Yevgeny Zamyatin - People You Might Not Know With Louis Bettong
One Authors journey from marxism, a lol cow of the 1920s.
People You Might Not Know
with Louis Bettong
Yevgeny Zamyatin
My "person you might not know" for today is Yevgeny Zamyatin, a Russian author who wrote the book titled "We", among many others. It is more the book that had an impact on me, however I will provide some background information about him as well, because it is an interesting journey which lead him to writing of the novel "We". A journey that is not dissimilar (in ideology) to one I have taken to formulate my ideas today. A journey that may be similar to yours or perhaps one you might take.
Yevgeny Zamyatin started out as a naval engineer. During his study as an engineer, he become involved with Bolsheviks (surprise, surprise). I imagine that he would have been protesting and generally making a nuisance of himself as he was arrested and sent to live in exile in siberia... Here is where shit gets crazy, he escaped, The end...
...Not really, but I could end it there and it would still be amazing, because the lad escaped from a Siberia.
So, it gets worse, he lived in exile for a awhile, escaped to Saint Petersburg before returning to what was then known as the "Grand Duchy of Finland" to finish his engineering studies, after which he returned to Russia and began writing as a hobby. It was clear that he had not yet gotten to that age where you kick in your left leaning ideologies and he continued to contribute to Marxist news papers. I imagine that is why he was arrested once again.
He graduated from the Imperial Russian Navy as an engineer and began working in Russia and later in England...
...He then returned to the Russia, after the 1917 Russian Revolution (we all know where this is heading, am I right?) and while initially supporting the October Revolution, he decided marxism was not so great after all due to the ever increasing level of censorship, lols, sound familiar? (1) He was described in an article by www.britanica.com, as a chronic dissenter. (2) I am surprised that he didn't end up in a gulag.
After this, the lad went full blown "anti SJW" and started writing satirical and critical pieces on the communist party (sound familiar, has this happened to anyone you know? amazing what a boot heel to the temple will do to your ideologies). I understand that in 1920 he wrote the book "We", which had to be published abroad (face palm) due to censorship. After leaving the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, he was no longer published in the country and his plays were stopped, he was granted permission to leave the Soviet Union. This is where I will get into the relevance of the book.
“...And everyone must lose his mind, everyone must! The sooner the better! It is essential — I know it...” Yevgeny Zamyatin
We
I 'm not going to say too much about the story, if you bothered to read this article then you will probably better enjoy the story more, if you read it yourself. Rather I will talk about why I thought it was interesting and not the actual story itself. The book "We" is a dystopian novel set in the future and when anybody thinks of dystopia, they all reach for their copy of 1984, so much so "Orwellian" is how we describe authoritarian societies and policies etc. In 1984 the tyranny is obvious, the oppression used by the governing body is blatant in a way that one might ask. "Why the hell don't the people do something about it". "We", is slightly Different however, my opinion is that it more closely resembles our situation today. The story is written from the perspective of someone who was born into the system and believes in the system so thoroughly, that they cannot imagine a world where they will be free or self reliant. In fact the idea of freedom is described by the protagonist as chaos or disorder. The society and behaviors are carefully crafted by use of "logic or reason", which of course are controlled by the state and used to justify the various policies regarding, procreation, education, relationships and so on. The protagonist works on a project that, is for the purpose of disseminating their ideology to the whole universe, which is reminiscent of Marxists ideology creeping in to societies globally. Everything from the description of birth/control, education to the medical system and the application of public shaming to obtain compliance in the book, draws parallels to society in the West today.
The interactions with the opposite sex portrayed in the book are particularly interesting given today's zeitgeist of creating fundamental division between the two sexes. It is almost as though Zamyatin had a crystal ball into a future just beyond ours and is warning us of the potential outcomes.(4) The book, to me, is almost neutral in its judgement of the authoritarian system, but the characters have more subtle bouts of cognitive dissonance, where deep down they wish they could go against the system to have a child, however they both suppress the feelings as they have been conditioned to do, through subtle shaming and societal expectations. The homogeneity of the population is reminiscent to todays striving for equality, however, it is apparent that some are more equal than others.
“...It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write, walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes, and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in search, in questions, in torment...” Yevgeny Zamyatin
I think for me it has more relevance today, then perhaps a full blown 1984 situation, or perhaps it might be more accurate to say it is a mixture of both. If you decide to read the book, I would encourage the reader to pay particular attention to how the system and situations compare to what we are experiencing today in western society. I wouldn't say that it is an action packed book, it is just to me a close parallel to one of our possible futures. It is amazing to think that the ideas were created almost 100 years ago. You can find out more about the book and author at the links below. If you have read it let me know what you thought of it below. I appreciate any and all feed back (positive and negative), its how I grow.
“...Those two, in paradise, were given a choice: happiness without freedom, or freedom without happiness. There was no third alternative...”Yevgeny Zamyatin