George Orwell, short biography. George Orwell short biography Ignorance is power

Eric Arthur Blair was born in the city of Motihari, India, whose territory at that time was a British colony. His father held one of the rank-and-file positions in the Opium Department of the colony administration, and his mother was the only daughter of a tea merchant from Burma. While still a child, Eric, along with his mother and older sister, went to England, where the boy taught education - first at Eastbourne Primary School, and then at the prestigious Eton College, where he studied on a special scholarship. After graduating from college in 1921, the young man devoted himself for five years (1922-1927) to the Burmese police, but dissatisfaction with imperial rule led to his resignation. This period in the life of Eric Blair, who very soon took the pseudonym George Orwell, was marked by one of his most famous novels, Days in Burma, which was published in 1936 already under a pseudonym.

After Burma, young and free, he went to Europe, where he lived on a piece of bread from one casual job to another, and upon returning home, he firmly decided to become a writer for himself. At this time, Orwell wrote an equally impressive novel, Pounds of Dash in Paris and London, which tells about his life in two of the largest cities in Europe. This creation consisted of two parts, each of which described the brightest moments of his life in each of the capitals.

Beginning of a writing career

In 1936, Orwell, already a married man at that time, went with his wife to Spain, where the civil war was in full swing. After spending about a year in the war zone, he returned to the UK involuntarily - a wound by a fascist sniper right in the throat required treatment and further removal from hostilities. While in Spain, Orwell fought in the ranks of the militia formed by the anti-Stalinist communist party POUM, a Marxist organization that had existed in Spain since the early 1930s. A whole book is devoted to this period in the life of the writer - “In honor of Catalonia” (1937), in which he talks in detail about his days at the front.

However, the British publishers did not appreciate the book, subjecting it to severe censorship - Orwell had to "cut out" any statements that spoke of terror and complete lawlessness that was happening in the republican country. The editor-in-chief was adamant - under the conditions of fascist aggression, it was impossible to cast even the slightest shadow on socialism, and even more so on the abode of this phenomenon - the USSR - in no case. The book nevertheless saw the world in 1938, but was perceived rather coldly - the number of copies sold during the year did not exceed 50 pieces. This war made Orwell an avid opponent of communism, deciding to join the ranks of the English socialists.

civil position

Orwell's writings, written from early 1936, by his own admission in Why I Write (1946), had anti-totalitarian overtones and extolled democratic socialism. In the eyes of the writer, the Soviet Union was one big disappointment, and the revolution that took place in the Land of Soviets, in his opinion, not only did not bring a classless society to power as promised earlier by the Bolsheviks, but vice versa - even more ruthless and unprincipled people were “at the helm” than before. Orwell, not hiding his hatred, spoke about the USSR, and considered Stalin to be the real embodiment of evil.

When in 1941 it became known about the German attack on the USSR, Orwell could not have imagined that very soon Churchill and Stalin would become allies. At this time, the writer kept a war diary, the entries in which tell of his indignation, and after being surprised to himself: “I never thought that I would live to see the days when I had to say“ Glory to Comrade Stalin! ”, But I did live!”, he wrote after a while.

Orwell sincerely hoped that as a result of the war, socialists would come to power in Great Britain, moreover, ideological socialists, and not formal ones, as often happened. However, this did not happen. The events unfolding in the writer's homeland and in the world as a whole oppressed Orwell, and the constant growth of the influence of the Soviet Union drove him into a protracted depression. The death of his wife, who was his ideological inspirer and closest person, finally “knocked down” the writer. However, life went on and he had to put up with it.

The main works of the author

George Orwell was one of the few authors of that time who not only did not sing odes to the Soviet Union, but also tried to describe in all colors the horror of the Soviet system. Orwell's main "opponent" in this conditional competition of ideologies was Hewlett Johnson, who received the nickname "Red Rector" in his native England - he praised Stalin in every work, expressing admiration for the country that obeyed him in every possible way. Orwell managed to win, albeit a formal one, in this unequal battle, but, unfortunately, already posthumously.

The book Animal Farm, written by the writer between November 1943 and February 1944, was an obvious satire on the Soviet Union, which at that time was still an ally of Great Britain. Not a single publisher undertook to print this work. Everything changed with the start of the Cold War - Orwell's satire was finally appreciated. The book, which most saw as a satire on the Soviet Union, was for the most part a satire on the West itself. Orwell did not have to see the huge success and millions of sales of his book - the recognition was already posthumous.

The Cold War changed the lives of many, especially those who supported the policies and order of the Soviet Union - now they either completely disappeared from the radar, or changed their position to a sharply opposite one. The novel 1984, previously written but not published by Orwell, came in very handy, which was later called the “canonical anti-communist work”, the “Cold War manifesto” and many other epithets, which, undoubtedly, were recognition of Orwell’s writing talent.

Animal Farm and 1984 are dystopias written by one of the greatest publicists and writers in history. Narrating mainly about the horrors and consequences of totalitarianism, they, fortunately, were not prophetic, but it is simply impossible to deny the fact that at the present time they are acquiring a completely new sound.

Personal life

In 1936, George Orwell married Elin O'Shaughnessy, with whom they went through many trials, including the Spanish war. The couple did not acquire their own children over the long years of their life together, and only in 1944 they adopted a one-month-old boy, who was given the name Richard. However, very soon the joy was replaced by great grief - on March 29, 1945, during the operation, Elin died. Orwell endured the loss of his wife painfully, for a certain time he even became a hermit, settling on an almost deserted island, on the coast of Scotland. It was during this difficult time that the writer completed the novel "1984".

