Totalitarianism ruled in the 1940s, characterised by brainwashing, torture and liquidation. These are rendered chillingly in George Orwell's (then) futuristic satire, 1984. Orwell, an English journalist, first earned literary recognition with his unique political allegory, Animal Farm. Orwell's obvious target was Soviet communism - he was disillusioned after fighting on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War - but his work exposes the way all governments abuse power and limit human freedom by falsifying the truth.