Russian Revolution

Brief History of the Soviet Union, 1917-1944
In the February Revolution of 1917, Czar Nicholas II abdicated his position as leader of Russia, ending the nation’s imperial rule under the Romanov Dynasty. For more than half a year after the czar’s abdication, an ineffective provisional government ran the vast empire. During that time, Lenin returned from exile and regrouped his strength and support. Lenin saw in the army’s dissatisfaction with the provisional government an opportunity to gain control. He guided the soviets, his fellow communists, in establishing good relations with Russia’s troops. Helping Lenin were Leon Trotsky, another former exile, and Joseph Stalin. On October 24, 1917, Lenin and his collaborators launched a successful, full-scale coup against the provisional government, which came to be known as the October Revolution. They established a new government based on the tenets of communism, which included the equal distribution of wealth and the promotion of atheism and gender equality.
Lenin’s rise to power did not ensure further success or popular satisfaction immediately, although his New Economic Policy (NEP) increased agricultural production. Russia met with the Central Powers at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, losing a significant portion of its territory to other nations. Meanwhile, Russia’s former elite as well as its working and farming class were becoming dissatisfied with the new government and were garnering foreign support for their cause. In response to the public’s dissent, the leaders formed the Red Army, led by Trotsky. The Red Army launched an internal campaign of terror called the Red Terror, in which it intended to root out and kill the “internal enemy” of anti-Communism. Thousands of people, many of whom were only suspected of being anti-Communist, were slaughtered in unthinkably cruel ways. That conflict turned into the Russian Civil War, which lasted until 1921 and terrorized Russia’s citizenry. Lenin saw the Civil War through, including the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922, but died in 1924. (His embalmed body is still preserved in a mausoleum in Red Square, and it is a popular tourist attraction.) In his wake Lenin left Trotsky and Stalin, both power-hungry politicians, to battle for Russia’s leadership.
In Lenin’s absence, Trotsky’s oratorical acumen proved no match for Stalin, who defeated him easily with the help of important internal alliances. Stalin expatriated him, along with many other leaders, in the Great Purge and eventually had Trotsky assassinated in exile. For the next quarter of a century, Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union. Determined to bring Russia out of its long-standing economic deficiency, including the Grain Crisis, and recoup the losses sustained in World War I, he abandoned NEP and launched several “Five Year Plans,” aggressive campaigns to increase the country’s productivity while bringing the economy completely under government control. The plans were successful but resulted in dissatisfaction among the citizens of the Soviet Union. In order to prevent them from rebelling, Stalin used the tactics of deception and terror. He began a series of "purges" in which he executed anyone suspected of harboring sentiments contrary to his ideas. Determined to protect himself and his government from treachery, Stalin not only increased the government’s internal espionage, carried out by the NKVD and its subsidiary, the KGB, but he turned Soviet citizens against one another. Terrified of imprisonment, torture, work in the Gulags (labor camps) and execution, people spied on and turned in their coworkers, neighbors, and even family members. In total, tens of millions of people experienced Stalin’s terror firsthand, and those who did not knew someone who had. With the Soviet Union’s internal affairs under tight (and violent) control, Stalin focused his attention on international affairs. He and his government took Hitler’s ascension very seriously, especially considering the losses Russia suffered in World War I. For this reason, in the 1930s Stalin lent Soviet support to Spain in the Spanish Civil War, in which the country was trying to defend itself against the German and Japanese forces of fascism. (This is the war in which George Orwell fought, against fascism but also against the Soviets.) Despite Stalin’s mistrust of Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939 and continued to trade with Hitler’s nation. When World War II broke out in September 1939 and in 1941, Germany broke the non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union. World War II took a terrible toll on the Western parts of the Soviet Union. This included the nine-hundred-day Siege of Leningrad, in which 1.5 million of the city’s citizens died of cold, starvation, or bombardment by the Germans. Despite harsh battles and the loss of more than twenty million citizens, the Soviet Union managed to drive the Nazis out and continued marching westward, seizing control of Berlin in May 1945. A few months later, Animal Farm hit the bookshelves in England and recounted, allegorically, much of this history. Stalin remained in control of the Soviet Union until his death in 1953.

Comparison of the Russian Revolution to Animal Farm
In 1917 the first Russian revolution ended with the abdication of Nicholas 2nd who was murdered a few months later, this compares to the first battle in Animal Farm where the animals drove Jones out of the farm. The October revolution and the end of World War 1, is sort of the same as The Battle of the Cowshed where the animals drive Jones and his men out for the second time. The start of labor camps also sounds like the time when the pigs encouraged the animals to work hard on the farm. The beginning of the struggle between Stalin and Trotsky in 1923 reminds us of the difference of opinions between the two pigs Napoleon and Snowball. In 1924 the death of Lenin, reminds us of when Napoleon is openly antagonistic to Snowball’s ideas. In 1929Trotsky is deported, like Snowball was chased away by Napoleons dogs, also the start of industrialization like the building of the windmill in Animal Farm. In 1932 there was the starvation of millions of people who did not want to work for Stalin, like the hens starved to death when they did not want to sell their eggs. IN 1933 the USA recognises the USSR is similar to when Animal Farm begins to be recognised by neighboring farms. In 1934 the secret police became official and Kirov was murdered, similar to Napoleon revealing the army of dogs he raised. In 1936 there was the show trials of Stalin’s opponents, in Animal Farm , there was the death of four pigs, three hens, a goose, and a sheep who had supposedly been traitors. Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and Russia, like the deal between Animal Farm and Frederick. German invasion of Russia, and the start of deportation of non-Russians, similar to the Banknotes for woodpile were not worth anything. The treaty to divide Germany was also similar to the Treaty between Animal Farm and Pilkington.