Animal Farm CONTEXT

Animal Farm CONTEXT

1. Russian Revolution 1917

   • Royal Family were imprisoned, then exectuted
     • Mr Jones - the previous 'ruler' was evicted from the farm
   • Russia changed its name to the USSR - United Socialist Soviet Republic
     • Manor Farm changed to Animal Farm
   • Religion was supposed to be banned but it was eventually tolerated. Karl Marx called religion "the opium of the people" meaning it kept them docile and controllable.
   • Animal's revolution

2. First leader was Vladamir Lenin

   • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin
   • Lenin died in 1924
     • Old Major dies before Animalism is established
   • Political theorist - created Leninism - a form of Communism nased on the writings of Karl Marx
     • Old Major invents Animalism
   • Old Major

3. Joseph Stalin

   • means 'Man of Steel'
   • Responsible for 22 million deaths
   • Wanted absolute power
   • Distorted communist ideal of a 'Worker's Paradise' to a brutal dictatorship

4. Trotsky

   • Not allowed to Lenin's funeral
   • A good public speaker
   • Interested in education
   • Exiled by Stalin

5. Stalin's Five Year Plan

   • Stalin tried to dramatically improve and restructure industry, agriculture and infrastucture
     • Demanding productivity targets were set
       • Rise of the Cult of the Worker Hero - Praising those who follow the party line and try to exceed targets
       • Not meeting targets was blamed on treachery or sabotage
     • 1928-34 Problems of production arise, with many animals dying and people going hungry
       • Stalin controls the media and misreports productivity and employment figures
         • George Bernard Shaw -the socialist author of Pygmalion was given a stage-managed tour of USSR and so misreported back to the West
           • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw

6. Stalin rules by getting rid of opposition

   • Creates the Ministry of Persecution
   • The 'Purges' were incidents when Stalin would remove people who disagreed with him
     • In 1934 there was a Party Congress where over 2000 attendened. In 2 years, over 1000 of the participants were dead

7. George Orwell

   • Privately Educated at Eton
     • Rejected privilege and became a writer and journalist
       • Wrote Road to Wigan Pier (1937) about working families in the North of England in poor mining communities
       • Went to Spain in 1936 to fight for the communists against General Franco - a fascist. but disliked Stalin's influence on the communist troops who began to turn on their own members. Wrote Homage to Catalonia (1938)
       • Wrote Animal Farm - A Fairy Story as an allegorical satire to criticise Stalin's methods (1944)