<i>1984</i> was not <i>based</i> on Stalin&#x27;s dictatorship. There seems to be a common misconception among too many people who&#x27;ve heard this parroted, erroneously assuming that because Orwell was strongly wary of, and frequently wrote about, <i>totalitarianism</i>, this must mean he was writing about Stalin specifically. He was not. In fact, <i>1984</i> was written just as much about the UK and USA as it was totalitarian fascism and Stalinism. This is borne out in his letters. <i>1984</i> was focused on what Orwell believed might happen to the world if the atomic showdown was inconclusive (a rough paraphrase of one of his remarks in a letter). It was written as a tale of what would happen when the West—specifically the UK and USA—would find themselves challenged and take the attractive slide away from democratically operated [socialist] society toward strengthening and worshipping millionaires and &quot;petty fuhrers&quot;, leading to outright totalitarianism that offered stability, predictability, and controlled externalities, all of which would provide simpler, thoughtless, controlled selves.<p>For more directly from Orwell in one of his letters considered to foreshadow <i>1984</i>&#x27;s thesis, see here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=WXGbfAHYecwC&amp;pg=PA232&amp;lpg=PA232#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=WXGbfAHYecwC&amp;pg=PA232&amp;lpg=...</a>