Animal Farm and

The Russian Revolution & Soviet Communism

Part I: Revolution!

Part III: Allegory

Part II: Stalin

Remember Karl Marx? Socialism?

Remember Karl Marx? Socialism?

Complete economic equality

– The elimination of rich and poor, powerful and weak, and different social classes.

The ultimate creation of a Utopian world society

Russia

One of the few remaining true monarchies– Headed by Czar Nicholas II

Huge discrepancy between the rich andthe poor. The poor were VERY poor and the rich were very few.

Only the gentry (rich people) were allowed to own land– Peasants (poor people) worked the

land, the gentry reaped the profits.– Peasants and gentry lived side by

side. The peasants were able to see how the gentry lived.

Czar Nicholas II

Czar Nicholas was dashing and handsome but not a smart politician.

His wife, Alexandria, was viewed as overbearing and aristocratic.

Neither was in touch with the commoners or their problems.

The Russian Peasant

An English visitor to Russia at the end of the 19th Century described the inside of a peasant's hut as follows:

“A small hut about twelve feet (3.6m) square -with a door through which a medium-sized man can only go by stooping - the floor made of earth, the ceiling so low that a tall man cannot stand upright, tiny windows letting in little light . . . the whole building made of thin wood . . . the entire family lives in this room, sleeping on benches and on the floor all together, men, women, children and cattle.”Published in 'People and Power', David Armstrong

The Royals

Revolution!

Began when 150,000 workers attempting to present a petition regarding working conditions to Czar Nicholas II were attacked by guards and Cossacks at the Winter Palace.

October 25, 1917 a violent revolt against the

Russian government began.– Captured and assassinated

the royal family

– Raided homes of the nobles– When the soldiers were ordered to

protect the royal family, they joined

the rebellion.

– In the middle of WWI!

Who is Vladimir Lenin?

Lenin was the leader of the Communists (Bolsheviks)

– Extremist social party who followed Marxist ideology

Believed the peasants were too

ignorant to lead themselves so

the Bolsheviks must

provide a dictatorship

on their behalf.

Became a nationalhero.

Who is Vladimir Lenin?

Became a national hero

– After his death he was encrypted in a vacuum sealed glass coffin and put on display in a museum in Red Square for the people to see.

– The line is miles long and took hours to view his body.

Part II: Stalin

Who was Leon Trotsky? A Communist second to Lenin

Strongly supported Marxist ideology

– Exiled by the Czar for his purest Marxist ideas

Returned to help lead the Bolshevik Revolution

Was co-leader after the revolution

Known as more of a

philosopher than a politician

Disliked by Stalin…

Who was Joseph Stalin?

Took power after the death of Lenin despite the fact that Lenin had not wanted him in power– Lenin’s will: no “leadership position”

– Killed those in his way and took controlby force

Exiled Trotsky using force

Later had Trotsky assassinated

What did Stalin do?

Seized control of the Soviet Union

Secret Police

Propaganda

The Gulag

The Great Purge

Forced Famines

Once in control masked his dictatorship beneath the Communismideology– In simple terms: Pretended to be following Communist

ideals but was really strengthening his own absolute power.

What did Stalin do?

What did Stalin do?

What did Stalin do?

The Great Purge His secret police were vicious and did not hesitate to kill anyone who voiced

criticism.

Any problems in the country were blamed on Trotsky, whom he used as a scapegoat.

In about 1937 Stalin began systematically “purging” the Communist Party and the USSR in general of people who posed a threat to his government.

The exact figures of the killings that took place during "the Great Purge” are unknown. According to Soviet archives, the secret police detained 1,548,367 people, of whom 681,692 were shot.– That amounts to an average of 1,000

executions a day. Other historians estimate the deaths of

The Great Purge to range from 950,000 to 1.2 million.

Resistance to Stalin

Ukraine, the Bread Basket of the Soviet Union, resisted acceptance of Communist rule.– Between 1932 and 1933 Stalin engineered a

famine by massively raising the grain quota that the peasantry had to turn over to the state; this killed between six and seven million people and broke the back of Ukrainian resistance.

Labor camps in Siberia were where Stalin sent many of the people he purged.

The Gulag

What did Stalin say?

“The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.”

“Death is the solution to all problems. No man -- no problem.”

“Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.”

Non-Aggression with Germany

August 1939 – Stalin signed a treaty with Hitler agreeing not to attack each other

June 1941 –Germany breaks the treaty

and invades the Soviet Union

Stalin and WWII

During World War II, Stalin allied with the U.S. and

Great Britain

What happened After WWII?

• Stalin “liquidated” returned POWs• Russia took over much of Eastern Europe• Stalin purged more people• Russia influenced North Korea to attack South Korea

(Korean War, 1950-1953)• Imprisoned 50 million people

• Responsible for more deaths than anyone in history except Hitler: 3-50 million people

• The Soviet Union was a superpower until 1991, when it collapsed.

• China and North Korea are still communist powers.

Part I: Revolution!

Part III: Allegory

Part II: Stalin

What is an allegory?

an extended metaphor

the whole poem or story is representative of another idea

Animal Farm is literally about an animal rebellion against their human oppressors on a farm

Allegorically, it is about the Russian Revolution and the rise of Communism in the USSR

An allegory is intended to teach a moral or a lesson

What is an allegory?

What is an allegory?

An allegory is intended to teach a moral or a lesson

Reflection: What do you think is the moral/lesson of Animal Farm?

Orwell’s Purpose

Orwell’s purpose in writing Animal Farm is to warn the world about the dangers of totalitarianism as well as satirize the mentality of the revolutionary who believe Utopia is possible.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.George Orwell