RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

Background notes

For

Animal Farm

THE MONARCHY

Pre-Revolution

MONARCHY Czar Nicholas II

Tsar, Caesar, Kaiser Ruler with absolute power Took throne at age 26

Alexander III died of kidney disease at age 49

Somewhat inept as rulerHis father didn’t want to teach him

statecraft until Nicholas was 30, but Alexander III died before then

CZAR NICHOLAS II

Czar Nicholas with his wife, Alexandra; his four daughters, Maria, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia; and his son Alexei

ROYAL FAMILY Nicholas was

married, 4 daughters, 1 sonAlexei was sickly

(hemophilia) Inherited Rasputin

Mystic who exerted enormous influence over the family, especially Alexandra, because he seemed to help lessen effects of the disease

FACTORS LEADING TO DOWNFALL OF THE MONARCHY Widespread

drought & famine Refusal to agree

to Constitutional Monarchy

Loss of war with Japan Defeat by a non-

Western power brought down prestige and authority of the regime

Anti-Semitic pogroms

Distrust of Rasputin’s influence

Bloody Sunday Bread Riots

BLOODY SUNDAY Peasants went to

Winter palace to petition for help Starving Peaceful petition

Were gunned down 92 dead, several

hundred wounded Resulted in Revolt of

1905 Revolt eventually put

down, but power of monarchy was lessened

REVOLT OF 1905 Russian workers led by Trotsky

Tsar’s soldiers crushed the rebellionTrotsky was sent to Siberia for his role

ABDICATION OF THE THRONE 1917: WWI caused Tsar/Czar

Nicholas II to abdicate Causes:

German triumphs, millions killed in WWI Nationwide poverty, injustices by czars

(Bloody Sunday), bread riots, other signs of popular hostility

Spontaneous revolt by workers in Feb., 1917

Provisional Interim Govt. : Prince Lvov

OCTOBER REVOLUTION, 1917 Riots:

Lenin’s speech: “The people need peace. The people need bread. The people need land. And they give you war, hunger, no bread…we must fight for the social revolution.” After the riots, Lvov banned the Bolsheviks

(who quadrupled in size), sent Lenin into hiding, and arrested Trotsky (who was now allied with Lenin)

Troops refuse to fight: Bolsheviks take over government buildings and the Winter Palace

OCTOBER REVOLUTION, CONT. Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, overthrow the

provisional government Take over the Winter Palace as seat of

new government

WINTER PALACE/KREMLIN

END OF THE ROYAL FAMILY WW I caused

massive deaths on the front, and widespread starvation at home

Revolution of 1917 forced Nicholas II to abdicate the throne

Imprisoned by the revolutionaries

Later, Nicholas & family were executed for treasonFiring squad and

bayonetsWomen survived

initial bullets Diamonds and other

jewels sewn in dresses protected them

Later shot in the head and stabbed with bayonets

URBAN LEGEND – ESCAPE OF ANASTASIALater, two bodies were missing from the basement where the Romanovs were killed.

Rumors spread that the princess Anastasia had escaped.

DNA evidence proves that to be untrue – two additional Romanov bodies were found in the nearby woods.

COMMUNISM

KARL MARX Philosopher, Historian,

political theorist Socialism, not

capitalism or feudalism Wealth distributed

equally Capitalism only rewards a

few Lots of poor people

“From each according to ability, to each according to need”

START OF COMMUNIST PARTY Group of Russians: Meeting in Minsk

in March 1898, declaring themselves as a partyRussian Social Democratic Workers’

Party: Later became the Communist party Consisted of nine delegates representing four labor

unions, a workers’ newspaper and the Jewish Social Democratic Bund

platform: overthrow of the Romanov rulers results of meeting: 8 of the delegates arrested

upon their return homeFollowed doctrines/teachings of : Karl

Marx – prophesied the collapse of capitalism and its empires

VLADAMIR LENIN Lenin’s roots:

expelled from school for staging a protest, while at home,

discovered the works of Marx

eventually got a law degree

Names: Vladimir Ulyanov, also Meyer, Richter, & Jordanov

LENIN – THE BUDDING MARXIST

Travels: Switzerland to meet with

Marxist leaders Paris and Berlin to meet with

radicals arrested upon return home

and sent to Siberia until 1900 (there during meeting in Minsk).

Occupation: When he returned from

Siberia, he began a newspaper organizing the rebirth of the Social Democrats beyond the reach of the Czar’s police.

