The Analogue Situation In Soviet Union And Animal Farm
When Eric Blair, writing under the pen name of George Orwell, published his book Animal Farm in 1945, it became a literary phenomenon throughout Europe, and then the world. The allegorical novel aligning with the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union became a weapon against totalitarianism exposing the malignant nature of communism. As represented by the events in Animal Farm the corruption of leaders affects the lives of many.
Spreading ideas that engendered the future, Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Represented by Old Major in Animal Farm, Marx played an important role in the Russian Revolution by equivocating communism, it’s diffusion spanning all nations. Creating an illusion of Utopia, he captivated the proletariat. Creating an illusion of Utopia, he planted the seeds of revolution into the people of Russia’s minds. Vladimir Lenin led the people to this supposed paradise when he dismantled Czar Nicholas II, an ignorant and uneducated ruler, from his throne and established Soviet Russia. Lenin also, is represented by Old Major whose dream sparked the animals into rebellion and founded animalism. In appealing to the innate desire to be free and relying on the fact that “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free”, he sows the ideas of animalism and freedom into the animal’s minds (Orwell 7) . The irony of this is that later, the animals become just as enslaved to a ruthless dictator as prior to the rebellion.
Rising to the scene after the death of Lenin, came Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky, a man whose plan for the Soviet Union would bring it into the future, was favored to become ruler until he was exiled to Mexico. Stalin, who originally scoffed at Trotsky’s plan for the nation, seized the Five Year Plan to industrialize Russia and claimed it as his own. This event, analogous to the windmill plans and the banishment of Snowball.
When Eric Blair, writing under the pen name of George Orwell, published his book Animal Farm in 1945, it became a literary phenomenon throughout Europe, and then the world. The allegorical novel aligning with the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union became a weapon against totalitarianism exposing the malignant nature of communism. As represented by the events in Animal Farm the corruption of leaders affects the lives of many.
Spreading ideas that engendered the future, Karl Marx published the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Represented by Old Major in Animal Farm, Marx played an important role in the Russian Revolution by equivocating communism, it’s diffusion spanning all nations. Creating an illusion of Utopia, he captivated the proletariat. Creating an illusion of Utopia, he planted the seeds of revolution into the people of Russia’s minds. Vladimir Lenin led the people to this supposed paradise when he dismantled Czar Nicholas II, an ignorant and uneducated ruler, from his throne and established Soviet Russia. Lenin also, is represented by Old Major whose dream sparked the animals into rebellion and founded animalism. In appealing to the innate desire to be free and relying on the fact that “No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free”, he sows the ideas of animalism and freedom into the animal’s minds (Orwell 7) . The irony of this is that later, the animals become just as enslaved to a ruthless dictator as prior to the rebellion.
Rising to the scene after the death of Lenin, came Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky, a man whose plan for the Soviet Union would bring it into the future, was favored to become ruler until he was exiled to Mexico. Stalin, who originally scoffed at Trotsky’s plan for the nation, seized the Five Year Plan to industrialize Russia and claimed it as his own. This event, analogous to the windmill plans and the banishment of Snowball in Animal Farm, foreshadowed Stalin’s rule. Lying to his people, cheating his people, killing his people, Stalin strove to achieve the status of a god. Napoleon, to the animals, seemed to be a god as well, “never spoken of simply as ‘Napoleon.’ He was always referred to in formal style as ‘our Leader, Comrade Napoleon’ and the pigs liked to invent from him such titles as Father of Animals”(Orwell 93). Both Stalin and Napoleon took advantage of their people, restricting their education and feeding them propaganda and enforcing brutal labor, all to satisfy their lust for power. Their corruption coupled with their restriction of education of their peoples corrupted the ideas of communism and animalism. In one instance, Stalin admits “ideas are more powerful than guns”, an adage used against him by Orwell, who warned the world of the fallibility of communism–a system that only brings grief. After Napoleon killed the traitor animals, Clover “feeling this to be in some way a substitute for the words she was unable to find, she began to sing Beasts of England. … slowly and mournfully, in a way they had never sung it before.” to express the dream of hope and freedom tainted by the actions of Napoleon, and to mourn what they had become (Orwell 87).
Used as a warning against communism, Animal Farm also warns of a lack of education. Uneducated, the masses are easily swayed and kept ignorant. Orwell attempts to uncover the fact that communism does not work, as well as being uneducated and naive leads to the opportunity for corrupted officials to convert the country to communism.
