background notes for animal farm. pre-revolution
TRANSCRIPT
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Background notes
For
Animal Farm
THE MONARCHY
Pre-Revolution
MONARCHY Czar Nicholas II
Tsar, Caesar, Kaiser Ruler with absolute power Took throne at age 26
Alexander III died of kidney disease at age 49
Somewhat inept as rulerHis father didn’t want to teach him
statecraft until Nicholas was 30, but Alexander III died before then
CZAR NICHOLAS II
Czar Nicholas with his wife, Alexandra; his four daughters, Maria, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia; and his son Alexei
ROYAL FAMILY Nicholas was
married, 4 daughters, 1 sonAlexei was sickly
(hemophilia) Inherited Rasputin
Mystic who exerted enormous influence over the family, especially Alexandra, because he seemed to help lessen effects of the disease
FACTORS LEADING TO DOWNFALL OF THE MONARCHY Widespread
drought & famine Refusal to agree
to Constitutional Monarchy
Loss of war with Japan Defeat by a non-
Western power brought down prestige and authority of the regime
Anti-Semitic pogroms
Distrust of Rasputin’s influence
Bloody Sunday Bread Riots
BLOODY SUNDAY Peasants went to
Winter palace to petition for help Starving Peaceful petition
Were gunned down 92 dead, several
hundred wounded Resulted in Revolt of
1905 Revolt eventually put
down, but power of monarchy was lessened
REVOLT OF 1905 Russian workers led by Trotsky
Tsar’s soldiers crushed the rebellionTrotsky was sent to Siberia for his role
ABDICATION OF THE THRONE 1917: WWI caused Tsar/Czar
Nicholas II to abdicate Causes:
German triumphs, millions killed in WWI Nationwide poverty, injustices by czars
(Bloody Sunday), bread riots, other signs of popular hostility
Spontaneous revolt by workers in Feb., 1917
Provisional Interim Govt. : Prince Lvov
OCTOBER REVOLUTION, 1917 Riots:
Lenin’s speech: “The people need peace. The people need bread. The people need land. And they give you war, hunger, no bread…we must fight for the social revolution.” After the riots, Lvov banned the Bolsheviks
(who quadrupled in size), sent Lenin into hiding, and arrested Trotsky (who was now allied with Lenin)
Troops refuse to fight: Bolsheviks take over government buildings and the Winter Palace
OCTOBER REVOLUTION, CONT. Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, overthrow the
provisional government Take over the Winter Palace as seat of
new government
WINTER PALACE/KREMLIN
END OF THE ROYAL FAMILY WW I caused
massive deaths on the front, and widespread starvation at home
Revolution of 1917 forced Nicholas II to abdicate the throne
Imprisoned by the revolutionaries
Later, Nicholas & family were executed for treasonFiring squad and
bayonetsWomen survived
initial bullets Diamonds and other
jewels sewn in dresses protected them
Later shot in the head and stabbed with bayonets
URBAN LEGEND – ESCAPE OF ANASTASIALater, two bodies were missing from the basement where the Romanovs were killed.
Rumors spread that the princess Anastasia had escaped.
DNA evidence proves that to be untrue – two additional Romanov bodies were found in the nearby woods.
COMMUNISM
KARL MARX Philosopher, Historian,
political theorist Socialism, not
capitalism or feudalism Wealth distributed
equally Capitalism only rewards a
few Lots of poor people
“From each according to ability, to each according to need”
START OF COMMUNIST PARTY Group of Russians: Meeting in Minsk
in March 1898, declaring themselves as a partyRussian Social Democratic Workers’
Party: Later became the Communist party Consisted of nine delegates representing four labor
unions, a workers’ newspaper and the Jewish Social Democratic Bund
platform: overthrow of the Romanov rulers results of meeting: 8 of the delegates arrested
upon their return homeFollowed doctrines/teachings of : Karl
Marx – prophesied the collapse of capitalism and its empires
VLADAMIR LENIN Lenin’s roots:
expelled from school for staging a protest, while at home,
discovered the works of Marx
eventually got a law degree
Names: Vladimir Ulyanov, also Meyer, Richter, & Jordanov
LENIN – THE BUDDING MARXIST
Travels: Switzerland to meet with
Marxist leaders Paris and Berlin to meet with
radicals arrested upon return home
and sent to Siberia until 1900 (there during meeting in Minsk).
Occupation: When he returned from
Siberia, he began a newspaper organizing the rebirth of the Social Democrats beyond the reach of the Czar’s police.
