An in-depth comparison of the events of Animal Farm and the Soviet Union.
Soviet Union1. 1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto. This manifesto suggested the rise of communism from capitalism, expressing ideals that are present in Old Major's speech in Animal Farm (the rebellion of the working class against the people who take their work and keep all the profit - the capitalists). These ideals become known as Marxism, and inspire the revolution in Russia.
2. The tsar has messed up - there's a famine all across Russia, while he is wasting money left and right on himself and his family. Russian communists, like the Bolsheviks, and all the citizens in Russia are very unhappy. 3. February 1917 - February Revolution of 1917: citizens were striking and holding demonstrations in St. Petersburg, Russia's capital at the time. The tsar, Nicholas II, ordered the military to intervene. However, many in the military sympathized with the citizens, and joined them in overthrowing the tsar. 4. 1917 - The military creates a provisional government. 5. March 1917 - The tsar abdicates and is placed under house arrest. He is eventually killed. 6. April 1917 - Vladimir Lenin, a Russian communist and follower of Marxism, comes back from exile and publishes the April Theses, which is similar to the Seven Commandments, and talk about the society that should be created now the Revolution has occurred. Vladimir Lenin is leader of the Bolsheviks. 7. October 1917 - The October Revolution: The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, overthrow the military's provisional government, as they weren't doing such a good job. They form the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, or Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks rename themselves as the Russian Communist Party (RCP). They suppress any opinions besides their own, saying that the RCP represents the working class, and anything contrary to their beliefs was 'counter-revolutionary' and 'anti-socialist'. The Bolsheviks declare that the Russian Orthodox Church will be separate from the government, something that hadn't happened for centuries. 8. 1918 to 1920 - The Russian Civil War: The White Army, made up of capitalists (landowners, factory owners), the middle class, monarchists and old army generals, rose up against the Bolsheviks, who they hated. The U.S. and U.K., among other countries, have heard about Soviet Russia, and they worry about the ideas of communism spreading to their countries, so they join the White Army and fight against the Bolsheviks' Red Army. However, the White Army is unsuccessful and the Bolsheviks defeat them. Animal Farm is now established under the rule of the Bolsheviks! 9. Many of the Russian middle class, the bourgeois, abandon the Bolsheviks and run off to the west when they're asked to give up their luxuries. 10. 1922 - The Soviet Union, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR), is created. Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Soviet Union, is deathly ill, and Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky are the two main candidates. However, Joseph Stalin is general secretary of the Communist Party, so he has more power. He uses this position to appoint people, so that eventually everyone in the central government owed their positions to him. 1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies. Stalin destroys the old party government and takes total control, now that everyone owes their position to him, by switching around the government, and exiling anybody he believed posed a threat (including Trotsky). He has the NKVD, his secret police, to do all the dirty work. Stalin has propaganda to make everyone believe he's great! 11. Late 1920s to Early 1930s - Stalin went against the Bolshevik agrarian policy, taking back farming land from the peasants and turning it all into collective farms. This was badly received by the peasants, and many were killed, from forced labour and a famine spread across the country. He also began rapid industrialization, which was very profitable at first, but caused millions of deaths and lots of damage to the environment. The rapid industrialization and collective farms are part of Stalin's Five Year Plans. Stalin wrecked the economy with his disastrous Five Year Plans, but he covers it up. He issues propaganda and has foreigners tour Russian farms (set up for the tour). 12. There's no particular event in Soviet Russia that connects to this. However, it does show the duplicity of the Bolsheviks and Stalin. 13. There's no particular event in the Soviet Union that matches the event in Animal Farm. However, the peasants are starving and unhappy, and it leads into the next event in the Soviet Union. 14. 1936 to 1938 - Any resistance is dealt with ruthlessly - people are sent to the labour camps of the Gulag or killed. The Great Purge sweeps through the Soviet Union; Stalin ordered the deaths of any people he thought posed a threat (anyone believed to in league with Trotsky, landowners and military officials). He holds public trials, now known as the Moscow Show Trials, in which he forces people to confess to crimes they never committed, and then has them executed. 