Sample powerpoint for Animal Farm synthesis

1. THE SOVIET
POLITBURO:
A PANEL OF JUDGES
BROOKE ALLEN, ANNA DER
MS. PAVELKA
ENGLISH 1H B , PERIOD 5
27 MARCH 2012

2. THIS IS NOT A JOKE.
In the words of iconic American Idol judge Simon
Cowell, “No.” And queue the shattering of hopes and the death of
dreams–because it only takes a powerful man’s single word to deny
a person; their future; their aspirations; and in the case of Soviet
Russia, to deny you their life. In political allegory (to Russia after
the Communist Party coup) Animal Farm, George Orwell mocks
human animal stupidity–exactly what the ideologist Karl Marx
himself did not account for in his plan for a “dictatorship of the
proletariat”.

3. Although Communism is traditionally about the rule of the
people, the Soviet Union was actually run by a political party called
the Politburo. Their influence in Soviet society came to represent
just how the face of Communism had been altered in a totalitarian
country.

4. HISTORICAL EVENTS
• During the October Revolutions in 1917, the Politburo ran for a
period of 2 weeks and was created “to provide political
leadership”
• The Politburo was re-elected in 1919 by the Central Committee
and ran until 1952, when Stalin replaced it with his Presidium
• After Stalin’s death when the Politburo was re-established by the
Central Committee, it ran more like a General Assembly on
individual perspectives rather than political view points
• The Soviet-Politburo ended in 1991 following the August Coup

5. As Marx believed true Communism was “a form of
complete socialism in which the mean of production…would be
owned by the people…All goods and services would be shared
equally” (Beck et al. 303). In Russia following the Bolshevik
Revolution in 1917, this was not the case. Meant to be a rule of the
people by all of the people, Russia soon turned into a dictatorship of
the few. The Politburo, a single-digit membered group of the more
prominent Soviet leaders that ruled the Communist Party, “began
making the day-to-day high-level decisions of government”
("Grigori Evseevich Zinoviev” para. 6).

6. The few–that originally included Vladimir Ilyrich Lenin and also
Joseph Stalin–became synonymous in their jobs to the controlling
monarchal regime they had once intended to eradicate. In Orwell’s
Animal Farm, the same thing happens to the pigs that take the role
of leadership–Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer. Once the animals
take over the farm, the irony of the situation is clear to see. While
the working animals have to slave the same as they did under Mr.
Jones and considerably even harder, now, the pigs get the pampered
treatment of all the milk, all the apples, and all the power–the same
materials the animals once envied of the humans.

7. The Politburo had become the new nobility of Russia and
all in the same manner. This makes, if anything, a complete joke of
the seventh and the “most important” commandment of Animalism–
“All animals are equal” (Orwell 25; ch. 2). They faltered at the
underlying principle of every average teenager’s hopes and dreams
growing up in angst, to become nothing like their parents. The
oppressed had become the oppressors.

8. “Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev and the Politburo…crushed all
political disagreement” (Beck et al. 612). In a familiar story, Orwell
describes the political debates among the animals, “It was always the
pigs who put forward the resolutions” and “Snowball and Napoleon
were by far the most active in the debates” (31; ch. 3); showing, that
truly any of the important decisions were the result of only a single
animal’s opinion. Fact of the matter is that the exact opposite of
what Marx intended in his manifesto occurred. In a grueling process
of nature, the tables had turned, and too fast for the eye to see.

9. As the Russian citizens transitioned into a new world, many
were left petrified by the infamous KGB, the group that stood as the
main enforcers. Little did they realize the KGB was only the bronze
that masked the brains–the Politburo. Not only were they a group of
political adherers, but also as stated in the magazine Foreign Policy
“Vast archival evidence accumulated over the post-communist years
proves that [they were]…also directly responsible for the executions
of innocent people” (Rodgers para. 8). If Animal Farm had not been
an allegory and if it was not a moral atrocity to rape the connotation
of precious farm animals then maybe Orwell might have depicted
the mass amounts of genocide that was actually achieved.

10. A New York Times article from 1992 announced, “The Russian
Government today [October 15] for the first time made public secret
documents revealing that Stalin’s Politburo in March 1940 had
specifically ordered the execution of more than 20,000 Poles,
including nearly 5,000 senior Polish Army officers, whose bodies
were dumped in a mass grave in the forest of Katyn [as reference to
the Katyn Massacre]” (Bohlen para. 1). Most active in savage role-
play under Stalin, the Politburo should have been represented by a
ferocious bear or an extremely pissed off panther…because a
donkey or an elephant just would not have been enough.

