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Imagine a world where freedom is doomed, where the government is watching you at any time,

where wars would never end. This is what Georges Orwell did in his dystopian novel 1984

published in 1949. Through his character Winston Smith, he imagined a dark world divided in

three countries ruled by oligarchical dictatorships. Orwells work is known for criticising

totalitarianism and in the years he lived, inspiration should not have been a concern. Spain,

Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union all went through forms of government that could be

considered totalitarian. In 1984, many aspects of the story and the world shown by the author

reveal that Stalins reign over The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics greatly inspired his opus.

When reading the book, a reader that knows about soviet history should easily recognize some

of the important public figures through the books character. The comparison between Joseph

Stalin and Big Brother is unavoidable. First, they are both the leader of the party in power, they

are looked upon and they are the symbol of the ultimate power. Everything great is happening

because of them. At the apex of the pyramid comes Big Brother. Big Brother is infallible and all-

powerful. Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific discovery, all

knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, is held to issue directly from his leadership and

inspiration.(p.216). Even the physical description that is made at page 23 match Stalins look.

The hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother, black haired , black moustachiod, full of

power and mysterious calm. However, the character that shows the most that the story is

inspired by Stalinism has to be Emmanuel Goldstein. In 1984, Goldstein is rumored to be a

former very important party member, apparently as much as Big Brother and apparently he

once betrayed the Party and created an organisation that is dedicated to the fall of the Party.

For the Party, he is the ultimate embodiment of evil and he represents rebellion. In order to

maintain its power, the Party shift the blame to him; he basically is the scapegoat of the nation.The Hate had started. As usual, the face of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Enemy of the People, had

flashed on to the screen.(p.25) In Stalins U.S.S.R., the same phenomenon happened. Leon

Trotsky, just like Stalin, was an important figure of the Russian Revolution. After Lenins death,

the two fought for the leadership of the party, but Stalin was the one to come to power. After

that, he opposed Stalins policies and in order to maintain power Stalin had him deported from

the Soviet Union, but to eliminate totally the threat he represented, he had him killed a few

years later. Through the similarities of the two stories, it is easily understandable that Goldstein

was heavily inspired by Leon Trotsky and the characters name is probably not a coincidence,

knowing that Trotskys real last name is Bronshtein.

The resemblance between Stalinism and Orwells book goes further. One thing that the two

systems have in common is the control of information. In U.S.S.R, everything that can be

considered a threat for Stalins power is either destroyed or pushed away. The opponents of the

Party are deported, Trotsky for instance, but also numerous artists like David Riazanov. The

quantity of forbidden books is hardly believable and documents are often modified to fit the

portrait that is given of Stalin. Statistics are everything, but the truth; they are illusions created

by the Party. In 1984, all of these techniques are used, but pushed to a higher level. "Day by day

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and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction

made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any

item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment,

ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and re-inscribed

exactly as often as was necessary."(p. 54) In fact, because he works at the Ministry of Truth,

Winstons job is to change the documents, it is the whole point of the ministry actually. With

both systems being so similar, it is legitimate to believe that in some way, Orwell tried to do

some sort of a dark parody of Stalinism.

As shown here through the analysis of Stalinism and Orwells 1984s oligarchical dictatorship,

censorship and propaganda are important parts of totalitarianism, because controlling people

goes further than physically keeping them away from rebellion. The key to maintain power is

controlling peoples mind and thoughts which are the roots of all society. When someone or

something can make the truth what they wish then this entity has the real power and I think

that this is what the book wanted to tell.