Imagine living in a society brainwashed by propaganda, where you only can think what you are told. From 1929-1953, citizens of the Soviet Union had to endure this under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union in 1929 right after the death of Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union. From the moment he came into power, Stalin started instilling fear in the population, and those he viewed as a threat were sent to his gulags or labor camps. Citizens of the Soviet Union were so petrified of being sent to gulags that they did not show any opposition to his rule. With almost all the intellectuals out of the way, Stalin could brainwash the rest of the population.
These are scenarios similar to Montag’s world in the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The Soviet Union under Stalin and the society in Fahrenheit 451 are similar because both governments are extremely paranoid about perceived threats to its rule, both societies devalued intellectual thinking, and both
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In Fahrenheit 451, Captain Beatty is much more knowledgeable than the other firemen (besides Montag) and Beatty is the leader of the firemen. He demonstrates his knowledge by telling Montag “Swahili, Indian, English Lit, I speak them all”. (Bradbury 110). The other firemen do not have the same amount of knowledge that Beatty does and, therefore, Beatty is able to lead and control the other firemen. In USSR, Joseph Stalin is also much more knowledgeable than the average citizen because of information control. Consequently, in both cases, we can see that if a large part of society starts losing knowledge, then those who have more knowledge will become unopposed leaders. Also in both scenarios, to ensure total power both Stalin and the government of Fahrenheit 451 brainwashed their own people by starving them of proper information and