Animal Farm
Background
Important Terms
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Communism
Socialism
Capitalism
Bolshevik
Menshevik
Fascism
Totalitarianism
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Proletariat
Propaganda
Czar
Abdicate
Duma
Provisional
government
Important People
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Czar Alexander III
Czar Nicholas II
Czarovich Alexis
Czarina Alexandra
Rasputin
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Karl Marx
Josef Stalin
V.I. Lenin
Leon Trotsky
Czar Nicholas II
•1865-1918
•The last Czar of Russia
Important Events:
•Russo-Japanese War
(1904-05)
•World War I
Czarina Alexandra
•Wife of Nicholas II
•Superstitious
•Disliked and distrusted by
the Russian people
Romanov Family
Romanov Family
Czarovich Alexi
•Heir to the Russian
throne
•Nicholas II’s only son
•Suffered from
hemophilia
Rasputin
• “The Mad Monk”
• known as a faith
healer and pervert
• brought into the royal
household to heal
Alexi
• probably helped Alexi
through hypnosis
Meanwhile...
Life in Russia
•Russia is behind in the Industrial Revolution; they still
rely primarily on agriculture.
•The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 left the countryside
in deep poverty.
•While the nobility live in luxury, most people live in abject
poverty.
•Lack of food provokes riots.
•The ideals of communism are very appealing to many.
•Two groups arise supporting Communism: the Bolsheviks
and the Mensheviks.
Marxism
•Marxism predicts the
downfall of capitalist
societies.
•It defines history as the
struggle between the haves
and the have-nots.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Primary Theories:
•Theory of Alienation
•Theory of Surplus Value
Capitalism
•Private ownership of the means of production:
labor and raw materials
•Industry operated for profit
•Marketplace ruled by laws of supply and
demand and competition
Communism
•In pure communism, everything is held “in common” and
distributed for the good of the entire community.
•The private individual owns nothing.
Problems:
•Who decides how to distribute the resources?
•Who oversees the leaders?
•“Who will guard the guards?”
A guide to political theory - "Politicows"
Pure Communism: You have two cows. Your neighbors
help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
Russian Communism: You have two cows. You have to
take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
Pure Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes
them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You
have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk
as you need.
Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.
Totalitarianism: You have two cows. The government takes both and
denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and
buy a bull.
American Capitalism: You don't have any cows. The
bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you
don't have any cows to put up as collateral.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin
1870-1924
Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov
Expelled from the University of
Kazan for radical views
Studied Marxist philosophy
between 1893 and 1902
Changed his name to Lenin
In 1895 Lenin was arrested and
sent to Siberia
Bolshevik Leaders
In Siberia, Lenin
organized the
Bolshevik wing of
the Social
Democratic Labor
Party (1903).
Leon Trotsky
1879-1940
born Lev Davidovich Bronstein
He became a professional
revolutionary at age 18.
He was arrested and sent to Siberia
in 1898.
In 1902, he began his affiliation
with Bolshevik party.
For a while, he sided with the
Mensheviks, but eventually, he
rejoined the Bolshevik party.
First Commisar of Foreign Affairs
Josef Stalin
1879-1953
born Joseph Vissarionovich
Djugashvili
His family was very poor.
His father was an abusive alcoholic.
Stalin’s mother wanted him to
become a priest.
He entered seminary, but found the
discipline too harsh.
In 1898, he became involved with
the radical movement.
When the Social Democratic
Party split in 1903, Stalin
supported the Bolsheviks and
began his association with Lenin.
In 1912, Lenin appointed Stalin
to the Bolshevik Central
Committee.
At this time, he began using the
name Stalin, meaning “Man of
Steel.”
He was arrested and sent to
Siberia in 1913.
Russia is ripe for revolution.
St. Petersburg
• In 1915, Russia was involved in WWI, and Nicholas was
identified with the army’s failures.
• WWI weakened the army.
• Food shortages provoked a riot in the streets of
Petrograd in 1917.
• The soldiers mutinied and refused to fire on the rioters.
