Transcription
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Friends, hello. You've probably heard something about the Super Bowl. It's a sports competition. The championship game for American football in the United States of America. No, it won't be about sports today. Don't worry. Why is the Super Bowl important at all? Besides sports, it's an event during the halftime of which the top artists give an incredible show, and as a consequence, the most expensive advertising in the world is shown during this break. Not in the sense that it's expensively shot, but in the sense that the cost of a minute of advertising time is the highest cost on the planet.
1984. Super Bowl. During the break, they show an advertisement that will become an event, and now it will simply become an icon of advertising art. This is a commercial for the Apple brand. At that time, it was not yet a very well-known trademark, in fact. More than 20 years before iPhones. And the company shows its computer. The commercial was directed by none other than Ridley Scott, the author of the already released and cult film "Blade Runner" by that time. In general, it was believed that this director had an understanding and vision of the future that no one else had.
A minute-long commercial, it depicts a dystopia. Identical people in identical uniforms march into a cinema hall to listen to the speech of Big Brother, who hypnotizes them from the screen. And suddenly, a young girl bursts into the cinema hall, dressed as a hammer thrower. This hammer or sledgehammer, she throws it at the screen and smashes everything to hell. And then the title card: Apple will present you with Macintosh, and you will see why 1984 will not be like the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. This commercial is on YouTube, please watch it.
Today we will discuss the main book by the British writer George Orwell and, in general, one of the main dystopias of the 20th century. A truly cult book. Over 30 million copies sold. Many people adored this novel. Well, like Keith Richards, David Bowie, and Stephen King even called him the king of horror, for a moment, called this novel the most frightening book in the world. The most famous meme of all 20th-century literature. Big Brother is watching you. This is from this book. Well, it's not even just a book, it's a true symbol of the fight against totalitarianism, against totalitarian propaganda. But today we will talk about how this novel came into being, who its real heroes are, what George Orwell meant when he wrote this fantastic book, and whether it is indeed a fantastic book or a novel of warning. We will talk about the writer himself. Let's begin.
November 1943. The weather in London is terrible. George Orwell, a forty-something journalist, hurries to work on Oxford Street. And in the basement of one of the buildings on Oxford Street is the Indian section of the Eastern Service of the BBC. Orwell has been working here as a production editor for over 2 years. What does he do? He writes and produces radio broadcasts that Britain transmits to India. World War II is in full swing. Japan has already captured Singapore, Hong Kong, Burma, and the Japanese army is approaching the borders of India. And Japanese officers are convincing Indians that they, the Japanese, will bring them liberation from the British colonizers. It must be said that Britain's political image in India was already low before, and now it is at its lowest point.
And what is Orwell doing? His broadcasts are political propaganda. He chose this job completely consciously. Well, firstly, he sincerely hated fascists, but he wasn't taken to the front due to his health. Back in the thirties, he went to Spain and participated in the civil war there. He fought against the regime, or rather, against the army of Francisco Franco. We had an episode about the Spanish Civil War. Please watch it. And in general, on this civil war, he received a neck wound that severely affected his health. And so, in the midst of World War II, he remained in London. And he declared his work on the radio and, in general, sincerely considered it a contribution to the victory over the fascists and their allies, the Japanese.
Over 2 years, Orwell wrote hundreds of propaganda scripts and news releases. This was important work. And, in fact, in the Indian service, he saw how propaganda works, how facts are distorted, how concepts are substituted, how things that seem terrible at first glance can be made acceptable. And then, in general, he became disgusted with working in propaganda. In '43, the denouement arrives. Orwell is preparing news from the Tehran Conference of the Big Three. Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill, I remind you, gathered to coordinate military actions and discuss the post-war world order. And Orwell was faced with a simple task: to show triumph, to show the unity of the nation in the face of the terrifying threat of Hitler. But he sees this event differently himself. The writer was convinced that the leaders of the three powers had gathered to, you know, divide the world and discuss the future occupation of territories. And Orwell finds himself in such a personal conflict. He resigns from the BBC and begins to write a novel about how propaganda distorts society and an individual.
Well, then he writes columns for the newspaper Tribune for some time. And, in fact, his column, his personal opinion, is called "In My Opinion," I believe. And what does he write about? About everything. From deep political analysis to how to properly brew tea and save tea leaves, because, well, tea was scarce in Britain, and there were still ration cards. Or he writes, "Why do birds sing in the spring?" One of his first pieces was a critical note about Americans. Literally, Orwell writes, quote: "They have occupied London." About 80 issues of this column were published in total. No one pressured Orwell. And, in general, he enjoyed his work, and at the same time, he saved money to settle somewhere in a cottage in the countryside and finish his novel. And it took him 3 years to write all of this.
In the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell describes several technologies in considerable detail: telescreens, versificators, destruction machines, and in the dystopia, they do not develop society but only cause people inconvenience. In reality, many technological innovations have not only made our lives more comfortable but have literally become an integral part of it. Online services, cloud storage, banking applications. It is now simply impossible to do without these options in everyday life. And the next stage of progress is 5G. It can already be said that the new generation of communication will open up previously impossible prospects in various fields. And MTS, as a technological leader, has been conducting research for many years, developing infrastructure, and actively integrating domestic fifth-generation stations. 5G is a real opportunity to transform entire industries. In medicine, remote operations with high precision will begin to be performed. 5G is also useful for autonomous transport. Cars will be able to exchange data with road infrastructure objects, which means traffic will become even safer. The same marketplaces will be able to offer users new formats of interaction: virtual fitting rooms, augmented reality. And this is literally the first thing that comes to mind, but far from the only one. And although the infrastructure for fifth-generation communication in Russia is still in the development stage, you can start preparing for the launch now. Therefore, if you are planning to update your smartphone in the near future, it is worth looking at devices with 5G support. A useful link will be waiting for you in the description.
