literature Andrea Chalupa Answers Four Questions About Orwell

By Vladislav Davidzon

1. Let us begin with Orwell. Tere is a re- As long as there are dictators, Orwell’s work surgence now of interest in the work of will always feel current. Te playbook for es- Orwell with all of the issues surrounding tablishing a terror regime never changes: dic- fake news, propaganda, and social media tators come to power through Animal Farm eating our elections. Why do you think his and rule, to some degree, according to 1984. legacy is important now? Required reading for dealing with the gro- We’re living in an age of dictatorship that tesque news headlines of today is Orwell’s feels eerily similar to the early 1930s, and essay “Te Freedom of the Press.” It was a major weapon of dictatorship is propa- clearly written in a great release of frustra- ganda. Studying history and the works of tion and anger at self-censorship in the me- Orwell lif the veil of state sanctioned lies dia. He also calls out the reactionary willful fooding the internet with bots and fake ignorance of his fellow lefists quick to attack news sites. Kremlin critics and defend Russia against what they saw as war-mongering or “Russo- Orwell’s writing — not just his fnal two phobia.” Te essay reads like it was written novels but his essays and his letters — is a about the current political climate in the US guidebook for understanding authoritar- around Trump and Russia, especially how ianism as well as reactions to authoritar- the media overlooked Putin’s invasion of the

ANDREA CHALUPA ianism from the media, government, and 2016 election and how infuential voices on infuencers across the political spectrum. the far-lef can be hostile to those outspoken Orwell found that some people in these in- on Russian aggression. As Orwell explained stitutions were complicit by being in denial in his letter to Ukrainian refugees, to many or adapting terrible coping strategies, and in the West: “being accustomed to compar- others risked their lives by daring to speak ative freedom and moderation in public life, the truth. Human nature never changes; so is completely incomprehen- Orwell will always be our Virgil in helping sible to them.” us understand the various ways humans re- spond to dictatorship. Another stunning essay is Orwell’s 1938 review of Assignment in Utopia, a confes- His two literary masterpieces deal with Rus- sional memoir of a disillusioned American sian aggression, which is also why his work reporter named Eugene Lyons. While sta- feels current. Animal Farm tells the story of tioned in Moscow for the respected interna- the Russian Revolution which gave way to tional news agency UPI, Lyons helped Sovi- the brutality of Stalinism and the genocidal et censors conceal the , Stalin’s colonization of Ukraine, and 1984 was in- genocide-famine that murdered millions in spired by the Russian novel We, written by Ukraine. An entire paragraph lists the police Yevgeny Zamyatin in a time of chaotic and state abuses of the Kremlin; Orwell’s para- cruel Soviet state-building. graph happens to sound nearly identical to the statement provided by Russian perfor- mance artist Pyotr Pavlensky in 2015, ex- plaining why on a night in Moscow he lit the door to the headquarters of the FSB on fre.

