1984

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1984 | Historical Context

Totalitarianism
In 1948, when Orwell’s 1984 was published, World War II had just ended. One of England’s allies had been Russia, which was ruled by a despotic dictator named Joseph Stalin. Stalin ruled with an iron fist, and was famous for his midnight purges: he would round up hundreds of citizens at a time and murder them in deserted areas, much as Oceania citizens are “vaporized.” Stalin’s victims were his imagined enemies, such as political dissidents, artists, or Jews. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler, in Germany, had slaughtered his enemies as well, in the end killing...

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See Also:

• - For teachers, the 1984 Lesson Plan.
• - 1984 summary and study guide in the eNotes.

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