Essential Question – Animal Farm

How do allegories reveal basic truths about society?

Animal Farm Background

The Russian Revolution & Soviet Communism

What did Karl Marx do?

Europe & America mid-1800’s – Capitalism was flourishing on both

continents

– Businesses were profiting at the expense of the workers 14 to 18 hour days

Unsafe conditions

No child labor laws

Wages were not livable

People were unhappy

In 1847 Karl Marx, a German philosopher, wrote The Manifesto of the Communist Party.

What was the Communist Manifesto?

Marx knew the only way to force the people in power to give up their power, was to revolt. – (How is this similar to the

American Revolution?)

Marx foresaw a workers’ revolt followed by a kind of paradise where each person would work according to his or her ability and receive according to his or her need.

Eventually, he believed the world would reach worldwide economic equality.

What was the goal of Communism?

Complete economic equality

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

The ultimate creation of a Utopian world society

Rasputin He was viewed as “a creature of the devil”.

A heavy drinker and seducer of women, he had an uncanny level of charisma.

His eyes were viewed as hypnotic.

Rasputin “the mad monk” gained influence over Czar Nicholas and Alexandria after he apparently cured their son’s hemophilia

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.

Why did Russia move to Communism?

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

Huge discrepancy between the rich and the 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.

What was the Bolshevik 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 begins. – Captured and assassinated

the royal family

– Raided homes of the gentry

– When the soldiers were ordered to

protect the royal family, they joined

the rebellion.

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

Who is Vladimir Lenin?

Lenin was the leader of the Bolsheviks

– Extremist social party who followed Marxist ideology

– Changed name to Communist Party

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

– takes hours to view his body.

Believed the peasants were too

ignorant to lead themselves so

the Bolsheviks must provide a

dictatorship on their behalf.

Who was Leon Trotsky? A Bolshevik revolutionary second to Lenin

Strongly supported Marxist ideology

– Exiled by the Czar for his purest Marxist ideas

– Believed every man should represent himself.

Returned to help lead

the Bolshevik Revolution

Was co-leader after the

revolution

– Later exiled by

Joseph Stalin in a grab

for power

-- Eventually assassinated

Who was Joseph Stalin?

Took power after the death of Lenin despite the fact that Lenin had not wanted him in power – Killed those in his way and took control

by force

Exiled Trotsky using force

Once in control masked his dictatorship beneath the Communism ideology – In simple terms: Pretended to be

following Communist ideals but was really strengthening his own absolute power.

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.

He controlled a powerful propaganda ministry.

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.

Opposing Maps

Purple = U.S.S.R.

Pink = Soviet Bloc (Eastern European countries that adopted Communism)

Purple = Russia

Blue = Former members of the Soviet Bloc

What was Stalin’s Communist Russia like?

Stalin assumed control of a large portion of Eastern Europe simply by being the power at the end of World War II

Became The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R)

– Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

What was life like in the U.S.S.R.?

Long lines for food and other goods

Bleak living conditions

Free health care – Very inaccessible, however,

due to long wait times

Unable to move households freely without government permission

Travel restricted without permission

Collectivism

Resistance to Collective Farming

In the Ukraine, the Bread Basket of the Soviet Union, Stalin found his greatest resistance to collectivism and 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.

– One estimate puts the number of peasants dead by famine at approximately 7,000,000.

Famine In Russia II Young Girl In Rags

Gathering at the Saratov Railway Station Precious Grains That Fell Down Out From The

Sacks That Have Just Been Unloaded (Card published in Geneva)

Famine In Russia VI THOSE WHOM FAMINE WON'T TORTURE ANY

MORE It was a cart on which every day those who died were taken to the cemetery. A coffin often contained three

children's corpses. Once being emptied into the common pit, the coffins were taken away back to the

town and filled again. Printed postcard published in Geneva by a Commission for Providing Assistance To Those Starving In Russia.

Postcards Published in 1932 by a Swiss Aide Agency Trying To Save The Starving Children in The Ukraine

How did the Western World view Communism?

China, Cuba, North Korea, North Vietnam, and Eastern Europe (involuntarily) adopted Communism

The Western World viewed Communism as a wave that had to be stopped – Evil

– Panic began to spread – fear that the Western way of life would be eradicated (disappear) Actors, authors, and artists suspected of

Communist sympathies were blacklisted

“The Soviet Union is an Evil Empire, and Soviet communism is the focus of evil in the modern

world.”

Ronald Reagan

United States President 1980-1988

Arthur Miller (Author)

The Crucible

Edward R. Murrow (CBS News Anchor)

Lucille Ball

I love Lucy!

Orson Wells War of the Worlds

Citizen Kane Author, actor, director,

and radio host

George Orwell

Born in India in 1903.

At age eight he was sent to expensive “prep” school, but was on a reduced tuition rate. The snobbish boys treated him as a charity case and picked on him.

He always felt like a failure and was convinced that the rich and powerful people made all the rules; his sympathies lay with the poor.

George Orwell Continued

In 1936 (before WWII) he went to Spain and joined the anti-Franco militia, backed by Trotsky-ite Communists.

He was wounded

and discharged, but when his militia was outlawed by the Communists, he became disillusioned with Communism.

Back in England

As a Home Guard for England he worked for the BBC, and an order was issued for them to play up the virtues of Bolshevism (Russia was an Allied power during the war).

Animal Farm was written during

the closing years of the war, but he could not get it published at the time. It was finally published in 1945, when the true aims and methods of the Communists were beginning to come to light.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Orwell concluded that all revolutions fail because those who attain power are corrupted by it.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is a theme in all his works.

Elements Needed to Build a Dictatorship

supporters – the masses must be behind the leader and feel that his or her new ideas will make a real difference in their lives

ignorance of followers – It’s important that the followers and supporters of the leader not be too educated. They must follow blindly and without question.

scapegoat – there must be someone or something to blame for all of the bad conditions the leader wants to eradicate. Usually it is the leadership in power. Later, any problems which arise can be blamed on the scapegoat

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

Animal Farm – Literary Terms

Allegory

Fable

Irony

Foreshadowing

Satire

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 a fable?

narration intended to force a useful truth

they teach a moral or lesson

characters are most frequently animals

these animals function as a satiric device (make fun of; ridicule) to point out the follies (foolish actions or beliefs) of humankind

What is Satire?

The use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or similar ideas to expose and/or point out problems in society that need to be fixed.

Something to Think About