The war ended. Orwell went to liberated Germany and France as a reporter. And the work on the main novel of his life began with a tragedy. On March 30, 1945, in Paris, Orwell receives a telegram. While he was away, his wife Eileen died. She died on the operating table. A terrible blow. And Eileen was not just a wife, she was a friend, a loyal comrade. They had been married for almost 10 years. She even went with him to Spain and saw the entire civil war with him. And moreover, she actually saved Orwell there when the secret police started hunting him. She was his editor, she was his critic. And, in general, it was with her that he had an intellectual ping-pong, which is important for an author. And he discussed the ideas, the plot lines of his future novel with her. And she was gone.
A year before the events described, they adopted a child because, well, they wanted a child, and Eileen wanted to be a mother, but she had problems getting pregnant. And in early '44, through acquaintances, they learned about a pregnant woman who couldn't keep the child, and they took him. Thus, they took turns caring for the infant, while one worked, the other stayed home. The second spouse, I mean? And so George Orwell was left alone with a one-year-old son in his arms. Well, and in general, '45 was a terrible year for him. Tense work, personal grief. Poverty in London, food shortages, a child who constantly needed care. His wife's relatives were sure that George would not cope. And they offered him: "Well, let us take the boy from you." Orwell was pale, he didn't get enough sleep, he smoked constantly, he coughed constantly. Well, in general, a nightmare. The man was in severe depression.
At that time, he was collaborating with another newspaper, The London Observer. The publisher of the newspaper, David Astor, is his good friend. He learns about the tragedy in Orwell's family and invites the writer: "Come to Scotland to me, live with me. I have neighbors who are renting out a farm. Live there, work." Astor hoped that a quiet life in nature would give Orwell strength. And so, in May '46, Orwell actually arrives there. Listen, Scotland is gorgeous, he likes it here very much – the hills, the heather, the fern, the yellow broom. All this is just, well, incredibly beautiful landscapes, long shadows from the hills. And all this after noisy and dirty London. Absolute silence. Only seagulls cry and the surf. And here he begins to make the first sketches for his future book. He returns to London for business. And in the summer, back to Scotland. The writer arrives with his son and takes his sister with him, who, in general, agreed to be a nanny for the child. He really likes this life on the farm. The house is old, there is no electricity, no running water. The nearest doctor is 10 km away over rough terrain. But most importantly, there was no telephone or radio, and no one distracted him, no one called. Announcers don't mumble in his ear. Orwell got chickens, started fishing. And he writes letters, "Friends, if you decide to visit me, bring cigarettes." He liked French cigarettes. He couldn't always get them. And then he made do with cheap Indian "Victory" brand. It must be said that by this time he had already begun to have serious health problems, and doctors suspected tuberculosis. But Orwell smokes like a chimney and smokes 100 cigarettes a day. Never smoke. It's the worst habit. I'm telling you as a former smoker, it's just the most horrific habit a person can have. Sorry for this digression. We will see all these signs later, all these habits in the future hero of the novel. He also has lung problems. He smokes the same cheap, poorly packed cigarettes.
Friends, the new issue of "Chitiva" is about to hit the shelves. And this time, we decided to talk about money. In my entire life, I have never met people who don't count money. Everyone does it: millionaires, students, even crooks. This is a topic that can be discussed with literally anyone. What's in this issue? For example, the answer to the question: "Why do we love money at all," based, as they say, on lessons from history. We recalled how the Russian ruble was formed, how the main pillar of capitalism, the legendary Wall Street, was built. We found out how people end up on banknotes. We compiled a rating of the richest people of the past. And, of course, when there is money, there are always those who want to steal it. On these pages, the history of the most amazing robberies of the 20th century. On the cover of the issue is actor Alexey Guskov. He played one of the main roles in the series "Golden Bottom." And in general, he is a person with an amazing professional destiny. Today, he has hundreds of roles in films and series behind him. We discussed the role of money in a man's life and how successful producers find funding for their projects. Pre-orders for the issue are already open on Ozon. The magazine will be on sale in early June. The link for pre-ordering the issue is in the description.
Orwell, like any writer, thought that this solitude would speed up the work. And at first, it was so. Spring, nature, strength, but after a couple of months, he has another tuberculosis attack. Doctors diagnosed this disease back in '38, before the war. He tried to get treatment, but then the war began, food shortages, literally poor nutrition, problems with medication, and constant smoking. And at the end of '47, he has a tormenting cough. He is in the hospital, he interrupts his work on the novel. They try to treat him with a new antibiotic, but either the dosage was wrong, or he had an allergy. In general, the side effects are monstrous. Terrible itching, hair loss. But the course of treatment works. Orwell writes to his friends: "If it's necessary to sink a ship to save it, this is a perfectly suitable means." He doesn't eat anything, he has no appetite, he loses a lot of weight. When he doesn't have the strength to sit at the table, he writes directly in bed on an old typewriter called Remington. In one of his letters to Astor, he admits: "I am ready to work in bed too. I'm just trying to figure out the last chapters of this damn book about what might happen if nuclear war is not the last." In his diaries, he writes: "The most offensive thing will be to die without having sent the clean copy of the book to the publisher."
In general, in '48, the novel is almost finished, but Orwell can't decide on a title. So, there were two options: "1984" and "The Last Man in Europe," which, in my opinion, is also a very cool title. He keeps trying to come up with something better. In general, "The Last Man in Europe" well reflects the spirit and problems of the novel. In the finale, one of the characters says: "If you are a human, then you are the last human." That is, he means that generally accepted morality has ended, died out. But the publisher said: "The title is long, old-fashioned, let's play with the date." It sounds mysterious and modern. So, in general, this is a commercial bet. By the way, why the year 1984? Well, the most popular version. Orwell simply took and swapped the last two digits. He finished the novel in '48, swapped the last two digits. So the novel became called "1984."
