The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the intelligentsia consists of scholars , academics , teachers, journalists, and literary writers.
148-465: In George Orwell 's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , the world is divided into three superstates : Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, who are all fighting each other in a perpetual war in a disputed area mostly located around the equator . All that Oceania's citizens know about the world is whatever the Party wants them to know, so how the world evolved into the three states is unknown; and it
296-547: A blue plaque at his Kentish Town residence. At this time, Victor Gollancz suggested Orwell spend a short time investigating social conditions in economically depressed Northern England . The Depression had introduced a number of working-class writers from the North of England to the reading public. It was one of these working-class authors, Jack Hilton , whom Orwell sought for advice. Orwell had written to Hilton seeking lodging and asking for recommendations on his route. Hilton
444-743: A tripe shop. In Wigan, he visited many homes to see how people lived, went down Bryn Hall coal mine , and used the local public library to consult public health records and reports on working conditions in mines. During this time, he was distracted by concerns about style and possible libel in Keep the Aspidistra Flying . He made a quick visit to Liverpool and during March, stayed in south Yorkshire, spending time in Sheffield and Barnsley . As well as visiting mines, including Grimethorpe , and observing social conditions, he attended meetings of
592-444: A bar of old-fashioned chocolate —the chocolate the Party issued tasted "like the smoke from a rubbish fire"—and it brought back childhood memories from before Oceania's creation. Craig Carr argues that, in creating Oceania and the other warring states, Orwell was not predicting the future, but warning of a possible future if things carried on as they did. In other words, it was also something which could be avoided. Carr continues: It
740-680: A brief visit in mid-1907, he did not see his father until 1912. Aged five, Eric was sent as a day student to a convent school in Henley-on-Thames. It was a Catholic convent run by French Ursuline nuns. His mother wanted him to have a public school education, but his family could not afford it. Through the social connections of Ida's brother Charles Limouzin, Blair gained a scholarship to St Cyprian's School in Eastbourne , East Sussex. Arriving in September 1911, he boarded for
888-491: A cell he returned home to Southwold. In April 1932 Blair became a teacher at The Hawthorns High School, a school for boys, in Hayes , west London. This was a small private school, and had only 14 or 16 boys aged between ten and sixteen, and one other master. While at the school he became friendly with the curate of the local parish church and became involved with activities there. Mabel Fierz had pursued matters with Moore, and at
1036-552: A chill that developed into pneumonia. He was taken to a cottage hospital in Uxbridge, where for a time his life was believed to be in danger. When he was discharged in January 1934, he returned to Southwold to convalesce and, supported by his parents, never returned to teaching. He was disappointed when Gollancz turned down Burmese Days , mainly on the grounds of potential suits for libel, but Harper were prepared to publish it in
1184-508: A common lodging house, possibly George Levy's "kip". For a while he "went native" in his own country, dressing like a tramp , adopting the name P.S. Burton; he recorded his experiences of the low life for use in " The Spike ", his first published essay in English, and in the second half of his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). In early 1928 he moved to Paris. He lived in
1332-583: A constant, and they regularly change allegiance with one another. The perpetual conflict among Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia takes place over a large disputed area, bordering the three states, which includes Northern and Central Africa , the Middle East , the Indian subcontinent , the unstable Eurasian-Eastasian boundary, the Arctic ice pack and the islands in the Indian and Pacific Ocean . The majority of
1480-543: A day in the life of a tramp, and the beggars of London, respectively. "In one or another of its destructive forms, poverty was to become his obsessive subject—at the heart of almost everything he wrote until Homage to Catalonia ." He fell seriously ill in February 1929 and was taken to the Hôpital Cochin , a free hospital where medical students were trained. His experiences there were the basis of his essay " How
1628-611: A dedicated order, almost a secular priesthood, devoted to the spreading of a specific attitude to life." The Idea of Progress , which originated in Western Europe during the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, became the principal concern of the intelligentsia by the mid-19th century; thus, progress social movements, such as the Narodniks , mostly consisted of intellectuals. The Russian philosopher Sergei Bulgakov said that
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#17327724120151776-815: A deposition was presented to the Tribunal for Espionage & High Treason in Valencia , charging the Orwells with "rabid Trotskyism", and being agents of the POUM. The trial of the leaders of the POUM and of Orwell (in his absence) took place in Barcelona in October and November 1938. Observing events from French Morocco, Orwell wrote that they were "only a by-product of the Russian Trotskyist trials and from
1924-479: A flat in Parliament Hill. A Clergyman's Daughter was published on 11 March 1935. In early 1935 Blair met his future wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy , when his landlady, Rosalind Obermeyer, who was studying for a master's degree in psychology at University College London , invited some of her fellow students to a party. One of these students, Elizaveta Fen, recalled Blair and his friend Richard Rees "draped" at
2072-400: A monarchy; thus the inteligencja are a social class native to the city. In their functions as a status class, the intellectuals realised the cultural development of cities, the dissemination of printed knowledge (literature, textbooks, newspapers), and the economic development of housing for rent (the tenement house ) for the teacher, the journalist, and the civil servant. In On Love of
2220-457: A moustache similar to those worn by officers of the British regiments stationed there. [He] also acquired some tattoos; on each knuckle he had a small untidy blue circle. Many Burmese living in rural areas still sport tattoos like this—they are believed to protect against bullets and snake bites. In April 1926 he moved to Moulmein, where his maternal grandmother lived. At the end of that year, he
2368-545: A newspaper in Lucknow , but by March 1938 Orwell's health had deteriorated. He was admitted to Preston Hall Sanatorium at Aylesford , Kent, a British Legion hospital for ex-servicemen to which his brother-in-law Laurence O'Shaughnessy was attached. He was thought initially to be suffering from tuberculosis and stayed in the sanatorium until September. Homage to Catalonia was published in London by Secker & Warburg and
2516-558: A path that also took Orwell from Burma to Catalonia , Spain, and Wigan in England. Symons argues that, in each location, characters are similarly confined a "tightly controlled, taboo-ridden" society, and are as suffocated by them as Winston is in Airstrip One. In The Road to Wigan Pier , for example, Orwell examines working-class life in detail; the scene in 1984, where Winston observes a prole woman hanging out her washing echoes
2664-544: A political/literary journal edited by Henri Barbusse (his first article as a professional writer, "La Censure en Angleterre", appeared in that journal on 6 October 1928); G. K.'s Weekly , where his first article to appear in England, "A Farthing Newspaper", was printed on 29 December 1928; and Le Progrès Civique (founded by the left-wing coalition Le Cartel des Gauches ). Three pieces appeared in successive weeks in Le Progrès Civique : discussing unemployment,
