‘1984’, the famous dystopian novel by George Orwell, is currently at the top of the list of historical bestsellers in Russia. The story is set in a future where totalitarian rulers strip their citizens of power to maintain support for their senseless wars. That seems to sound familiar to the Russians at the moment.
The novel is the most popular fiction book downloaded on the platform of the Russian online book platform LitRes in 2022, and is also the second most popular download across all categories, state news agency Tass reported on Tuesday.
The book was published in 1949, just after World War II and at the beginning of the Cold War, and served as a warning against totalitarianism. The work was banned literature in the Soviet Union until 1988.
Author George Orwell said at the time that he used Stalin’s dictatorship as a model for the personality cult of the all-seeing Big Brother, whose “thought police” force citizens to “doublethink”: the acceptance of two thoughts are effectively mutually exclusive, such as “war is peace, freedom is slavery”.
Parallels with Putin
But for some, the book is reminiscent of the reign of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in recent years eradicated political opposition and the critical media and restored the memory of Stalin.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, new laws were enacted prohibiting the publication of information about the war that deviates from official reports. The Kremlin avoids the word “war” and uses the term “special military operation” instead.
Moscow authorities continued to claim that Russia has no malicious intent towards Ukraine, that Russia has not attacked its neighbor and that there is no Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories it annexed.
Just last week, Ilya Jashin, a Russian opposition politician, was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for spreading “false information” about the military for leaking information to Russia about Russian atrocities in Bocha, Ukraine. Messages that Russia says are untrue.
Last month, the Kremlin spokesman claimed no civilian targets were attacked, even though Russia has been bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for weeks, leaving millions of Ukrainians without light or heating.
In recent months, the Russian government has tried to convince citizens that ‘1984’ is not at all a criticism of totalitarianism, but of liberalism. However, this cannot stop the book’s increasing popularity.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.