How Orwell’s ‘1984’ Looms Large in Wartime Russia-EXPLAINED
The sale of the book grew by 30% in Russia and 75%in March.
New Delhi: George Orwell a dystopian novel published in “1984”, the novel has been in the spotlight in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine on Feb 24.
In 2015, book was in the top ten best-sellers. The sale of the book grew by 30% in Russia and 75%in March.
Can you still read this?
The novel is not banned and can be used freely. Last month Lawyer Anastasia Rudenko and businessman Dmitry Silin begin free distribution
in the city of Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow.
‘1984’ is still available in Russia though its future is in danger as countries like ‘Belkniga’ have put the books off the shelf and claimed that the books have been banned.
What are Russian officials saying
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, last week rejected the idea that Russia’s authoritarian turn resembled the world of “1984,” claiming instead that Orwell’s book was about “the end of [Western] liberalism.”
“For many years we believed that Orwell described the horrors of totalitarianism. This is one of the biggest global fakes,” she said in a public speech in Yekaterinburg. “He depicted how liberalism would lead humanity to a dead end.”
Her sentiments were echoed by Anatoly Vasserman, a parliamentary deputy from the ruling United Russia party, who told in a report that “everything Orwell wrote about was his own experience,” referring to the author’s work at the U.K. media outlet during World War II.
