In Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, the protagonist is assigned the number D-503.
D-503 is an engineer responsible for building the Integral, a spacecraft intended to spread the authority of the One State beyond Earth. In the novel's numbered society, citizens are identified by combinations of letters and numerals rather than personal names. The system reflects the regime's belief that individuality is irrational and that human beings can be organized like mathematical units.
D-503 initially admires the One State's glass buildings, rigid schedules, and mathematically planned society. His encounter with I-330, however, awakens desires and doubts that the state has tried to suppress. O-90 is another important figure in his life, while R-13 is his friend and a state poet; these characters' designations are sometimes confused with D-503's.
We was written in 1920–1921, first published in English in 1924, and did not appear in its original Russian in the Soviet Union until 1988. Its numbered citizens and surveillance state helped establish a pattern later associated with modern dystopian fiction.