By December, Orwell could no longer move independently, but he still finished the manuscript and sent it to the publisher. He himself wrote: "I am not thrilled with my work. I think the idea is good, but the execution would have been better if I hadn't written it under the influence of tuberculosis." Nevertheless, on June 8, 1949, the novel "1984" was published by the London publishing house Secker & Warburg. And the entire print run sold out. Over the next few years, a play was staged based on the novel in Britain, and two films were made. Terms from the book, "Big Brother," "thoughtcrime," instantly entered everyday speech, first of the British, then of the Americans. The novel was translated into 65 languages. And every time during acute political crises in any country, the book becomes popular. In the last 15 years alone, its circulation has surged twice. After the revelations of Edward Snowden and after the Trump administration's statement about alternative facts. Well, Orwell's novel is undoubtedly a triumph, but the author only witnessed the very beginning of this triumph, and he certainly no longer had the strength to rejoice. After the publication of this, his main book, George Orwell lived only 7 months.
Well, let's talk about the novel in general. Most often, "1984" is called science fiction, but in reality, of course, it is not. Orwell is not a science fiction writer, he is primarily a journalist. And "1984" is what is called political literature. Well, perhaps in the 16th century, it would have been called a political pamphlet. In his essay "Why I Write," Orwell explains that he wanted to turn political literature into art. Here's a quote for you: "I write because I want to expose lies, to draw attention to some fact. And my main concern is to attract attention." It must be said that this was the second attempt to combine a political manifesto and art. You also know the first one well, of course. It's the novella "Animal Farm." He began writing it immediately after resigning from the BBC. The main quote: "Indeed, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."
Let's recall very briefly what this book is about. A farm. The animals, led by the pigs, expel the drunken owner and proclaim animal rule. The slogan: "All animals are equal." But then the pigs become dictators and change the commandments. Their slogan now reads: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal." In the details of "Animal Farm," contemporaries saw references to the October Revolution in Russia and, in general, to the subsequent establishment of Soviet power. The similarity seemed so obvious that the British Ministry of Information banned the publication of the novella. So, a ministry official then wrote a conclusion: "If the book were about dictators and dictatorships in general, then publication would be quite appropriate, but it describes in detail the events in Russia and its two dictators. And pigs in government may offend many Russians." It must be said that the book was not published then. It was published much later, after the end of World War II and literally at the beginning of the Cold War. And in Britain, the first print run of "Animal Farm," think about it, was 250,000 copies. This is a huge circulation. It sold out almost instantly. In the US, half a million copies were sold in the first year. No, an incredible success overall. Orwell, who had lived in poverty for half his life, finally acquired some capital. In the first year of "Animal Farm" sales, he earned about 3,000 pounds sterling. With this money in post-war England, you could buy a couple of houses. That is, well, how much is that? Well, probably 3,000. That's like, maybe 3 million, or maybe 30 million. I don't know how much houses cost in England now.
Then, during the Cold War, the CIA used "Animal Farm" as a political agitprop. Copies of the book were delivered in batches across the eastern border, i.e., across the Berlin Wall, loaded onto balloons, and dropped over Poland and Czechoslovakia. In '49, the British MIT commissioned a translation of the novella into Arabic to publish it in Egypt and thereby hinder the growth of Soviet influence in the country. You might ask, where's the logic? The logic was this. So, in Muslim culture, a pig is an unclean animal. So, the book "Animal Farm" is about pigs. The pigs are Russians. After such propaganda, Arabs will not want to do business with the Soviet Union. If I hadn't explained this logic to you, you probably wouldn't have understood it. Exactly the same way, Arabs didn't understand this logic at all. Well, this story with the translation of "Animal Farm" into Arabic shows the logic of an official in any country. That is, he will invent underwear, for example, right, underwear, yes, underwear over the head, for example. He writes a huge justification. Draws tables, graphs. Why it's more convenient to put on underwear over your head. But it has nothing to do with life. But since everything has already been approved, accounted for, they proceed to translate the book into Arabic.
Nevertheless, the interest in "Animal Farm" showed Orwell that the reader is interested in political literature. And at this very moment, he conceived "1984." Well, in general, if we talk about dystopia, it is in this genre, of course, that "1984" is written. The first dystopia in the world is considered by many to be the novel "We" by our author Yevgeny Zamyatin. It was first published in 1924. To some extent, Aldous Huxley followed this novel. This is another dystopia, "Brave New World." A great dystopia of the last century. So, Zamyatin and Huxley, they always go together. True, Huxley claimed that he had never read Zamyatin. Understandable. But Aldous, on the other hand, had read both Huxley and Zamyatin perfectly. And in general, these two books, "We" and "1984," are compared many times. And in both of these books, you can find many overlaps.
Well, let's talk about the world described by the British author. After its publication, the phenomena described in the book instantly become memes. There was no such word then, but the phenomenon existed. Today, these phrases, these patterns from the book are known even to those who have never read the book. Well, for example, Newspeak. Orwell used a whole invented language in his book. The purpose of this language is to make thoughts that are incorrect from the perspective of the book's government physically impossible. As a writer and journalist, Orwell, of course, worked with language and understood its importance, that language is a code. If there is no word, then one cannot think about the phenomenon that this word denotes. The poorer the language, the less opportunity people have to formulate their thoughts. And the less people think, the easier it will be to control such people. Therefore, in the world of "1984," everyone speaks Newspeak. It is a simplified language without nuances, in which words are constantly shortened and merged. It is a simple mechanical language. You can speak Newspeak without thinking at all. It is especially easy to repeat political slogans.
