''Because Reason must prevail.''

One of the earliest known {{Dystopia}} novels, written by Yevgeny Zamyatin in 1921 and predating both ''BraveNewWorld'' (1932) and ''NineteenEightyFour'' (1949). It's also notable for being the first work banned by [[MediaWatchdog Glavlit]], not published in the Soviet Union until 1988, and some parts of the description of the One State read as scaringly similar to Stalinism -- eight years before it began to take shape. (The Soviets especially didn't like the book's implication that theirs was not the ''final'', destined-for-success revolution.)

The entire book is [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis a fictional diary]] written by the protagonist, D-503, a citizen of the totalitarian One State (a more accurate translation from Russian would be "United State", "Unified State" or "Wholesome State") ruled by a Big Brother-like figure known as the Benefactor, where humans are called "numbers" and lead a highly math- and logic-centered (read: StrawVulcan) existence. Everything is "rationalized" via rigid timetables, down to sex.

Later on, D-503 is "emotionally awakened" by I-330, a member of LaResistance called the Mephi, who shows him the world outside the Green Wall encircling the city-state. However, as the Mephi push towards the city and chaos erupts on the streets, D-503 is caught and subjected to the recently discovered "Great Operation": removal of the imagination, causing him to revert to his original calculating self, as he calmly writes about I-330 being executed in front of his eyes and doesn't even recognize her. The ending is ambiguous about the eventual fate of the One State itself.

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Provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd (D-503 states that the One State was established after a 200-year war caused by shortage of natural resources,
* BittersweetEnding or BolivianArmyEnding, depending on how you see the odds; D-503 is basically gone as a person, but LaResistance may well win after all.
* CityInABottle
* {{Dystopia}}
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex (and emotionless people have emotionless sex)
* IndividualityIsIllegal (the Benefactor is actually a little lenient about this, because the 'numbers' of the One State all think alike anyway and so there's little danger of any ''real'' "traitorous" invididualism catching on)
* {{Instrumentality}} (the Mephi call the state of the One State "entropy", making a reference to the concept of "heat death" in relation to everyone being basically a carbon copy of each other; and themselves they view as "energy", meant to revitalize society)
* LaResistance (the Mephi)
* LesCollaborateurs (D-503 becomes one at the end)
* NewEden (the outside world)
* TheSpock (D-503 in the beginning; and he returns to this state in the end as well)
* StrawVulcan (the One State is apparently a PlanetOfHats of Straw Vulcans; D-503 experiences a LogicBomb in the form of the square root of -1, which he considers unfitting for a mathematically rigorous world)
** One should also consider that the use of (-1)^0.5 is somewhat of a DidNotDoTheResearch when it comes to mathematics, though it will only be evident to (and matter for) people with at least a college education
* UnusualEuphemism (not as much as in ''NineteenEightyFour'', but still plentiful)
* VillainWithGoodPublicity (the Benefactor is genuinely popular in this brainwashed society, but still sees fit to quell the very mild opposition and pretend that his support is completely unanimous instead of only ''almost'' unanimous)

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