George Orwell's Animal Farm: Societal Concerns

Tsar Nicholas ii and Mr. Jones are both seen as enemies. Nicholas was Russia’s last king, his people overthrew him because of his bad leadership. "The corruption and incompetence of Nicholas' reign had shattered Russia's faith in the autocracy. Riots broke out in Petrograd, [....] a provisional government was established and the rule of the Romanov dynasty

Stalin’s policy priorities were not building a ‘worker’s paradise’ or a classless society, but protecting Russia from war and invasion. In 1928, Stalin launched the first of two ambitious five-year plans to modernize and industrialize the Soviet economy. These programs brought rapid progress – but also significant death and suffering. Stalin’s decision to nationalize agricultural production dispossessed millions of peasants, forcing them from their land to labor on gigantic state-run collective farms. Grain was sold abroad to finance Soviet industrial projects, leading to food shortages and disastrous famines in the mid-1930s. Soviet Russia was dragged into the 20th century, transforming from a backward agrarian empire into a modern industrial superpower – but this came at extraordinary human cost.

In Animal Farm Mr.Jones was an irresponsible and drunk farmer. He did not care about the animals, he only cared about their products and what they could do to benefit him. He would get drunk on Friday, and not come back until Sunday, leaving his animals not milked or cared for, starving, and alone. Czar Nicholas’ country wasn’t doing very well and all the while Nicholas was “enjoy[ing] himself at the Stavka” (Selcer 5). Nicholas was not in the city trying to make things right, he was in the general headquarters doing busy work. Nicholas lived in a huge palace while the rest of his citizens lived in tiny houses. This resembles Mr.Jones because Mr. Jones ate a lot of food and drank while his animals were starving and working themselves to the bone. Both leaders failed their citizens, and this failure eventually led to an uprising.

The people were in a state of famine, the political government was weak, and the economy was in shambles with inflation as high as can be. As Stalin rose in power, this would all change in both positive and negative aspects. One of Josef Stalin’s first methods of rebuilding broken Russia was through what he named to be the Five-Year economic Plans. Through these plans, Stalin would induct a Command, or a Socialist, Economy. This Command Economy would involve a society in which the government would make all economical decisions, controlling nearly all aspects of societal life. As seen in Document One, Stalin believed that implementing a “Socialist economy” would prevent from Russia “[lagging] behind the advanced countries by fifty to a hundred years.” It would bring them up to pace with the surrounding capitalist economies, keeping Russia as a world power. The Five-Year Plans also included the increase of quota in both industrial and agricultural positions. If quota were increased, industrial increase would soon follow. Seen in Document Eight, “the fulfillment of the first and second Five-Year Plans strengthened the U.S.S.R.’s economic position.” The Five-Year Plan would cause for Russia to rise to become a modern industrial society, as well as

Stalin’s Five Year Plans included the embarkment of huge industrial projects and a campaign to collectivise agriculture. Almost all party members agreed that the Soviet State would require massive industrial growth to achieve a secure society. Collectivisation was to be undertaken to ensure food supplies to the cities and help “mechanisation, increase output and reduce costs”. The first of Stalin’s Five Year Plans reflected Lenin’s ideas of giving priority to industries such as hydro-electric power, coal, iron, steel ships, railways, and machinery. However, this first plan failed due to falls in food and consumer goods output and the many unrealistic plan targets. The second of the Five Year Plans was scheduled to begin in October 1928 and “focused on the production of consumer goods for the workers and peasants to increase their production,” as well as development of heavy industry base for the military. The third of the Five Year Plans was intended to increase the supply of scarce consumer goods. However, the Third Plan never met its goals as it was interrupted by the German attack on Russia in June

Collectivisation had a big impact on Russia for both positive and negative reasons; it was a failure in the aspect that it caused ‘chaos in agriculture’ and due to the problems caused, millions died due to famine and poverty in the short term. ‘Grain harvests dropped dramatically’ during the early 1930s and took until the late 1930s for yield to rise again. However, in the long run, a food surplus was secured and so could be used to feed and pay for the industrial workforce needed for the 5-year plan. It was also incredibly significant in history as it showed how much control Stalin had over Soviet Russia and the fear that the peasants lived in; for example if they were caught stealing even just a few pieces of grain they could be executed or imprisoned for up to 10 years. The lasting impression that is received from the wide tolerance of this policy was how small and insignificant the few rebellions were that were organised. This further demonstrates the power and influence held over the peasants during this period of time.