Here's a small digression, yes, if you go to social networks today, LOL, and in general, our modern language is simplified not even to abbreviations, but to emoticons, yes, to all these asterisks, hearts, parentheses, and so on. This is also, in general, quite Newspeak. The most interesting thing is that Orwell did not invent Newspeak. A simplified version of the English language existed in reality. It was invented by a linguist named Charles Ogden. His version was called Basic English. I still remember Basic as a programming language in the nineties, yes, computer, but it was Basic English, basic English. What is it? This language included 850 basic words with simplified rules of use. That is, well, it's a language, well, which is indeed reduced to the simplest everyday things. This idea was very much liked, for example, by the great orator, the possessor of a beautiful literary language, Winston Churchill. And the Prime Minister even ordered the BBC radio station to teach foreign audiences this basic English daily. He was convinced that this would help English become an international language and increase Anglo-American influence abroad. But we know, yes, there is such a language, not a version, I mean, there is such a language, yes, Indian English, it is also very specific there, it is also quite compressed. And it is, of course, not Basic English, but it is quite a version of the English language. There is Runglish, yes? This is the English language, which is spoken by Russians, yes, and this was for a long time also a meme, which began at the end, probably, of the nineties, at the beginning of the two-thousands, also some kind of shortened quantity. There, of course, in Runglish, the main thing is the pronunciation, which was mocked, not the fact that it was shortened.
Well, let's return to England. Other members of the government, in general, were skeptical about this idea. Churchill had to defend it. He said he was ready to speak in defense of Newspeak on the radio. But someone ironically asked: "Will you also speak in Basic English?" And then Churchill's enthusiasm somewhat waned. Well, you understand who Churchill is, right? Watch the episode about Churchill. We have it on the channel, he is an old English aristocrat. All these "old money" that you see on Instagram banned in Russia, these are not girls in fifteen-centimeter heels who put on a tweet and think they are "old money." Old money is Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, yes. When people stole so much in the 10th century that it would be enough until the 32nd century. And a brilliantly educated erudite who speaks, writes, paints pictures. And it is clear that he formulated thoughts a little more complexly than the average Englishman.
Well, what happens next? After the war, Churchill is removed from the post of Prime Minister, he leaves this position, and the idea of Basic English disappears with him. In his novel, Orwell names the hero Winston Smith in honor of Churchill. Was Orwell a fan of the writer? Probably not. Than yes? Orwell always voted for the Labour Party, and Churchill, as you understand, is a Conservative. At the same time, the writer tried to give due credit to the politician Winston Churchill. Shortly before his death, Orwell even wrote a review of the former Prime Minister's memoirs. In particular, there were these lines: "One can disagree with him as much as one likes, but one cannot help but admire his courage, a certain grandeur, and genius, which are evident even in the official memoirs." And it must be said that Sir Winston Churchill himself was quite favorably disposed towards Orwell's work. They say he read the novel "1984" as many as twice.
It is interesting that during its first publication in America, the American publisher suggested removing what he considered superfluous from the novel. For example, the essay "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" by Emmanuel Goldstein, a character. Orwell placed this book right in the middle of his novel, and the publisher believed that, in general, the author interrupts the narrative by doing so. Orwell, you see, became furious and insisted that the book be published in America as is.
The second phenomenon known to everyone is, in fact, Big Brother. Most likely, this is the best description of a personality cult in the history of literature. So, what is Big Brother? He is the face of the regime, the embodiment of the Party. Orwell never answers the question of whether Big Brother actually exists or if it is just an image created by propaganda. Well, he usually describes Big Brother as a man with a black mustache, a strong-willed face, immediately hinting at both Stalin and Hitler. In the book, portraits of Big Brother hang literally at every turn. His gaze pursues residents from coins, from postage stamps. They fear him, they revere him. And the phrase: "Big Brother is watching you" is the most important meme of the book. Or perhaps the most important meme from 20th-century dystopia.
Another important phenomenon in the book is thoughtcrime. In Orwell's universe, in the universe of "1984," it is the most serious criminal offense. Thoughts that go against the dogmas of the Party. That is, thoughtcrime is...
What is it? It is not an action. It is doubt or secret discontent. So that people do not commit thought crimes, tele-screens are everywhere. In every room of houses, at work, in public transport, on the street, screens constantly broadcast propaganda. But there is another function. Through these same screens, the thought police observe citizens. Its employees monitor not only what people say. Screens, sound sensors, informants constantly observe everything, facial expressions, pulse rate, how a person moves. If there is even the slightest cause for suspicion, the thought police begin to follow the person. Sooner or later, he will be arrested and sentenced to execution. And it is only a matter of time. As Smith wrote in his diary, thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime is death. An amazing thing. When I read trainings about mass culture, about mass media, I always make a short digression, imagine if you lived there, like me, in the nineties, and you were told: "Listen, do you want something that will always know where you are, will have all your photos, including indecent ones, all this will be collected on some servers, and this device will record you and will write both audio and video. Well, you will also pay a couple of thousand dollars for owning such a device. You would have told me in ninety-fourth year: "Are you crazy? Why would we need such a device?" - I say and take out my iPhone at that moment. That's why, speaking of thoughtcrime, Orwell saw clearly. The time of the book's action cannot be stated confidently. The main character believes that it is approximately the year 1984, but this is not exact. With greater certainty, he can say that he lives in London, the main city of the territory called Air Force Zone Number One. So, Britain no longer exists. It was absorbed by the superpower Oceania, which emerged after World War II. When exactly this was, no one remembers. Well, sometime, in the late forties, the world divided into three superpowers, which are now waging a constant war. Orwell mentally drew this division right after the Tehran conference. So, Oceania occupies a third of the globe and includes North and South America, Great Britain, South Africa, Australia, and, in fact, Oceania. That is, let's say the Anglo-Saxon world. Anglo-Saxon in spirit, not in territory, of course. The novel says nothing about whether Antarctica belongs