The first goal of "Big Brother"
Alan Travis, Guardian
In his book "1984" George Orwell describes the dangers inherent in a totalitarian society, where citizens are subject to the supervision of "thought police". It seems that his vision of the horrors of Big Brother's watchful eye was much more accurate than Orwell himself imagined: classified documents in the British State Archives, recently released to the public, show that the writer himself was subject to surveillance for more than 12 years.
From a review of Orwell's file in a special unit of the British intelligence services, it becomes clear that his trip to the north of the country in 1936 to learn about the living conditions of the workers for his book "The Road to Wigan Fire", aroused the suspicion of the intelligence officers.
About ten years ago, Orwell's reputation as a hero of the British left suffered a fatal blow, after it became clear that in 1948 he provided a list of 86 "Stalinists" to the counter-propaganda department of the British Foreign Office. However, the file shows that the intelligence services saw Orwell himself as "a person with extreme communist views". According to his biographer, Prof. Bernard Crick, Orwell saw himself as a revolutionary socialist who became deeply disillusioned with Soviet Communism following his involvement in the Spanish Civil War.
The Chief of Police in Wigan, Thomas Fay, reported at the time to Scotland Yard that George Orwell "lives in an apartment house in the working class district", which was obtained for him with the help of the Communist Party. With great effort, the local police branch came to surprising conclusions about Orwell: "From his lifestyle it can be concluded that he is a writer, or connected to some literary work because he devotes most of his time to writing," the police report states.
"He collected some data, i.e. the number of churches, the size of the population, and the like, and he receives an unusual amount of letters," the report further stated. "He also asked about the mines and factories in the area." The police in Whigham asked to know from Scotland Yard who the man was and "whether he is connected to the communists", and received a comprehensive report.
The report shows that the special unit followed Orwell, and was convinced that the writer was acting as a messenger to transmit correspondence "of a revolutionary nature" to the socialists. However, the most suspicious behavior was recorded in 1942, when Orwell was working in the Indian department of the BBC in London. He was described in the special unit's report as someone who came to the Broadcasting Authority "dressed as a bohemian during and outside of working hours".
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