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Stalin and Animal Farm

 

            The dystopian novel "Animal Farm," published in August 1945, is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. The animals and the events in George Orwell's novel parallel the characters and incidents of the Russian Revolution. Orwell laments that the 1917 Russian Revolution resulted in a government more totalitarian and oppressive than the one it overthrew. Manor Farm represents Russia, and Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon represent the prominent figures of the Russian Revolution namely Marx/ Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin respectively. "Animal Farm" is primarily a condemnation of Stalinism and his misuse of power to suit his own needs.
             Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was the dictator of Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. Born into poverty as Joseph Vissarionovich Djugashvili, Stalin became involved in revolutionary politics as a young man. Stalin joined up with the Bolshevik revolutionaries. This was an underground group of people that followed the communist writings of Karl Marx and was led by Lenin. He now assumed the name Stalin which is the Russian word for "steel" combined with "Lenin". In 1917, the Russian Revolution took place. This was when the government led by the Tsars was overthrown and Lenin and the Bolsheviks came to power. After Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, Stalin gained control of the party. .
             Even though in the beginning Leon Trotsky and he were in charge, Stalin began a campaign to discredit and isolate Trotsky, whom he exiled in 1927. He began to gain more and more power, and by the end of 1929, Stalin was the absolute ruler of the USSR. He ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for twenty-four years. Stalin was one of the most ruthless world leaders. Stalin hated people who were smarter than him. He systematically eliminated people and groups that did not agree with his views. In the mid-1930s Stalin launched a major campaign of political terror.


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