to Oceania, but there is a mention that secret Oceanic testing grounds are located on this continent. The state ideology of Oceania is English Socialism or Engsoc. So, at the same time, the Soviet Union seemed to have captured the remaining Western Europe and Turkey, and another superpower, Eurasia, appeared. It also has its own state ideology – Neo-Bolshevism. And in the region of China and other Asian states, Eastasia seemed to have formed. It occupies the territory of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and partly India. So, the state ideology is denoted by a Chinese word that can be translated as cult of death or erasure of personality. But in the world where the main character of 1984 lives, no one learns foreign languages. No one travels abroad, no one reads foreign books, so no one knows exactly what the cult of Eastasia is called. Well, we use these words all the time in the story, right, approximately, like, sort of. I don't like the phrase "sort of," "like." This uncertainty in the past and present is Orwell's main literary discovery. He shows the reader how propaganda destroys the sense of reality of the world, how history is rewritten in such a way that no one knows anything for sure anymore. Did it happen or not, did he steal or was he stolen from? The universe of the novel is a post-apocalyptic world. How did the end of the world happen in the novel? It is meant. In the mid-fifties, World War III occurred. Nuclear explosions destroyed most of the cities of North America, Europe, and the European part of the Soviet Union. Well, then the authorities came to their senses in time, but peace did not happen. The three powers continue to fight for the territories of North Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. None of the states can achieve victory. However, it turns out that during this endless war, society is much easier to control. So, the population of Oceania is divided into three levels or, one might say, castes. The majority is the proletariat or, in Newspeak, proles. This is about 85% of the population, which is actually excluded from political life. So, what do they do? Hard physical labor, family, fights with neighbors, and cheap beer. A special department of the Ministry of Truth prints low-quality literature for them, sentimental songs that are composed mechanically. Here, of course, one wants to talk about how AI creates music and literature. Artificial intelligence is, after all, a very important thing for us, for everyone, especially for the world of arts, right. It's just that when we were preparing this episode, I realized that the entire future, and I will say more about this later, which later passed to Marshall McLuhan and Guy Debord, in 1984, almost everything that we will encounter in modern philosophy today is laid down. So, the life of the proles, of course, is miserable, but at the same time, they live in conditions of relative freedom. Why? The thought police believe that these people are incapable of any conscious protest, and they are almost not monitored. There are no tele-screens in their homes, and this is how their lives favorably differ from the lives of the two higher party castes. The Outer Party and the Inner Party. Winston Smith, the main character, belongs to the Outer Party. Who are the members of the Outer Party? They perform simple administrative work. Clerks. They live in dilapidated houses, eat tasteless food in communal canteens, and drink vile Victory brand gin. These are the same Indian cigarettes that Orwell smoked. These people always have a deficit of elementary things: from razor blades to normal paper. Members of the Outer Party live in a state of total stress. A screen is installed in every room, which cannot be turned off. Administrative work obliges these people to be excellent at doublethink. That is, they must know the truth in order to be able to distort it professionally. And at the same time, they must be able to sincerely believe in lies. They are forbidden to marry for love. And also, members of the Outer Party must wear blue overalls, which distinguish them from the elite and the proles. Well, that is, all the work at the BBC, it is, in principle, very well described in the novel. The elite of the state is the Inner Party. People live in well-appointed apartments, spacious apartments. They have servants. They travel by car, fly by helicopter. Other citizens walk or travel in crowded buses. Members of the Inner Party have access to real wine, good tobacco, coffee, chocolate, sugar. And most importantly, they have the right to turn off tele-screens. True, not for more than half an hour at a time. And this creates an illusion of privacy, although in reality, special services monitor them most strictly. The Inner Party is not a hereditary aristocracy. The most capable and loyal children from all strata of society are selected for it. For what purpose? So that the elite does not degrade. The task of the Inner Party is to form the desired reality and, accordingly, to sincerely believe in it. For these people, there is no truth, morality, objective facts. If the Party says that two plus two equals five. Citizens must believe this with all their soul. So, the Party has an enemy, his name is Emmanuel Goldstein. Some say that he was once one of the leaders of the revolution, almost equal to Big Brother. Then he betrayed everyone, betrayed the ideals of Oceania and fled. So, how does Orwell describe him? A Jewish face with a halo of fluffy white hair and a small goatee. Well, it is believed that Leon Trotsky served as the prototype for Goldstein. Once, Orwell came across a book by the French political figure Boris Souvarine. He is one of the founders of the French Communist Party. The book was called "The Nightmare in the Soviet Union." In particular, he described how the Party slandered Trotsky under Stalin. And after Trotsky's murder in forty in Mexico, Orwell even made a note in his diary. How will Russia be without Trotsky now? They will probably have to invent a replacement for him. The main character is 39 years old. He was born either in forty-fourth or forty-fifth. He doesn't know for sure, and it's impossible to establish. At the age of about 6, he was left without parents. They either simply disappeared, or became victims of repression, or the child lost them at the station, it's unclear. It is unknown if he has any education. In his youth, Smith got a job at the Ministry of Truth, or Minprav. He is a classic English clerk with shortness of breath and varicose veins. Well, what is Smith? It's Ivanov in Russia, right? Smith is the most common surname in England. That is, such an average citizen, he works in the documentation department. His professional task is to sort through historical documents and change them according to the current party policy. So, the work looks like this. For example, a task comes in: "We need to rewrite an article in The Times newspaper from 1983." The original mentions a certain Comrade Withers. He was an important member of the Party, but was recently vaporized. That is, what is it? Executed and erased from history. Now it is necessary to ensure that Withers never existed and replace mentions of this Withers with something else. Smith decides not just to insert some random name, but to invent a hero, to create him from scratch. Thus, Comrade Ogilvy is born, the ideal citizen. So, for 3 years he refused all toys except a drum, a submachine gun, and a helicopter. At 6 years old, he was accepted into the Spies, at 11 he betrayed his parents to the thought police. He didn't drink, didn't smoke, and died like a