2812-498: A short-lived resort to them in the 1950s (in which Colchester was hit) they were recognised as too dangerous for any of them to use . As a result, says Connelly, although London could have been destroyed by a nuclear weapon in 1984, it was never hit by anything worse—albeit "20 or 30 times a week"—than "rocketbombs", themselves no more powerful than the V-1s or V-2s of World War Two. At any moment, however, an alliance could shift and
2960-517: A stop to this. Orwell was also able to find a more sympathetic publisher for his views in Fredric Warburg of Secker & Warburg. Orwell returned to Wallington, which he found in disarray after his absence. He acquired goats, a cockerel (rooster) he called Henry Ford and a poodle puppy he called Marx ; and settled down to animal husbandry and writing Homage to Catalonia . There were thoughts of going to India to work on The Pioneer ,
3108-505: A sub-divisional officer, he was responsible for the security of some 200,000 people. At the end of 1924, he was posted to Syriam , closer to Rangoon. Syriam had the refinery of the Burmah Oil Company , "the surrounding land a barren waste, all vegetation killed off by the fumes of sulphur dioxide pouring out day and night from the stacks of the refinery." But the town was near Rangoon, a cosmopolitan seaport, and Blair went into
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#17327724120153256-462: Is Blair as Burton (the name he used in his down-and-out episodes) in search of experience in the kips and spikes, in the East End, on the road, and in the hop fields of Kent. He went painting and bathing on the beach, and there he met Mabel and Francis Fierz, who later influenced his career. Over the next year he visited them in London, often meeting their friend Max Plowman. He also often stayed at
3404-543: Is a direct reference to the United States (from " America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee) "), as is also, he suggests, the use of the dollar sign as the Oceanian currency denominator. The totalitarian states of Nineteen Eighty-Four , although imaginary, were based partly on the real-life regimes of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia . Both regimes used techniques and tactics that Orwell later utilised in his novel:
3552-428: Is also unknown to the reader whether they actually exist in the novel's reality, or whether they are a storyline invented by the Party to advance social control . The nations appear to have emerged from nuclear warfare and civil dissolution over 20 years between 1945 and 1965, in a post-war world where totalitarianism becomes the predominant form of ideology, through Neo-Bolshevism, English Socialism, and Obliteration of
3700-499: Is altogether easy to pick up Nineteen Eighty-Four today, notice that the year that has come to symbolize the story is now long past, realize that Oceania is not with us, and answer Orwell's warning triumphantly by saying, "We didn't!' It is easy, in other words, to suppose that the threat Orwell imagined and the political danger he foresaw have passed. Economist Christopher Dent argued in 2002 that Orwell's vision of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia "turned out to be only partially true. Many of
3848-460: Is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism , poetry, fiction, and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for
3996-648: Is composed of "the Americas , the Atlantic Islands , including the British Isles , Australasia and the southern portion of Africa ". Oceania's political system , Ingsoc (English Socialism), uses a cult of personality to venerate the ruler, Big Brother , as the Inner Party exercises day-to-day power. Food rationing, which does not affect Inner Party members, is in place. Winston considers
4144-423: Is hard for citizens to know when they are in breach of Party expectations; and they are in a state of permanent anxiety, unable to think too deeply on any subject whatsoever so as to avoid "thoughtcrime". For example, Winston begins to write a diary and does not know if this is a forbidden offence, but he is reasonably certain of it. In Oceania, to think is to do and no distinction is drawn between either. Criticism of
4292-456: Is made up by provinces, one of which is "Airstrip One", as Britain is now known. The whole province is "miserable and run-down" with London consisting almost solely of "decaying suburbs". Airstrip One is the third most populous province in Oceania, but London is not the capital, for Oceania has none. This decentralisation enables the Party to ensure that each province of Oceania feels itself to be
4440-538: Is not brain, but dung". (На деле это не мозг, а говно) The Russian Revolution of 1917 divided the intelligentsia and the social classes of Tsarist Russia. Some Russians emigrated, the political reactionaries joined the right-wing White movement for counter-revolution, some became Bolsheviks, and some remained in Russia and participated in the political system of the Soviet Union . In reorganizing Russian society,
4588-541: Is possible in Oceania. History, in Hegelian terms, has ended. There will be no political transformations in Oceania: political change has ended because Big Brother will not let it happen". No political collapse is possible in Oceania, suggests Carr. A totalitarian and highly formalised state, Oceania also has no law, only crimes, says Lynskey. Nothing is illegal; social pressure is used to exert control, in place of law. It
Political geography of Nineteen Eighty-Four - Misplaced Pages Continue
4736-690: Is responsible for its over-production, so science must be carefully controlled lest the proles or Outer Party expect an increased standard of living. From this analysis stems the policy of permanent warfare: by focusing production on arms and materiel (rather than consumer goods ) each state can keep its population impoverished and willing to sacrifice personal liberties for the greater good. The peoples of these states—subject to shortages, queues, poor infrastructure and food—"are no longer domesticated or even able to be domesticated", says Carr. These states all are similar monolithic regimes. Historian Mark Connelly notes that "the beliefs may differ, but their purpose
4884-574: Is the same, to justify and maintain the unquestioned leadership of a totalitarian elite". Due to the sheer size of the protagonists, there are, says Connelly, no "massive invasions claiming hundreds of thousands of lives", but instead small-scale, local encounters and conflicts which are then exaggerated for the purposes of domestic propaganda. Connelly describes the fighting between the states as "highly technical, involving small units of highly trained individuals waging battles in remote contested regions". All sides once possessed nuclear weapons, but, following
5032-618: The Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard . He came second to Connolly in the Harrow History Prize , had his work praised by the school's external examiner, and earned scholarships to Wellington and Eton . But inclusion on the Eton scholarship roll did not guarantee a place, and none was immediately available. He chose to stay at St Cyprian's until December 1916, in case a place at Eton became available. In January, Blair took up
5180-608: The 8th Earl of Westmorland . His grandfather, Thomas Richard Arthur Blair, was an Anglican clergyman. Orwell's father was Richard Walmesley Blair, who worked as a Sub-Deputy Opium Agent in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service , overseeing the production and storage of opium for sale to China. His mother, Ida Mabel Blair ( née Limouzin), grew up in Moulmein , Burma, where her French father
5328-543: The Esperanto movement. The Westropes were friendly and provided him with comfortable accommodation at Warwick Mansions, Pond Street . He was sharing the job with Jon Kimche , who also lived with the Westropes. Blair worked at the shop in the afternoons and had his mornings free to write and his evenings free to socialise. These experiences provided background for the novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936). As well as
5476-657: The European Parliament alleged to the UK's House of Commons ' European Scrutiny Committee that the European Commission 's stated aim to make Europe a "World Partner" should be taken to read "Europe as a World Power!", and likened it to Orwell's Eurasia. The group also suggested that the germ of Orwell's superstates could already be found in organisations such as not only the EU, but ASEAN and FTAA . Further,
