Similarities Between 1984 And The Soviet Union

“Brother and the Soviet Union” In the book 1984 by George Orwell, the protagonist Winston Smith lives in a futuristic dystopian society with tyrannical rulers and corrupt governments. The book contains many references and allusions to the Soviet Union at the time of Stalin’s rule. Orwell used his knowledge and experience from communism and Soviet Russia at the time to write 1984. The dictator in 1984 was called “Big Brother” and was very similar to Joseph Stalin. Big Brother has a “heavy black mustache” and is called “ruggedly handsome” (Orwell 1-2). The same could be said for Stalin. He had a thick mustache and was also known to be ruggedly handsome. They both also had very aggressive mannerisms. Stalin was thought to have paranoia. It …show more content…
Under Stalin, there was his government party called the Politburo. He was the leader of the party and placed and replaced his underlings often. He used the spoils system and gave many government jobs to supporters (Horvitz). This is very similar to the “the Party” in 1984. The Party was run by Big Brother and had an inner circle that had great power in the government (Orwell). There were also many institutions they were common among Orwell’s book and Stalin’s government. In 1984 there were four main ministries that made up the government. The most notable ones that hold many similarities to the Soviet Union were the Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Plenty. The Ministry of Truth created lies and false statistics to give to the public. They also changed history to follow their lies (Orwell 4). The Soviet Union also lied to the people and changed history to trick the citizens (Joseph Stalin). The Ministry of Plenty did not supply the public with enough rations to survive. Unlike what the name would have one believe, the government did not have plenty and was not able to take care of its citizens (Orwell 4). This is similar to the famines that were caused by the government in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s rule. The government’s Agricultural sector of the Soviet Union did not produce enough food for all its citizens so many died from starvation (Horvitz). Big Brother had secret police that would watch over the people of Oceania. They were called the thought police and were able to invade people’s thoughts to see if they were thinking of any revolutionary activity (Orwell 3). Just like Big Brother, Stalin had his own secret police, called the NKVD. It was estimated that under Stalin, at least 681,692 people were shot by this secret police (Horvitz). Brutality and the corruption in the government was commonplace in