Russian schoolchildren are being taught that Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, behaved like a dangerous radical whose actions mirror those of criminals and terrorists, according to a report by the Times UK that has raised fresh concerns about ideological control in classrooms.
In schools across the Tomsk region of western Siberia, pupils have been given lessons portraying Smith not as a symbol of resistance to oppression, but as an example of “destructive behaviour” driven by disobedience to the state. The teaching forms part of a programme officially aimed at raising “anti-terrorism awareness,” a framing that critics say echoes Soviet-era efforts to pathologise dissent.
The Times UK reported that pupils were told Smith’s key fault lay in his refusal to submit to authority. Teachers highlighted his attempts to resist a totalitarian regime on his own, his role in altering official documents in ways that contradicted the ruling party’s narrative, and his “strong hatred for the party.” These traits were presented as warning signs of radicalisation rather than moral courage.
At School Number 4 in the city of Tomsk, a social media post described how children were shown clips from films including Harry Potter, Batman Begins and the 1984 adaptation starring John Hurt. The sessions were designed to explore “why heroes become criminals” and to teach students “how to recognise signs of destructive behaviour,” the school said.
According to the Times UK, pupils were also told that Smith’s efforts to undermine trust in the ruling party and inspire rebellion were evidence of extremism, with his desire to provoke revolution cited as a key example of unacceptable conduct. The framing marks a stark reversal of how Orwell’s novel has traditionally been read, both in Russia and internationally.
1984 was banned in the Soviet Union until 1988, circulating for decades only in clandestine samizdat editions and becoming a touchstone for dissidents. Ironically, it surged in popularity in modern Russia, becoming the most downloaded work of fiction on the LitRes online bookstore in 2022, the year President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine. Officials have since sought to reinterpret that popularity, claiming the novel resonates because it criticises modern liberalism rather than communist or authoritarian rule.
The director of School Number 4, Irina Grabtsevich, is a member of the Tomsk city council representing the ruling United Russia party, which dominates Russia’s political system and strongly backs the Kremlin. Under Putin, state institutions including prosecutors and investigative bodies have been widely used to suppress dissent, while state television regularly portrays critics as traitors or extremists.
Orwell drew inspiration for 1984 in part from the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, depicting a society ruled by an all-powerful leader, Big Brother, where citizens are surveilled for “thought crimes” and forced to accept slogans such as “war is peace.” Winston Smith, an unremarkable bureaucrat working in the Ministry of Truth, quietly rebels by questioning the regime and rewriting history until he is exposed, tortured and broken into submission.
Russian officials have increasingly challenged that interpretation. In 2022, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was a “global fake” to believe Orwell wrote about totalitarianism, arguing instead that 1984 was a warning about the collapse of liberalism. As the Times UK noted, the new classroom teachings appear to turn that reinterpretation into doctrine, recasting one of literature’s most famous dissidents as a cautionary tale against rebellion itself.
