LibGuides: US English-Animal Farm: Historical Context

Important Terms

Comrade: a fellow member of a political party; a member of the Communist party
Communism: a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state; in practice, communism is often a totalitarian system of government
Propaganda: information, ideas, or rumors disseminated to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, or other entity
Socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates vesting the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, and other assets in the community as a whole
Totalitarianism: absolute control by the state or a governing branch of a highly centralized institution

TED Talk-Context and Background

The Russian Revolution

Ducksters: Russian Revolution
This weblink is a useful starting point for beginning research on the Russian Revolution.
Alpha History: Russian Revolution
History.com: Russian Revolution
Follow the links to articles, videos, pictures and speeches on the Russian Revolution.

Marxism

Revolution vs Book

(http://library.atc.qld.edu.au/c.php?g=418358&p=5063732)

The Russian Revolution Video

Animal Farm - Context and Background

Political Figures of the Times

Nicholas II
Born May 6, 1868, St. Petersburg, Russia—died July 16/17, 1918, the last Russian emperor (1894–1917), who, with his wife, Alexandra, and their children, was killed by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution.

Vladimir Ilich Lenin
Born April 10 1870, Simbirsk, Russia—died January 21, 1924, founder of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), inspirer and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and the architect, builder, and first head (1917–24) of the Soviet state.

Joseph Stalin
Born December 18, 1879, Gori, Georgia, died March 5, 1953, Moscow - secretary-general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–53) and premier of the Soviet state (1941–53), who for a quarter of a century dictatorially ruled the Soviet Union and transformed it into a major world power.

Karl Marx
Born May 5, 1818, Trier, Prussia [Germany]—died March 14, 1883, London, England) - revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published "The Communist Manifesto (1848), the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement.

Leon Trotsky
Born November 7 1879, Yanovka, Ukraine —died August 21, 1940, Mexico) - communist theorist and agitator, a leader in Russia’s October Revolution in 1917, and later commissar of foreign affairs and of war in the Soviet Union (1917–24).