In George Orwell's novel Animal Farm he writes a fairy tale with a meaning. In other words, it is about a bunch of animals living on a farm that decide to rebel against all humans starting with running their owner off by attack. This is compared to the Russian Revolution which is what I will be talking about in the paper. I will state which animal played which role and compare the animal to the person for whom they portray.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a rebellion of the Russian people against the rule of the Russian Empire. Russia was a country full of many unsatisfied people; the nation experienced a series of changes in the late 19th and 20th century that would ultimately bring about revolution. The Russian people were starving, industrialization was emerging and the middle class was asking to be a part of the ruling of the country. As a result of the revolution, Russia saw its withdrawal from World War I, major industrial growth and ultimately the spread Communism throughout the world. The inevitable causes of the Russian Revolution were the weaknesses of the Russian Empire, World War I and the collapse of the Tsar’s regime. The nation now began its path towards emerging as a world power following the revolution.
"Animal Farm" by George Orwell reminds people about the obvious facts of the Russian Revolution and the nature of Starling’s rise to power .Becoming a totalitarian dictator. In my point of view, I found the themes such as betrayal of the Russian Revolution and the way that goodwill can fall prey to ambition, selfishness and hypocrisy, power, leadership, corruption and control over the intellectually inferior. On the other hand "animal Farm” can be addressed as the "abuse of power".
Based on events in history, the chief cause of the Russian Revolution the Czar’s faults in regulating the country. “Russia was being poorly mismanaged by a Czarist government, and most of the Russian people were still underpaid laborers on land owned by wealthy landlords” (2) Animal Farm Background information (Worksheet). Another aspect of the Czar’s rule that led to the overall unhappiness of citizens was the fact that the Czar took command of the army during WWI while leaving the German Czarina in charge, convincing many soldiers that the war was a conspiracy, and ultimately ending in a loss of support for the Czar’s idea of government. Another major concern of citizens was the violent reactions of the Czar towards strikes and outcries for any kind of change.
One of Orwell's main reasons for writing Animal Farm was to show how the Russian (or Bolshevik Revolutionaries) Revolution of 1917 had resulted in turning a benevolent ideal of equality into a government of an even more oppressive, totalitarian, and dominating to the people, than the aristocratic one it had recently ousted. Many of the main characters (animals) and synapses of Orwell's parody, run parallel to the event of the Bolshevik Revolution: In Orwell’s novel, The Farm is a representation of Russia and its people, and the most important characters such as Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon parody the central figures that shaped it into the nation it came to be.
Russia's overthrows and shortage caused revolutionary upheaval and massive inflation, which led to deprived infrastructure. During World War I, Russian society naturally caused great dissatisfaction among the serfs. As the revolution wore on, numerous reform and Tsar Nicholas II, a ruler, tried to change Russia's social structure and government. Among the masses, there was discontentment with Russia's social system and living conditions. Laborers worked and lived in horrendous conditions, which played a crucial role in aggravating the condition of workers and peasants. As a result, peasants starved and Russia’s armies were overpowered on the battlefield because much of its terrain was occupied by enemies. Hence, Imperial Russia was a catastrophe. Some scholars believe that despite the Russian empire's undeveloped economic, social, and political weakness during World War I, Russian empire's economic and social advances occurred decades before World War I, which shows that World War I was not a crucial reason of the Russian Revolution. Although a reason of the Russian Revolution was possibly Tsar's deprived governance because of his misconduct towards inhabitants, the main cause of the Russian Revolution was World War I because The First War demonstrated poor infrastructure in the Russian government politically and economically.
The Russian Revolution was two revolutions. One was in "March of 1917" (Llewellyn, 2012) and the other one was in "October of 1917" (Llewellyn, 2012). The first revolution happened because "the Russian people wanted change" (Llewellyn, 2012). Tsar Nicholas II, the autocratic ruler of Russia. He clung stubbornly to his power and he believed that the power was to be his divine birthright. The people on the other hand would change the future of Russia, not God. The first revolution started as a peaceful march in Russia’s capital city. The march then grew into a torrent of protest. Within a week of the protest, Tsar Nicholas II had been toppled from power and replaced by an interim government. This government was filled with liberals and moderates. The new government lasted barely six months before the government was overthrown and replaced, this time by radical socialists. "This group, known as the Bolsheviks, struggled to keep their power by suppressing dissent and eliminating their opponents" (Llewellyn, 2012) The Bolsheviks also began planning Russia’s transformation which was from a backward economic state organized on medieval principles into a modern industrial and technological superpower. "This transformation alone made the Russian Revolution one of the most significant events in modern history for all countries" (Llewellyn, 2012).
