Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel We epitomizes the modern, impressionistic style that marked early twentieth-century avant-garde art. In a 1918 public lecture titled "Sovremennaya russkaya literatura" ("Contemporary Russian Literature"), Zamyatin identified himself as a neo-realist, one who examined life through a microscopic lens to reveal the astonishing "true reality that is concealed under the surface of life." This microscopic approach led to the distinctive, exaggerated imagery found in his work. As the post-revolutionary Soviet regime tightened its grip over the arts, shunning modernist innovations, Zamyatin found himself increasingly marginalized. The publication of excerpts from We in Prague in 1927 led to his estrangement, culminating in his resignation from the All-Russian Writers’ Union in 1929 and eventual emigration to France in 1931.

While Zamyatin anticipated the rise of thought control and censorship emblematic of Joseph Stalin’s oppressive regime, We transcends mere prophetic satire of Soviet Russia. It serves as a broader critique of conformity trends in the West, which Zamyatin had previously lampooned in his novella Ostrovityane (1918; translated as The Islanders, 1972). This work, a precursor to We, targeted British middle-class respectability, a subject Zamyatin scrutinized while working as a naval engineer in Great Britain during World War I.

The novel’s advocacy for the irrational elements of life and the significance of individual freedom places it firmly within the Russian literary tradition, echoing the themes of Dostoevsky. The narrative’s blend of fantasy and scientific conjecture nods to Zamyatin’s admiration for H.G. Wells. The anti-utopian themes explored in We resonate with twentieth-century consciousness, laying the groundwork for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and exerting a direct influence on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four (1949).