15. Stalin is in control of the media. He has pictures painted of him with happy children, and he rewrites Russian history, so that he was apparently part of the Russian Revolution of 1917. He is deliberating over who to make a pact with - Adolf Hitler in Germany, or France and the U.K.. 16. August 23, 1939 - The anti-German pact with France and Britain falls through, so Stalin has the Soviet Union sign the German-Soviet Pact, a ten-year nonaggression pact with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, ignoring all warnings from Soviet military commanders. 17. June 22, 1941 - Stalin's spies tell him that Hitler was going to break the pact, but he ignores them. And then the Germans do break the agreement and attack the Soviet Union. The Soviet Army is unprepared and there are millions of casualties, and the Germans seize Ukraine and Belarus, and surround Leningrad. 18. 1942 to 1943 - Though both the Soviet Army and government were falling apart from all the executing they'd been doing, the Soviet Army and the peasants managed to push the Nazis back to Stalingrad, and then, by the next year (1944), they began liberating other eastern European countries. This is done only through massive casualties. Early 1943 - The Soviets retake Stalingrad. 19. No specific event in the Soviet Union - just another allegory to the duplicity of the Bolsheviks and Joseph Stalin, and the betrayal of the principals the Bolsheviks started with. 20. Boxer's death doesn't tie to any specific event in the Soviet Union. It's an allegory of Stalin's and the Bolsheviks' betrayal of the workers that they were supposed to be helping. 21. November 28 to December 1, 1943 - Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union meets Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain and President Franklin Roosevelt of the U.S. to discuss the war in Tehran, Iran, a meeting known as the Tehran Conference. The Soviet Union had been doing well in the war, and the U.S. and U.K. wanted their help. Stalin agreed to attacking Japan once Germany had been defeated, and to launching an offensive on the German Eastern Front, and managed to get the U.S. and Britain to agree to opening a second front against Germany, something the Soviet Union had wanted for a while. Stalin also got them to agree to giving the Soviet Union much of eastern Poland, and also to give his government support. 22. 1945 - The Cold War was a rivalry between the Soviet Union and the USA that formed post-WWII. It resulted in a series of international incidents, and tension between the two nations, but never full-blown war between the two nations. In Animal Farm, the Cold War is foreshadowed by the argument that occurs between Napoleon (Stalin) and Mr. Pilkington (USA). |
Animal Farm1. March (Chapter I) - Old Major gave an inspiring speech to the animals, talking on the inequality Man (AKA the capitalists) treats animals (AKA the working class) with, even though Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He tells them that one day, animals will rebel against Man and be free. At the end of the speech, he teaches them the song "Beasts of England".
2. Three months later - The pigs, prominently Snowball and Napoleon, had been preparing for the Rebellion, teaching the other animals about Animalism, a way of thinking that was based on the ideas in Old Major's speech. Mr. Jones has messed up, and there's a food shortage, while he spends his days drinking. 3. Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals for a whole day, the animals break into the food shed, and Mr. Jones and his men try to subdue them, which causes the animals to fight back. They drive the men off the farm, overthrowing Mr. Jones and claiming Manor Farm for themselves. 4. There is no temporary government created in Animal Farm. 5. Mr. Jones has run away. 6. The animals rename Manor Farm Animal Farm. Snowball and Napoleon create the Seven Commandments, compiled to summarize the components of Animalism. The commandments are: 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal 7. All animals are equal. 7. The pigs take over now that the rebellion has been completed. There is no military to overthrow, but they do take charge. The animals harvest the crops on the farm, and produce a more plentiful harvest then Mr. Jones ever did. They meet on Sundays to discuss issues; the meetings are lead by the pigs. The pigs take all the milk from the cows and the apples in the orchard for themselves. Squealer explains this, saying that pigs "are brainworkers" and they need the nutrients in the milk and the apples to do think. 8. The Battle of the Cowshed: News about Animal Farm spreads across the country, and animals across the country become unruly, which frightens the humans enough that Mr. Jones is able to gather men from the neighbouring farms of Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick to try and take back Manor Farm. However, the animals, led by Snowball, defeat the humans easily and drive them off Animal Farm. 9. Mollie runs away, after Clover discovers she's been consorting with humans, so she can get her beloved sugar and ribbons. 