5624-787: The First World War , the family moved 2 miles (3 km) south to Shiplake , Oxfordshire, where Eric became friendly with the Buddicom family, especially their daughter Jacintha . When they first met, he was standing on his head in a field. Asked why, he said, "You are noticed more if you stand on your head than if you are right way up." Growing up together, Buddicom and Blair became idealistic adolescent sweethearts, reading and writing poetry together, and dreaming of becoming famous writers. Blair also enjoyed shooting, fishing and birdwatching with Jacintha's brother and sister. While at St Cyprian's, Blair wrote two poems that were published in
5772-864: The German AB-Aktion in Poland , the Intelligenzaktion , and the Intelligenzaktion Pommern . In eastern Poland, the Soviet Union proceeded with the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia with operations such as the Katyn massacre (April–May 1940), during which university professors, physicians, lawyers, engineers, teachers, military, policeman, writers and journalists were murdered. The Russian intelligentsiya also
5920-580: The International Brigades and advised him to get a safe-conduct from the Spanish Embassy in Paris. Not wishing to commit himself until he had seen the situation in situ , Orwell instead used his Independent Labour Party contacts to get a letter of introduction to John McNair in Barcelona. Orwell set out for Spain on about 23 December 1936, dining with Henry Miller in Paris on the way. Miller told Orwell that going to fight in
6068-522: The Japanese islands , and a large but fluctuating portion of Manchuria , Mongolia and Tibet ". The state's ideology is known as Death-Worship, alternatively known as Obliteration of the Self. Eastasia was formed a decade after Eurasia and Oceania in the 1960s, after "confused fighting" between its predecessor nations. The three states have been at war with each other since the 1960s. By 1984 it has become
Political geography of Nineteen Eighty-Four - Misplaced Pages Continue
6216-635: The Kazakh Steppe . In October, Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China ... Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia." The campaign associated with the allegations about domestic communism in post-war America, known as McCarthyism , has been compared to the process by which the states of Nineteen Eighty-Four re-write their history, in a process that the political philosopher Joseph Gabel labelled "time mastery". Similarly, Winston and Julia's attempts to contact, and await contact from, members of
6364-689: The Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture. Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture , and the adjective " Orwellian "—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms , such as " Big Brother ", " Thought Police ", " Room 101 ", " Newspeak ", " memory hole ", " doublethink ", and " thoughtcrime ". In 2008, The Times named Orwell
6512-668: The anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (a wing of the Spanish Communist Party ). Orwell was at first exasperated by this "kaleidoscope" of political parties and trade unions. The ILP was linked to the POUM so Orwell joined the POUM. After a time at the Lenin Barracks in Barcelona he was sent to the relatively quiet Aragon Front under Georges Kopp . By January 1937 he
6660-564: The characters of Dickens . Down and Out was modestly successful and was next published by Harper & Brothers in New York. In mid-1933 Blair left Hawthorns to become a teacher at Frays College , in Uxbridge , west London. This was a much larger establishment with 200 pupils and a full complement of staff. He acquired a motorcycle and took trips through the surrounding countryside. On one of these expeditions he became soaked and caught
6808-629: The pen name George Orwell because "It is a good round English name." The name George was inspired by the patron saint of England , and Orwell after the River Orwell in Suffolk which was one of Orwell's favourite locations. Down and Out in Paris and London was published by Victor Gollancz in London on 9 January 1933 and received favourable reviews, with Cecil Day-Lewis complimenting Orwell's "clarity and good sense", and The Times Literary Supplement comparing Orwell's eccentric characters to
6956-531: The pound sterling has been demonetised . Eurasia comprises "the whole of the northern part of the European and Asiatic landmass from Portugal to the Bering Strait ". Eurasia was formed after the Soviet Union annexed continental Europe following a war between the Soviet Union and Allies. The ideology of Eurasia is Neo-Bolshevism . Eastasia consists of " China and the countries south to it ,
7104-456: The 1860s, the journalist Pyotr Boborykin popularised the term intelligentsiya ( интеллигенция ) to identify and describe the Russian social stratum of people educated at university who engage in the intellectual occupations (law, medicine, engineering, the arts) who produce the culture and the dominant ideology by which society functions. According to the theory of Dr. Vitaly Tepikin,
7252-409: The 20th century, from the status class term Intelligentsia , sociologists derived the term mass intelligentsia to describe the populations of educated adults, with discretionary income, who pursue intellectual interests by way of book clubs and cultural associations, etc. That sociological term was made popular usage by the writer Melvyn Bragg , who said that mass intelligentsia conceptually explains
7400-1409: The BBC that he would later provide for Oceania. Lynskey argues that, similarly, during the war, Orwell had to make pro-Soviet broadcasts lauding Britain's ally. After the war—but with the cold war looming—this became an image that needed to be swiftly discarded, and is, according to Lynskey, the historical origin of Oceania's bouleversement in its alliance during Hate Week. The superstates of Nineteen Eighty-Four have been compared by literary scholars to other dystopian societies such as those created by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World , Yevgeny Zamyatin 's We , Franz Kafka 's The Trial , B. F. Skinner 's Walden II and Anthony Burgess ' A Clockwork Orange , although Orwell's bleak 1940s-style London differs fundamentally from Huxley's world of extensive technical progression or Zamyatin's science- and logic-based society. Dorian Lynskey, in his 2019 history book The Ministry of Truth , also suggests that "equality and scientific progress, so crucial to We , have no place in Orwell's static, hierarchical dictatorship; organised deceit, so fundamental to Nineteen Eighty-Four , did not preoccupy Zamyatin". George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950)
7548-664: The Bolsheviks deemed non-Bolshevik intelligentsia class enemies and expelled them from society, by way of deportation on Philosophers' ships , forced labor in the gulag , and summary execution . The members of the Tsarist-era intelligentsia who remained in Bolshevik Russia (the USSR) were proletarianized. Although the Bolsheviks recognized the managerial importance of the intelligentsia to the future of Soviet Russia,
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#17327724120157696-501: The Burma police for the novel Burmese Days (1934) and the essays " A Hanging " (1931) and " Shooting an Elephant " (1936). In England, he settled back in the family home at Southwold , renewing acquaintance with local friends and attending an Old Etonian dinner. He visited his old tutor Gow at Cambridge for advice on becoming a writer. In 1927 he moved to London. Ruth Pitter , a family acquaintance, helped him find lodgings, and by
7844-746: The Civil War out of some sense of obligation or guilt was "sheer stupidity" and that the Englishman's ideas "about combating Fascism, defending democracy, etc., etc., were all baloney". A few days later in Barcelona , Orwell met John McNair of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) Office. The Republican government was supported by a number of factions with conflicting aims, including the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM),
7992-402: The Communist Party and of Oswald Mosley ("his speech the usual claptrap—The blame for everything was put upon mysterious international gangs of Jews") where he saw the tactics of the Blackshirts . He also made visits to his sister at Headingley , during which he visited the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth . Orwell needed somewhere he could concentrate on writing his book, and once again help
