Essential Question – Animal Farm
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How do allegories reveal basic truths
about society?
Animal Farm
Background
The Russian Revolution & Soviet Communism
What did Karl Marx do?
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Europe & America mid-1800’s
– Capitalism was flourishing on both
continents
– Businesses were profiting at the
expense of the workers
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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?)
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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?
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Complete economic equality
– The elimination of rich and poor, powerful
and weak, and different social classes.
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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.
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Why did Russia move to
Communism?
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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.
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– 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 mediumsized 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
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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.
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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
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– Exiled by the Czar for his purest Marxist ideas
– Believed every man should represent himself.
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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?
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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
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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
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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)
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– Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,
Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova,
Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan
What was life like in the U.S.S.R.?
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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
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Resistance to Collective Farming
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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.
Postcards Published in 1932 by a Swiss Aide Agency
Trying To Save The Starving Children in The Ukraine
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.
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
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– 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
I love
Lucy!
Lucille Ball
Edward R. Murrow
(CBS News Anchor)
Arthur Miller (Author)
The Crucible
Orson Wells
War of the Worlds
Citizen Kane
Author, actor, director,
and radio host
George Orwell
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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
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In 1936 (before WWII) he went to Spain and
joined the anti-Franco militia, backed by
Trotsky-ite Communists.
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He was wounded
and discharged, but
when his militia was
outlawed by the
Communists, he
became disillusioned
with Communism.
Back in England
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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).
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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.
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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
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Orwell’s Purpose
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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
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What is an allegory?
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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
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What is Satire?
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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