10. The animals agree to let the pigs take the leadership at Sunday meetings. Snowball and Napoleon are at the head, and constantly argue over every issue. Snowball proposes the building of a windmill, which Napoleon vehemently opposes. The animals take sides, equally divided, but just as the crowd is leaning towards Snowball, Napoleon summons nine huge dogs (AKA the NKVD in Soviet Russia), who he'd taken from Jessie and Bluebell. He orders them to attack Snowball, and they chase him off the farm. Napoleon assumes leadership of the animals, declares a committee of pigs will make decisions for the farm from then on. He sends Squealer out to rationalize everything to the rest of the animals. 11. The animals start building the windmill, and they work harder than ever on the farm. They work longer hours and have smaller rations. There's a food shortage on Animal Farm, so the pigs announce that they will be trading with the humans, through the solicitor, Mr. Whymper. And of course, Napoleon sends out Squealer to explain it all. He also has the sheep talk about increased rations and has the empty food bins filled with rocks and sand, and then gives Mr. Whymper a tour of Animal Farm. Mr. Whymper reports to the humans that there's no food shortage on Animal Farm, they're doing very well. Fall - There's a big storm, and the half-built windmill collapses. Napoleon blames it on Snowball and issues a death penalty on him. 12. The pigs decide to move into the farmhouse. When the animals start to protest, it is pointed out that the Fourth Commandment reads 'No animal shall sleep in a bed without sheets'. 13. Winter - It's a rough winter, and there's still a shortage of food, and so the pigs agree to a contract of eggs for food. When the hens hear this, they won't hand over their eggs, and smash them instead. Napoleon starves them; some hens die, and then the rest give up. 14. Napoleon gives a horrible public demonstration to all of the animals on the farm. Animals come forward, admit to committing crimes urged by Snowball, and are viciously killed by Napoleon's dogs. The crimes are, of course, false. These animals include four young pigs who gave small attempted protests at some of Napoleon's commands, and the leaders of the hen rebellion. The Sixth Commandment reads 'No animal shall kill each other without cause'. 15. Napoleon is treated reverently, a behaviour encouraged by Squealer. Then the windmill is finished! There's a fine pile of lumber on the farm, and Napoleon is debating who to sell it to - either Mr. Pilkington (AKA France and the U.K. in Soviet Russia), or Mr. Frederick (AKA Adolf Hitler in Soviet Russia). 16. Just as it appears he'll send it to Mr. Pilkington, after teaching the animals to chant 'Death to Fredrick', Napoleon decides to sell the lumber to Mr. Frederick. 17. However, Mr. Frederick betrays him and pays for the lumber with forged bank notes. Furthermore, he attacks Animal Farm. The animals are overwhelmed, and Mr. Frederick and his men manage to destroy the windmill. 18. Seeing this, the animals charge into battle, and win a grim battle by a close margin. Napoleon has Squealer turn it into a huge victory. 19. A few days later - The pigs discover a a case of whisky in the farmhouse. That night, a lot of noise comes from the farmhouse, and the next day Squealer comes out of the farmhouse looking ill and announces that Napoleon is dying. However, he recovers quite quickly, and it is noticed soon after that the Fifth Commandment reads 'No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.' 20. Boxer, who is nearing the age of retiring for horses, works harder than ever on the windmill. He ends up seriously injuring himself, and is taken away to the hospital in a van marked 'Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon'. The animals do their best to try and get Boxer out of the van, but to no avail. A few days later, it is announced that Boxer couldn't be saved, though Napoleon paid for the best medicine for Boxer that money could buy. Squealer said he'd heard a rumour that Boxer had been taken to the glue boiler, but it was all utter nonsense; the vet had got the van from the glue boiler and just hadn't painted over the old markings yet. Processions and speeches are held on Sundays, which spoke to the animals of the dignity they now had. 21. Many years later - The animals have long work hours and small rations, with no retirees, though the farm seems to be prospering, and the pigs and dogs lived in luxury. Then one day, the pigs walk out of the farmhouse on their hind legs, and they carry whips and wear human clothes. In place of the Seven Commandments is the phrase 'All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others'. Napoleon and the pigs invite Mr. Pilkington and other neighbouring farmers over for a meeting, and they laugh and propose toasts. Mr. Pilkington toasts Animal Farm, and Napoleon corrects him, saying the 'proper name', Manor Farm, will be restored, and that the goal of Animal Farm has been "to live at peace and in normal business relations", which basically means that they will now engage in capitalism. When the animals look in the window to the meeting inside, they 'looked from pig to man, and man to pig, and pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.' 22. They play cards, and Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon fight when they both play down the ace of spades. |