George Orwells Animal Farm

George Orwells Animal Farm Free Online Research Papers In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the stages and characteristics of totalitarianism can be seen throughout the story. The first stage of the forming of a totalitarian government is establishing leadership. After the Revolution is complete almost immediately the pigs take over as the supreme leaders of Animal Farm. All of the animals generally accepted this because the pigs had led the revolution. Right away like in a totalitarian society the pigs looked for a scapegoat. The scapegoat the used was the human race. They blamed all the problems that they have had or will incur are fault of man. The next step is organization. This can be seen in Animal Farm when Snowball and Napoleon assign certain animals certain jobs around the farm. Then the propaganda starts. Napoleon sends a little pig named Squealer around spreading word to the animals reinforcing the ideas of â€Å"Four legs good, two legs bad.† After Snowball leaves Squealer is made the total propaganda leader. He tells all the animals of how horrible and wrong Snowball was. He plants the ideas in the other animals of Snowball’s betrayal. The last step in the revolutionary stage of totalitarianism is violence. The act of violence can be seen throughout the novel and is most prevalent during the Revolution and The Battle of Cowshed. However all through the novel there are signs of violence. For the most part the inflictors of said violence are the puppies, who can be compared to the KGB of revolutionary Russia. The next characteristics found in Animal Farm are the consolidation of power. The first step in the consolidation of power is eliminating the opposition. This theme is vividly seen when Napoleon convinces the other animals that Snowball has bad intentions for the farm and the ideas of Animalism. After Snowball comes up with the idea for the Windmill, Napoleon realizes that Snowball could possibly influence the animals more then he and needs to get rid of him. After Snowball’s speech Napoleon releases the dogs on him chasing him out of the farm and tells Snowball never to return. In order for Napoleon to have a monolithic society he must make sure that no one opposes his beliefs. Any animals disagreeing with his beliefs are taken care of by the dogs. So the animals on the farm decide to conform to all reforms Napoleon makes. Squealer the pig is the main reason why the animals lost trust in Snowball. His spreading of propaganda made it hard for the animals to trust in Snowball even though they knew the truth. Napoleon is so successful in establishing his control over the farm because he can be seen as an opportunist. For one he does not help out at all during the Revolution. His feelings were why fight when others can do it for you. Later in the story he tells the animals that Snowball was actually the one who didn’t participate in the Revolution. The one thing that Napoleon and the pigs do is learn to read and not teach the other animals to gain advantage. If the other animals couldn’t read or write they would never b smarter then Napoleon and realize how he went against all of their earlier beliefs. Through the uses of propaganda and force Napoleon begins to control the thoughts of the animals. I think that everyone needs a form of leadership to govern how they act. Even though totalitarianism takes it to the extreme by trying to control people’s thoughts it is a form of government. Napoleon takes advantage of the impressionable animals and pretty much destroys their culture. The puppies that Napoleon raised as his KGB were very pivotal in his rise to power. The dogs would make sure that nobody was following the wrong person. When Napoleon takes over the farm and eventually is the main cause of its ruin shows how no society can be completely led by a corrupt individual. Research Papers on George Orwell's Animal FarmGenetic EngineeringQuebec and CanadaNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Spring and AutumnWhere Wild and West Meet19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraCapital PunishmentRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

Destalinization in Soviet Russia

Destalinization in Soviet Russia Destalinization was the process begun by Nikita Khrushchev, following the death of former Russian dictator Joseph Stalin in March 1953, of first discrediting Stalin and then reforming Soviet Russia leading to large numbers being released from imprisonment in Gulags, a temporary thaw in the Cold War, a slight relaxation in censorship and an increase in consumer goods, an era dubbed as ‘The Thaw’ or ‘Khrushchev’s Thaw’. Stalin’s Monolithic Rule In 1917 the Tsarist government of Russia was removed by a series of revolutions, which climaxed at the end of the year with Lenin and his followers in charge. They preached soviets, committees, groups to govern, but when Lenin died a man of bureaucratic genius called Stalin managed to warp the entire system of Soviet Russia around his personal rule. Stalin showed political cunning, but no apparent compassion or morality, and he instituted a period of terror, as every level of society and seemingly every person in the USSR was under suspicion, and millions were sent to Gulag work camps, often to die. Stalin managed to hold on and then win the Second World War because he had industrialized the USSR at vast human cost, and the system was so enshrined around him that when dying his guards daren’t go and see what was wrong with him out of fear. Khrushchev Takes Power Stalin’s system left no clear successor, the result of Stalin actively removing any rivals to power. Even the Soviet Union’s great general of WW2, Zhukov, was shunted into obscurity so Stalin could rule alone. This meant a struggle for power, one which former Commissar Nikita Khrushchev won, with no small amount of political skill himself. The U-Turn: Destroying Stalin Khrushchev didn’t want to continue Stalin’s policy of purge and murder, and this new direction- Destalinization- was announced by Khrushchev in a speech to the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU on February 25th , 1956 entitled ‘On the Personality Cult and its Consequences’ in which he attacked Stalin, his tyrannical rule and the crimes of that era against the party. The U-turn shocked those present. The speech was a calculated risk by Khrushchev, who had been prominent in Stalin’s later government, that he could attack and undermine Stalin, allowing non-Stalinist policies to be introduced, without damning himself by association. As everyone high up in Russia’s ruling party also owed their positions to Stalin, there was no one who could attack Khrushchev without sharing the same guilt. Khrushchev had gambled on this, and the turn away from the cult of Stalin to something relatively freer, and with Khrushchev remaining in power, was able to go ahead. Limits There was disappointment, especially in the West, that Destalinization did not lead to greater liberalization in Russia: everything is relative, and we are still talking about an ordered and controlled society where communism was sharply different to the original concept. The process was also reduced with Khrushchev’s removal from power in 1964. Modern commentators are worried by Putin’s Russia and the way Stalin seems to be in a process of rehabilitation.