We

I have always been fascinated by Russian authors because of their command of presenting human nature and its fears. I picked up this book because the author is from Russia.

Yevgeny wrote this novel at the height of the  Russian Revolution in the aftermath of the First World War. He projected a society in a distant future, fearing that complete control of the state would turn us into monotonous machines. Anyone daring to be different would be eliminated to ensure compliance and similarity.

My only reservation is that the book borders on science fiction rather than historical fiction.

While the story centres on logical D-503, a man vacuously content as a number in the One State, it is I-330—Zamyatin’s unruly heroine—who stole my attention.

Confident, powerful, and heroic, the liberated I-330 embraces the Green Wind of change to influence D-503. A force of hope and resilience, she braves torture to successfully orchestrate a revolution that breaches the Green Wall—feats typically relegated to a male protagonist in novels of that era.

When pregnant O-90 refuses to surrender her child to the State, I-330 helps her escape to the outside, where the Green Wind of freedom blows. I resonated with… show more.

For an absolute classic, I would be amiss if I did not include Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We in this list, as it’s been credited for inspiring both Orwell and Rand in their dystopian journeys. This is a classic dystopian novel set in something called ‘OneState’- a city enclosed in glass under the totalitarian rule of the ‘Benefactor'. In ways similar to Fahrenheit 451, I love We for its exploration of what happens when free thought collapses and is replaced by government-enforced conformity.

The main protagonist (simply named D-503) lives a life void of all passion and creativity. The most precious… show more.