A year before his death, in 1949, Orwell married a second time to a girl named Sonya Bronel, who was 15 years his junior. Sonya at that time worked as an assistant editor in the Horizon magazine. However, the marriage lasted only three months - on January 21, 1950, the writer died in the ward of one of the London hospitals from tuberculosis. Shortly before that, his creation "1984" saw the world.

• Orwell is in fact the author of the term "Cold War", which is often used in the political sphere to this day.
• Despite the clearly expressed anti-totalitarian position expressed by the writer in each work, for some time he was suspected of having links with the communists.
• The Soviet slogan heard by Orwell at one time from the lips of the communists “Give five years in four years!” was used in the novel "1984" in the form of the famous formula "twice two equals five". The phrase once again ridiculed the Soviet regime.
• In the post-war period, George Orwell hosted a program on the BBC, which covered a wide variety of topics - from political to social.

George Orwell- the pseudonym of Erik Blair (Erik Blair) - was born on June 25, 1903, in Matihari (Bengal). His father, a British colonial clerk, held a minor post in the Indian Customs Board. Orwell studied at St. Cyprian, in 1917 he received a nominal scholarship and until 1921 attended Eton College. In 1922-1927 he served in the colonial police in Burma. In 1927, returning home on vacation, he decided to resign and take up writing.

Orwell's early - and not only non-fiction - books are largely autobiographical. After being a ship-washer in Paris and a hop picker in Kent, wandering through the English villages, Orwell receives material for his first book, A Dog's Life in Paris and London ( Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933). "Days in Burma" ( Burmese days, 1934) largely reflected the eastern period of his life. Like the author, the hero of the book “Let the aspidistra bloom” ( Keep the Aspidistra Flying, 1936) works as an assistant book dealer, and the heroine of the novel The Priest's Daughter ( A Clergyman's Daughter, 1935) teaches in rundown private schools. In 1936, the Left Book Club sent Orwell to the north of England to study the life of the unemployed in working-class neighborhoods. The immediate result of this trip was the angry nonfiction book The Road to Wigan Pierce ( The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937), where Orwell, to the displeasure of his employers, criticized English socialism. It was also on this trip that he acquired a staunch interest in popular culture, as reflected in his now classic essay The Art of Donald McGill. The Art of Donald McGill) and Boys' Weeklies ( Boys' Weeklies).

The civil war that broke out in Spain caused a second crisis in Orwell's life. Always acting in accordance with his convictions, Orwell went to Spain as a journalist, but immediately upon arrival in Barcelona he joined the partisan detachment of the Marxist Workers' Party POUM, fought on the Aragonese and Teruel fronts, was seriously wounded. In May 1937 he took part in the battle for Barcelona on the side of the POUM and the anarchists against the communists. Pursued by the communist government's secret police, Orwell fled Spain. In his narrative of the trenches of the civil war - "In Memory of Catalonia" ( Homage to Catalonia, 1939) - he reveals the intentions of the Stalinists to seize power in Spain. Spanish impressions did not let Orwell go throughout his life. In the last pre-war novel "For a breath of fresh air" ( Coming Up for Air, 1940) he denounces the erosion of values ​​and norms in the modern world.

Orwell believed that true prose should be "transparent as glass" and wrote extremely clearly himself. Examples of what he considered to be the chief virtues of prose can be seen in his essay "The Killing of an Elephant" ( Shooting an Elephant; Russian translated 1989) and especially in the essay "Politics and the English Language" ( Politics and the English Language), where he argues that dishonesty in politics and linguistic slovenliness are inextricably linked. Orwell saw his writing duty in defending the ideals of liberal socialism and fighting the totalitarian tendencies that threatened the era. In 1945 he wrote Animal Farm, which made him famous ( animal farm) - a satire on the Russian revolution and the collapse of the hopes it engendered, in the form of a parable, tells how animals began to take care of one farm. His last book was the novel "1984" ( Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949), a dystopia in which Orwell depicts a totalitarian society with fear and anger. Orwell died in London on January 21, 1950.

George Orwell is the pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, who was born in 1903 in the Indian village of Motihari on the border with Nepal. At that time, India was part of the British Empire, and the father of the future writer, Richard Blair, served in one of the departments of the Indian administration of Great Britain. The writer's mother was the daughter of a French merchant. Although Richard Blair faithfully served the British Crown until his retirement in 1912, the family did not make a fortune, and when Eric was eight years old, he was not without difficulty assigned to a private preparatory school in Sussex. A few years later, having shown outstanding academic abilities, the boy receives a competitive scholarship for further study at Eton, the most privileged private school in the UK, which opened the way to Oxford or Cambridge. Later, in the essay Why I Write, Orwell recalled that at the age of five or six he knew for sure that he would be a writer, and at Eton the circle of his literary passions was determined - Swift, Stern, Jack London. It is possible that it was the spirit of adventure and adventurism in the works of these writers that influenced Eric Blair's decision to turn off the beaten track of an Eton graduate and join the imperial police, first in India, then in Burma. In 1927, disillusioned with the ideals and the system that he served, E. Blair resigns and settles on Portobello Road, in the London poor quarter, then leaves for Paris, the center of European bohemia. However, the future writer did not lead a bohemian lifestyle, he lived in a working-class neighborhood, earning money by washing dishes, absorbing experience and impressions that writer George Orwell would later melt into novels and numerous essays.

