Animal Farm CONTEXT

1. Royal Family were imprisoned, then exectuted
   1. Mr Jones - the previous 'ruler' was evicted from the farm
2. Russia changed its name to the USSR - United Socialist Soviet Republic
   1. Manor Farm changed to Animal Farm
3. 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.
   1. Napoleon slowly changed the rules on the farm.
4. Animal's revolution

Annotations:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin

1. Lenin died in 1924
   1. Old Major dies before Animalism is established
2. Political theorist - created Leninism - a form of Communism nased on the writings of Karl Marx
   1. Old Major invents Animalism
3. Old Major

1. means 'Man of Steel'
   1. Napoleon was named after a natural leader.
2. Responsible for 22 million deaths
   1. Responsible for the deaths of a lot of animals on the farm.
3. Wanted absolute power
   1. Napoleon used fear to control the farm so no one could overthrow his power.
4. Distorted communist ideal of a 'Worker's Paradise' to a brutal dictatorship
   1. Napoleon made it look like the animals were working for their own good
5. Napoleon

1. Not allowed to Lenin's funeral
   1. Snowball wasn't allowed to any of the meetings.
2. A good public speaker
   1. Snowball was also a good public speaker and changed the minds of many animals despite Napoleon.
3. Interested in education
   1. Snowball was also interested in learning and teaching other animals.
4. Exiled by Stalin
   1. Snowball was driven of the farm by Napoleon and his dogs.
5. Snowball

1. Stalin tried to dramatically improve and restructure industry, agriculture and infrastucture
   1. Demanding productivity targets were set
      1. Rise of the Cult of the Worker Hero - Praising those who follow the party line and try to exceed targets
      2. Not meeting targets was blamed on treachery or sabotage
         1. Napoleon made the animals admit to crimes they didn't commit when they were to be killed.
   2. 1928-34 Problems of production arise, with many animals dying and people going hungry
      1. Stalin controls the media and misreports productivity and employment figures
         1. George Bernard Shaw -the socialist author of Pygmalion was given a stage-managed tour of USSR and so misreported back to the West

            Annotations:

            • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw

1. Creates the Ministry of Persecution
2. The 'Purges' were incidents when Stalin would remove people who disagreed with him
   1. In 1934 there was a Party Congress where over 2000 attendened. In 2 years, over 1000 of the participants were dead
3. Napoleon orders the animals to kill or drive away the opponent Pilkington.

1. Privately Educated at Eton
   1. Rejected privilege and became a writer and journalist
      1. Wrote Road to Wigan Pier (1937) about working families in the North of England in poor mining communities
      2. 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)
      3. Wrote Animal Farm - A Fairy Story as an allegorical satire to criticise Stalin's methods (1944)