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Part of understanding the reason why George Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948 and 1949 is to appreciate the efforts he took to make the world and particularly the society in Oceania seem as plausible as possible. As is the case with the most impactful dystopian novels, the world presented in 1984 seems plausible because it reflects dystopian elements that have already happened or at least seem eerily familiar.

Real World Events Impacting 1984

Orwell drew from his first-hand experiences and observations in creating the government and society in Oceania. One example of this is that the young “Spies” organization that Parsons’s children belong to was modeled on the Hitler Youth group that indoctrinated children in Nazi Germany. Another example is that “2 + 2 = 5” was a real political slogan from the Soviet Union, a promise to complete the industrializing Five-Year Plan in four years. Orwell satirizes the slogan here to demonstrate the authoritarian tendency to suspend reality.

Orwell lived through the politically turbulent 1920s, 30s, and 40s, witnessing, and in some cases participating in, events that shaped the world we live in today. As a member of the British Imperial Police, he enforced rules on the population of Burma (until he quit in disgust). Orwell volunteered to fight against the fascist government in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, an experience that made him aware and highly critical of the authoritarian tendencies on the left as well as on the right.

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as Influences on 1984

Orwell’s understanding of the increasingly repressive authoritarian communist Soviet government is reflected in his classic 1945 work Animal Farm as well as in 1984. Much of the brutality, paranoia, and betrayals we see in the Party in 1984 are drawn from the Soviet Union’s Great Purges of 1936–1938 in which 600,000 people died in an official re-ordering of the Communist Party instigated by Joseph Stalin. This period saw widespread repression of the public, police surveillance, executions without trial, and a general atmosphere of fear pervading Soviet society.

In 1984, the trio of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford symbolize people who Stalin had executed or were sent to forced-labor camps. Emmanuel Goldstein is the stand-in for Leon Trotsky, the revolutionary figurehead who Stalin cast out of the party and denounced as a traitor to the cause, and who was later assassinated. Trotsky’s manifesto, “The Revolution Betrayed,” and Goldstein’s “The Theory and Practices of Oligarchical Collectivism” have much in common, from the tone of their writing to the subjects discussed.

The rise of Hitler and the scapegoating of Jews and other “undesirables” also had a profound effect on Orwell. He realized that mass media was a key factor in Hitler’s rise, enabling prominent figures and organizations to shape public opinion on a broad scale. The intrusive telescreens and the Party’s frequent parades and events are drawn from Nazi Party public propaganda and its marches and rallies.

Orwell also reflected everyday life experiences from World War II in the London of 1984. Unappetizing food, inconsistent electricity, and scarcity of basic household goods in 1984 all come from Orwell’s experiences with wartime rationing. London having been the target of bombing raids appears in 1984 as well, an echo of the Blitz campaign carried out by Germany on London and the surrounding areas in which 40,000 people died and almost a million buildings were severely damaged or destroyed.

When 1984 was published in 1949, World War II had been over for only four years, and many people assumed that a “World War III” was inevitable, making the wars of the novel feel not just realistic but unavoidable. Additionally, 1984 was written four years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Orwell references nuclear-powered wars happening in different parts of the world. The idea of three superstates reflects the historic 1943 Tehran Conference, where Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt discussed global “areas of influence” and how they should exercise their influence on the rest of the world.

The Predictable but not Inevitable World of 1984

All its links to real events contribute to the dystopian society in 1984 feeling more plausible, which ties in directly to the fact that Orwell’s goal was not to make readers believe that the world he described is inevitable. Rather, Orwell intended for his novel to be a warning to alert us to take steps to avert the world in 1984 from happening before it can come about in reality. By going along with and even working for the government that they know is oppressing its citizens, Winston, Syme, and other intelligent characters actively abet a regime that deserves only their contempt. (Notably, all these characters eventually become targets and victims of the government they have been serving.) 1984 is Orwell’s warning against complacency and acquiescence in the face of evil. As Winston sadly discovers, resistance is futile in the world of 1984, but Orwell’s message to the reader is that dissent is not pointless in our world—at least not yet.

That “1984” quickly became and has remained a universally understood expression for governmental overreach speaks to effectiveness of Orwell’s warning and its lasting impact. Only a few books of any kind have had as much influence on the world as has 1984.

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