8140-489: The Communist press he was a fascist. After his return to the front, he was wounded in the throat by a sniper's bullet. At 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), Orwell was considerably taller than the Spanish fighters and had been warned against standing against the trench parapet. Unable to speak, and with blood pouring from his mouth, Orwell was carried on a stretcher to Siétamo , loaded on an ambulance and sent to hospital in Lleida . He recovered sufficiently to get up and on 27 May 1937
8288-405: The Communists, Orwell was still ready to treat them as friends and allies. That would soon change." During the Barcelona May Days Orwell was caught up in the factional fighting. He spent much of the time on a roof, with a stack of novels, but encountered Jon Kimche from his Hampstead days during the stay. The subsequent campaign of lies and distortion carried out by the Communist press, in which
8436-421: The Imperial Prussian, Austrian, Swedish and Russian Partitions of Poland , the imposition of Tsarist cultural hegemony caused many of the political and cultural élites to participate in the Great Emigration (1831–70). After the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the Nazis launched the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia, by way of the military operations of the Special Prosecution Book-Poland ,
8584-418: The Indian Police Service. For this he had to pass an entrance examination. In December 1921 he left Eton and travelled to join his retired father, mother, and younger sister Avril, who that month had moved to 40 Stradbroke Road, Southwold , Suffolk, the first of their four homes in the town. Blair was enrolled at a crammer there called Craighurst, and brushed up on his Classics, English, and History. He passed
8732-411: The O'Shaughnessy home at Greenwich. He found his views on the Spanish Civil War out of favour. Kingsley Martin rejected two of his works and Gollancz was equally cautious. At the same time, the communist Daily Worker was running an attack on The Road to Wigan Pier , taking out of context Orwell writing that "the working classes smell"; a letter to Gollancz from Orwell threatening libel action brought
8880-424: The POUM was accused of collaborating with the fascists, had a dramatic effect on Orwell. Instead of joining the International Brigades as he had intended, he decided to return to the Aragon Front. Once the May fighting was over, he was approached by a Communist friend who asked if he still intended transferring to the International Brigades. Orwell expressed surprise that they should still want him, because according to
9028-444: The Polish inteligencja translates to the intellectuels in France and the Gebildete in Germany. The intelligentsia existed as a social stratum in European societies before the term inteligencja was coined in 19th-century Poland, to identify the intellectual people whose professions placed them outside the traditional workplaces and labours of the town-and-country social classes (royalty, aristocracy, bourgeoisie) of
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#17327724120159176-484: The Poor Die ", published in 1946 (though he chose not to identify the hospital). Shortly afterwards, he had all his money stolen from his lodging house. Whether through necessity or to collect material, he undertook menial jobs such as dishwashing in a fashionable hotel on the rue de Rivoli , which he later described in Down and Out in Paris and London . In August 1929, he sent a copy of " The Spike " to John Middleton Murry 's New Adelphi magazine in London. The magazine
9324-440: The Russian intelligentsia was the creation of Peter , that they were the "window to Europe through which the Western air comes to us, vivifying and toxic at the same time." Moreover, Bulgakov also said that the literary critic of Westernization , Vissarion Belinsky was the spiritual father of the Russian intelligentsia. In 1860, there were 20,000 professionals in Russia and 85,000 by 1900. Originally composed of educated nobles,
9472-401: The Self. What is known of the society, politics and economics of Oceania, and its rivals, comes from the in-universe book , The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein , a literary device Orwell uses to connect the past and present of 1984. Orwell intended Goldstein's book to parody Trotsky 's (on whom Goldstein is based) The Revolution Betrayed: What Is
9620-433: The Soviet Union and Where Is It Going? , published in 1937. Oceania was founded following an anti-capitalist revolution , which, while intended to be the ultimate liberation of its proletariat (proles), soon ignored them. It is stated that Oceania formed after the United States merged with the British Empire . The text, however, does not indicate how the Party obtained the power it possesses or when it did so. The state
9768-447: The Tsars did not recognize "progress" as a legitimate aim of the state, to the degree that Nicholas II said "How repulsive I find that word" and wished it removed from the Russian language. In Russia, the Bolsheviks did not consider the status class of the intelligentsiya to be a true social class , as defined in Marxist philosophy. In that time, the Bolsheviks used the Russian word prosloyka (stratum) to identify and define
9916-488: The United States. Meanwhile, Blair started work on the novel A Clergyman's Daughter , drawing upon his life as a teacher and on life in Southwold. Eventually in October, after sending A Clergyman's Daughter to Moore, he left for London to take a job that had been found for him by his aunt Nellie Limouzin. This job was as a part-time assistant in Booklovers' Corner, a second-hand bookshop in Hampstead run by Francis and Myfanwy Westrope, who were friends of Nellie Limouzin in
10064-508: The assembled crowd—including Winston and Julia—having just witnessed the executions of Eurasian prisoners of war. Winston describes how, when the announcer spoke, "nothing altered in his voice or manner or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different". Orwell describes the war as one of "limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference". These wars, suggests
10212-441: The bombed sites where the plaster dust swirled in the air and the willow-herb straggled over the heaps of rubble; and the places where the bombs had cleared a larger patch and there had sprung up sordid colonies of wooden dwellings like chicken-houses. In a review of the book in 1950, Symons notes that the gritty, uncomfortable world of Oceania was very familiar to Orwell's readers: the plain food, milkless tea and harsh alcohol were
10360-451: The bourgeois origin of this stratum gave reason for distrust of their ideological commitment to Marxist philosophy and Bolshevik societal control. In the late Soviet Union the term "intelligentsia" acquired a formal definition of mental and cultural workers. There were subcategories of "scientific-technical intelligentsia" (научно-техническая интеллигенция) and "creative intelligentsia" (творческая интеллигенция). Between 1917 and 1941, there
10508-483: The centre of affairs, and it prevents them from feeling colonised, for there is no distant capital to focus discontent on. 85% of Oceania's population are proles, with most of the remainder presumably in the Outer Party; 2% rule as members of the Inner Party. Winston yearns for revolution and a return to a time before Oceania, says Craig L. Carr, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Hatfield School of Government in Portland State University , but "no revolution
10656-499: The churches of the Karen ethnic group. A colleague, Roger Beadon, recalled that Blair was fast to learn the language and that before he left Burma, "was able to speak fluently with Burmese priests in 'very high-flown Burmese'." Blair made changes to his appearance in Burma that remained for the rest of his life, including adopting a pencil moustache . Emma Larkin writes in the introduction to Burmese Days : While in Burma, he acquired
10804-558: The city as often as he could, "to browse in a bookshop; to eat well-cooked food; to get away from the boring routine of police life". In September 1925 he went to Insein , the home of Insein Prison . By this time, Blair had completed his training and was receiving a monthly salary of Rs. 740, including allowances. Blair recalled he faced hostility from the Burmese, "in the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere,