• The Duma demanded that Nicholas transfer power to a
parliamentary government
• Sensing that the provisional government was weak, and
the time was right for revolution, Lenin mobilized the
Bolshevik party and began to seek support among the
people with the slogan “Peace, Land, and Bread.”
Food demonstration in Petrograd in 1905
On the night of
November 6-7, 1917, the
Bolsheviks seized power
in Petrograd in the name
of the Soviets*.
*A Soviet is a party of Russian workers.
*USSR= United Soviet Socialist Republic
re-enactment of the Storming of the Winter Palace
1918 Civil War
Lenin’s policies of “war communism” provoked anti-Bolshevik
resistance.
War communism: Lenin requisitioned grain from the countryside
to feed the cities and nationalized all industry
Menshevik forces (the Whites) mobilized against the Bolsheviks
(the Reds).
In 1921, the New Economic Policy was instituted, which restored
some private ownership of property.
By 1922, the Bolsheviks were firmly in power.
The Royal family is secretly executed.
• The family is told that they are being rescued.
• They sew jewels into their clothes in preparation to leave.
• They are taken into a cellar and shot; because of the jewels
the bullets ricochet.
• They are stabbed.
• The bodies are loaded onto a cart and taken into the
woods.
• They are buried in a mass grave.
• The bodies are burned and the remains have acid poured
on them.
• Why did the Bolsheviks need to get rid of the royal family?
In January 21, 1924, Lenin died of a
stroke at the age of 53.
Lenin’s Funeral
Lenin’s body was
embalmed and on
display in a glass
coffin.
In three days more
than one million of
people visited the
Pillared Hall to say
fare-well to Lenin
Stalin becomes the leader of
Russia after Lenin’s death.
• In 1928, Stalin began driving out anyone who
opposed him, including Trotsky (exiled in 1929).
• In 1928, Stalin seized land from the middle-class
to help fund industrialization.
• In 1928, Stalin began his series of Five-Year Plans
to industrialize Russia.
• In December, 1934, Kirov was assassinated, and
Stalin used this to begin the Great Purges.
• During the Great Purges, Stalin staged the
Moscow show trials.
• By 1939, 98 of the 139 central committee
members had been shot.
• 1,108 of the 1,966 delegates to the 17th
congress were arrested.
• Most were later executed.
• Deaths are estimated to have been in the
millions.
• Stalin has control of the country through a
secret police force.
Meanwhile, Stalin is cultivating a cult of
adoration that proclaimed him a genius in
every field and the Savior of Russia.
Russia is now a Fascist state.
Totalitarianism
Fascism
• a form of government in
which all societal resources
are monopolized by the
state to control all aspects
of public and private life.
• The government controls
the media and education at
all levels.
• The government controls
the population primarily
through propaganda.
• includes all aspects of
totalitarianism, but takes it
even further
• The government controls
the population primarily
through violence and fear.
• A secret police force is
essential.
• Terrorism is an officially
endorsed policy.
Stalin’s successes
•Stalin was successful in industrializing Russia.
•Because of Russia’s industrial strength, Russia was successful
in WWII.
•Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt were impressed
with Stalin’s skill as a negotiator at the Allied conferences.
•Stalin successfully brought Russia into the Twentieth Century.
• In 1945, Stalin was at the height of his power
and prestige.
• He was regarded as his country’s savior by
millions.
• However, between 1945 and 1953, Stalin
became more repressive.
• In early 1953, he announced that he had
uncovered a plot among the Kremlin’s corps of
doctors.
• Many expected another Great Purge.
• Stalin died suddenly in March 5, 1953.
Red Square meeting Stalin’s death
•Stalin’s reputation declined in the USSR after
Nikita Khrushchev revealed many of Stalin’s
crimes in 1956.
•Khrushchev’s successor’s down-played antiStalinist rhetoric.
•It was not until Mikhael Gorbechev’s policy
of glasnov (openness) in 1989 that the
majority of the details of Stalin’s rule were
made public.