Napoleon And Stalin Essay Research Paper Napoleon

Napoleon And Stalin Essay, Research Paper

Napoleon and Stalin:

In his Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx described his vision of the hereafter, where the labor, or working category, rises up to tumble the middle class and make a society without societal categories. The Russian revolution of 1917, led by Vladimir Lenin, attempted to make merely that. Lenin died in 1924, several old ages after the revolution, and Joseph Stalin rose to replace him, coercing rival Leon Trotsky to vacate. In George Orwell & # 8217 ; s Animal Farm, Napoleon the hog represents Stalin, and he uses many of the same tactics as Stalin to obtain power. In order to procure their places, both Stalin and Napoleon spread lies about their enemies, withhold information with the end of distributing ignorance among their topics, and force possible dissidents to squeal to offenses that they have non committed.

Napoleon and Stalin each envision a society where they have autocratic control, and they manipulate others to guarantee their success. After Lenin died, & # 8220 ; Stalin forced Trotsky to vacate as a war curate and in 1927 expelled him from the [ Communist ] party. & # 8221 ; Later, Stalin & # 8220 ; had him assassinated & # 8221 ; ( Compton & # 8217 ; s 2 ) . Napoleon uses a similar method of extinguishing his head challenger. During a argument about the windmill, & # 8220 ; there [ is ] a awful baying sound outside, and nine tremendous Canis familiariss have oning brass-studded neckbands [ come bounding into the barn. They [ dash ] sound for Snowball & # 8221 ; ( Animal Farm 57 ) . After their several challengers are gone, Stalin and Napoleon spread lies about them. Their end in making this is to deviate the attending of the people and animate beings off from their suffering economic conditions. Another action that both Napoleon and Stalin blood relation is to set up five-year programs in order to catch up with rivals. These programs set highly high ends for production which are seldom met. Additionally, the programs involve the rationing of goods. A concluding portion of the economic program for both Napoleon and Stalin is a big building undertaking ; for Napoleon it is a windmill, and for Stalin it is a dike. The animate beings have a difficult clip constructing the windmill. & # 8220 ; All twelvemonth the animate beings [ work ] like slaves. But they [ are ] happy in their work this work [ is ] purely voluntary, but any animate being who [ a

bsents ] himself from it [ will ] hold his rations reduced by half” ( Animal Farm 63 ) . Deceit such as this is used normally used by both dictators to guarantee the felicity of the multitudes.

While Napoleon and Stalin resort to drastic steps to continue their power, neither is successful in making the society he envisioned. A ground for their failure is selfishness ; each swayer betters his ain conditions while the multitudes suffer. Stalin & # 8220 ; [ creates ] a dearth in Ukraine & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; [ conducts ] a series of purgings & # 8221 ; to procure support for his policies and stamp down any opposition to him ( Compton & # 8217 ; s 2 ) . Napoleon resorts to similar steps, and to boot bestows upon himself pleasures that were one time forbidden. & # 8220 ; You did non say, certainly, that there was of all time a opinion against beds? The regulation was against sheets, which are a human innovation & # 8221 ; ( Animal Farm 70 ) . Napoleon & # 8217 ; s selfishness leads to trouble among the animate beings. & # 8220 ; For yearss at a clip the animate beings [ have ] nil to eat but kid and mangels. Starvation [ seems ] to gaze them in the face & # 8221 ; ( Animal Farm 75 ) . Napoleon, nevertheless, does non care about his topics. Like Stalin, he is merely concerned about how his rivals see him, and as a consequence both he and Stalin fail in their mission of making an classless society. Each does win, nevertheless, in geting and mistreating power.

In Animal Farm, the ab initio hopeful revolution comes to a hopeless terminal after Napoleon takes over. From this we learn that while the members of a society mom hold certain ideals, their swayer will likely be self-motivated and ignore those ideals every bit much as possible. Throughout history, we have seen that the ideals of a revolution are seldom upheld, and visions of an ideal society normally disagree with the concluding world. While such visions normally end in failure, they do hold worth, for it is impossible to better conditions without cognizing how to better them or what the concluding end is. Hope, though non ever satisfied, is necessary for endurance, and those who live in black conditions need hope to look past the strivings of life.

Plants Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: New American Library, 1946.

& # 8220 ; Stalin Joseph. & # 8221 ; Compton & # 8217 ; s Multimedia Encyclopedia. 3rd erectile dysfunction. 1999.

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