist authority.  The motif of power was rendered through the One-State’s embodiment of fascism, implementing the extinction of freedom, followed with the elimination of names, and the creation of the Table of Hours. When depicted, a dystopian genre mirrors an illusion of a perfect world with dehumanization, constant civilian surveillance, and constraint of individual thought. The formation of We is a model embodiment of such a classical form of dystopian genre, in addition to serving many parallels of the Soviet political regime. Although such literature was banned in Russia at the time, Zamyatin wrote unfiltered and continued his career despite the consequences. As Zamyatin said himself, “we need writers who fear nothing” (“Our Goal”).