Introduction

Many argue that history is in the past and is of no importance of how we live our lives now. However, Goerge Orwell has a perspective on the manner which is seen throughout his novel Nineteen eighty-four. Orwell reveals the importance of history and warns us of the power a state can possess by simply altering it. The novel is shown to be more than a warning when we take a look at the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was the first state to adopt the Marxist-Leninist views where everyone in the state had an equal economic and social position, which is the founding idealogy of communism. In saying this, looking back on the Soviet Union, it is seemingly clear that due to the desire of the people in power, it can be argued that these ideologies were never truly established. Instead, it seems they were abused for a means of control. To navigate through this complex idea, we will start with how history is manipulated in Nineteen eighty-four. We will then go back and see the similarities this has with the Soviet Union and the effect this had on their citizens. Following this, we will then take a look at the importance of comparing the past to the present in our daily lives through Nineteeneighty four.

The alteration of history is evident as we see its effect on a population, while we follow in the footsteps of the antihero, Winston. While we are following Winston’s day to day life, we are exposed to how a state can lie to its people as a way of controlling the standards the masses have. “Winston’s job is to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones“. Now it is important to note that Winston’s job to “rectify the original figures” is an imperative control mechanism the Party uses over the people of Oceania. One such example is by making it look like “The centuries of capitalism[…] produced nothing of value“. This is all achieved by people like Winston whose occupation is to rewrite the history books. Much like a child tearing apart a lego church and putting it back together in the form of a concrete dome. Orwell hints how a state executes this with the following: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past“. This is saying that whoever controls the present can manipulate the past to seem like any paradise or dystopia no matter how far from reality. We understand this to be one of the many factors that lead the people of Oceania to accept the life they lived as the very nature of altering the past makes it almost impossible to prove or disprove anything. For instance, if you control all the written records, nothing other than living memories can enlighten you. It would be foolish to tell ourselves that this hasn’t, or couldn’t, have occurred in our society, because where do we turn when we don’t know or are unsure of something? We always turn to Google. This is not suggesting that the Roman empire never existed or that the pyramids were built by a different civilization, but merely suggesting that we should take this information with a grain of salt. Orwell goes to quite the effort by warning us of the power a governing body can have over the masses by the altering the vents of the past. This warning comes to life as we turn our heads to the Soviet Union.

We can see Orwell’s theories of what the effect altering the past will have on the masses when we take a look into the Soviet Union after WWII. In fact
there may be no stronger real-world example of a governing body tearing the history books apart and putting them back together to their choosing than the Soviet Union. In fact, the parallels that the Soviet Union and Orwell’s Oceania have is so disturbing that it reads as if Joesph Starlin and his successors used Nineteen eighty-four like as an instruction manual on how to control a nation. Similarly, in Oceania, the Soviet Union changed many of their facts and statistics which seems to be a tool to deceive the people of their productions. Many of the historians that have looked into this have come to the foggy conclusion that the “Soviet authorities may have completely “invented” statistical data potentially useful in historical research (such as economic data invented to prove the successes of the Soviet industrialization)” . This is one of the disturbing similarities we see after reading the novel that the Soviet Union, like Oceania, “invented” their statistics on state production. This was to “prove the successes of the” governing body. This, therefore, makes the state look as if they have kept their promise. This like before leads the masses to believe the people should keep “their” promise and keep working hard for the state as “everyone will become better off” leading people to accept the life they are living and the jobs they are doing. This may have been what Orwell worried what could happen if a state hows the power to control the history books.

We can see the means of control the Soviet Union had of their citizen’s when we take a look at some of their minor modifications that they carried out in their, history books, and how this has the potential to change the outlook the on the present. One case is the photographs. We see how this was used to control the opinions of masses because the Soviet Union had total control over its people. Stalin fell out with many of his fellow party members that held different ideas of the ideal Communist picture, and who wanted to change the way they divided resources. To deal with this Joseph Stalin used many photo retouches to cut his ‘traitors’ of past photos. We know this to be true because the very word “photo retouchers” came about during the great purges in the country. Stalin demoted them of all their powers. But Stalin didn’t stop there as he was still paranoid. Stalin cut out secret police officer, Yezhov, out of all past photos and took him out of the written records. As the site History states “Stalin’s censors then removed Yezhov from the photographic record, including cutting him from a photograph in which he smiled next to his former boss“. Starlin had also changed many other photos such as protest signs. By changing the words on the signs to make it look like people were protesting about something completely different. This was a powerful tool to kill revolutions. As we can see this shows how simply changing a photo or changing the words in one can completely alter the picture you have in your mind about what’s really going on in the present. This can lead to a state like the Soviet Union or Oceania staying in power for many years by keeping the population unaware of what’s really going on behind the lens.

One of the most powerful aspects of having history in our lives, as Orwell expresses in his novel nineteen eighty-four, is that we humans use our knowledge of history to compare the present to the past. These comparisons we make are important because it makes sure the governing body can’t deceive or exploit us. We see a clear example of this in Goldstein’s book that “the alteration of the past is necessary for two reasons[…], he tolerates the present-day conditions because he has no standards [for] comparison“. The people in Oceania are told that they live a much more comfortable life than their predecessors. But when reading the novel we can see that this is not true as they work for longer hours and live a life where no one truly cares for them. If the citizens of Oceana found out what life was like 40 years ago then they might revolt. This is why “He must be cut off from the past[…] because it is necessary for him to believe he’s better off than his ancestors“. This is done by the Party altering the events that have happened in the history books. The people of Oceania are not aware or conscious of the events that really happen. This creates a vicious cycle where “Until they have become conscious they will never rebel, and until they rebel they cannot become conscious”. This is why our knowledge of the past is so important for how we perceive our present-day life. As in Nineteen eighty-four, if a governing body can alter the past, they can use it as a useful tool to control the thoughts of the masses.

As we have explored, history is a lot more than solely past events. We have seen that if the control of the past comes into the wrong hands they can skew it to make it look like anything they want. They can use it as a means of control over our very thoughts. Orwell’s Nineteen eighty-four is the perfect instruction manual to execute this. We know its more than just a novel as we have seen this happen in our own world. We have seen the oppression that comes with this. But this is not to say that history only has a dark side, because it most definitely has a light one; even if it hasn’t happened yet.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_in_the_Soviet_Union
https://www.history.com/news/josef-stalin-great-purge-photo-retouchin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Unio