10952-511: The clergyman's daughter who worked as a gym-teacher at St Felix Girls' School . Although Salkeld rejected his offer of marriage, she remained a friend and regular correspondent for many years. He also renewed friendships with older friends, such as Dennis Collings, whose girlfriend Eleanor Jacques was also to play a part in his life. In early 1930 he stayed briefly in Bramley, Leeds , with his sister Marjorie and her husband Humphrey Dakin. Blair
11100-409: The critical thinkers educated at university, in Russia, the nihilists who opposed traditional values in the name of reason and progress . In the late 20th century, the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu said that the intelligentsia has two types of workers: (i) intellectual workers who create knowledge (practical and theoretic) and (ii) intellectual workers who create cultural capital . Sociologically,
11248-462: The disputed territories form "a rough quadrilateral with its corners at Tangier , Brazzaville , Darwin and Hong Kong ", containing about a fifth of the population of the Earth : whichever power controls it disposes of a significant amount of exploitable manpower. All three states consist primarily of proles. Winston recognises similarities with the other superstates, at one point commenting that "it
11396-498: The earlier book, where Orwell watches a woman, in the back area of a slum dwelling, attempting to clear a drain pipe with a stick. Orwell's own wartime role in the Ministry of Information saw him, says Rai, "experience at first hand the official manipulation of the flow of information, ironically, in the service of 'democracy' against 'totalitarianism ' ". He noted privately at the time that he could see totalitarian possibilities for
11544-570: The end of 1927 he had moved into rooms in Portobello Road ; a blue plaque commemorates his residence there. Pitter's involvement in the move "would have lent it a reassuring respectability in Mrs. Blair's eyes." Pitter had a sympathetic interest in Blair's writing, pointed out weaknesses in his poetry, and advised him to write about what he knew. In fact he decided to write of "certain aspects of
11692-411: The end of June 1932, Moore told Blair that Victor Gollancz was prepared to publish A Scullion's Diary for a £40 advance, through his recently founded publishing house, Victor Gollancz Ltd , which was an outlet for radical and socialist works. At the end of the summer term in 1932, Blair returned to Southwold, where his parents had used a legacy to buy their own home. Blair and his sister Avril spent
11840-651: The exam, coming seventh out of the 26 who passed. Blair's maternal grandmother lived at Moulmein , so he chose a posting in Burma , then still a province of British India. In October 1922 he sailed on board SS Herefordshire to join the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. A month later, he arrived at Rangoon and travelled to the police training school in Mandalay . He was appointed an Assistant District Superintendent (on probation) on 29 November 1922, at
11988-417: The fatherland (1844), the Polish philosopher Karol Libelt used the term inteligencja , which was the status class, composed of scholars, teachers, lawyers, and engineers, et al. as the educated people of society who provide the moral leadership required to resolve the problems of society, hence the social function of the intelligentsia is to "guide for the reason of their higher enlightenment." In
12136-530: The fireplace, looking, she thought, "moth-eaten and prematurely aged." Around this time, Blair had started to write reviews for The New English Weekly . In June, Burmese Days was published and Cyril Connolly's positive review in the New Statesman prompted Blair to re-establish contact with his old friend. In August, he moved into a flat, at 50 Lawford Road, Kentish Town , which he shared with Michael Sayers and Rayner Heppenstall . The relationship
12284-524: The first representatives of what has become, in our time, a mass intelligentsia, a group possessing many of the cultural and political characteristics of a [social] class in Marx's sense. By intelligentsia I mean those [people] engaged vocationally in the production, distribution, interpretation, criticism, and inculcation of cultural values. The concept of free-floating intelligentsia , coined by Alfred Weber and elaborated by Karl Mannheim , closely relates to
12432-542: The first version of Down and Out . On the advice of Richard Rees, he offered it to Faber & Faber , but their editorial director, T. S. Eliot , also rejected it. Blair ended the year by deliberately getting himself arrested, so that he could experience Christmas in prison, but after he was picked up and taken to Bethnal Green police station in the East End of London the authorities did not regard his "drunk and disorderly" behaviour as imprisonable, and after two days in
12580-479: The functions of government, commerce, and the military. In Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (1921), the political economist Max Weber applied the term intelligentsia in chronological and geographical frames of reference, such as "this Christian preoccupation with the formulation of dogmas was, in Antiquity , particularly influenced by the distinctive character of ‘intelligentsia’, which
12728-441: The geography as now stands: [E]ven the names of countries, and their shapes on the map, had been different. Airstrip One, for instance, had not been so called in those days: it had been called England, or Britain, though London , he felt fairly certain, had always been called London. The countryside outside of London is a place not for enjoying the contrast with the city but rather for purely practical grounds of exercise. Oceania
12876-493: The group suggested that the long wars then being waged by American forces against enemies they helped originally create, such as in Baluchistan , were also signs of a germinal 1984-style superstate. Lynskey writes how, in 1949, while Orwell was ill but Nineteen Eighty-Four complete, "the post-war order took shape. In April, a dozen Western nations formed NATO . In August, Russia successfully detonated its first atom bomb in
13024-537: The growth of supra-state organisations such as the Organisation of American States , "corresponding to the super-states of Orwell's 1984 ... change would be from the power balances of numerous big and small national states to the more massive and potentially more destructive balance of power between two or three blocs of super-Powers". Similarly, in 2007, the UK Independence Party group in
13172-457: The holidays making the house habitable while he also worked on Burmese Days . He was also spending time with Eleanor Jacques, but her attachment to Dennis Collings remained an obstacle to his hopes of a more serious relationship. "Clink", an essay describing his failed attempt to get sent to prison, appeared in the August 1932 number of Adelphi . He returned to teaching at Hayes and prepared for
13320-407: The homes of Ruth Pitter and Richard Rees, where he could "change" for his sporadic tramping expeditions. One of his jobs was domestic work at a lodgings for half a crown (two shillings and sixpence, or one-eighth of a pound) a day. Blair now contributed regularly to Adelphi , with " A Hanging " appearing in August 1931. From August to September 1931 his explorations of poverty continued, and, like
13468-400: The insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves". He recalled that "I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible". In Burma, Blair acquired a reputation as an outsider. He spent much of his time alone, reading or pursuing non- pukka activities, such as attending
13616-516: The intellectuals were in the mainstream of their societies and thus exercised cultural and political influence that granted access to the power of government office, such as the Bildungsbürgertum , the cultured bourgeoisie of Germany, as well as the professionals of Great Britain. In a society, the intelligentsia is a status class of intellectuals whose social functions, politics, and national interests are (ostensibly) distinct from
