I read a bunch of historical documents about Nazi Germany and it literally looks like something that 1984 is based on.
If it were really Soviet Russia or Communist China, the government would be literally going around and killing random people on the spot using "the people" or deliberately starving the people in a farmer's utopia.
Instead, Big Brother rules with absolute order methods (false flags, vanishing of opposition, surveillance, history warping), which all seem to match on par with Nazi Germany's totalitarian methods before the Holocaust. Compare it with Germany history from 1933 to 1940, it's almost the same. The Nazis were also big on thought control experiments like the Milgram, just like Oceania was.
Both 1984 and Nazi Germany also prevent dissent against the leader itself and wants people to WORSHIP them at all costs. You also see this in Soviet Russia or Communist China when they were first built, but the dystopia's execution aren't anything like those.
So is it me or Orwell really referenced Nazi Germany in mind when he wrote the novel?
Frankly, Big Brother is the people themselves, who allowed such a government to exist (and likely voted it in in the first place), and participate in the spying on one another.
He was inspired by Britain mostly, as they began to move towards a more authoritarian government after WW2. However he was certainly adding on with the fascist ideal of a godlike leader.
Communism is simply a means to instantiate fascism. It's clever in that it enlists the help of the very prolotariat that it seeks to enslave.
Right. As Orwell notes in Animal Farm some become more equal than others and suddenly there's the fascism.
Political prisoner camps were loosely inspired by stalin’s gulags, and the role of Big Brother supposedly came from a quote by Lenin (something along the lines of “truth is what the communist party says”). History/memory warping (news speak) reconstructs reality for the citizens of Oceania, and their emotions are also manipulated to benefit the party and support their totalitarian agenda (2 minutes of hate/spies). All of which plays into the worship theme you mentioned above. Although i didn’t reference Nazi Germany, hopefully this connects to your research relative to 1984; coincidentally just read this for a course last week so felt obligated to add something to the discussion haha
Actually if this were Russia there will be lots of farmers instead of civilians fearing an extensive surveillance grid.
In the end, I'm not sure it matters which side it comes from. Lincoln sits between fascism under both his right and left hand. Ours is the middle path.
I dont think orwell had anything specific in mind.