hero. There is only one problem, he never existed. But the Ministry of Truth doesn't care at all. Orwell writes: "Comrade Ogilvy never existed in the present, and now exists in the past. And as soon as the traces of the forgery are erased, he will exist as irrefutably as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar." There was a British professor of political theory, Bernard Crick. He wrote that Orwell took the famous episode about the heroic life of Comrade Ogilvy from real life. How did it happen? In forty-two, King George VI of Britain knighted the Director-General of the BBC, Frederick Ogilvy. But soon there were rumors that the director was involved in fraud with state funding. Well, simply put, he embezzled the state budget. The title was to be revoked, but after a few months, everything was hushed up, and Ogilvy kept his title. In the novel, Orwell directly hints at this story. His hero muses whether to award Comrade Ogilvy an order for outstanding merits. Another heroine of the novel, a girl named Julia, also works in the same Ministry of Truth. She is 26 years old, has lush chestnut hair, brown eyes, a slender waist. She is listed in the literature department. Julia, on the one hand, is likable to Smith, and on the other hand, she irritates him with her ideological correctness. He considers her a fanatic and an agent of the thought police. But it turns out that Julia herself is not indifferent to him. She arranges a meeting with him in the forest, where there are no screens or listening devices. But the fact is that according to the laws of Oceania, Smith and Julia cannot be a couple. Well, first of all, the main character is married. The spouses have been living separately for quite a long time, and the hero describes his wife as the stupidest, most vulgar, and emptiest person he has ever met. His wife perceived intimacy as a party duty for the sake of having a child. Well, and in general, she never showed him any feelings. It all looks like an unhappy marriage, but for members of the Outer Party, this is quite normal family life. In the world of Oceania, marriage has only one purpose: the destruction of love and personal attachment. A person must belong entirely to Big Brother. The Party needs people to work, not to go on dates. And therefore, of course, it will be better if there is no love in a person's life, no passion, no tenderness, only party duty. And all this for the sake of procreation. If the Party notices that men and women feel even the slightest sympathy for each other, they will simply not be allowed to be together. Love in general is an important political lever. 10 years before the novel was published, a psychologist, for example, the German Wilhelm Reich, wrote about this. He argued that totalitarian regimes, mainly Nazism, are based on the suppression of sexual attraction. And if instincts are suppressed from childhood, it is easier to provoke people, for example, blind rage. Rage that can be directed somewhere in the right direction. People will obey a strong leader and hate those he points a finger at. Orwell almost literally retold Reich's ideas. Well, and then Julia appears in the hero's life. He was spineless, weak, but love makes him capable of protest. And then another character appears in the narrative. O'Brien. The heroes take him for a participant in the underground resistance, but in reality, he is another special services officer. He tracks down unreliable citizens and sends them to the Ministry of Love. And this, of course, is the most terrible place in the novel. O'Brien explains: "We do not destroy a heretic because he resists us. We remake him." And this process takes place in the Ministry of Love. With the most terrible methods, all beliefs are beaten out of a person, and they are forced to renounce their attachments. And Smith eventually renounces the girl he loves. Until this moment, he was convinced that the Party could control the bodies of citizens, but not their souls, that the government could force a person to say anything, but could not force him to believe it. But torture destroys love, and with it, he completely gives his personality into the hands of the Party. When we talk about dystopias, we most often look for prophecies. But 1984 turned out to be such a warning. Orwell showed what a society plunged into poverty under constant propaganda could turn into. If power gains the right to change history, the very category of truth seems to disappear. That is, if words like freedom, honor, justice are removed from the language, people will simply stop understanding these concepts. To forbid love, to forbid intimacy, a person turns into an loner. He has nothing to rely on. And such a society of loners is very easy to manipulate. There is another point here that concerns marketing. In the nineties, in the late eighties, early nineties, I remember that, in marketing, especially in the marketing of elite or luxury goods, the theory of "stand apart from the masses" was popular. A person who, as it were, separates himself from the mass of others, he is not like everyone else. And this atomization worked on the principle of "you are not like everyone else," well, you are not like everyone else, well, you are not like that, you are watching, reading, listening. And this atomization was very popular in marketing. Because when a person is made to feel his chosenness, his loneliness, because, well, smart people, talented people are always lonely, this was all directly in marketing campaigns, then, of course, this atomized society is managed completely differently. Immediately after the novel was published in America, Orwell sent a letter to American trade unions of press employees. The letter contains these words: "Do not let this happen. Everything depends on you." Now to the prototypes. Whom does the author mean? First of all, the novel, of course, is autobiographical. The main character, Winston Smith, is 39 years old. He works in the Ministry of Truth, lives in London. When Orwell began working on the novel, he was also 39 years old. He also lived in London. And the Ministry of Truth is, of course, the British Ministry of Information, created during World War II. Orwell's wife, Eileen, worked there. At home, the woman constantly told him in detail how bureaucracy works, how censorship works. Orwell himself understood how quickly the state agenda changes. So, when the Soviet Union was Britain's ally, the vector of propaganda changed sharply. Yesterday Stalin was a tyrant, a communist, a murderer, an executioner, and today he is a caring ruler and a friend of the English people. After the war, when the Cold War began, everything changed, naturally, to the exact opposite. Julia also had a real prototype. Orwell's biographer David John Taylor believed that in the bright and intelligent girl, the writer depicted the image of his second wife, Sonia Brown. They met in forty, were friends for many years. Sonia was an editor in a magazine where Orwell was published. And they got married in forty-nine, when the writer was already seriously ill. The plot of changing real history is also autobiographical. In the late thirties, the writer himself sought to rewrite his past and become a different person. Well, where to start? George Orwell is not his real name. In fact, his name was Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in India. His father worked, excuse me, in the opium department of the British colonial administration. This is a special service that controlled the production of opium for further sale to China. These are the guys who caused mass drug addiction in China. Watch