Napoleon is very clearly Joseph Stalin, and only Joseph Stalin, literally everything that happens in the book is a 1:1 parallel (highly editorialized to be anti-whatever the Soviets did) to some event that took place in the Soviet Union specifically, so no, you can absolutely not “just as easily” read it as the French or American or any other revolution, it is only about the USSR. I think you really need to read it again if you actually believe what you’re saying.
IMO Orwell meant to criticize the USSR, but the result is allegorical/general enough that it stands as its own story, better in fact than it works a criticism of the USSR.
It's also not an anti-Marxist book, because it criticizes the betrayal of the revolution, not the revolution itself, which is a triumph over the exploiters. Gorbachyov/the Communist Party revisionists are the pigs who started to walk on two feet, not Stalin.
Napoleon is very clearly Joseph Stalin, and only Joseph Stalin, literally everything that happens in the book is a 1:1 parallel
That's definitely the Americanized spin on it, yes. The book is basically introduced as "Russian History 101", and you'll fail the class if you don't regurgitate this line just like all the other sheep in the classroom.
you can absolutely not “just as easily” read it as the French or American or any other revolution
Not when the curriculum is being written up by the CIA, no. But the comparison of the revolution to failures in France and Spain are easy enough to make. As someone who watched the Spanish Civil War rapidly deteriorate into factionalist conflicts between Stalinists and Trotskyists, only for the rebellion to be quashed by a fascist dictatorship, Orwell had a front line view of leftist infighting and betrayal to inform his worldview.
Of course, the American government wasn't in the business of stirring up antipathy towards Franco's Spain. So you'll never get a tight 1:1 reading in an effort to denounce fascism in Western Europe that's offered up by a Reagan-Era school teacher.
No, that’s not an Americanized spin, that’s just how the book is written. You’d be throwing your back out with all the reaching you’d have to do to relate the events in the book to other revolutions, because it was specifically written to be anti-Stalin. Who is Snowball if you’re talking about the American or French Revolutions? Who’s Frederick, what’s the windmill and the collapse of the windmill representative of?
Napoleon is very clearly Joseph Stalin, and only Joseph Stalin, literally everything that happens in the book is a 1:1 parallel (highly editorialized to be anti-whatever the Soviets did) to some event that took place in the Soviet Union specifically, so no, you can absolutely not “just as easily” read it as the French or American or any other revolution, it is only about the USSR. I think you really need to read it again if you actually believe what you’re saying.
IMO Orwell meant to criticize the USSR, but the result is allegorical/general enough that it stands as its own story, better in fact than it works a criticism of the USSR.
It's also not an anti-Marxist book, because it criticizes the betrayal of the revolution, not the revolution itself, which is a triumph over the exploiters. Gorbachyov/the Communist Party revisionists are the pigs who started to walk on two feet, not Stalin.
That's definitely the Americanized spin on it, yes. The book is basically introduced as "Russian History 101", and you'll fail the class if you don't regurgitate this line just like all the other sheep in the classroom.
Not when the curriculum is being written up by the CIA, no. But the comparison of the revolution to failures in France and Spain are easy enough to make. As someone who watched the Spanish Civil War rapidly deteriorate into factionalist conflicts between Stalinists and Trotskyists, only for the rebellion to be quashed by a fascist dictatorship, Orwell had a front line view of leftist infighting and betrayal to inform his worldview.
Of course, the American government wasn't in the business of stirring up antipathy towards Franco's Spain. So you'll never get a tight 1:1 reading in an effort to denounce fascism in Western Europe that's offered up by a Reagan-Era school teacher.
No, that’s not an Americanized spin, that’s just how the book is written. You’d be throwing your back out with all the reaching you’d have to do to relate the events in the book to other revolutions, because it was specifically written to be anti-Stalin. Who is Snowball if you’re talking about the American or French Revolutions? Who’s Frederick, what’s the windmill and the collapse of the windmill representative of?