Napoleon and Stalin
In his Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx described his vision of the future, where the proletariat, or working class, rises up to topple the bourgeoisie and create a society without social classes. The Russian revolution of 1917, led by Vladimir Lenin, attempted to do just that. Lenin died in 1924, several years after the revolution, and Joseph Stalin rose to replace him, forcing rival Leon Trotsky to resign. In George Orwell's Animal Farm, Napoleon the pig represents Stalin, and he uses many of the same tactics as Stalin to obtain power. In order to secure their positions, both Stalin and Napoleon spread lies about their enemies, withhold information with the goal of spreading ignorance among their subjects, and force possible dissenters to confess to crimes that they have not committed. Napoleon and Stalin each envision a society where they have authoritarian control, and they manipulate others to ensure their success. After Lenin died, "Stalin forced Trotsky to resign as a war minister and in 1927 expelled him from the [Communist] party." Later, Stalin "had him assassinated" (Compton's 2)
In Animal Farm, the initially hopeful revolution comes to a hopeless end after Napoleon takes over. From this we learn that while the members of a society ma hold certain ideals, their ruler will probably be self-motivated and ignore those ideals as much as possible. Throughout history, we have seen that the ideals of a revolution are rarely upheld, and visions of an ideal society usually disagree with the final reality. While such visions usually end in failure, they do have worth, for it is impossible to improve conditions without knowing how to improve them or what the final goal is. Hope, though not always satisfied, is necessary for survival, and those who live in bleak conditions need hope to look past the pains of life. While Napoleon and Stalin resort to drastic measures to preserve their power, neither is successful in creating the society he envisioned. A reason for their failure is selfishness; each ruler betters his own conditions while the masses suffer. Stalin "[creates] a famine in Ukraine" and "[conducts] a series of purges" to secure support for his policies and suppress any resistance to him
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Approximate Word count = 758
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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