The first book by J. Orwell "Burmese everyday life" (on the site "Days in Burma" translated by V. Domiteva - Burmese days) was published in 1934 and chronicles his years in service in the colonies of the British Empire. The first publication was followed by the novel The Priest's Daughter ( A Clergyman's Daughter, 1935) and a number of works on a wide variety of issues - politics, art, literature. J. Orwell has always been a politically engaged writer, shared the romanticism of the "Red 30s", was concerned about the inhuman working conditions of English miners, and emphasized class inequality in English society. At the same time, he treated the idea of ​​English socialism and “proletarian solidarity” with distrust and irony, since socialist views were more popular among intellectuals and those who belonged to the middle class, far from being the most destitute. Orwell seriously doubted their sincerity and revolutionary spirit.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the socialist sympathies of the writer led him to the ranks of the Spanish republicans when the civil war broke out there. He went to Spain at the end of 1936 as a correspondent for the BBC and the London newspaper The Observer. Orwell was fascinated by the atmosphere of equality and fighting fraternity that he felt upon his arrival in Barcelona. Socialism seemed to be a reality, and, having passed the initial military training, the writer goes to the front, where he receives a serious throat wound. Orwell described those days in the documentary book "In honor of Catalonia" (on the site "Memory of Catalonia" - Homage to Catalonia, 1938), where he sang friends in arms, the spirit of brotherhood, where there was no "blind obedience", where there was "almost complete equality of officers and soldiers." After being wounded in the hospital, Orwell will write to a friend: "I have witnessed amazing things and finally really believed in Socialism - which was not the case before."

However, the writer also learned another lesson. In the same place, in Catalonia, the newspaper La Batalla, the organ of the Spanish United Marxist Workers' Party, in whose ranks J. Orwell fought, back in 1936 stigmatized the political trials in Moscow and the Stalinist massacre of many old Bolsheviks. However, even before leaving for Spain, Orwell was aware of the mass processes, which he called "political assassinations" but, unlike most of the English left, he believed that what was happening in Russia was not "the onset of capitalism", but was "a disgusting perversion of Socialism" .

With the passion of a neophyte, Orwell defended the original "moral concepts of socialism" - "freedom, equality, fraternity and justice", the process of deformation of which he captured in the satirical allegory "Animal Farm". The actions of some Republicans in Spain and the brutal practice of Stalinist repression shook his faith in the ideals of socialism. Orwell understood the utopian nature of building a classless society and the baseness of human nature, which is characterized by cruelty, conflict, the desire to rule over their own kind. The writer's anxieties and doubts were reflected in his most famous and frequently cited novels - "Animal Farm" and "".

The history of the publication of Animal Farm is not easy (Animal Farm: A Fairy Story), this "fairy tale with political significance", as the author himself defined the genre of the book. Having completed work on the manuscript in February 1944, Orwell, after the refusal of several publishers, was able to publish it only in 1945. Publishers were frightened off by the frankly anti-Stalinist (according to Orwell himself) nature of the book. But the war was going on, and in the face of the threat of fascist slavery, the Moscow political processes and the Soviet-German non-aggression pact were pushed to the periphery of public consciousness - the freedom of Europe was at stake. At that time and in those conditions, criticism of Stalinism was inevitably associated with an attack on the fighting Russia, despite the fact that Orwell defined his attitude towards fascism back in the 30s, taking up arms to defend republican Spain. George Orwell worked for the BBC during World War II, then as a literary editor for a newspaper, and at the end of the war as a reporter in Europe. After the end of the war, the writer settled on the coast in Scotland, where he completed the novel "1984", which was published in 1949. The writer died in January 1950.

In our country, the novel became known to the general reader in 1988, when three satirical dystopias were published in different magazines: “We” by E. Zamyatin, “Brave New World” by O. Huxley and “Animal Farm” by J. Orwell. During this period, not only Soviet, but also Russian literature abroad and the work of foreign authors were being reassessed. The books of those Western writers who were excommunicated from the Soviet mass reader, as they allowed themselves critical statements addressed to us, those who were turned away in our reality by what today we ourselves do not accept and reject, are being actively translated. This primarily applies to satirical writers, those who, due to the specifics of their mocking and caustic muse, are the first to make a diagnosis, noticing signs of public ill health.

In the same period, a long-term taboo was lifted from another anti-utopia by George Orwell - "1984", a novel that was either hushed up in our country or interpreted as anti-Soviet, reactionary. The position of critics who have written about Orwell in the recent past can be explained to some extent. The whole truth about Stalinism was not yet available, that abyss of lawlessness and atrocities against classes and entire peoples, the truth about the humiliation of the human spirit, mockery of free thought, (about the atmosphere of suspicion, the practice of denunciations and many, many other things that historians and publicists have revealed to us The works of A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Grossman, A. Rybakov, M. Dudintsev, D. Granin, Y. Dombrovsky, V. Shalamov and many others told about it. alternatives: born in captivity does not notice it.

