Final answer:
George Orwell aimed to expose the evils of totalitarianism, particularly within the context of communism as practiced in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. His work, including the novel '1984,' serves as a cautionary tale about government overreach, propaganda, and the suppression of individual freedom. Option a) is correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
British writer George Orwell was an outspoken critic of totalitarian regimes and sought to expose the dangers of totalitarianism, particularly as it was manifested in the context of communism. Orwell aimed to reveal the extreme measures of control, surveillance, and propaganda that were used by communist governments to maintain power and suppress opposition. Through his literature, he underscored how such regimes systematically manipulated and oppressed the population, as vividly exemplified in his dystopian novel, 1984.
In this narrative, Orwell depicted a fictional society where the government, referred to as 'Big Brother,' utilizes constant surveillance, the alteration of historical facts, and the suppression of individual thought to maintain complete control over the citizens. The term 'Orwellian' has since become synonymous with invasive governmental control and misleading propaganda, which Orwell saw as prevalent in the operations of communist Soviet Union under leaders like Joseph Stalin, who used tactics such as censorship, a pervasive secret police force, reeducation, and misinformation to maintain an iron grip on power.
In doing so, Stalin and the Soviet Union's propaganda machine often twisted information to serve their purposes, especially during periods of conflict such as the Cold War when the government aimed to depict communism as the superior system over capitalism and democracy.