Animal Farm by George OrwellPart 2

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The Romanovs

Finding the Romanovs

Frozen to Death:

Siberian Gulags

Stalin’s Death Camps

Stalin’s Purges

Karl Marx

wrote Communist Manifesto (ideas about government and life) – Communism is a natural evolution of society towards equality

Believed the Capitalists were taking advantage of the working classes

Class struggle: Bourgeoisie: capitalists, owned

most of the wealth Proletariat: working class

Believed the way to equality was through revolution

What’s the problem with this?

The Bolsheviks

Radical political group

1917: took over government

Eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Vladimir Lenin

family had problems with government in past

a rebel became a lawyer disliked the class bias Formed a union Was arrested and sent into exile in

Siberia for 3 years Came back to Russia during WW1 1918: assassination attempt 1922: fell ill,; paralyzed from

assassin’s bullet Was worried what Stalin and Trotsky

would do to government Several strokes led to death

Joseph Stalin

Was Georgian, not Russian Created the name ‘stalin’ (steel) Joined political underground Several arrests, imprisonments,

and exiles Not the best father (didn’t

accept a trade with Germans for his captured son – WW2)

Became important in party committees

Began a pseudo-cult in memory of Lenin

Ignored some of Lenin’s policies

Joseph Stalin

Began to have ‘five year plans’ towards industrialization

Turned private farms into state farms

Shot or exiled dissident farmers or sent them to labor camps

Terrible famine in Ukraine (~10 million peasants died)

Everyone had to LOVE Stalin – he was given credit for every good thing that happened

Totalitarian Dictatorship

The Purges – The Great Terror

1934 started killing off members of political parties and

basically anyone he didn’t like Disloyalty = execution; prison camps Communist Leadership: 93/139 Military: 81/103 (generals) Communist Party:~1/3million ~20 million sent to Gulag (labor camps in Siberia)…

~half died Some put estimate at 15-30 million dead Secret Police (precursor to KGB)

Leon Trotsky

Political activist Opponent to Stalin Very charismatic; great

public speaker; very intellectual

Spent time in prison and in exile

Military leader of Revolution Vied for power after Lenin’s

death Exiled from Russia and later

assassinated

Timeline

1894: Former Tsar dies and Nicholas II takes over

1905: Bloody Sunday Unarmed workers petitioning for more rights

march on palace; Nicholas isn’t there; guards shoot into the crowd to disperse the people; kill ~100

WW1: Russia suffers horrible losses and people blame Nicholas

1916: Rasputin murdered by nobles

Timeline

1917: riots; Nicholas abdicates and Lenin takes over puts industry under government control Brings infrastructure (electricity) – especially important

after devastation of WW2

1918: Nicholas and his family imprisoned and executed

1924: Lenin dies, Stalin takes over

1928: Trotsky exiled

1940: Trotsky assassinated

1953: Stalin dies suddenly of heart attack (??)

Timeline

1976: Tsar’s family found by a team of Russian scientists

1994: DNA confirmed Nicholas, Alexandra, 3 kids and 4 servants

1998: reburied in cathedral in St. Petersburg

2000: Russian Orthodox Church designated the family as saints (lowest possible rank)

2007: DNA confirmed last two family members identities

2008: Russian Supreme Court ruled the executions were wrong and ‘pardoned’ the family

George Orwell

British author, b. 1903 – d. 1950

Real name Eric Arthur Blair

Political; fought in Spanish Civil War

Satirist

1945: Animal Farm

1949: 1984 (bleak dystopian novel)

Both very successful

Died of Tuberculosis

Orwell’s Beliefs

Actually believed that there was merit to a communal society.

He was a socialist.

Saw corruption though as obstacle to equality

Type of Literature

Allegory: a tale told through symbols Story must be simple enough and the symbols

must be clear enough that audience understands the ‘real’ story

Satire: a work that uses humor to ridicule or criticize views or ideas

Not only covers up the real people/subject but also gives more power through symbols

Reception

Wasn’t published right away because British publishers thought it would offend the Soviets

Some criticism that the story didn’t follow history closely enough

One of the most often read books for high school

Sources

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/proseanimalfarm/animalfarm_context/revision/1/

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/context.html

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/animal-farm/critical-essays/the-russian-revolution

http://www.biography.com/people/nicholas-ii-21032713#world-war-i

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nicholas_ii.shtml

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-II-tsar-of-Russia

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34338802

http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/murders-ekaterinburg

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nicholas.htm

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Ilich-Lenin

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Stalin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/russia/stalinpurgesandpraisesrev1.shtml

Sources

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Trotsky

http://www.britannica.com/place/Gulag