Czar Nicholas II

683 Words2 Pages

We’ve all heard of Anastasia, right?, the classical tale of a young girl escaping the brutal execution of her family. Well her father, Czar Nicholas II, was the last Russian emperor and pretty much caused the whole “Anastasia” story to happen in the first place. His story is told more through the book Animal Farm, a novel written by George Orwell. This is an allegorical tale that reflects the events of the Russian Revolution. Animal Farm and Czar Nicholas II is connected to the real life events in the Russian Revolution in that his poor leadership skills affect his rule negatively, Farmer Jones is used to represent him, and his representation is accurate and relatable to readers. Czar Nicholas’ poor leadership forced him to abdicate and caused the Bolshevik takeover. One of the reasons I say that is because of the way he handled “Bloody Sunday”. “Bloody Sunday” was when troops killed over a thousand people in a peaceful worker assembly. After “Bloody Sunday”, workers all over Russia went on strike, and peasants caused uprisings that were suppressed by Nicholas II’s troops causing tensions to increase. Another reason was his disastrous involvement in World War I. In the beginning of the war, Russia’s armies did not do well. To fix this, Nicholas became the commander. Now under his command, their continued failure reflected the Czar himself, further decreasing his popularity. Lastly, civil unrest grew as food riots, chronic food shortages, and labor strikes continued to proceed. This eventually erupted into open revolt, and Czar Nicholas had no choice but to abdicate. Soon after, the new government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. Czar Nicholas II was portrayed through the character Mr. Jones, the owner of th... ... middle of paper ... ...e money for themselves. Secondly, he compares the living conditions of the farm animals to the humans because readers would be able to understand the economic issues at the time of the Russian Revolution without needing to expound upon the living conditions of Czar Nicholas and the peasants. Lastly, he uses alcoholism to symbolize Czar Nicholas’ inadequacy to rule because alcoholism is a generally known problem so readers would automatically have the impression of Mr. Jones being an inefficient farmer. Animal Farm accurately depicts the Russian Revolution and Czar Nicholas as a whole because it correctly shows how his lack of leadership impacted his reign, makes the connection between him and Mr. Jones, and relates them in a way that is understandable. The story of Czar Nicholas II is basically part 1 to Anastasia, but come on, Anastasia has nothing on Animal Farm!

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