IA Soviet Union in Animal Farm

[michi_93]

Hey,

I needed help with my History IA. My research question is 'How historically accurate is the depiction of the Soviet Union (post the revolution) in George Orwell's Animal Farm?'. I will be comparing the novel with a history textbook. Is this topic ok or should I do another one becasue my history teacher was like comparing with a fictional work is not advisable. I am not sure what to do. I have another topic in mind and have worked on it too. This topic is somtheing along the lines of was the Cold War merely interrupted by the Second World War?

Help will be appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Varsha

[misfit]

if your teacher said it wasn't advisable, i'd suggest working on your second topic. (it seems cool btw)

your first topic would be better suited for an EE if you haven't already started working on that.

Good luck!

[Proletariat]

Uhm, well first of all your second topic doesn't make sense as written. Did you mean to type "how WWII was interrupted by the Cold War", and not the other way around? If so, then I can tell you right now - as someone who wrote their IA on the Marshall Plan - that it did not.

I'm afraid though I'm not positive on your first topic of the comparison. Many people choose to analyze the accuracy of films, but I've never actually heard of someone analyzing the accuracy of a fiction novel, even though the two wouldn't seem to be too different. In addition, Animal Farm isn't historical fiction, but an allegory, which might make it more difficult to objectively analyze if there are segments which are open to interpretation.

It wouldn't be unwise to choose something different than the Animal Farm comparison, even though I would love to both read and write an IA on that topic. However, your current "back-up" sounds even less feasible.

[Scade]

Uhm, well first of all your second topic doesn't make sense as written. Did you mean to type "how WWII was interrupted by the Cold War", and not the other way around? If so, then I can tell you right now - as someone who wrote their IA on the Marshall Plan - that it did not.

I'm afraid though I'm not positive on your first topic of the comparison. Many people choose to analyze the accuracy of films, but I've never actually heard of someone analyzing the accuracy of a fiction novel, even though the two wouldn't seem to be too different. In addition, Animal Farm isn't historical fiction, but an allegory, which might make it more difficult to objectively analyze if there are segments which are open to interpretation.

It wouldn't be unwise to choose something different than the Animal Farm comparison, even though I would love to both read and write an IA on that topic. However, your current "back-up" sounds even less feasible.

I believe the question to what extent was cold war interrupted by the second world war to be a valid one. You might want to be aware of the interpretation that the cold war really started in 1917, not post-WWII. There would be plenty of evidence to support this: foreign involvement in Russian civil war, the Soviet attempts at world revolution, Stalin's 'socialism in one country' and his statements on the need to catch up with the west, the popular front governments formed after Hitler's rise to power, involvement in the Spanish civil war, etc. etc. However, I do not believe that the interpretation is completely accurate, just saying that it does have some solid points.

When it comes to formulating the question I suggest you try to narrow it down a bit more, since the IA is a rather concentrated piece of work, and I believe that you would have difficulties in dealing with such complex interpretations involving a vast range of historical material. If you want to continue along the lines of the Cold War and the way in which it goes back to 1917 I might recommend that you choose a more limited approach. Concentrate on one event/historical figure or something along those lines. With this in mind I would either suggest something related to the early stages of the revolution and the civil war, or something related to Stalin's policies. But yeah, I guess you should figure that out on your own/with your teacher, but I'm happy to comment/develop ideas.

When it comes to your original question, I did my IA on the accuracy of the portrayal of the February revolution in Eisenstein's film October. However, that had the wider implications of how it related to Soviet ideas, propaganda, etc. In that way Orwell's Animal Farm might be a bit more difficult. Simply looking at the accuracy of the novel is not going to produce great results, and might borderline on not being historical enough (the IBO can be bitchy when it comes to IA's not clearly falling into the subject category). So I suggest that you try to find something more concrete on the Animal Farm if you really want to do that. You might want to look at the context in which it was written and published, its reception, etc. How it falls into the international debate about the Soviet Union, and so on. In this way you might even combine the two approaches, looking at the development of cold war atmosphere through the kind of literature published or something.