Caused a second meeting of the party in Brussels in 1903
SPLIT IN THE COMMUNIST PARTYBolsheviks After “Bolshoi” – big
Means majority Leader: Lenin Makeup: small, highly
disciplined, secretive, & vanguard of working class
Philosophy: Government run by small dictatorial group of professional revolutionaries that would tell the proletariat (workers) what to do
Mensheviks Means minority
Leader: Trotsky Makeup: take any
and all supporters, find partners, make coalitions
Philosophy: Democratically run socialism
COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT After the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin,
overthrow the provisional governmentSet up a dictatorship, with secret police
Lenin is in chargeRevised economic policy – prosperity for
some peasants (sold crops & paid taxes)Right-hand man: Leon Trotsky
Military leader, led Stalin’s Red Army in many uprisings & revolutionary battles, including the defeat of the “White” army (the nobility) in the Civil War
COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT, CONT. Premier/Foreign Minister: Lenin/Trotsky Cabinet: Lenin insisted on an all-Bolshevik
cabinet Constituent Assembly: Although
Bolsheviks won only 25% of the popular vote, and moderate socialist groups won 62%, Lenin disbanded the Assembly after one meeting and banned all parties other than his own, which he had renamed the Communist Party.
Cheka: New police force, authorized to arrest and shoot immediately all members of counterrevolutionary organizations.
CIVIL WAR, 1917-1918 Civil war erupts
between Reds
(Bolsheviks) Whites
(anti-Bolsheviks) primarily displaced
nobility and foreign interests
War ends in 1918
TROUBLES IN THE U.S.S.R Military:
peace with Germany, but forced separation of Poland, Balkans and Ukraine from Russia;
American, Japanese, British and French troops in Russia, various anti-Bolshevik “white” armies
Economy: in shambles – huge industrial production drops, runaway inflation, plummeting foreign trade, peasant crops requisitioned for the cities, widespread famine
DEATH OF LENIN Death of Lenin:
several strokes from these pressures
POWER STRUGGLE Stalin
Better political maneuvering
TrotskyPreferred by LeninFought in
Revolution
LENIN’S SUCCESSOR: STALINStalin (meaning steel) political/military maneuvers:
armed robberies to replenish Bolshevik treasury,
alliance with two of Lenin’s top advisors, then betrayed them,
became basically the uncrowned Tsar of the Russians (caused Trotsky to flee)
FATE OF TROTSKY Trotsky was
exiled and later assassinated in Mexico by Stalin’s agentsFate of Trotsky:
befriended by a Soviet agent, then hacked to death
STALIN’S DICTATORSHIP Drew up new constitution, Communist party the core of all
public and state organizations (only 10% of population in this
elite group). He held no party congresses and
ran things by himself
DRIVE FOR INDUSTRIALIZATION
Drive to become industrializedeconomic
policy: forced industrialization and collective farming causing millions of deaths
Series of Five-Year plans to increase economic growth
COLLECTIVIZED FARMS Forced labor to cities Eliminated small farms to create large
“collectivized farms”Produce went to feed those building
factories and to sell for the financing of those factories
Many farmers tried to revolt, severely punished – killed or sent to Siberia
Farm production drops, massive famine in Soviet Union Decisions about farming made by bureaucrats Farmers were paid miserably – little incentive to
work
THE GREAT PURGE Arrests throughout
the party and the country Show trials to
eliminate any opposition to Stalin
Labor camps or executions
Forced confessions forced people to
confess to forms of treason, corruption and sabotage, all of whom were put to death
TOOLS OF STALIN The Cheka –
Stalin’s secret police (KGB)Coercion rather
than cooperation Propaganda
WORLD WAR II Non-Aggression Pact
Stalin allied himself with Hitler until Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 the Russians suffer heavy losses beating back
the Germans (20 million dead) Join the Allies
fights against the Germans/Japaneseat the end of the war, meets with Winston
Churchill & Franklin D. Roosevelt (Yalta Conference) to forge a lasting peace treaty and carve up Europe Note: Makes it hard for Orwell to sell Animal
Farm
YALTA CONFERENCE February 4–11, 1945 wartime meeting
United States – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Great Britain – Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Soviet Union – General Secretary Josef Stalin
Purpose -- discussing Europe’s postwar reorganization. the re-establishment of
the nations of war-torn Europe.
TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENTS
Russia Spain Italy GermanyJosef Stalin Francisco Franko Benito Mussolini Adolf Hitler
Totalitarianism: Government with strong central rule, that controls individuals by coercion and repression
ANIMAL FARM – LITERARY TERMS
LITERARY TECHNIQUES Satire
A literary genre that uses irony, wit, and sometimes sarcasm to ridicule people, ideas, or practices in an effort to improve society
Allegory A story or tale that has two levels of meaning.
The first is a surface-level story, with a second, and deeper level of meaning, which may be moral, political, philosophical, or religious. Characters often bear names that indicate the
qualities or ideas the author wishes to represent.
Personification Giving human characteristics to non-humans
LITERARY TERMS Utopia
An ideal place that does not exist in realityTerm comes from Greek words
Outopia = “no place” Eutopia = “good place”
DystopiaThe opposite of utopiaHorrific places, generally characterized by
oppressive societies Often shown as starting out as attempts to
achieve utopia
FINAL THOUGHTS Orwell replied that
though Animal Farm was ‘primarily a satire on the Russian Revolution’ it was intended to have a wider application. That kind of revolution, which he defined as ‘violent conspiratorial revolution, led by unconsciously power-hungry people’, could only lead to a change of masters.