how does the history of the setting / culture play a role in the novel

The history plays a major role in the book. Winston's mother and father mysteriously disappeared “in one of the first great purges of the fifties.” We are meant to believe that pre-revolutionary times was a Capitalist societety with major inequalities among people. The post-revolution dystopia pushed ideology in the opposite direction. A fascist-like ultra socialism had taken root and this is where Winston exists.