It is common that the author of famous anti -utopias belongs to the phrase about what role sincerity plays in the conditions of widespread misinformation. We checked whether such an attribution is true.

In the Russian -language segment of the Internet, this statement has several versions in which the “universal lie” can change to “universal deception”, and “extremism” - to a “revolutionary act” or “revolutionary act”. Regardless of the formulation, the authorship of this phrase attribute to Orwell several large sites with quotes, for example Socratify.net And "Pearls of thought". In 2018, her Conducted In his article “The Age of Post-Relatives Named after the Truck Colin Powell” ”, a member of the Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev, and in 2019 Published On Twitter, the editor -in -chief of the Echo Moskvy radio station Alexei Venediktov. The phrase is also associated with the famous writer abroad - for example, her mentioned As a quote from Orwell, American singer Katy Perry. This expression is associated with the author "1984" large publics in "VKontakte" And Facebookas well as popular channels in Telegram And Twitter.

The first mention of this phrase in the printed source dates back to 1982 - the famous writer died For more than 30 years before. The Quote Investigator Portal discovered The statement in Venturino, Georgio Venturini, "Partners in Ecocide: Australia's complicity in the uranium cartel." The expression served as an epigraph, was enclosed in quotation marks and attributed to Orwell, and there was no word “universal” (universal) in that wording: “In the times of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” (in a time of dec Deceit, Telling the Revolutionary Act).

Two years later, the phrase was again used in the context associated with ecology and environmental protection. In the Canadian journal Science Dimency was Published Letter of the reader David Hoffman. He expressed dissatisfaction with an article dedicated to the economic component of chickenpox: “It seems that George Orwell in his book“ 1984 ”said that during the time of universal deception, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. If Science Dimension is not ready to explore the future of technology in the field of renewable energy outside of inaccurate generalizations, then, perhaps, it should be monitored by maintaining his own good faith, completely avoiding this topic. ”

Similar, but not similar phrases can be found in contemporaries of the writer. For example, in 1919, the Italian political theorist and philosopher Antonio Gramsha He wrote In his article: “To tell the truth, to establish the truth together is a communist and revolutionary act.”

Moreover, neither we nor our foreign Colleagues They could not find this phrase in Orwell's texts. Author Books On the anti -utopia "1984" Dorian Linski claimsWhat to attribute this expression to the famous writer is a mistake.