The resignation of Nicholas II March 1917, in union with the organization of a temporary government in Russia built on western values of constitutional moderation, and the capture of control by the Bolsheviks in October is the political crucial opinions of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The actions of that historic year must also be viewed more broadly, however: as aburst of social strains associated with quick development; as a disaster of political modernization, in relations of the tensions sited on old-fashioned traditions by the burdens of Westernization; and as a social disruption in the widest sense, concerning a massive, unprompted expropriation of upper class land by fuming peasants, the devastation of outmoded social patterns and morals, and the scuffle for a new, democratic society.
Orwell's Comparing Animal Farm and The Russian System Of Communism Animal Farm is a satire and prophecy of the Russian revolution, which was written by George Orwell in 1945. George Orwell was a political satirist who led a somewhat strange life. His original name was 'Eric Arthur Blair', which was later changed to his familiar pen name for its 'manly, English, country-sounding ring'. He was a lonely boy and had many uncertain jobs until he finally became a writer, crossing political and artistic ideas into most of his books. The novel Animal Farm is George Orwell's way of portraying his ideas, criticisms and negative opinions on the Russian revolution, and therefore is negatively biased against Lenin's communist ideology and the revolution.
His novel as a fairy story is a satire, tragic book written to relate with the
Russian Revolution of October 1917 was the child of the antagonism of classes in contradictory imperialism. It started in poorly ruled environment of Tsarism, prepared by previous revolutions of 1905-6 (Hobsbawm, 1995, p.30). “So ready was Russia for social revolution that masses treated the fall of Tsar as a proclamation of universal freedom, equality and direct democracy. The uncontrolled masses transformed into Bolshevik power” (Hobsbawm, 1995, p.36). Many political parties had arose, however, not many of them knew how to rule the huge country. As country mainly was agrarian with more than eighty per-cent of peasants, who were hungry, landless and tired of the endless wars, Bolsheviks who represente...
Deplorable working conditions, strong ethnic divide, political repression and an autocratic rule where the underlying conditions that made the people of Russia desire a Bolshevik revolution. During the late 19th century everyone including the nobles were deep in debt because of the failed attempts of land reform. The final straw that really made the citizens of Russia to side with the Bolsheviks would be during World War I where even with their suffering economy they decided to go to war.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than other.” is one of the most famous quotes from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. From afar, Animal Farm is a fictitious novel with no real substance, but when carefully read, it is a chilling allegory of the horrors of the Russian Revolution. Orwell stresses in the novel, the dangers that go along with a bureaucratic or totalitarian regime. The novel supports the idea that Communism is an unethical and unjust system of government and damages society. While Orwell hides the fact that the novel has information, identical to events pertaining to Russia during the 1940’s, he utilizes it in an innocent way by using simple farm animals to directly compare different events and characters of the revolution.
During 1917 to 1924 Russia was experiencing vast political, economic and social change that began with the Bolshevik revolution. The First World War had left Russia in a disastrous state where the nation, was facing alot of social unrest and facing a major uprising. During this time, the Bolsheviks who had just seized control, undertook several measures to establish their authority including the declaration of initial reforms ie the land decree marriage decree and the decree on workers, the signing of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, fighting the Civil War, starting the ideologies of War Communism, starting the red terror and finally introducing the New Economic Policy NEP. All of these actions were each extremely significant in helping the
The saying “history repeats itself” is used quite often, but how many times have you actually seen it happen? The book Animal Farm portrays the idea of history repeating itself. The character Benjamin and the pigs in the story show history repeating itself throughout the book. In addition to these characters within the book, North Korea displays history's repetition outside the book.