Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering George Orwell's Animal Farm, literary forms (allegory, fable, satire), key historical figures, and major concepts of the Russian Revolution.

George Orwell

The English author who wrote Animal Farm between November 1943 and February 1944 to criticize Joseph Stalin and express anger at European admiration for Soviet Russia.

Fairy Story

A form of literature usually written for children about magical or fantastic events that are not true, which Orwell used as the original subtitle for Animal Farm to emphasize its fantastic nature.

Animal Fable

A short story that teaches a moral lesson and features animals that talk and act like humans, such as Aesop's fables.

Allegory

A complex literary form that includes characters, setting, and events with both literal and figurative meanings.

Literal Meaning of Animal Farm

The surface-level story of farm animals who are tired of obeying the orders of a cruel master.

Figurative Meaning of Animal Farm

The underlying political story of Soviet Russia and its leaders during the Russian Revolution.

Satire

A form of literature that criticizes a subject by making it seem ridiculous, amusing, or contemptible in order to make a moral judgment, correct wrongs, or criticize injustices.

Czar Nicholas II

Russia's last czar from the Romanov dynasty, described as narrow-minded and incompetent, who abdicated the throne in March 1917 following food riots and army mutinies in Petrograd; allegorized as Mr. Jones in Animal Farm.

Czar

The Russian word for emperor, derived from the title Caesar.

Kremlin

The magnificent palace in Russia where Russian czars resided.

Autocrat

A self-appointed ruler who holds all the political power.

Mr. Jones

The fictional owner of Manor Farm in Animal Farm, representing Czar Nicholas II.

Karl Marx

The political philosopher who called for workers to unite against capitalist oppressors, believing the proletariat produced all wealth while the bourgeoisie took the profits; allegorized as Old Major in Animal Farm.

Proletariat

The working class, identified by Karl Marx as the true producers of wealth.

Bourgeoisie

The capitalists who own the means of production, including land and industry, and earn profits from the work of the proletariat.

Old Major

The fictional pig in Animal Farm who represents Karl Marx.

Leon Trotsky

An intellectual leader and speaker who organized the Red Army during the Civil War of 1918-1919, advocated for a worldwide communist revolution, was exiled to Mexico City, and was assassinated with an axe in 1940; allegorized as Snowball in Animal Farm.

Snowball

The fictional pig in Animal Farm who represents Leon Trotsky.

Joseph Stalin

The peasant-born leader named General Secretary of the Communist Party in 1922 who defeated Trotsky in 1927 to take power, implementing totalitarian control over Soviet Russia; allegorized as Napoleon in Animal Farm.

Napoleon

The fictional pig in Animal Farm who represents Joseph Stalin.

Totalitarianism

A system of government characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control individual freedoms.

Five-Year Plan

Stalin's economic strategy aimed at boosting growth by requiring farms to turn over produce to the government, resulting in peasant resistance, mass animal slaughter, labor camps, and a man-made famine that killed 5 million people.

Moscow Purge Trials

A series of show trials beginning in 1936 where prominent Communists were forced to publicly confess to fake crimes like spying and terrorism before being executed, resulting in the elimination of about 70% of the Party leadership.

Bolshevik Party

A political rebel group based on Karl Marx's ideas that led a revolution in 1917, overthrew the government, executed Czar Nicholas II and his family, and established the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under Lenin.