the episode about the Opium Wars if you haven't seen it yet. Next. After studying at college, Arthur continued the family tradition of serving in the colony and went to Burma. There he became a police officer. And he saw with his own eyes how colonial policy in England worked, how violence, power, and propaganda were closely linked. And 5 years later, he resigned with the wording: "I do not want to be part of the system of oppression." In twenty-seven, he returned to England and renounced his family's money. He wore worn-out clothes, did not shave for weeks, lived in homeless shelters, slept on the floor, was underfed, and endured constant searches. Then he moved to Paris, where he also wandered, earning a living by washing dishes in a restaurant. And all this experience formed the basis of his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. But Eric Arthur Blair could not publish the book under his real name. Well, because, after all, it is a disgrace for a British family. Not a disgrace in the sense of what he thought, but in the sense that he is a vagrant. And thus, the pseudonym George Orwell was born. Now let's discuss the surveillance and total distrust described in the novel. The roots are also in Orwell's biography. Some researchers believe that Orwell was constantly watched by agents of MI5. This is British counterintelligence. There are also those who are sure that Orwell himself worked as an MI5 agent. Well, we will never know now, whether he worked or not. As early as 2007, the file opened on the writer by a special police department was declassified. An anti-terrorism structure closely associated with MI5. Agents of the special department put Orwell, as they say, under surveillance. Even at the time when he left the police, he immediately came under the authorities' radar as a person sympathetic to communists. And this is partly true. Orwell's political views were formed when he left the police and lived in poverty in the thirties. And then, in thirty-six, he went to Spain, where there was a civil war. Who was he fighting there? He was in the ranks of left-wing radical militia. It was a workers' party of Marxist orientation. Later, he would write the book "Homage to Catalonia," and there he would write about what was happening in Barcelona, what was happening in Catalonia, shops, cafes, everything was nationalized. People addressed each other without this. "Señor," "Don," no masters. Everyone was equal. In the war, women stood shoulder to shoulder with men. And indeed, everyone in Catalonia believed in it then. And it was absolutely left-wing. Well, it must be said that Catalonia is still very left-wing. Spain in general is very left-wing. And this is, of course, the post-Franco world. Well, and not even the topic of our today's episode. Well, just for fairness. In thirty-seven, of course, he began to see the flaws of this system. An armed uprising broke out in Barcelona. On one side, left-wing anarchists, on the other, pro-Soviet communists. Instead of fighting Franco, the Communist Party began a war against its own former allies. The Workers' Party was outlawed. A hunt began for its participants, including George Orwell. In May thirty-seven, he was wounded in the neck and taken to the hospital. And when he returned to Barcelona, he learned that his friends had already been arrested and many killed, and he himself was threatened with prison, or perhaps execution. And then Eileen, his first wife, saved him. She worked in Barcelona as a secretary for the Independent Labour Party. Through the British Consulate, she obtained the necessary documents and took her husband to France. Here's another digression. Some believe that Eileen was not just an Englishwoman, that these communists were supported by Soviet intelligence, and here's an Englishwoman, and in the embassy, and a secretary of the Labour Party. Well, there is an opinion that she also worked for intelligence, but only for British intelligence. Nevertheless, the experience of this civil war, of course, had a sobering effect on him. And in forty, he wrote the essay "Inside the Whale," where he criticized the British poets of the thirties for their naivety, for blindly supporting socialists and communists, while sitting on their island and not even imagining the horrors of real violence. As an example, Orwell names the writer Henry Miller, the author of the sensational scandalous novel "Tropic of Cancer." Miller consciously refuses political commentary, and for this, Orwell calls him the most truthful writer of his time. And he compares him to the biblical prophet Jonah, who is inside the whale, cut off from world problems. Globally, these essays are a good illustration of how the socialist and optimist Orwell becomes a pessimist, which, of course, will affect his book. Orwell's participation in the Spanish Civil War, of course, did not go unnoticed. In ninety-six, a square in Barcelona was named in his honor. Ironically, it was on this square in Barcelona that the city's first surveillance cameras were installed. In general, the theme of special services and denunciations is the basis of the novel. And all this is also taken from life. In forty-five, Orwell lived in Paris. And at the same time, Ernest Hemingway was a resident of the fashionable Paris hotel Ritz. We have an episode about him, please watch it. And they try to recruit him. Either CIA agents, or FBI, or naval intelligence. Both Orwell and Hemingway, of course, met. And about one of these meetings, Hemingway wrote: "Orwell looked nervous and agitated. He said he was afraid the communists would kill him and asked to borrow a pistol. And although Orwell always spoke out against special services, after his death, a, as they would write in the yellow press, spicy story surfaced." His son gave an interview to a reporter and said that at some point his father was in love with his friend's girlfriend, and the girlfriend worked in the British Foreign Office, or rather, in the department that dealt with anti-communist propaganda. And in forty-nine, this girl visited the dying Orwell in the hospital and said to him: "Old man Orwell, tell me, please, the names of journalists and writers whose views differ from the government's position. All this is happening, I remind you, in the midst of the Cold War." That is, roughly speaking: "Old man, tell us about people who sympathize with the Soviet Union." And Orwell gave her not one name, not two, not three, not even 10. He gave her a list of 38 names. It included journalists, actors, politicians, for example, Charlie Chaplin, Bernard Shaw. And this list, you know, was declassified in the nineties. And a huge scandal erupted. Orwell was called a snitch and a traitor to his own ideas. Well, it's clear that the writer's supporters said that he didn't inform on anyone. He simply indicated which intellectuals were not suitable for ideological work for the government. Yes, he didn't inform, it turns out, that's right, probably. Well, now we certainly won't find out whether Orwell worked for the special services or not, but he clearly drank tea with them. And one of his friends expressed himself excellently on this matter. I doubt that Orwell was involved with intelligence, but this in no way means that he was not involved with it. Amazingly English. How was Orwell treated in the Soviet Union? Yes, you know, they treated him very simply. The novel 1984 was immediately banned from publication. And for almost 48 years, it could only be found in special collections or in samizdat. Big Brother was perceived as a caricature of Stalin, especially considering the cult of