Animal Farm by George
Orwell
The History
Historical Context
 Book is an allegory for the Russian Revolution
(1917-1940)
 Criticism of how the Russians neglected/corrupted
Communism and Stalin
The Tsar
 Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia (dynasty lasted 3
centuries)
 Autocracy: ruler had absolute power
 The Tsar was disliked – seen as taking all the money
while the commoners starved (think Marie
Antoinette and the French Revolution)
 High rates of poverty and inflation
 Food shortages
 Alexandra was half German (relied too much on
Rasputin)
Mass Execution
 Family was under house arrest
 Tsar, Tsarina, 4 children and 4 servants
 Lined up in the basement and shot; those who didn’t die
of bullet wounds were stabbed with bayonets
 “I heard the firing. I returned to the house immediately
(only two or three minutes having elapsed) and upon
entering the room where the execution had taken place, I
saw that all the members of the Tsar's family were lying
on the floor with many wounds in their bodies. The
blood was running in streams. The doctor, the maid and
two waiters had also been shot. When I entered the heir
was still alive and moaned a little. Yurovsky went up
and fired two or three more times at him. Then the heir
was still.“ (one of the guards)
Mass Execution
 Fire, acid, and grenades used to destroy identities
 Bodies thrown down nearby mine shaft
 Dug up a few days later and reburied in two graves
in the woods
Videos
The Romanovs
Stalin’s Death
Camps
Finding the
Romanovs
Frozen to Death:
Siberian Gulags
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
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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/LeonTrotsky
 http://www.britannica.com/place/Gulag