Apparently, it is possible to exasperate the “sacred horror” of the Soviet critic, who already read in the second paragraph of “1984” about a poster where “a huge face, more than a meter wide, was depicted: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a thick black mustache, rough, but masculinely attractive... On each platform, the same face looked out from the wall. The portrait was made in such a way that no matter where you stood, your eyes would not let go. "BIG BROTHER IS LOOKING AT YOU"- the inscription read "[hereinafter quoted from:" 1984 ", Novy Mir: No. 2, 3, 4, 1989. Translation: V. P. Golyshev], a clear allusion to the "father of peoples" was able to dull the sharpness of critical perception works.

But the paradox is that in Why I Write, Orwell defines his task as a critique of socialism from the right, not an attack on the left. He admitted that every line he had written since 1936 "has been directly or indirectly directed against totalitarianism in defense of Democratic Socialism as I understand it." Animal Farm is not only an allegory of the Russian revolution, but also tells about the difficulties and problems that the construction of any just society may face, no matter what the beautiful-hearted ideals of its leaders. Exorbitant ambitions, hypertrophied egoism and hypocrisy can lead to perversion and betrayal of these ideals.

The characters of Animal Farm, rebelling against the tyranny of farm owner Jones, proclaim a society where "all animals are equal." Their revolutionary slogans are reminiscent of the seven biblical commandments that everyone must strictly follow. But the inhabitants of the Animal Farm will pass their first idealistic phase, the phase of egalitarianism, very quickly and will come first to the usurpation of power by pigs, and then to the absolute dictatorship of one of them - a boar named Napoleon. As the pigs try to imitate the behavior of people, the content of the slogans-commandments is gradually changing. When the pigs occupy Jones's bedroom, thus violating the commandment "No animal shall sleep on a bed," they amend it - "No animal shall sleep on a bed with sheets." Imperceptibly, not only the substitution of slogans and the shift of concepts takes place, but also the restoration status quo ante, only in an even more absurd and perverted form, for the "enlightened" power of man. is replaced by bestial tyranny, the victims of which are almost all the inhabitants of the farm, with the exception of the local elite - members of the pig committee (pig committee) and their faithful guard dogs, who looked like wolves with their ferocious appearance.

Painfully recognizable events take place in the barnyard: Napoleon's rival in incendiary political debate Snowball, nicknamed Cicero, is expelled from the farm. He is being stripped of awards honestly won in the historic Battle of the Cowshed, won by free animals over farmer neighbors. Moreover, Cicero is declared a spy for Jones - and fluff and feathers (literally) are already flying on the farm, and even heads that are chopped off stupid chickens and ducks for "voluntary" confessions of "criminal" connections with the "spy" Cicero. The final betrayal of "Animalism" - the teachings of the late theorist, a boar named Major - comes with the substitution of the main slogan "All animals are equal" with the slogan "All animals are equal, but some of them are more equal than others." And then the anthem "Cattle, livestock without rights" is banned and the democratic appeal "comrade" is abolished. In the last episode of this incredible story, the surviving inhabitants of the farm contemplate with horror and amazement through the window a pig's feast, where the farm's worst enemy, Mr. Pilkington, proclaims a toast to the prosperity of the Animal Farm. Pigs stand up on their hind legs (which is also forbidden by the commandment), and their snouts are already indistinguishable among the drunken faces of people.

As befits a satirical allegory, each character is the bearer of one idea or another, embodies a certain social type. In addition to the cunning and treacherous Napoleon, the system of characters in Animal Farm includes the political projector Cicero; a pig named Squealer, a demagogue and a sycophant; the young filly Molly, ready to sell her newfound freedom for a piece of sugar and bright ribbons, because even on the eve of the uprising she was occupied with the only question - “will there be sugar after the uprising?”; a herd of sheep, out of place and out of place singing "Four legs - good, two legs - bad"; old donkey Benjamin, whose worldly experience tells him not to join any of the opposing parties.

In satire, irony, grotesque and piercing lyricism rarely coexist, because satire, unlike lyrics, appeals to the mind, and not to feelings. Orwell manages to combine the seemingly incompatible. Pity and compassion are caused by the narrow-minded, but endowed with great power, the horse Boxer. He is not tempted in political intrigues, but honestly pulls his shoulder and is ready to work for the benefit of the farm even more, even harder, until powerful forces leave him - and then he is taken to the knacker's yard. In Orwell's sympathy for the hardworking Boxer, one cannot fail to see his sincere sympathy for the peasantry, whose simple way of life and hard work the writer respected and appreciated, because they "mixed their sweat with the earth" and; therefore have a greater right to land than the gentry (small nobility) or "upper middle class". Orwell believed that the true custodians of traditional values ​​and morality are ordinary people, and not intellectuals vying for power and prestigious positions. (However, the attitude of the writer to the latter was not so unequivocal.)

Orwell is an English writer to the core. His "Englishness" manifested itself in everyday life, in his "amateur" (Orwell did not receive a university education); dress in an eccentric manner; in love with the earth (her own goat walked in her own garden); in closeness to nature (he shared the ideas of simplification); in adherence to tradition. But at the same time, Orwell was never characterized by "island" thinking or intellectual snobbery. He was well acquainted with Russian and French literature, closely followed the political life of not only Europe, but also other continents, and always referred to himself as a "political writer".