13764-417: The intelligentsia as a separating layer without an inherent class character. In the creation of post-monarchic Russia, Lenin was firmly critical of the class character of the intelligentsia, commending the growth of "the intellectual forces of the workers and the peasants" will depose the "bourgeoisie and their accomplices, intelligents, lackeys of capital who think that they are brain of the nation. In fact it
13912-415: The intelligentsia became dominated by raznochintsy (classless people) after 1861. In 1833, 78.9 per cent of secondary-school students were children of nobles and bureaucrats, by 1885 they were 49.1 per cent of such students. The proportion of commoners increased from 19.0 to 43.8 per cent, and the remaining percentage were the children of priests. In fear of an educated proletariat, Tsar Nicholas I limited
14060-485: The issues relating to the publication of The Road to Wigan Pier before setting out for Spain herself, leaving Nellie Limouzin to look after The Stores. Eileen volunteered for a post in John McNair's office and with the help of Georges Kopp paid visits to her husband, bringing him English tea, chocolate and cigars. Orwell had to spend some days in hospital with a poisoned hand and had most of his possessions stolen by
14208-439: The learning of foreign languages. Julia suspects that the war exists for the Party's sake, questioning if it is taking place at all and theorizing that the rocketbombs striking London on a daily basis could have been launched by the Party itself "just to keep people frightened". The reader is told, through Winston, that the world has not always been this way, and indeed, once was much better; on one occasion with Julia, she produces
14356-410: The mending of a window-pane for two years". The rulers of Oceania, the Inner Party, says Winston, were once the intelligentsia , the "bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians". The state's national anthem is Oceania, 'Tis for Thee . The official currency of Oceania is the dollar ; in Airstrip One,
14504-427: The moral initiative and the practical leadership required in Russian national, regional, and local politics. In practice, the status and social function of the intelligentsia varied by society. In Eastern Europe , the intellectuals were at the periphery of their societies and thus were deprived of political influence and access to the effective levers of political power and of economic development. In Western Europe ,
14652-502: The next five years, returning home only for holidays. Although he knew nothing of the reduced fees, he "soon recognised that he was from a poorer home". Blair hated the school and many years later wrote an essay " Such, Such Were the Joys ", published posthumously, based on his time there. At St Cyprian's, Blair first met Cyril Connolly , who became a writer and who, as the editor of Horizon , published several of Orwell's essays. Before
14800-484: The north was The Road to Wigan Pier , published by Gollancz for the Left Book Club in 1937. The first half of the book documents his social investigations of Lancashire and Yorkshire , including an evocative description of working life in the coal mines. The second half is a long essay on his upbringing and the development of his political conscience, which includes an argument for socialism. Gollancz feared
14948-519: The number of university students to 3,000 per year, yet there were 25,000 students, by 1894. Similarly the number of periodicals increased from 15 in 1855 to 140 periodical publications in 1885. The "third element" were professionals hired by zemstva . By 1900, there were 47,000 of them, most were liberal radicals. Although Tsar Peter the Great introduced the Idea of Progress to Russia, by the 19th century,
15096-529: The pay of Rs. 525 per month. After a short posting at Maymyo , Burma's principal hill station , he was posted to the frontier outpost of Myaungmya in the Irrawaddy Delta at the beginning of 1924. Working as an imperial police officer gave him considerable responsibility while most of his contemporaries were still at university in England. When he was posted farther east in the Delta to Twante as
15244-464: The place at Wellington, where he spent the Spring term. In May 1917 a place became available as a King's Scholar at Eton. At this time the family lived at Mall Chambers, Notting Hill Gate. Blair remained at Eton until December 1921, when he left midway between his 18th and 19th birthdays. Wellington was "beastly", Blair told Jacintha, but he said he was "interested and happy" at Eton. His principal tutor
15392-517: The political situation in Barcelona had deteriorated and the POUM—painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotskyist organisation—was outlawed and under attack. Members, including Kopp, were arrested and others were in hiding. Orwell and his wife were under threat and had to lie low, although they broke cover to try to help Kopp. They finally escaped from Spain by train. In the first week of July 1937 Orwell arrived back at Wallington; on 13 July 1937
15540-412: The popularity of book clubs and literary festivals that otherwise would have been of limited intellectual interests to most people from the middle class and from the working class. In the book Campus Power Struggle (1970), the sociologist Richard Flacks addressed the concept of mass intelligentsia: What [Karl] Marx could not anticipate . . . was that the anti-bourgeois intellectuals of his day were
15688-565: The post-war totalitarian states have toppled, but a tripolar division of global economic and political power is certainly apparent". That is divided, he suggested, between Europe, the United States and Japan. Scholar Christopher Behrends has commented that the proliferation of US airbases in Britain in the 1980s echoes Orwell's classification of the country as an airbase into the European theatre. The legal scholar, Wolfgang Friedmann , argued that
15836-537: The present that he set out to know" and ventured into the East End of London —the first of the occasional sorties he would make intermittently over a period of five years to discover the world of poverty and the down-and-outers who inhabit it. In imitation of Jack London , whose writing he admired (particularly The People of the Abyss ), Blair started to explore the poorer parts of London. On his first outing he set out to Limehouse Causeway , spending his first night in
15984-590: The production of other publications— College Days and Bubble and Squeak —and participated in the Eton Wall Game . His parents could not afford to send him to university without another scholarship, and they concluded from his poor results he would not be able to win one. Runciman noted he had a romantic idea about the East , and the family decided Blair should join the Imperial Police , the precursor of
16132-824: The protagonist of A Clergyman's Daughter , he followed the East End tradition of working in the Kent hop fields. He kept a diary about his experiences there. Afterwards, he lodged in the Tooley Street kip , but could not stand it for long, and with financial help from his parents moved to Windsor Street, where he stayed until Christmas. "Hop Picking", by Eric Blair, appeared in the October 1931 issue of New Statesman , whose editorial staff included his old friend Cyril Connolly. Mabel Fierz put him in contact with Leonard Moore , who became his literary agent in April 1932. At this time Jonathan Cape rejected A Scullion's Diary ,
16280-475: The publication of his book, now known as Down and Out in Paris and London . He wished to publish under a different name to avoid any embarrassment to his family over his time as a "tramp". In a letter to Moore (dated 15 November 1932), he left the choice of pseudonym to Moore and to Gollancz. Four days later, he wrote to Moore, suggesting the pseudonyms P. S. Burton (a name he used when tramping), Kenneth Miles, George Orwell, and H. Lewis Allways. He finally adopted
16428-440: The re-writing of history, the cult of leadership personality, purges and show trials, for example. The author Czesław Miłosz commented that, in his depictions of Oceanian society, "even those who know Orwell only by hearsay are amazed that a writer who has never lived in Russia should have so keen a perception of Russian life". From a purely literary standpoint, suggests Julian Symons , the superstates of 1984 represent points along