personality. So, the police and thought police were seen as either the NKVD or the KGB. The Ministry of Truth is the department of agitation and propaganda of the Central Committee of the CPSU. And in general, it was all very similar to the Soviet Union. The book was banned in the Soviet Union. The society described in the novel is, of course, much more similar to England during World War II, many times more than the Soviet Union. And the famous British historian Isaac Deutscher writes about this. He personally knew Orwell. For example, the book describes trashy newspapers that contain almost nothing but sports, crime, and astrology. Five-cent pulp stories, well, and so on. Orwell, of course, knew well that there were no such yellow press newspapers in the Soviet Union at all. And in general, there are many shortcomings in the Soviet Union, but they are, of course, clearly different. It is obvious that the author himself admitted that he placed the action of the novel in England with the simple goal of showing that English-speaking nations are no better than others and that totalitarianism can triumph everywhere. And here is another remark, because, well, undoubtedly, in England during the war, society was fundamentally different from the Soviet Union, elections, democracy, and so on. But Orwell knew perfectly well how the British behaved in the colonies: violence, total brainwashing, seizure of resources. That is, he saw all this. That is, we are liberals here within our island, and there we are imperialists. One way or another, the novel was not published in the Soviet Union, although, of course, it was translated, and the first translations were already in the fifties. This is almost a detective story. The translators, the so-called Andreev and Vitov, are, of course, pseudonyms. Later, literary scholars tried to establish their real names, but unsuccessfully. The translation, apparently, was done for free. And the chapters of the novel were published by the émigré magazine Grani, but no payment records were found. It is believed by some that the post-war Soviet émigrés Gorevoy and Pasha worked under pseudonyms. But again, no one knows for sure and cannot say. So, the novel could be found in special collections. This is a library department with limited access. The book fell under two articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. Distribution of deliberately false fabrications defaming the Soviet system, up to 3 years for storage and transfer. And the article on anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. This is a more serious charge. If the investigation proved that a person not only read the book but also passed it on to others with the aim of undermining Soviet power, then the person could receive from six months to 7 years in labor camps. The novel was published, and it is considered that it was an absolutely cult book in the nineties. Frankly, I heard about Orwell maybe in ninety-six, ninety-seven. And it's possible, of course, to say that I was a person who, perhaps, was not so educated, not so intellectual at all, but nevertheless, the novel was only published in eighty-ninth year. It was published in the magazine Novy Mir. The translation was done by Viktor Golychev, a physicist and connoisseur of English literature, a man who was friends with Brodsky. Besides Orwell, he did a number of brilliant translations, "The Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger, "Light in August" by Faulkner, and, of course, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote. But it was Orwell's translation that was difficult. Golychev said that he worked on the translation for a year and constantly suffered from colds. The translator said: "This is a poisoned book, and this infection gets into you." As this episode is being recorded, my voice, as you can see, is getting hoarse. And this is also not a joke at all. 1984 is one of the most frequently reissued books in the world. An almost eternal bestseller, and in the language of booksellers, a long-seller. Since its first publication, it has never gone out of print. There were periods when the number of copies dropped sharply and then rose sharply. For example, the eighties, that is, the very years described in the novel, Orwell's son recalled in an interview that it was then that he finally began to receive royalties, that is, a percentage of sales, and in that very eighty-fourth year he was able to buy a house. The book has been filmed many times, adapted for radio, for theater. But the most successful is considered to be the film by director Michael Radford. It was released in the same eighty-fourth year and received several awards and critical acclaim. Of course, Orwell's main novel influenced not only literature and cinema, but also the media. My favorite books, some of my favorite books, which describe mass media and a society controlled by these mass media, are Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" and the works of Marshall McLuhan, which discuss the digital village. And, of course, this is all the influence of dystopia, but many things are literally taken from the novel 1984. A new wave of popularity. The September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States. Conspiracy theorists of all stripes have dissected the novel into quotes. Here is America's eternal war with various countries of the world, and the voluntary renunciation of citizens' rights. And Big Brother, who, in order to expose enemy spies, eavesdrops on conversations and reads correspondence, the Patriot Act. I told you about it in the episode about 9/11. And, of course, the main idea: there is no external enemy. The country bombs itself to control society. In 2013, the revelations of Edward Snowden were published. A former CIA employee handed over thousands of secret documents to journalists, which told about special surveillance programs. And it turned out that American special services monitor billions of people worldwide through smartphones and email. That very anecdote that I told you at the beginning of the episode turned out to be not an anecdote at all, but a reality. And in July of the same year, sales of the novel 1984 on Amazon increased by 6,000%. Can you imagine? The last surge was very recent, in twenty-second year, when Elon Musk bought Twitter. Musk's actions are often linked to the US government. There were talks that this was a deal to establish totalitarian control over one of the most popular social networks. And many had a reason to reread Orwell's great novel once again. These scenes from the novel constantly come to life. The last thing, literally this week, that I saw was El Salvador. A mass trial of MS-13 gang members. About 500 people are sitting in the hall, dressed in identical white clothes, with identical masks, all with shaved heads, and the judge reads out the charges to them from a screen. We will probably do a program about the MS-13 gang and El Salvador, and the world's largest prison, someday. But this picture, by the way, was published by the BBC. Amazing, isn't it, that we started with the BBC. This picture is an absolute scene from the literal scene from the novel 1984. Such is the story of 1984. A novel that has become the basis for a huge number of films, series, research, philosophical essays, which has influenced modern philosophers, modern political scientists, the world of advertising in an incredible way. I started with this. And mainly, of course, it is the basic, main dystopia of the 20th century. Friends, thank you for watching history lessons. Thank you for subscribing to our channel, and see you next time.