(1903-1950)
Real Name: Eric Blair
British Political Novelist
Born: To English parents in India
After his father
retired, Eric and
his family moved
back to England.
He was sent to boarding school at
the age of eight to prepare for
Eton, an exclusive prep school.
Because he had a scholarship, he
was teased and humiliated
frequently.
At eighteen, he passed the Empire’s
Civil Service Exam and became a police officer
in Burma.
Returned in Europe
Socialist: someone
who believes that the
government should
own businesses so that
everyone will be equal
Most fables have two levels of meaning. On the surface,
the fable is about animals. But on a second level, the
animals stand for types of people or ideas. The way the
animals interact and the way the plot unfolds says
something about the nature of people or the value of ideas.
Any type of fiction that has multiple levels of meaning in
this way is called an allegory.
A composition making fun of
something, usually political.
Animal Farm makes fun of
political society after the
Bolshevik Revolution.
Russian society in the early
twentieth century had two social
classes: a tiny minority
(bourgeoisie) controlled the
country’s wealth.
The working class was called the
proletariat.
Czar Nicholas II
•
•
•
•
•
Made poor military decisions
Russians blamed him for the bad economy
Simply did not have leadership qualities
High poverty rates, no food
Overthrown by his people
Communism arose in Russia when the
nation’s workers & peasants rebelled
against and overwhelmed the wealthy and
powerful class of capitalists & aristocrats.
Communism
• aims to replace private property and a
profit-based economy with public
ownership and communal control of at least
the major means of production (e.g., mines,
mills, and factories) and the natural
resources of a society.
• BUT, what happens is the government
controlled by a totalitarian state dominated
by a single and self-perpetuating political
party.
February Revolution of 1917
• begins on this day in 1917, when riots and
strikes over the scarcity of food erupt.
• most Russians had lost faith in the
leadership ability of the czarist regime.
• Russian economy was hopeless
• the strike spread among Russia’s workers,
and irate mobs of workers destroyed police
stations.
Russian Civil War (1918-1920
• conflict in which the Red Army successfully defended the
newly formed Bolshevik government against various
Russian and interventionist anti-Bolshevik armies.
• In the night of July 16–17, 1918, all the members of the
family were taken to the cellar of their prison house and
shot.
• Second only to Lenin was Trotsky, who as the leader of the
war, not only had supreme command of the armed forces
but was also largely responsible for organizing supplies
and for the mobilization of manpower
Proletariats
• workers lost their right to participate in the
functioning of the enterprise
• law stating that a worker could be arrested
if he had three accumulated absences, or
late arrivals
• workers had to work past regular hours
• Most members of the proletariat were
impoverished.
Bourgeoisies
• According to Marx, the Bourgeoisie was
concerned about their own property
• When the Bolsheviks asked them to give up
their luxuries, many of them abandoned the
cause and fled to the West.
• They weren’t exactly opposed to the
Bolsheviks but they weren’t on board either
Vladimir Lenin
• Founder of the
Communist party
• He lead the Russian
Revolution
• He brought the idea of
Communism to Russia
and encourage the
people to follow him
• The people trusted and
looked up to him
• His body was put on
display after death
Leon Trotsky
• Communist Leon
Trotsky helped ignite
the Russian
Revolution of 1917,
and built the Red
Army afterward. He
was exiled and later
assassinated by Soviet
agents.
• Stalin and he had a
power struggle
Joseph Stalin
• Born in poverty and
was involved in
criminal activity at a
young age
• exercised greater
political power than
any other figure in
history.
Stalin Continued
• In his prime, Stalin was hailed as a universal genius, as a “shining
sun,” or “the staff of life,” and also as a “great teacher and friend”
(especially of those communities he most savagely persecuted); once
he was even publicly invoked as “Our Father” by a metropolitan of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
• estimated that the USSR suffered 56 to 62 million "unnatural deaths"
during that period, with 34 to 49 million directly linked to Stalin.
• He was not outspoken but was a political manipulator
• For many years, people did not know the truth about Stalin because he
propagandized his image so well.
• He was always very paranoid of any opponent
Vyacheslav
Molotov
He staunchly
supported Joseph
Stalin after the death
of Vladimir Lenin.
He purged the
Moscow organization
of its anti-Stalin
membership.
He was foreign
minister and the major
spokesman for the
Soviet Union.
Russian Orthodox Church
• The Communist
• The main target of the
regime confiscated
anti-religious
church property,
campaign in the 1920s
ridiculed religion,
and 1930s was the
harassed believers, and
Russian Orthodox
propagated atheism in
Church, which had the
the schools.
largest number of
faithful.
Religion Continued
• Many religious leaders were executed
• By 1939 only about 500 of over 50,000
churches remained open.
• Many people who took over the remaining
churches were members of the KGB
NKVD
• KGB were established shortly after the first
revolution
• Assumed responsibility for arresting,
imprisoning, and executing “enemies of the
state,”
• The secret police remained the most powerful
and feared Soviet institution throughout the
Stalinist period.
• Anyone who was considered an enemy would
simply “disappear”
Stalin’s 5-year Plan
• rapid industrialization and collectivization
of agriculture.
• Unrealistic goals: long labor hours and
shortages of goods
• Famine and loss of food for the peasants:
starvation, injury, overworked farmers
Stalin’s Purges
• 1936-1938
• http://www.history.com/topics/josephstalin/videos/stalins-purges
• People were put on trial and forced to admit
to ridiculous crimes
• Stalin had become so paranoid that he killed
13 million of his own people
• ½ of his army men were executed
Winston Churchill
• Stalin tried to make allies with Britain
• Hitler was an enemy to the Western
countries. Anyone who opposed Hitler was
a friend to Churchill.
• Once Churchill found out about the treaty
between Stalin and Hitler, Winston cuts ties
with Stalin
• Once Stalin defeated Hitler in battle,
Winston and Stalin were buddy-buddy
again
Winston Churchill
• hoped to join the Americans in building a
postwar order that limited Soviet leader
Josef Stalin's ability to dominate European
affairs.
• met with FDR to plan attacks on all war
fronts, to invade Sicily and Italy, to send
forces to the Pacific, and to better aid the
Soviet Union.
Soviet-Nazi Peace Treaty
• two countries agreed to take no military action
against each other for the next 10 years
• Stalin viewed the pact as a way to keep his nation
on peaceful terms with Germany, while giving
him time to build up the Soviet military
• The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact fell apart
in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet
Union unannounced.
Battle of Stalingrad
• The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in
history, with combined military and civilian casualties of
nearly 2 million.
• Turning point in WWII
• Germany attacked Russia after a peace treaty
• Germany eventually surrendered
• Both sides lost many men
Tehran Conference
• meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet
Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehrān during World War II.
• all three Allied leaders appeared uncertain; their views
were imprecise on the topic of a postwar international
organization
• During the Conference, the three leaders coordinated their
military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a
number of important decisions concerning the post World
War II era.