Caused a second meeting of the party in Brussels in 1903

SPLIT IN THE COMMUNIST PARTYBolsheviks After “Bolshoi” – big

Means majority Leader: Lenin Makeup: small, highly

disciplined, secretive, & vanguard of working class

Philosophy: Government run by small dictatorial group of professional revolutionaries that would tell the proletariat (workers) what to do

Mensheviks Means minority

Leader: Trotsky Makeup: take any

and all supporters, find partners, make coalitions

Philosophy: Democratically run socialism

COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT After the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin,

overthrow the provisional governmentSet up a dictatorship, with secret police

Lenin is in chargeRevised economic policy – prosperity for

some peasants (sold crops & paid taxes)Right-hand man: Leon Trotsky

Military leader, led Stalin’s Red Army in many uprisings & revolutionary battles, including the defeat of the “White” army (the nobility) in the Civil War

COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT, CONT. Premier/Foreign Minister: Lenin/Trotsky Cabinet: Lenin insisted on an all-Bolshevik

cabinet Constituent Assembly: Although

Bolsheviks won only 25% of the popular vote, and moderate socialist groups won 62%, Lenin disbanded the Assembly after one meeting and banned all parties other than his own, which he had renamed the Communist Party.

Cheka: New police force, authorized to arrest and shoot immediately all members of counterrevolutionary organizations.

CIVIL WAR, 1917-1918 Civil war erupts

between Reds

(Bolsheviks) Whites

(anti-Bolsheviks) primarily displaced

nobility and foreign interests

War ends in 1918

TROUBLES IN THE U.S.S.R Military:

peace with Germany, but forced separation of Poland, Balkans and Ukraine from Russia;

American, Japanese, British and French troops in Russia, various anti-Bolshevik “white” armies

Economy: in shambles – huge industrial production drops, runaway inflation, plummeting foreign trade, peasant crops requisitioned for the cities, widespread famine

DEATH OF LENIN Death of Lenin:

several strokes from these pressures

POWER STRUGGLE Stalin

Better political maneuvering

TrotskyPreferred by LeninFought in

Revolution

LENIN’S SUCCESSOR: STALINStalin (meaning steel) political/military maneuvers:

armed robberies to replenish Bolshevik treasury,

alliance with two of Lenin’s top advisors, then betrayed them,

became basically the uncrowned Tsar of the Russians (caused Trotsky to flee)

FATE OF TROTSKY Trotsky was

exiled and later assassinated in Mexico by Stalin’s agentsFate of Trotsky:

befriended by a Soviet agent, then hacked to death

STALIN’S DICTATORSHIP Drew up new constitution, Communist party the core of all

public and state organizations (only 10% of population in this

elite group). He held no party congresses and

ran things by himself

DRIVE FOR INDUSTRIALIZATION

Drive to become industrializedeconomic

policy: forced industrialization and collective farming causing millions of deaths

Series of Five-Year plans to increase economic growth

COLLECTIVIZED FARMS Forced labor to cities Eliminated small farms to create large

“collectivized farms”Produce went to feed those building

factories and to sell for the financing of those factories

Many farmers tried to revolt, severely punished – killed or sent to Siberia

Farm production drops, massive famine in Soviet Union Decisions about farming made by bureaucrats Farmers were paid miserably – little incentive to

work

THE GREAT PURGE Arrests throughout

the party and the country Show trials to

eliminate any opposition to Stalin

Labor camps or executions

Forced confessions forced people to

confess to forms of treason, corruption and sabotage, all of whom were put to death

TOOLS OF STALIN The Cheka –

Stalin’s secret police (KGB)Coercion rather

than cooperation Propaganda

WORLD WAR II Non-Aggression Pact

Stalin allied himself with Hitler until Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 the Russians suffer heavy losses beating back

the Germans (20 million dead) Join the Allies

fights against the Germans/Japaneseat the end of the war, meets with Winston

Churchill & Franklin D. Roosevelt (Yalta Conference) to forge a lasting peace treaty and carve up Europe Note: Makes it hard for Orwell to sell Animal

Farm

YALTA CONFERENCE February 4–11, 1945 wartime meeting

United States – President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Great Britain – Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Soviet Union – General Secretary Josef Stalin

Purpose -- discussing Europe’s postwar reorganization. the re-establishment of

the nations of war-torn Europe.

TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS

Russia Spain Italy GermanyJosef Stalin Francisco Franko Benito Mussolini Adolf Hitler

Totalitarianism: Government with strong central rule, that controls individuals by coercion and repression

ANIMAL FARM – LITERARY TERMS

LITERARY TECHNIQUES Satire

A literary genre that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to ridicule people, ideas, or practices in an effort to improve society

Allegory A story or tale that has two levels of meaning.

The first is a surface-level story, with a second, and deeper level of meaning, which may be moral, political, philosophical, or religious. Characters often bear names that indicate the

qualities or ideas the author wishes to represent.

Personification Giving human characteristics to non-humans

LITERARY TERMS Utopia

An ideal place that does not exist in realityTerm comes from Greek words

Outopia = “no place” Eutopia = “good place”

DystopiaThe opposite of utopiaHorrific places, generally characterized by

oppressive societies Often shown as starting out as attempts to

achieve utopia

FINAL THOUGHTS Orwell replied that

though Animal Farm was ‘primarily a satire on the Russian Revolution’ it was intended to have a wider application. That kind of revolution, which he defined as ‘violent conspiratorial revolution, led by unconsciously power-hungry people’, could only lead to a change of masters.