‘The optimists believe that imperial Russia was ruined by the First World War. The pessimists maintain that the war provided merely the last mighty push to bring the whole rotten structure tumbling down.’ When Russia become engulfed in World War I, the Russian army mobilized 15.5 million men and suffered great casualties. This leads to the shortage of workers for the factories and farms and thus cause a widespread shortages of food and materials. As supply decreases and demand is increasing, this causes the prices of goods to increase dramatically, causing unrest among people, leading to revolt and labor riots. Soon, famine hit Russian cities. The worst of all is that Nicholas II held fast to his anachronistic political faith in unfettered

The turn of the century illuminated Russia, commonly labeled as “backwards” by the other European powers, as the last remaining European autocracy. Russian society still operated on the estate system, which was characterized by an enormous gap between the upper class nobility and the lower class peasantry. Peasants comprised eighty percent of the population and only a fraction were educated. They had little understanding of government and were highly patriarchal. Many served as serfs. It was not until the 1860s that these serfs were freed from legal bondage by Nicholas’ grandfather, Alexander II. However, this was not enough to satisfy Russian citizens’ newfound taste of freedom. In the years following, they demanded he establish an elected parliament,

Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov Tsars, was a man with good intentions for his country, however, he lacked many of the crucial attributes necessary in being a proficient ruler. He was a weak and indecisive leader; too gentle and too uneducated to take on the role of an autocrat. Moreover, Nicholas was heavily influenced by his wife, Tsarina Alexandra, to follow in his father’s footsteps and preserve autocracy, leading to the downfall of the 304-year reign of the Romanov family. The Tsar refused to move on with the times and his inability to rule effectively was compounded by the burdensome events that occurred during his reign.

“History consists of a series of swindles, in which he masses are first lured into revolt by the promise of utopia, and then, when they have done their job, enslaved over again by new masters” (Brander). Animal Farm, a farm with animals that are treated cruelly and dream for a better life in which animals are all equal and independent of depraved humans, is an allegory of the development of communism, even totalitarianism. After successfully driving away Mr. Jones, the cruel, tyrannous, drunken owner of the farm, the animals, with the pigs acting as leaders for their superior intelligence, believe they are going to be rewarded with the certainty of living in an

Stalin’s plan was to make Russia an industrial giant, so Stalin created the five-year plan to work on the farms and factories of Russia. Stalin’s five-year plans were a series of nation wide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union (Wikipedia). What that meant was that peasants who didn’t have jobs were required to work on a specific goal that Stalin had to increase what was considered as an economy booster. The first Five Year Plan introduced in 1928, concentrated on the development of iron and steel, machine-tools, electric power and transport. Joseph Stalin set the workers high

Animal Farm is an allegory to communist Russia throughout the early to mid 1900s. Led by Old Major, a wise pig that represents Karl Marx, the founder of the socialism, the animals on Manor Farm try to establish a self-sufficient farm run by animals with no outside human contact. This “self-sufficient farm” called Animal Farm was focused on creating a system where everyone is equal and happy, and no animal could be above any other animal. However, what happened in Russia as well as other communist countries, was that the interim government that existed to facilitate the change to socialism became venal and didn't care or pay attention to the social equality of all the people. The interim government, represented by pigs in Animal Farm did not give up their power, leading to the oppressive governmental system called communism. Additionally, in Animal Farm, the communist “pigs”, Snowball and Napoleon, did not pay attention to the growing social gap as they grew more powerful on the farm and ended up going against their original philosophies to keep all animals

George Orwell includes a strong message in his novel Animal Farm that is easily recognizable. Orwell’s Animal Farm focuses on two primary problems that were not only prominent in his WWII society, but also posed as reoccurring issues in all societies past and present. Orwell’s novel delivers a strong political message about class structure and oppression from the patriarchal society through an allegory of a farm that closely resembles the Soviet Union.

Adding to the deplorable oppression borne by the proletariat during the Five Year Plans, Stalin introduced a collectivisation campaign which not only sparked a persecution of kulaks, but also induced a widespread famine. The Stalin government’s compulsory agricultural policy was largely a failure with regard to its goals. Beginning in 1929, all farms were to be collectivised, with the aim of improving agricultural output and hence, industrialisation. The USSR’s initial system of farming was inefficient, but the introduction of fertilisation and tractors modernised agricultural techniques, increasing the nation’s capacity for production, supporting Historian Jamieson’s statement. However, the policy was catastrophic due to the mass movement of peasant resistance that saw farmers defiantly burning crops and slaughtering livestock, regarding the campaign as a violation of their freedom. By 1933, agricultural production fell dramatically; grain by 17 million tonnes and cows and pigs by a total of 23 million, to below what it was in 1913 (Downey, 1989, p. 19). This

Animal Farm is a novel by George Orwell. It is an allegory in which animals play the roles of Russian revolutionists, and overthrow the human owners of the farm. Once the farm has been taken over by the animals, they are all equal at first, but class and status soon separates the different animal species. This story describes how a society’s ideologies can be manipulated by those in political power, to cause corruption by those in leadership.