1. Animal Farm by George Orwell
The History

2. Historical Context
Book is an allegory for the Russian Revolution ( )
Criticism of how the Russians neglected/corrupted Communism and Stalin

4. The Tsar Tsar Nicholas II ruled Russia (dynasty lasted 3 centuries)
Autocracy: ruler had absolute power
The Tsar was disliked – seen as taking all the money while the commoners starved (think Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution)
High rates of poverty and inflation
Food shortages
Alexandra was half German (relied too much on Rasputin)

7. Mass Execution Family was under house arrest
Tsar, Tsarina, 4 children and 4 servants
Lined up in the basement and shot; those who didn’t die of bullet wounds were stabbed with bayonets
“I heard the firing. I returned to the house immediately (only two or three minutes having elapsed) and upon entering the room where the execution had taken place, I saw that all the members of the Tsar's family were lying on the floor with many wounds in their bodies. The blood was running in streams. The doctor, the maid and two waiters had also been shot. When I entered the heir was still alive and moaned a little. Yurovsky went up and fired two or three more times at him. Then the heir was still.“ (one of the guards)

8. Mass Execution Fire, acid, and grenades used to destroy identities
Bodies thrown down nearby mine shaft
Dug up a few days later and reburied in two graves in the woods

10. Frozen to Death: Siberian Gulags
Videos
The Romanovs
Stalin’s Death Camps
Finding the Romanovs
Frozen to Death: Siberian Gulags
Stalin’s Purges

11. Karl Marx
wrote Communist Manifesto (ideas about government and life) – Communism is a natural evolution of society towards equality
Believed the Capitalists were taking advantage of the working classes
Class struggle:
Bourgeoisie: capitalists, owned most of the wealth
Proletariat: working class
Believed the way to equality was through revolution
What’s the problem with this?

12. The Bolsheviks Radical political group 1917: took over government
Eventually became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

13. Vladimir Lenin family had problems with government in past a rebel
became a lawyer
disliked the class bias
Formed a union
Was arrested and sent into exile in Siberia for 3 years
Came back to Russia during WW1
1918: assassination attempt
1922: fell ill,; paralyzed from assassin’s bullet
Was worried what Stalin and Trotsky would do to government
Several strokes led to death

14. Joseph Stalin Was Georgian, not Russian
Created the name ‘stalin’ (steel)
Joined political underground
Several arrests, imprisonments, and exiles
Not the best father (didn’t accept a trade with Germans for his captured son – WW2)
Became important in party committees
Began a pseudo-cult in memory of Lenin
Ignored some of Lenin’s policies

15. Joseph Stalin
Began to have ‘five year plans’ towards industrialization
Turned private farms into state farms
Shot or exiled dissident farmers or sent them to labor camps
Terrible famine in Ukraine (~10 million peasants died)
Everyone had to LOVE Stalin – he was given credit for every good thing that happened
Totalitarian Dictatorship

19. The Purges – The Great Terror
1934
started killing off members of political parties and basically anyone he didn’t like
Disloyalty = execution; prison camps
Communist Leadership: 93/139
Military: 81/103 (generals)
Communist Party:~1/3million
~20 million sent to Gulag (labor camps in Siberia)…~half died
Some put estimate at million dead
Secret Police (precursor to KGB)

20. Leon Trotsky Political activist Opponent to Stalin
Very charismatic; great public speaker; very intellectual
Spent time in prison and in exile
Military leader of Revolution
Vied for power after Lenin’s death
Exiled from Russia and later assassinated

21. Timeline 1894: Former Tsar dies and Nicholas II takes over
1905: Bloody Sunday
Unarmed workers petitioning for more rights march on palace; Nicholas isn’t there; guards shoot into the crowd to disperse the people; kill ~100
WW1: Russia suffers horrible losses and people blame Nicholas
1916: Rasputin murdered by nobles

22. Timeline 1917: riots; Nicholas abdicates and Lenin takes over
puts industry under government control
Brings infrastructure (electricity) – especially important after devastation of WW2
1918: Nicholas and his family imprisoned and executed
1924: Lenin dies, Stalin takes over
1928: Trotsky exiled
1940: Trotsky assassinated
1953: Stalin dies suddenly of heart attack (??)

23. Timeline 1976: Tsar’s family found by a team of Russian scientists
1994: DNA confirmed Nicholas, Alexandra, 3 kids and 4 servants
1998: reburied in cathedral in St. Petersburg
2000: Russian Orthodox Church designated the family as saints (lowest possible rank)
2007: DNA confirmed last two family members identities
2008: Russian Supreme Court ruled the executions were wrong and ‘pardoned’ the family

24. George Orwell British author, b. 1903 – d. 1950
Real name Eric Arthur Blair
Political; fought in Spanish Civil War
Satirist
1945: Animal Farm
1949: 1984 (bleak dystopian novel)
Both very successful
Died of Tuberculosis

25. Orwell’s Beliefs
Actually believed that there was merit to a communal society.
He was a socialist.
Saw corruption though as obstacle to equality

26. Type of Literature Allegory: a tale told through symbols
Story must be simple enough and the symbols must be clear enough that audience understands the ‘real’ story
Satire: a work that uses humor to ridicule or criticize views or ideas
Not only covers up the real people/subject but also gives more power through symbols

27. Reception
Wasn’t published right away because British publishers thought it would offend the Soviets
Some criticism that the story didn’t follow history closely enough
One of the most often read books for high school

28. Sources

29. Sources http://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon- Trotsky