Studied by 2 people
George Orwell
Real Name: Eric Arthur Blair
Most famous fiction: Animal Farm & 1984
From England, served in Spanish war
Reason for writing animal farm
To expose Stalinist corruption after seeing totalitarian propaganda controlling people opinion in democratic countries
Allegory
A metaphor whose subject is a character, place, or event that represents real world issues or occurrences. Uses symbolic elements to convey meaning
Animal Farm allegory
Corresponds to Russian revolution and Soviet Regime
Satire
Genre of literature in which vices, abuses and shortcomings are ridiculed
Marxism
focuses on the exploitation of capitalism, analyzes class relations/social conflict & use reasoned argument to enact social transformation
Originated by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
OG theory published as the communist manifesto
Capitalism
Based on: Private ownership of means of production and operation for profit
Criticisms: concentrating power in a minority capitalist class (bourgeoisie) prioritizes profit over social good, nat resources, and environment. inequality and economic instability
Socialism
Based on: social ownership & democratic control of production, distribution based on contribution, production for direct use
Soviet Union: World’s firsts socialist state
Communism
Based on: “From each according to his ability to each o according to his need” Free access and distribution of goods, capital, and services.
Works to put the class in power through social revolution.
Major criticisms: totalitarianism,
Political repression poor economic performance and cultural censorship
Russian revolution
during world war one the Russian empire under the rule of Tsar Nicolas II of the Romanov family experience famine and economic collapse
February revolution
mass protest erupted as a result of discontent against monarchy in February 1917
many military personnel: Russian army committed mutiny
After 8 days of the revolution, Tsar Nicholas was abdicated. brought an end to the Romanov dynasty
October revolution
A Bolshevik revolutionary leader, Vladimir Lenin, led a revolt against the ineffective Provisional Government, capturing government buildings and driving out political members and supporters
Russian Civil War
For 5 years the Russian Civil War accounted for 7 to 12 million deaths between the two armies
The white army: represented those driven out during the revolution
The red army: represented the bolsheviks
This ultimately led to Lenin serving as the leader of the newly founded union of Soviet socialist republics USSR
Josef Stalin and his rise to power
Stalin was a member of the Bolshevik party and used his connections to gain influential positions in government.
Upon Lennon‘s death there was a power struggle between two individuals.
A. Leon Trotsky - leftist who believed that the USSR made too many concessions on capitalism
B. Stalin - rightest; formed a faction of its two other party members in an effort to gain greater influence over Trotsky
Trotsky
1927: Trotsky and supporters expelled from communist party by Stalin
1929: Trotsky remained opposed hash exiled from Soviet Union in 1929
1940: Stalin ordered his assassination in Mexico in 1940
Soviet development
In 1927, the Soviet union being enacting the 5 year development plan, which involved mobilizing resources to rapidly expand the country’s industry.
Plans were successful but extremely harsh on workers
Propaganda
The Soviet union used all forms of propaganda to promote ideology of the communist party. Propaganda can be described as: information that is not objective and used to influence an audience and further an agenda
Secret police
the Soviet Union had a secret police agency called NKVD which undertook mass extrajudicial killings on an unknown number of citizens and operated the Gulag system of forced labor camps
The great purges
In 1937, Stalin furthered his absolute power by persecuting suspected political/ideological opponents
Approximately 2 million people were killed during this time, which disrupted the infrastructure of the Soviet Union.
Note 
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