With particular force, his political engagement manifested itself in the novel "1984", a dystopian novel, a warning novel. There is an opinion that "1984" for English literature of the 20th century means the same thing as for the 17th century - "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes - a masterpiece of English political philosophy. Hobbes, like Orwell, tried to solve the cardinal question for his time: who in a civilized society should have power, and what is the attitude of society to the rights and duties of the individual. But perhaps the most noticeable influence on Orwell was the work of the classic English satire Jonathan Swift. Without Swiftian Yahoos and Houyhnhnms, Animal Farm could hardly have appeared, continuing the tradition of dystopia and political satire. In the 20th century, a synthesis of these genres arose - a satirical utopia dating back to Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We, completed in 1920 and first published in the West in 1924. It was followed by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell's 1984 (1949).

Isaac Deutscher in the book "Heretics and Renegades" claims that the author of "1984" borrowed all the main plots from E. Zamyatin. At the same time, there is an indication that by the time of acquaintance with the novel "We" Orwell had already matured the concept of his own satirical utopia. The American professor Gleb Struve, an expert on Russian literature, told Orwell about Zamyatin's novel and then sent him a French translation of the book. In a letter to Struve dated February 17, 1944, Orwell writes: "I am very interested in literature of this kind, I even take notes myself for my own book, which I will write sooner or later."

In the novel "We" Zamyatin draws a society that is a thousand years away from the 20th century. The Earth is dominated by the United State, which conquered the world as a result of the Bicentennial War and fenced off from it by the Green Wall. Rules over the inhabitants of the United State - the numbers (everything in the state is impersonal) - "the skillful heavy hand of the Benefactor", and the "experienced eye of the Guardians" looks after them. Everything in the One State is rationalized, regulated, regulated. The goal of the State is "an absolutely exact solution to the problem of happiness." True, according to the confession of the narrator (mathematician), number D-503, the United State has not yet been able to fully solve this problem, because there are “Personal Clocks established by the Tablet”. In addition, from time to time "traces of a still elusive organization that sets itself the goal of liberation from the beneficent yoke of the State" are found.

The author of a satirical utopia, as a rule, is based on current trends, then, using irony, hyperbole, grotesque - this "building material" of satire, projects them into the distant future. The logic of the intellectual, the keen eye of the writer, the intuition of the artist allowed E. I. Zamyatin to foresee many things: the dehumanization of man, his rejection of Nature, dangerous trends in science and machine production that turns a person into a “bolt”: if necessary, a “bent bolt” could always be "throw away", without stopping the eternal, great progress of the entire "Machine".

The time of action in O. Huxley's novel "Brave New World" is the year 632 of the "era of stability". The motto of the World Society is "Community, Identity, Stability". This society seems to be a new round in the development of the Zamyatin United State. Expediency and its derivative, caste, reign here. Children are not born, they are hatched by the "Central London Hatchery and created in the educational center", where, thanks to injections and a certain temperature and oxygen regime, alphas and betas, gammas, deltas and epsilons grow from the egg, each with its own programmed properties, designed to perform certain functions in society .

The hedonistic societies created by the fantasy of Zamyatin and Huxley are mainly aimed at consumption: "every man, woman and child was obliged to consume so much annually for the prosperity of industry." Brainwashing in the "brave new world" is a whole army of hypnopeds who inspire alphas, betas and everything else with recipes for happiness, which, repeated a hundred times three times a week for four years, become "truth." Well, if minor upsets happen, there is always a daily dose of "soma" that allows you to get rid of them, or "a super-singing, synthetic-speech, color stereoscopic sensory film with synchronous-smell accompaniment" that serves the same purpose.

The society of the future in the novels of E. Zamyatin and O. Huxley is based on the philosophy of hedonism, the authors of satirical anti-utopias admit the possibility of at least hypnopedic and synthetic “happiness” for future generations. Orwell rejects the idea of ​​even an illusory social welfare. Despite advances in science and technology, "the dream of a future society—incredibly wealthy, leisurely, orderly, efficient, a gleaming, antiseptic world of glass, steel, and snow-white concrete" could not be realized "partly because of the impoverishment caused by the long series of wars and revolutions, partly due to the fact that scientific and technological progress was based on empirical thinking, which could not survive in a highly regulated society” [cited in: Novy Mir, No. 3, 1989, p. 174] whose contours Orwell, who had a remarkably sharp political eye, was already discerning on the European horizon. In a society of this type, a small clique rules, which, in fact, is a new ruling class. “Frantic nationalism” and “deification of the leader”, “constant conflicts” are integral features of an authoritarian state. Only "democratic values, the guardians of which are the intelligentsia," can resist them.

Orwell's indefatigable fantasy was fed by themes and plots not only of Soviet reality. The writer also uses "pan-European plots": the pre-war economic crisis, total terror, the extermination of dissidents, the brown plague of fascism creeping through the countries of Europe. But, to our shame, in "1984" much of our recent Russian history is foreseen. Some passages of the novel almost verbatim coincide with the samples of our best journalism, which told about spy mania, denunciations, falsification of history. These coincidences are mostly factual: neither a deep historical understanding of this or that negative phenomenon, nor its angry statement can compete in terms of the power of denunciation and impact on the reader with effective satire, in the arsenal of which are mocking irony and caustic sarcasm, caustic mockery and striking invective. But in order for satire to take place, to hit the target, it must be connected with humor, ridicule through the general category of the comic, and thereby cause rejection, rejection of a negative phenomenon. Bertolt Brecht argued that laughter is "the first improper manifestation of a proper life."