11. Failure to act under the Rule of Law, failure to endeavor the
ideals of Communism, and failure to break the stereotype that has
molded history’s greatest leaders–that absolute power corrupts
absolutely; Russia under the Politburo makes a true Communist
want to ask themselves, “What the bloody hell was that?” Life under
new rule was not supposed to be oppressive; life under new rule was
not supposed to be like an American hit TV show where three judges
decided fate. But then again, the Soviet Union was not supposed to
be something that ended either.

12. JUST REMEMBER
“Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change
the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”–Margaret Meade

13. WORKS CITED
Beck, Roger B., Linda Black, Larry Krieger, Phillip C. Naylor, and Dahia Ibo Shabaka. Modern World History:
Patterns of Interaction. California ed. Sacramento: McDougal Littell, 2006. Print.
Bohlen, Celestine. "Russian Files Show Stalin Ordered Massacre of 20,000 Poles in 1940." New York Times 15 Oct.
1992. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.
"Grigori Evseevich Zinoviev." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998.Gale Student Resources In
Context. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classics, 1996. Print.
Rodgers, Walter. "How Russians survived militant atheism to embrace God."Christian Science Monitor 16 June
2011. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 26 Mar. 2012.

14. DIGITAL IMAGES
Adolf Hitler portrait. Digital Image. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhitler.htm
Apple. Clip Art. http://www.easyvectors.com/browse/other/an-apple-clip-art
Barack Obama portrait. Digital Image. http://free-extras.com/images/obama_black_and_white-2839.htm
Benito Mussolini portrait. Digital Image. http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mussolini.jpg
César Chávez portrait. Digital Image. http://www.nonhumanslavery.com/the-basis-for-peace-cesar-chavez
Communist Party meme. Digital Image. http://returnofcommunism.com/
Eleanor Roosevelt portrait. Digital Image. http://lov-3.net/gun-quote-friday-eleanor-roosevelt/
Farm dogs. Digital Image. http://www.gablesfarm.org.uk/animalcarecard.html
Farm horses. Digital Image. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pg23/507940470/
Farm pigs. Digital Image. http://journey-roadlesstraveled.blogspot.com/2011/04/tacomepai-thai-organic-farm-simply.html
Fidel Castro portrait. Digital Image. http://godfather.wikia.com/wiki/Fidel_Castro
Frustrated teen image 1 (boy). Digital Image. http://www.myoutofcontrolteen.com/DefiantAspergersTeen
Frustrated teen image 2 (girl). Digital Image. http://traftrash.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/teenagers-vs-parents-this-is-a-rant/
Joesph Stalin head. Digital Image. http://was-stalin-a-rothschild.blogspot.com/
Joseph Stalin portrait. Digital Image. http://pamelascott81.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/stalin-interpreting-the-stalin-era/
Joseph Stalin salute. Digital Image. http://azweird.com/history/
strange_facts_about_the_greatest_dictators_in_history-661.html
Kim Jong-il portrait. Digital Image. http://www.smh.com.au/world/new-leader-stirs-old-fears-20111219-1p2l2.html

15. DIGITAL IMAGES (CONTD.)
Leon Trotsky portrait. Digital Image. http://the100.ru/en/special-operations/removing-trotsky.html
Martin Luther King, Jr. portrait. Digital Image. http://www.drmartinlutherking.net/martin-luther-king-pictures-photos.php
Milk. Digital Image. http://www.precisionnutrition.com/protein-limit
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi portrait. Digital Image. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi
Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Digital Image of Painting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Crossing_the_Alps
Nelson Mandela portrait. Digital Image. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html
Original American Idol Judges. Digital Image. http://idolator.com/5857661/american-idol-judges-kara-meter
Osama bin Laden portrait. Digital Image. http://freedomtodiscuss.com/tag/osama-bin-laden/
Snowball. Digital Image. http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/schramm_122509.html
Theodore Roosevelt portrait. Digital Image. http://www.softwarenewsdaily.com/2012/02/top-10-most-techno-savvy-us-
presidents
Troll Face GIF. Digital Image. http://fuckyeahtrollface.tumblr.com/post/6562875464/mi-coleccion-de-gif-trollface
Vladimir Lenin portrait. Digital Image. http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/gcse/russia/5b_roleoflenin.htm#.T3EhsFGVK_s