Ego worlds and explosion: ‘A Story about the most important thing’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Abstract

The earthly locus of this story, located at the crossroads of many seemingly incompatible yet vibrant and tragically profound worlds, is encompassed, among other things, by the multi-personal “ego” of the diegetic narrator. These worlds are imbued with pain and despair, but, according to Zamyatin, we are faced with manifestations of a living beginning, filled with the energies of revolution. As is known, Zamyatin, based on the teachings of R. Mayer, contrasted energy, which he understood as a revolutionary beginning, with entropy – stagnation and immortality. Energetic explosion, according to Zamyatin, is a necessary blow from the left to the quasi-left Bolshevik regime, which suppresses freedom and loses its living face.