Perhaps the leading means of satirical comprehension in "1984" is the grotesque: everything in the "Angsoc" society is illogical, absurd. Science and technological progress serve only as an instrument of control, management and suppression. Orwell's total satire strikes all the institutions of a totalitarian state: the ideology of the party slogans read: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength); the economy (the people, except for members of the Inner Party, are starving, coupons for tobacco and chocolate have been introduced); science (the history of society is endlessly rewritten and embellished, however, geography is no more fortunate - there is a continuous war for the redistribution of territories); justice (the inhabitants of Oceania are spied on by the "thought police", and for a "thought crime" or "personal crime" the convict can be not only crippled morally or physically, but even "sprayed").

The telescreen continuously "spewing out fabulous statistics while processing the mass consciousness". Half-starved people, stupefied by a meager life, from the fear of committing a “personal or mental crime” were surprised to learn that “there was more food, more clothes, more houses, more pots, more fuel”, etc. Society, the telescreen said, was "rapidly rising to new and new heights." [cited in: Novy Mir, No. 2, 1989, p. 155.] In the Ingsoc society, the party ideal depicted “something gigantic, formidable, sparkling: a world of steel and concrete, monstrous machines and terrible weapons, a country of warriors and fanatics who march in a single formation, think one thought, shout one slogan, three hundred million people work tirelessly, fight, triumph, punish, and all look the same.”

And again, Orwell's satirical arrows reach their goal - we recognize ourselves, yesterday, "forged labor victories", "fought on the labor front", entered into "battles for the harvest", reported on "new achievements", marched in a single column "from victory to victory ”, Recognizing only “unanimity” and professing the principle of “all as one”. Orwell was surprisingly insightful, noticing the pattern between the standardization of thought and the cliché of language. Orwell's "Newspeak" was intended not only to provide symbolic means for the worldview and mental activity of the adherents of "Angsots", but also to make any dissent impossible. It was assumed that when Newspeak was established forever, and Oldspeak was forgotten, unorthodox, i.e., alien to Angsots thought, as it is expressed in words, would become literally unthinkable. In addition, the task of "Newspeak" was to make speech, especially on ideological topics, independent of consciousness. The party member was supposed to utter "correct" judgments automatically, "like a machine gun firing a burst."

Fortunately, Orwell did not guess everything. But the author of the warning novel should not have striven for this. He only brought the socio-political trends of his time to a logical (or absurd?) end. But even today, Orwell is perhaps the most widely quoted foreign writer.

The world has changed for the better (Hmm... is it? O. Doug (2001)), but the warnings and exhortations of George Orwell should not be ignored. History tends to repeat itself.

Cand. philol. Sciences, Associate Professor
N. A. Zinkevich, 2001

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N. A. Zinkevich: "George Orwell", 2001
Published:
Animal Farm. Moscow. Publishing house "Citadel". 2001.

George Orwell

PART ONE

It was a bright cold April day, the clock struck thirteen. Winston Smith, pressing his chin to his chest and shivering from the disgusting wind, quickly slid through the glass doors of Victory House, but still a whirlwind of sand and dust managed to burst in with him.

The entrance smelled of boiled cabbage and old rugs. Pinned to the wall opposite the entrance was a colored poster, probably too big for the place. It showed only a huge, more than a meter wide, face of a man of about forty-five with coarse but attractive features and a thick black mustache. Winston headed straight for the stairs. It was not worth wasting time calling the elevator - even at the best of times it rarely worked, and now the electricity, in accordance with the savings program, was generally turned off during the daytime, since preparations for Hate Week had already begun. Winston had to overcome seven flights of stairs. He walked slowly and rested several times: he was already thirty-nine years old, and besides, he had a varicose ulcer on his right leg. And from the walls of each platform, directly opposite the elevator door, a huge face looked at him.

It was one of those images where the eyes are specially drawn so that their gaze follows you all the time. "BIG BROTHER SEE YOU" was written on the poster at the bottom. When he entered his apartment, a velvety voice read out a summary of figures that had something to do with iron smelting. The voice came from an oblong metal plate built into the right wall of the room, resembling a dim mirror. Winston turned the knob, and the voice became quieter, but the words were still audible. This device (it was called the "monitor") could be muffled, but it could not be turned off at all. Winston walked over to the window, a small, puny figure whose thinness was further emphasized by the blue overalls of a member of the Party; he had very blond hair and a naturally ruddy face, hardened by bad soap, dull razor blades, and the cold of the winter that had just ended.

The world outside, even through the closed window, seemed cold. Down in the street, the wind whirled dust and scraps of paper, and although the sun shone brightly in the blue sky, everything looked colorless except for posters pasted everywhere. The face with the black mustache was everywhere. One was on the front of the house opposite. BIG BROTHER SEE YOU, the caption said, and dark eyes peered deep into Winston. Below, another poster fluttered in the wind, with a corner torn off, now opening and then closing a single word: "ANGSOC." A helicopter hovered over the rooftops in the distance. From time to time he dived and hovered for a moment, like a huge blue fly, and then soared up again along the curve. It was the police patrol peering through the windows. However, patrols did not play a role. Only the Thought Police played a role.

