In
my first installment, I discussed the Communist philosophy. I described how
Communism moved from Marxism to Leninism to Stalinism and what each of them
detailed in beliefs. This go around, I want to talk about one of the best
descriptions of Communism I have found.
In
the book Animal Farm by George
Orwell, the story of Communism is told through animals on a farm in a very fictitious
way. The book starts out with Old Major who symbolizes Karl Marx because Old
Major is the one who tells the other animals of the dream where all animals are
equal and working together for the common benefit. This lines up with Karl Marx’s
Communist Manifesto and introduces Marxism
to the plot. The Marxism is used to overthrow the farmer who owns the farm.
Marxism was the fundamental reason the animals rebelled and took over the farm.
The Marxist philosophy governed the farm until Snowball was ousted from the
farm by Napoleon like Lenin did to Trotsky.
At
the time Snowball was ousted, Leninism took over the plot. This signifies a
change in the story. The move from Marxism to Leninism is when the rules of
Marxism becomes perverted by Leninism. The farm becomes less equal for all
animals with the pigs becoming the emerging oligarchy because of their initial
support of the rebellion and close ties to leadership. Small changes to the
rules happen because the pigs notice that all animals cannot reach the level of
intelligence that the pigs have. These minor changes promote the betterment of
the pigs in small increments. These small changes set the stage for the shift
from Leninism to Stalinism.
Stalinism
was the harshest perversion of Marxism in the book. The small changes of the
rules that promoted equality among animals that were changed to make the pigs
the emerging oligarchy were further changed to make the pigs the actual
oligarchy. The pigs moved into the farmhouse and began wearing human clothes.
They became the oligarchy ruling over the pigs with Napoleon forming a cult
about himself around the farm. Napoleon had a song singing praises to him. He
wined and dined with the other humans. The once Marxism ran farm became fully
under the control of Stalinism.
The
significance of Animal Farm is that
it takes an actual history of the Soviet Union and how it came to be, and the
book portrayed the events in a fictional understandable way. Sometimes
realistic events are hard for our minds to grasp. Sometimes when we look at
real world events and people we have our opinions and perceptions obscured by
how the world portrays it. Animal Farm
removes Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin from the picture and
replaces them with factional characters. The philosophies of Marxism, Leninism,
and Stalinism are never directly named. However, the parallelisms are there.
Readers can see the effects of these philosophies on a “people” (the animals
can be classified as people) without making that real world connection. This
allows the reader to see the flaws of the philosophies, and how the gradual perversion
of Communism developed.
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