An Allegory: Animal Farm and the Russian

Revolution

BY: DISHITA AGARWAL

 George Orwell
George Orwell was born in 1903, in India. He was the son of a civil servant.
He was educated in England. He joined the Indian Imperial Police. In 1927
he tried to become a writer in Paris, but he was not successful. He had to
take many jobs to meet ends. He wrote a book about this experience in
1933. Then he wrote Burmese Days in 1934. He was an Anarchist in 1920
and a Socialist in 1930. He wrote about poverty among minors. He lived in
Spain but had to flee from Communist Soviets. This made him Anti-Stalin.
In 1941-1943 he wrote propaganda for BBC. In 1943 he was the literary
editor of the Tribune. In 1954 he wrote Animal Farm which was based on
Stalin and his betrayal of the Russian Revolution. He wrote the book 1984
in 1949 where he predicated and imaginary totalitarian future.

Russian Revolution
During World War I Woman and Man started to protest in Petrograd. Czar
Nicholas was abdicated and there was no ruler. Two groups arose. The
Duma (Upper Middle Class) and the Soviets (Workers and Builders). The
Duma eventually became the provisional government. The abolish the
death penalty, stopped the exile and much more. But they did not deal with
the war, land reform, and a better-quality life. They decided to continue to
fight. Meanwhile, Lenin returned from exile on a train and started to
persuade people to overrule the Duma because they did not give peace,
land, and bread. He eventually got a following and with the Bolsheviks was
able to take over Russia and Duma. Lenin died but Stalin continued. Their
goal did not work because there was civil war.
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
-Evidence of plant and animal domestication appears clearly about 10,000
years ago in the Middle East (Jericho and Çatalhöyük)
-Previously, humans gathered wild plants and hunted animals. Earlier,
hominids scavenged animals killed by other predators

CAUSES:
 human population increased, so more reliable sources of food were
needed.
 The climate became more conducive to plant cultivation.
 The gradual experimentation by gatherers of wild plants (mostly
women) led to dependence on plant cultivation.

EFFECTS:
 The global population increased
-World population was six to eight million around 8,000 BCE
-World population was around 300 million in 1 CE
 Labor divided into food-producing and non-food-producing jobs
 hierarchies in economic and political organization of human societies.
 Social complexity increased and created greater differences in the
responsibilities and powers of the genders.
 Population density increased leading to more diseases and a need
for a higher birth rate.
 The types of pottery, irrigation, and metallurgy technologies increase
 SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

-Causes:
 The scientific method uses observation and experimentation to explain theories
on the workings of the universe.
 Nicolaus Copernicus developed the heliocentric model of the universe.
 Galileo continues Copernicus' work by observing the skies with a homemade
telescope.
 Isaac Newton built upon the earlier work of Copernicus and Galileo and used
mathematics to describe gravity as the force that keeps planets revolving around
the sun.
 The invention of the printing press created numerous books and newsletters to
keep people informed of science.
 Powerful leaders of nation-states funded scientific development.
 Constant warfare among nation-states pushed for scientific development by
placing an importance on technology. - Great advances made by Portuguese
navigators fueled an interest in learning more about the stars.
 King John funded mathematics in Portugal, Queen Elizabeth created Gresham
College, and King Charles II helped start the Royal Society and the Naval
Laboratories.
 Reformation led to the questioning of religion.

-Effects:
 The use of the Scientific Method resulted in discoveries in medicine, physics, and
biology.
 The Enlightenment changed the way people lived as political and social scholars
began to question the workings of society and government.
 Rene Descartes said that human reason was capable of discovering and
explaining the laws of nature and man.
 Thomas Hobbes based his theories on government on his belief that man was
basically greedy, selfish, and cruel.
 John Locke's theories were that all men have natural rights of life, liberty, and
property.
 Baron de Montesquieu states that government should divide itself according to its
powers, creating a judicial, legislative, and executive branch.
 Voltaire believed that freedom of speech was the best weapon against bad
government.
 Jean Jacques Rousseau stated that people were basically good, and that
society, and its unequal distribution of wealth, were the cause of most problems.
 People began to question religion and looked to math and science to explain the
universe.
 Women became more involved with the new science.
 Scientific colleges were created
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

-CAUSES:
 Favorable climate
 Increase in food production due to agricultural revolution caused prices to
drop
 Financial institution
 Profit, private property-economic prosperity
 Mineral resources
 Good transportation
 Colonial empire-ready consumers
-The process of change from a agrarian and handicraft economy to one
dominated by industry and machine manufacturing.
-It began in Britain in the 18th century then spread across the world

-CULTURAL EFFECTS:
 Broad order
 New and distinctive skills
 Relationship to work changed
 Factory discipline
-SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS:
 Agriculture improvement: more food
 Wider distribution of wealth
 Increased international trade
 Shift in economic power: new state policies
 Growth of cities
 Working class movement
 New patterns of authority
-TECHNOLOGICAL EFFECTS:
 New basic materials: steel, iron
 New energy sources: fuel and motives powers:coal, steam engine,
petroleum, internal-combustion engine
 New machines: spinning jenny, powerloom
 New organization of work: factory system-specialized function, division of
labour
 New transportation: locomotive, steam ship,automobile, airplane
 New communication: radio, telegraph
-increase use of natural resources and mass production of manufactured goods
-Britain and Belgium: iron, coal, and textiles, German: steel, chemicals, US,
Japan, Soviet Union, China, India
 ARE REVOLUTIONS SUCCESSFUL?
Revolutions in general are successful. They lead to major changes.