16576-417: The reader. The state of Oceania comprises concepts, phrases and attitudes that have been recycled—"endlessly drawn upon"—ever since the book was published, though political scientist Craig L. Carr argues that they are also places where "things have gone horribly and irreparably wrong". Each state is self-supporting and self-enclosed: emigration and immigration are forbidden, as are international trade and
16724-418: The repressive experience in their self-narratives. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the popularity and influence of the intelligentsia has significantly declined. Therefore, it is typical for the post-Soviet intelligentsia to feel nostalgic for the last years of the Soviet Union ( perestroika ), which they often regard as the golden age of the intelligentsia. Vladimir Putin has expressed his view on
16872-554: The rue du Pot de Fer, a working class district in the 5th arrondissement . His aunt Ellen (Nellie) Kate Limouzin also lived in Paris (with the Esperantist Eugène Lanti ) and gave him social and, when necessary, financial support. He began to write novels, including an early version of Burmese Days , but nothing else survives from that period. He was more successful as a journalist and published articles in Monde ,
17020-515: The second half would offend readers and added a disculpatory preface to the book while Orwell was in Spain. Orwell's research for The Road to Wigan Pier led to him being placed under surveillance by the Special Branch from 1936. Orwell married O'Shaughnessy on 9 June 1936. Shortly afterwards, the political crisis began in Spain and Orwell followed developments there closely. At the end of
17168-485: The second-greatest British writer since 1945. Eric Arthur Blair was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari , Bengal Presidency (now Bihar ), British India , into what he described as a " lower-upper-middle class " family. His great-great-grandfather, Charles Blair, was a wealthy slaveowning country gentleman and absentee owner of two Jamaican plantations ; hailing from Dorset , he married Lady Mary Fane, daughter of
17316-603: The secret organisation called the Brotherhood, have been compared to the political strategy of Kremlinology , whereby Western powers studied minute changes in the Soviet government in an attempt to foresee events. The states' permanent low-level war is similar, says scholar Ian Slater, to that in Vietnam , except that, in Orwell's imagination, the war is never-ending. Rai suggests that Oceania, with its labyrinthine bureaucracy,
17464-478: The social duty of intelligentsia in modern Russia. We should all be aware of the fact that when revolutionary—not evolutionary—changes come, things can get even worse. The intelligentsia should be aware of this. And it is the intelligentsia specifically that should keep this in mind and prevent society from radical steps and revolutions of all kinds. We've had enough of it. We've seen so many revolutions and wars. We need decades of calm and harmonious development. In
17612-559: The sociological traits usual to the intelligentsia of a society are: In The Rise of the Intelligentsia, 1750–1831 (2008) Maciej Janowski said that the Polish intelligentsia were the think tank of the State, intellectual servants whose progressive social and economic policies decreased the social backwardness (illiteracy) of the Polish people, and also decreased Russian political repression in partitioned Poland . In 1844 Poland,
17760-705: The staff. He returned to the front and saw some action in a night attack on the Nationalist trenches where he chased an enemy soldier with a bayonet and bombed an enemy rifle position. In April, Orwell returned to Barcelona. Wanting to be sent to the Madrid front, which meant he "must join the International Column", he approached a Communist friend attached to the Spanish Medical Aid and explained his case. "Although he did not think much of
17908-410: The staples of wartime rationing which, in many cases, had continued after the war. Critic Irving Howe argues that, since then, other events and countries— North Korea , for example—have demonstrated how close Oceania can be. Oceania is, he suggests, "both unreal and inescapable, a creation based on what we know, but not quite recognisable". Lynskey suggests that Oceania's anthem, "Oceania, Tis For Thee",
18056-692: The start every kind of lie, including flagrant absurdities, has been circulated in the Communist press." Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War gave rise to Homage to Catalonia (1938). In his book, The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War, Giles Tremlett writes that according to Soviet files, Orwell and his wife Eileen were spied on in Barcelona in May 1937. Orwell returned to England in June 1937, and stayed at
18204-576: The state is forbidden, even though criticism must be constant for the state's survival, since it must have critics to destroy so as to demonstrate the state's power. Governance of Oceania depends upon the necessity of suppressing freedom of thought or original thinking amongst the Outer Party (the proles are exempted from this as they are deemed incapable of having ideas). The state is highly bureaucratic. Winston notes that myriad committees are responsible for administration and are "liable to hold up even
18352-425: The term inteligencja , identifying the intellectuals of a society, first was used by the philosopher Karol Libelt , which he described as a status class of people characterised by intellect and Polish nationalism ; qualities of mind, character, and spirit that made them natural leaders of the modern Polish nation. That the intelligentsia were aware of their social status and of their duties to society: Educating
18500-694: The thing I care most about is gardening, especially vegetable gardening". He also tested the possibility of reopening the Stores as a village shop. Keep the Aspidistra Flying was published by Gollancz on 20 April 1936. On 4 August, Orwell gave a talk at the Adelphi Summer School held at Langham , entitled An Outsider Sees the Distressed Areas ; others who spoke at the school included John Strachey , Max Plowman , Karl Polanyi and Reinhold Niebuhr . The result of his journeys through
18648-433: The two states that had previously been at war with each other may suddenly ally against the other. When this happened, the past immediately had to be re-written—newspapers retyped, new photos glued over old—to provide continuity. In many cases that which contradicted the state was simply destroyed. This occurs during Oceania's Hate Week , when it is announced that the state is at war with Eastasia and allied to Eurasia, despite
18796-653: The university-educated and professionally active social stratum of the patriotic bourgeoisie ; men and women whose intellectualism would provide moral and political leadership to Poland in opposing the cultural hegemony of the Russian Empire . Before the Russian Revolution , the term intelligentsiya ( Russian : интеллигенция ) identified and described the status class of university-educated people whose cultural capital (schooling, education, and intellectual enlightenment ) allowed them to assume
18944-523: The various guests of the Westropes, he was able to enjoy the company of Richard Rees and the Adelphi writers and Mabel Fierz. The Westropes and Kimche were members of the Independent Labour Party , although at this time Blair was not seriously politically active. He was writing for the Adelphi and preparing A Clergyman's Daughter and Burmese Days for publication. At the beginning of 1935 he had to move out of Warwick Mansions, and Mabel Fierz found him
19092-406: The writer Roberta Kalechofsky , "stimulate the news or 'the truth ' ". The superstates of Nineteen Eighty-Four are recognisably based in the world Orwell and his contemporaries knew while being distorted into a dystopia. The critic Alok Rai argues that Oceania, for example, "is a known country", because, while a totalitarian regime set in an alternate reality, that reality is still recognisable to
19240-630: The year, concerned by Francisco Franco 's military uprising, Orwell decided to go to Spain to take part in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side . Under the erroneous impression that he needed papers from some left-wing organisation to cross the frontier, on John Strachey 's recommendation he applied unsuccessfully to Harry Pollitt , leader of the British Communist Party . Pollitt was suspicious of Orwell's political reliability; he asked him whether he would undertake to join
