Zamyatin sets his novel in the 'One State' over a thousand years in the future. He makes his task of satirizing the anticipated path of the Soviet regime more difficult by having the story told in the first person by a pillar of the One State, an engineer, rather than by an omniscient third-person narrator or a rebel. Thus he has to indicate to the reader a critique of the One State through the words of one of its most enthusiastic defenders. These writings will alert people on other planets to the wonders of life in the One State and to the joys that lie in store for them, as the One State expands its authority beyond earth. But first, a description of the One State.
Males use a consonant, females use a vowel.
Only one person is not referred to by a letter and number, the overall leader of the One State. He is an elderly man known as the Benefactor. During the novel he is re-elected for the 47th time during a great annual holiday called the Day of Unanimity. D-503 is puzzled by the fact that among the 'ancients' the results of elections were unknown before voting took place. All numbers dress alike in an identical pale blue 'unif', a gender-neutral outfit.