Most of these changes can be positive, while other might be problems of

those changes. For example, In the Industrial Revolution, a new workplace,

The Factory was established, and we were able to mass produce, but

many people also got severely sick because of factory conditions. In the

Neolithic revolution, almost everything was a big great leap, but It also led

to problems between city-states and their resources. Now, those problems

were bad and caused fights and instability, but they led to good things like

government and civilization.

Political Revolution are more variable. They can have good things but

many of those things will not be beneficial for the whole world. They are

more based on who will win the wars and fate more than science and

innovation. They are based on people’s decision which are not the best

sources. They might think what they are doing is great but in the long run, it

will not make a difference. The good things sometimes cannot out rule the

bad things, so It cannot be taken either way.

DISHITA AGARWAL ANIMAL FARM T CHARTS
CHARACTERS CHARACTERISTICS
Old Major prized middle boar, highly
regarded, majestic, wise,
benevolent
Benjamin Old donkey, cynical, worst temper,
Three Dogs Mothers, and workers, providers,
Jessie, Bluebell, Pincher
Boxer Male beast horse, strong, steady,
powerful
Clover Female, stout, motherly, not
intelligent, helpless, see
incongruities but can’t fix them
Napoleon Berkshire boar, fierce, large,
secluded, few public appearances
Moses Tame raven, spy, gossip, clear
talker, gives Sugarland ideas
Snowball Young pig on sale, more intelligent
than napoleon, brilliant,
progressive-know evil
Squealer Argumentative, round, twinkling
eyes, persuasive, nimble, liaison
Sheep Loyal tenants, follow rules, work
hard, never question
Pinkeye Napoleon’s taster to make sure
nothing is poisoned
Muriel White goat, not opiniated, read
wells, subtle, revelatory influence,
optimistic
Cat Lazy, indifferent
Minimus Songs, propaganda, poems
KEY PEOPLE IN RUSSIAN REV. CHARACTERISTICS
Joseph Stalin Use military force to intimidate and
consolidate power
Czar Nicholas II Last czar, wealthy, but ineffective
Karl Marx Father of Marxism, made theories
that were hard to input
Leon Trotsky Encourage revolution outside of
Soviet Union, progressive politician
KGB agency Joseph Stalin fostered and
used to terrorize and commit
atrocities upon the Soviet Union’s
populace
Soviet Union Artist forced to use their talents to glorify
communism rather than express
their personal feelings or beliefs
Petit Bourgeois unwilling to conform to the new
regime, fled Russia after the
Revolution
Allies hesitance to enter the War,
explored trade with the Soviet
Union in the years leading up to
World War II but kept a watchful
distance
Totalitarian Government Used propaganda machine,
dictatorship, requires complete
loyalty
Vladimir Lenin the foremost of the three authors of
the Russian Revolution and the
formation of the Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler Bad Dictator, worst person alive,
exotic and cruel tortures - horror
stories emerging from Nazi
Germany
KEY FEATURES ANIMAL FARM RUSSIAN REV.
Share Pigs get all, harder workers, distribution, Communism
Animalism
Ideas Moses keeps telling that Sugarland exist, Communist are against Religion,
people disagree they don’t want another set of
beliefs
Selfish People Napoleon, pigs have secret activities, trick Totalitarian government says
people for power, and look good to public they do the best for the people,
but they are just power hungry
Dedicated/Tricked, Sheep, clover, boxer, pinkeye, were all loyal People who stayed loyal to
uneducated tenants but they never questioned the government
Supporters government
Skeptics, Hesitators Whymper has a business mind and ignores Nations that conducted
what’s going on in the farm, Pilkington businesses, Allies are hesitant
keeps a watchful distance from the animals to join trade with the Soviets
but vows to keep a positive relationship
Apathy Benjamin thinks that life is hard, and change Orwell is politically pessimistic,
is futile he predicts that the west will be
overtaken
Terrorizing Agencies Dogs were set up to be guards by Napoleon The KBG agency Joseph Stalin
fostered was used to terrorize
and commit atrocities
Broken Agreements Frederick agreement to buy timber was Nazi Soviet Non-Aggression
broken with his fake banknote Treaty was broken by the Nazi
invasion
Flawed Government Jones was corrupt and fatally flawed in Czar Nicholas II caused
keeping the farm animals happy discontent and revolution he
was later executed
Forced Use of Minimus creates song and poems as Soviet Union Artist were forced
Talents propaganda for Napoleon to use their art as propaganda
than talent
Fled People Mollie did not like the new revolution, she Petit Bourgeois were peasants
liked when she was fed sugar, and didn’t and workers that were unhappy
have to work to hard for rights so she ran and fled Russia after the
away Revolution
Bad Leaders Napoleon was a bad pig that kept secrets, Stalin was power hungry, did
Frederick tortured animals and cheated secret things, Hitler tortured his
them people
Founders Old Major had a dream and told people how Lenin came back form exile and
they were being treated badly promoted revolution but died too
early to help
Political Theories Old Major made many theories in his Marx made many theories about
speech about a greater life but couldn’t do a way life called Marxism
any of it
Propaganda Squealer was a sweet looking pig who was Totalitarian Government used
used to convince the animals that the pigs propaganda machines and fake
were right news to get more followers
Progressive People Snowball wants to make many technological Trotsky want to make more
Exp. advances but propaganda represents him revolutions, advances, but he
as evil was banished from Russia

Open Ended Questions

1. Do you think Benjamin represented Orwell? Why do you

think it was important to add a character like this?

2. Do you think there are some major personality modifications

that Orwell did to the real person’s representative? If so, how
does this impact the story?

3. Was using literature instead a sort of informational essay a

better way to talk about the Russian Revolution?

4. Do you think that this tory is a positive or negative take on

the Russian Revolution in general? Why?
5. Are there some things in the book that are lighter or harsher
than what happened in real life? How?