At least as much as, if not more than, a dystopian political science fiction novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is a warning of the extent to which an authoritarian government can go to, given technology and social engineering capabilities. These technologies were in the realm of science fiction in 1949 when the novel was first published; they are in the realm of commerce since the turn of the century.
1984 justifies all your paranoia about big government. Big Brother watches everything and has eyes everywhere. Big Brother does this through the television, and the TV barks out orders if our attention shifts from it; not unlike the meta data on our devices that know our movements, actions and thoughts, and periodically pings us when we set it down. If the TV misses anything then your comrades will get you. The slightest deviation from the party line in words or actions will be reported to the authorities, even your family won't hesitate to give you up just for the sake of a warm feeling of loyalty towards the Party.
The Party doesn't just tell you what the truth is, it tells you what reality is. If this sounds familiar today it is a testament to how prescient George Orwell was about the exercise of government, mass communication and power.
The leader of the party is Big Brother - “a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features” who is absolutely loved and absolutely feared. Many parallels have been drawn between Big Brother and Joseph Stalin, but George Orwell modelled the character after a poster of his one time hero Field Marshall Herbert Horatio Kitchener whose features, eyes and moustache are mirrored in the image of Big Brother. Orwell was not alone in his admiration of the moustache which became an ideal for drill sergeants everywhere and a symbol of martial prowess across the Victorian empire.
The Party of Nineteen Eighty-Four is modelled on Joseph Stalin's authoritarian regime.