This opera is based on a 1924 novella by a Ukrainian writer Mykola Khvyliovy. Setting takes place on the territory of modern Ukraine right after the Bolshevik revolution. The author himself had a strong belief in the new regime in his younger years, but after experiencing the atrocities of the Bolshevik revolution he has rejected its ideals and wanted to expose the extremities to which this fanatic following has led. The book is written from the first-person perspective of the main character who also happens to be the antagonist. Hence the title “I” – it’s the only way he is being referred to as the entire story is his inner monologue, in which “I” is being torn between duty to the state and the conscience of his own human self. During the 1930’s massive wave of arrests and executions of the Ukrainian-speaking artists by the Soviet government Khvyliovy has tragically taken his own life.