19388-583: The youth with the nationalist objective to restore the Republic of Poland; preserving the Polish language; and love of the Fatherland . Nonetheless, the writers Stanisław Brzozowski and Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński criticised Libelt's ideological and messianic representation of a Polish republic, because it originated from the social traditionalism and the reactionary conservatism that pervaded Polish culture and impeded socio-economic progress. Consequent to
19536-431: Was A. S. F. Gow , Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge , who gave him advice later in his career. Blair was taught French by Aldous Huxley . Steven Runciman , who was at Eton with Blair, noted that he and his contemporaries appreciated Huxley's linguistic flair. Blair's performance reports suggest he neglected his studies, but he worked with Roger Mynors to produce a college magazine, The Election Times , joined in
19684-402: Was a British novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell , a name inspired by his favourite place, the River Orwell . His work is characterised by lucid prose , social criticism , opposition to all totalitarianism (i.e. to both left-wing authoritarian communism and to right-wing fascism), and support of democratic socialism . Orwell
19832-463: Was a commercial flop; it re-emerged in the 1950s, following on the success of Orwell's later books. Intelligentsia Conceptually, the intelligentsia status class arose in the late 18th century, during the Partitions of Poland (1772–1795). Etymologically, the 19th-century Polish intellectual Bronisław Trentowski coined the term inteligencja (intellectuals) to identify and describe
19980-444: Was a massive increase in the number of engineering graduates: from 15,000 to over 250,000. In the post-Soviet period, the members of the former Soviet intelligentsia have displayed diverging attitudes towards the communist government. While the older generation of intelligentsia has attempted to frame themselves as victims, the younger generation, who were in their 30s when the Soviet Union collapsed, has not allocated so much space for
20128-501: Was a mixture of messianism and intellectual élitism, which the philosopher Isaiah Berlin described as follows: "The phenomenon, itself, with its historical and literally revolutionary consequences, is, I suppose, the largest, single Russian contribution to social change in the world. The concept of intelligentsia must not be confused with the notion of intellectuals. Its members thought of themselves as united, by something more than mere interest in ideas; they conceived themselves as being
20276-677: Was assigned to Katha in Upper Burma , where he contracted dengue fever in 1927. Entitled to a leave in England that year, he was allowed to return in July due to his illness. While on holiday with his family in Cornwall in September 1927, he reappraised his life. Deciding against returning to Burma, he resigned from the Indian Imperial Police to become a writer, with effect from 12 March 1928. He drew on his experiences in
20424-541: Was at Alcubierre 1,500 feet (460 m) above sea level, in the depth of winter. There was very little military action and Orwell was shocked by the lack of munitions, food and firewood as well as other extreme deprivations. With his Cadet Corps and police training, Orwell was quickly made a corporal. On the arrival of a British ILP Contingent about three weeks later, Orwell and the other English militiaman, Williams, were sent with them to Monte Oscuro and on to Huesca . Meanwhile, back in England, Eileen had been handling
20572-768: Was comparable to the post-war Labour government , which found itself in control of what he terms the "extensive apparatus of economic direction and control" that had been set up to regulate supply at the beginning of the Second World War . According to Rai, London, as described by Winston, is also a perfect match for the post-war city: He tried to squeeze out some childhood memory that should tell him whether London had always been quite like this. Were there always these vistas of rotting nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with baulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls sagging in all directions? And
20720-422: Was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, In Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were very much the same." Each state is self-supporting so they do not war over natural resources, nor is the destruction of the opponent the primary objective; for, even when two states ally against the third, no combination is powerful enough to do so. Each state recognises that science
20868-577: Was edited by Max Plowman and Sir Richard Rees , and Plowman accepted the work for publication. In December 1929 after nearly two years in Paris, Blair returned to England and went directly to his parents' house in Southwold , a coastal town in Suffolk , which remained his base for the next five years. The family was well established in the town, where his sister Avril ran a tea-house. He became acquainted with many local people, including Brenda Salkeld,
21016-554: Was involved in speculative ventures. Eric had two sisters: Marjorie, five years older; and Avril, five years younger. When Eric was one year old, his mother took him and Marjorie to England. In 2014 restoration work began on Orwell's birthplace and ancestral house in Motihari. In 1904, Ida settled with her children at Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire. Eric was brought up in the company of his mother and sisters and, apart from
21164-400: Was provided by Aunt Nellie, who was living at Wallington, Hertfordshire in a very small 16th-century cottage called the "Stores". Orwell took over the tenancy and moved in on 2 April 1936. He started work on The Road to Wigan Pier by the end of April, but also spent hours working on the garden, planting a rose garden which is still extant, and revealing four years later that "outside my work
21312-401: Was sent on to Tarragona and two days later to a POUM sanatorium in the suburbs of Barcelona. The bullet had missed his main artery by the barest margin and his voice was barely audible. It had been such a clean shot that the wound immediately went through the process of cauterisation . He received electrotherapy treatment and was declared medically unfit for service. By the middle of June,
21460-568: Was sometimes awkward and Blair and Heppenstall even came to blows, though they remained friends and later worked together on BBC broadcasts. Blair was now working on Keep the Aspidistra Flying , and also tried unsuccessfully to write a serial for the News Chronicle . By October 1935 his flatmates had moved out and he was struggling to pay the rent on his own. He remained until the end of January 1936, when he stopped working at Booklovers' Corner. In 1980, English Heritage honoured Orwell with
21608-417: Was the product of Greek education", thus the intelligentsia originated as a social class of educated people created for the greater benefit of society. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Polish word and the sociologic concept of the inteligencja became a European usage to describe the social class of men and women who are the intellectuals of the countries of central and of eastern Europe; in Poland,
21756-569: Was unable to provide him lodging, but suggested that he travel to Wigan rather than Rochdale, "for there are the colliers and they're good stuff." On 31 January 1936, Orwell set out by public transport and on foot. Arriving in Manchester after the banks had closed, he had to stay in a common lodging-house. The next day he picked up a list of contacts sent by Richard Rees. One of these, the trade union official Frank Meade, suggested Wigan , where Orwell spent February staying in dirty lodgings over
21904-470: Was writing reviews for Adelphi and acting as a private tutor to a disabled child at Southwold. He then became tutor to three young brothers, one of whom, Richard Peters , later became a distinguished academic. His history in these years is marked by dualities and contrasts. There is Blair leading a respectable, outwardly eventless life at his parents' house in Southwold, writing; then in contrast, there
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