Stalin/Trotsky Related to 1984
Stalin
- He was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's
Central Committee from 1922 until death in 1953
- In April 1917 Stalin was elected to the Central Committee at a Party conference
- April 3, 1922, Stalin was made general secretary of the Central Committee of the
All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
- Rose to power by manipulating his opponents and playing them off each other.
Zinoviev, and Kamenev against Trotsky; and Bukharin and Rykov against
Zinoviev and Kamenev
- Lenin's death in 1924, he achieved supreme power through his control of the party
organization.
- Enforced collectivization of agriculture and intensive industrialization,
suppressing all opposition.
- Stalinism
 is the political regime named after Joseph Stalin
 includes an extensive use of propaganda to establish a personality cult
around an absolute dictator, as well as extensive use of the secret police to
maintain social submission and silence political dissent.
- Salinistic economic policy
1. To increase military strength
2. To achieve self-sufficiency
3. The Move towards a Socialist society
4. Personal Motivation
Relevance to Forward and Orwell
 Stalin = Big Brother
 Spanish Civil War- During war began to realize the true nature of
Stalin’s rule of Russia.
 Animal Farm- led by the pigs the animals’ revolt against their
human masters. Napoleon is Stalin
Relevance to 1984
 The Oceanian society was based on the Stalin-era Soviet Union
 Big brother resembles Stalin in many ways
 Party in 1984 uses posters and telescreens  Stalin used “The
Poster” and The Pravda to manipulate the minds of people
 physically manipulate society through the control of language and
technology - “The Party” in 1984 keeps citizens under surveillance
through the telescreens. The same way Stalin’s Russian society
behaved the same way
Trotsky
- Russian revolutionary theoretician
- He was elected the president of the Petrograd Soviet (workers’ council) during the
failed 1905 Russian Revolution
- 1917 elected head of Soviet
- Led the October Revolution
- Trotsky founded and led the Red Army, saving the infant revolution from being
crushed.
- Death of Lenin in 1924 with others founded the Left Opposition to fight Stalinism
- Later exiled by Stalin and tracked by Stalinist assassins across the globe
- 1938 founded Fourth International
- 1940 Stalin’s assassin’s found him in Coyacun and put an ice pick through his
head
Relevance to Forward and Orwell
 Trotsky = Emmanuel Goldstein
 Animal Farm- Trotsky is Snowball: Shows Snowball as brilliant and
inventive, but also shows his darker side when he supports Napoleon
 Orwell preferred Trotsky to Stalin -- saw him as lesser of the two evils
Relevance to 1984
 Goldstein is against Big Brother like Trotsky was against Stalin
 Winston and Julia both have to swear to complete unconditional
obedience suggesting that the Brotherhood is just as controlling as the
Party  Brotherhood represents the Trotskyists, whom Orwell saw as
little different fundamentally from the Communists
 Trotsky wrote Life of Stalin  Goldstein wrote The Theory and
Practice of Oligarchical Collectivists
Works Cited
"Background Information for George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four." Netcharles. 1995. Charles'
George Orwell Links. 13 Jan. 2008 <http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/1984background-info.htm>.
Jeffery, Brooks. "Stalin and 1984." Slashdoc. Oct. 2005. IO/UD Productions. 13 Jan. 2008
<http://www.slashdoc.com/documents/61503>.
Lovell. "Leon Trotsky." Geocities. Youth for Socialist Action. 13 Jan. 2008
<http://www.geocities.com/youth4sa/trotskybio.html>.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: The New American Library, 1949. 5-267.
Pynchon, Thomas. "Forward." Foreword. 1984. By George Orwell. New York: New American
Library, 1961. 5-267.
"Stalinism." Wikipedia. 31 Dec. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Jan. 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism>.
Williams, Rhodri. "Opinions : Essays : Orwell's Political Messages." George Orwell. June 1997.
K1 Internet Publishing. 13 Jan. 2008 <http://www.k1.com/Orwell/site/opinion/essays/rhodi.html>.