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Tere are interesting connections between Orwell and Gareth Jones: they were around 2. One sees a constant stream of articles the same age; they shared the same liter- about why 1984 is important, but perhaps ary agent — Leonard Moore, and they were Animal Farm may be the book with more both friends with Malcolm Muggeridge, the lessons for us now? famous journalist. Of course being two bril- book as a way to inspire young people to use liant young men interested in the world, their their voice and creativity for human rights Animal Farm is an important and urgent- lives likely overlapped in other ways as well. like Orwell did. ly needed reminder that brutal systems are man-made, even with the best intentions. It’s What’s most fascinating to me is how Orwell 4. You have been engaged in Holodomor ed- why I’m uneasy about cult worship in politi- must have felt when he read Assignment in ucation programs in the US and in Canada cal movements. I’ve seen some well-meaning Utopia, the book I mentioned that he had re- people write vile and nasty things to fght viewed, by Eugene Lyons. Tere’s a chapter Canada has led the world in Holodomor for a cause they believe in, as though the end dedicated to Gareth. It describes how Lyons education, and that has not been easy. For justifed the means. Right now everything joined other leading Western journalists in generations, well into the 1980s and to the feels uncertain and democracy worldwide is Moscow to publish articles calling Gareth present day, Kremlin propaganda has ag- on the decline; naturally, people are looking a liar for his famine reporting — Lyons and gressively denied or tried to downplay the for something or someone to believe in. Ani- the other journalists did this to gain greater famine-genocide, and academia tended mal Farm can help us stay grounded to judge access to the Soviet regime. It was a terrifc to ignore it as universities were more Rus- a movement not by its charismatic leaders deal brokered by the Soviet censors that night sia focused. Today, the Holodomor is be- but by the fruits that it bears. in a suite in Moscow’s Metropole Hotel. ing taught across Canada, which is largely thanks to the tireless eforts of educator and Trough my work, I’ve met people, all from Tis chapter is essential reading for anyone researcher Valentina Kuryliw, the daughter former Soviet countries, who had never wanting to understand Orwell’s life and times of survivors. She has been tremendously in- heard of Orwell before, and I’ve met people and how individuals on the frontlines, like novative in education: she commissioned who were saved by Orwell. Yeonmi Park, the journalists, fell into corruption, as Lyons’ did, a graphic novel adaptation of the Gareth North Korean defector told me that reading or were buried by attacks against their cred- Jones story that I’m writing with the illus- Animal Farm helped her understand that ibility, as in Gareth’s case. As he essentially trator Kurt Huggins. the dictator she escaped was not a divine tells us in “Te Freedom of the Press,” Orwell god and that his family’s evil system was understood very clearly that what happened While much work is being done in the US and not natural. A former ISIS fghter who now to Gareth could have easily happened to him. Europe for Holodomor education and aware- works on outreach to those wanting to leave ness, it’s nothing like the infrastructure in ISIS also credits Animal Farm for helping My book, like the screenplay, has taken on Canada. With the help of Kuryliw’s organiza- open his eyes. a life of its own, because it’s needed now. tion the Holodomor Research and Education While working on the script, I discovered Consortium, a hub of famine scholarship, 3. Let’s speak about the success of your my family had a rare copy of the Ukrainian I directed and produced a short documenta- book, from which the essay that we are re- translation of Animal Farm made, with Or- ry on the famine called Stalin’s Secret Geno- publishing is drawn and what you think it well’s help, by Ukrainian hipsters strand- cide, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winner Anne means for the culture. ed in a World War II refugee camp. I dove Applebaum (who wrote a book on the Ho- into learning everything I could about how lodomor called Red Famine: Stalin’s War on My book was never supposed to be a book. It it came to exist, and was asked to present Ukraine), Harvard University’s Serhii Plokhy started of as a way to preserve research that my research at the National Press Club in (who wrote Te Gates of Europe: A History went into writing my screenplay, GARETH Washington, DC. I assembled my research of Ukraine), Yale University’s Timothy Sny- JONES. Tat script is based on the true story into a book with a powerful cover by the der (famous in the US for writing On Tyran- of the young Welsh journalist Gareth Jones artist and investigative journalist Molly ny), and other giants of academia. Te flm who risked his life exposing Stalin’s geno- Crabapple, who is a living Orwell for her tours Canada, and hopefully soon the US, on cide famine in Ukraine, only to eventually brave art and journalism. Soon afer it was a beautiful Italian-designed state of the art be killed afer falling in with two mysterious published, a group of college students in To- bus-theatre called the Holodomor National men connected to the Soviet secret police; ronto found it and sent me on a two-week Awareness Tour. It’s the most amazing thing the script shows how Gareth’s work lives on university speaking tour of Canada. Tis led to see how far Holodomor education and in Orwell’s Animal Farm. It’s an important to a Canadian high school teacher and com- awareness have come — another reminder reminder that the truth never dies. munity organizer named Nadia Guerrera that the truth prevails. developing a curriculum for teaching my

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