There is no such thing as a government that is 100% honest with its citizens and with the world, and this has been the case for decades. The lies range from the alteration of statistics to the way citizens are treated. The lies range from minor lies to complete falsifications of true facts. However, no kind of government falsification is more common than those pertaining to war. When a nation wins a war, it tends to write a version of history in regards to the war that acknowledges facts, but paints the enemy side in (typically) a more negative light. It is up to historians to sift through the facts and give a balanced and unbiased interpretation of history (Elst). The notion that governments often change certain facts about wartime history
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The Soviet Union lasted for 69 years from 1922 to 1991, and Joseph Stalin was the dictator from 1929 to 1953. Stalin was notorious for being a liar and a manipulator, but many people still do not know that he is responsible for 6 million more deaths than Adolf Hitler. In fact, Stalin was directly responsible for the deaths of 2-7 million poor Ukrainian farmers during the Holomodor (man-made famine) from 1932-1933. Not only was he responsible for the famine, but he actively allowed it to continue. Kevin Cunningham wrote, in his biography Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union, “Stalin and his lieutenants not only prevented relief from going to Ukraine but also denied that people were starving…” (Cunningham 114). Stalin publicly denied to his country and the world that the Ukrainians were not starving, simply because it made him look like a more successful dictator. Similarly, the government (known simply as “The Party”) in George Orwell’s 1984 constantly lied to its people and changed records to make themselves look like they had a perfect track record. The main character, Winston, discusses this often throughout the book by constantly saying, “All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary” (Orwell 51). Clearly Joseph Stalin was an extremely dishonest dictator who felt that the only way to secure is future was to lie to the world about what was really going on, and clearly this was extremely similar to the way that The Party acted within
The Soviet Union lasted for 69 years from 1922 to 1991, and Joseph Stalin was the dictator from 1929 to 1953. Stalin was notorious for being a liar and a manipulator, but many people still do not know that he is responsible for 6 million more deaths than Adolf Hitler. In fact, Stalin was directly responsible for the deaths of 2-7 million poor Ukrainian farmers during the Holomodor (man-made famine) from 1932-1933. Not only was he responsible for the famine, but he actively allowed it to continue. Kevin Cunningham wrote, in his biography Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union, “Stalin and his lieutenants not only prevented relief from going to Ukraine but also denied that people were starving…” (Cunningham 114). Stalin publicly denied to his country and the world that the Ukrainians were not starving, simply because it made him look like a more successful dictator. Similarly, the government (known simply as “The Party”) in George Orwell’s 1984 constantly lied to its people and changed records to make themselves look like they had a perfect track record. The main character, Winston, discusses this often throughout the book by constantly saying, “All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary” (Orwell 51). Clearly Joseph Stalin was an extremely dishonest dictator who felt that the only way to secure is future was to lie to the world about what was really going on, and clearly this was extremely similar to the way that The Party acted within