Behind Winston, the voice from the monitor was still mumbling about cast iron and overfulfilling the Ninth Three Year Plan. The monitor was both a receiver and a transmitter, picking up any sound other than a very low whisper. Moreover, while Winston remained in the field of view of the monitor, he could not only be heard, but also seen. Of course, you can never know for sure whether you are being watched or not. One can only guess how often and in what order the Thought Police connect to this or that apartment. It is possible that they are watching everyone and always. In any case, they could connect to your line at any time. And I had to live, knowing that someone hears every sound and someone follows every movement, unless complete darkness interferes with this. And people lived like this - by force of habit, which has already become an instinct.

Winston was still standing with his back to the monitor. It was safer that way, although he knew full well that his back could incriminate too. About a kilometer above the dreary cluster of houses was the huge white building of the Ministry of Truth, where he worked. And this, he thought with vague distaste, was London, the head city of the First Air Force Zone, the third most populous province in Oceania. He tried to remember his childhood, to remember if this city had been like this before. Have these nineteenth-century blocks of crumbling houses always stretched out? Were their walls always supported by wooden beams, windows boarded up with cardboard, roofs covered with rusty iron, and strange fences of front gardens falling in different directions? Have there always been these bombed-out wastelands with piles of broken bricks, overgrown with willow-tea, plaster dust in the air? And that miserable mushroom mold of wooden shacks where the bombs had cleared large spaces? Alas, he could not remember anything, nothing remained in his memory, except for random bright, but obscure and unrelated pictures.

Ministry of Truth, in Newspeak (Newspeak was the official language of Oceania. See the Appendix for more details on its structure and etymology) - Minitruth, was very different from the surrounding houses. Its huge pyramidal structure of gleaming concrete shot up into the sky, terrace after terrace, for about three hundred meters. From Winston's window one could read the three slogans of the Party beautifully written on the white façade:

WAR IS PEACE.

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

IGNORANCE IS POWER.

They said that in the Ministry of Truth there were three thousand rooms above ground and the same number - in the dungeon. In different parts of London, there were three other buildings of approximately the same shape and size. They suppressed everything, and from the roof of the Victory House one could immediately see all four. The buildings belonged to four ministries, into which the entire government apparatus was divided. The Ministry of Truth was in charge of all information, entertainment, education and the arts. The Ministry of Peace dealt with the war. The Ministry of Love maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty was in charge of the economy. They were called in Newspeak: Mini-Truth, Mini-World, Mini-Love, and Mini-Much.

The Ministry of Love looked truly intimidating. This building had no windows. Winston never entered it, he never even got within half a kilometer of it. This building was entered only on official business, and even then through a labyrinth of barbed wire, steel doors and camouflaged machine-gun nests. The streets leading to it were patrolled by black-uniformed gorilla-like guards armed with folding clubs.

Winston turned sharply, not forgetting to give his face an expression of complete optimism - as it was prudent to do always, being in the field of view of the monitor - crossed the room and entered the small kitchen. He sacrificed his lunch in the dining room, although he knew that there was nothing at home except a piece of black bread, which is better to save for breakfast. Winston pulled a bottle of colorless liquid from a shelf with a plain white label: VICTORY GIN. The gin had a disgusting fusel smell, like Chinese rice vodka. He poured almost a full cup, prepared himself, and tipped the contents into himself, like swallowing medicine.

Biography

Often in the conversation of people associated with the political side of public life, there are such phrases as "cold war" or "thought police", "Big Brother". Almost no one thinks about where they originate from, moreover, about who first used them. The "father" of these neological expressions is George Orwell, a British writer and publicist, known for the novel "1984" and the story "Animal Farm". Admirers of his work believe that he was a very outstanding person with his own views on all aspects of life.

Like other famous people, the writer has come a long way of becoming not only as a person, but also as an author. In order to understand where he got the craving for writing stories that conquered the whole world, it is worth taking a short journey through his biography. In addition, few people know that Mr. Orwell's real name is Eric Arthur Blair.

Childhood

The future publicist was born in June 1903. His birth is dated the twenty-fifth. Despite the fact that in the future the boy will become a British writer, he spent his childhood in India, which at that time was a colony. His father was an employee of the Opium Department of the British colonial administration.

And although the boy's parents were poor people, he managed to get a place in the school of St. Cyprian, which is located in a place called Eastbourne. It was there that Eric Arthur Blair showed his extraordinary mind and abilities. His studies here lasted five years, after which the boy received a nominal scholarship from the college at Eton.

Youth

Mr. Orwell's youth began in 1917 when he first arrived at Eton to study. It is known that in college the young man was a student who received a royal scholarship. From there, he could easily enter any prestigious university in Britain, for example, Oxford or Cambridge, however, his creative path was somewhat different.

After studying at Eton until 1921, Mr. Blair went to Burma to enter the civil service. It took him about five years to understand that he did not like such an occupation. In 1927 he returns to Europe to change countless professions.

It is known that Eric Arthur worked as a teacher, took care of a boy who was unable to move independently, a seller. At the same time, he managed to write short articles, essays for small newspapers, magazines with a literary focus. Only when he arrived in Paris, Mr. Black realized that it was important for him to give up everything except writing. So, in 1935, George Orwell was born.

mature years

After the beginning of his writing career, it cannot be said that the man forgot about his work as a publicist. In 1936, he had to become a participant in hostilities and go to the Aragonese front, which was formed during the Spanish Civil War. Six months after joining the ranks of the militia, the man was wounded and retired.

But only in 1940, the publicist was recognized as completely unfit for military service. However, he wasn't about to give up. It was then that his publications in the Partisan Review magazine began to appear, where he spoke in detail about working combat strategies, pointing out the advantages of fortifications and the weaknesses that arise during their construction.

From the very beginning of World War II, the writer broadcast on the BBC channel, which had an anti-fascist focus. Orwell was a deeply humane person, and therefore the policy promoted by the Nazi leader offended his entire living being. This can also be seen in the stories and novels written by him during the war period.

Personal life

For Mr. Orwell, the glory of a ladies' man and womanizer was entrenched. However, this did not prevent him from being an exemplary husband and father. In 1936, the man married for the first time. Eileen O'Shaughnessy became his chosen one. A man often admitted that he had several mistresses, however, his wife always remained faithful to him.

Four years after the marriage, the couple decided to adopt a child. For some reason, not confirmed by passing a medical examination, Eric Arthur believed that he could not become the father of his own baby. The little boy adopted by him and Eileen was named as the writer's favorite uncle - Richard.

They said about Orwell that he was a wonderful father, however, the family idyll in his life was present for a short time. In 1946, the writer's beloved wife died of a heart attack during an operation when an oncological formation on her female genital organs was removed. At the time of his death and funeral, the man was away, and therefore only upon arrival he managed to plant a rose bush on his wife's grave as an eternal reminder of their relationship.

After Eileen's death, Richard was raised by a woman named Susan. Together they lived for some time on the island of Jura, where in 1948 the writer learned about his terrible disease - tuberculosis. It was then that the family moved to the capital of Great Britain, where he again met his second wife, Sonya Brownell. The girl worked with a friend of the writer and expressed a desire to get to know him.

Young people got married in the hospital room where Orwell was in 1949. It seemed that happy events in her personal life would extend her term for the writer, however, this was not enough. A couple of months after the wedding, namely on January 21, 1950, the man died in a hospital bed at the age of forty-six.

Political views of the writer

All political ideas, views of the writer were reflected in his books. So, "Animal Farm" is just an allegorical coverage of the events that took place on the territory of the USSR in 1917. It is known that Mr. Orwell spoke openly about his disappointment in Stalin, as the main revolutionary at that time.

He was sure that the revolution did not achieve the absence of classes, but brought to power one of them that turned out to be stronger. Tyranny, despotic attitude, ruthlessness, unscrupulousness - such characteristics were given by the publicist in his statements to people who survived during the revolutionary actions. He did not consider the new political system in the USSR to be socialist, and therefore he was openly indignant when he was called as such.

Despite the fact that the USSR helped Britain recover from the defeat inflicted by the fascist troops, Orwell could not come to terms with the political system that had been established there. He dreamed that his beloved homeland would accept socialism as he and his followers saw it, however, this did not happen. Some familiar publicists said that this state of affairs hastened his death, since Orwell could not survive the doom of the future.

Soviet response to Orwell

Until 1984, the story "Animal Farm" was not published or distributed among the inhabitants of the Soviet Union. However, there was an opinion that secret service agents still received copies of the work in order to familiarize themselves with it. Subsequently, the authorities did a great job of "whitening" the name of George Orwell. To some extent, the people who came out at that moment to fight against imperialism identified themselves with the writer. And at the moment when the process of "whitening" was almost completed, the Soviet Union collapsed, censorship was removed and the publicist's book fell into the general readership. It is difficult to say that she was popular at that moment, however, some of the inhabitants of the post-Soviet space considered her very interesting.

A person who became a famous publicist, writer, had different hobbies. He not only followed political events in the world, took part in hostilities, but also studied different languages, for example. So, in addition to English, the writer spoke Hindi, Latin, Greek, Burmese, French, Catalan, and Spanish. Other interesting facts about the personality of Eric Arthur Blair include:

• love for tea drinking - every day the writer drank tea at the same time, arranging a whole ceremony out of this, even if he was alone with himself;
• love for collecting beautiful things - it is known that the man had a collection of mugs that were dedicated to the holiday in honor of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, as well as a large number of postcards and newspaper clippings. In addition, he had a handmade Burmese sword on his bedroom wall;
• love for handicraft - a man often made furniture according to his own sketches. And although it turned out to be awkward, he found real pleasure in the process of creating it.

In addition, it is known that the writer belonged to the number of superstitious atheists, he learned a lot of literary techniques from Mikhail Zamyatin, and until a certain point he was a fan of HG Wells. George Orwell was not just an outstanding personality, an enthusiastic and interesting person. He could be called a lazy perfectionist, one who combines the incongruous. That is why his articles and works are widely known throughout the world and have a sufficient number of fans.

George Orwell - list of all books

All genres Romance Fiction Dystopia Fairy tale/Parable Tale Realism

Year	Name	Rating
1948		7.99 (1452)
1945		7.98 (635)
1937		7.63 (
1947		7.62 (
2014		7.59 (
1939		7.52 (
1941		7.52 (
2011		7.50 (
1939		7.50 (
1940		7.50 (
1945		7.50 (
1941		7.39 (
1940		7.39 (
		7.20 (
2008		6.98 (
1936		6.83 (20)