ia_2011_c_beiboutov

=Evaluation of Sources (250-400 words) Tips]=

With reference to my sources, I am going to analyze the reliability of both the primary source of Lenin’s testament written before his death and // Animal Farm // the movie. The nature of Lenin’s testament was for the purpose of making public what he thought about each party member in order to establish for a powerful and correct successor to take his place when he would finally give up his power. The problem with this source is even if he criticizes Stalin, he gives negative feedback for each party member, almost like a school report, where he analyses what each party member did positively before giving the negative comments, although, Stalin’s comments were far more negative and he clearly did not see Stalin as fit to be elected as a leader of the party state. The origin of the source, being Lenin himself, gives the source reliability as he would have to make a wise and rethought decision on which party member would be his successor, however as from the beginning, Lenin was threatened by Stalin and his quick rise in popularity as Lenin was already stepping back from his post as party leader after his numerous strokes, he perhaps would not have considered that he would lead Soviet Russia in the right direction. The value of this source is decreased with the idea that this was generally Lenin’s personal idea, even though him being considered a very wise man, and not the general publics. Stalin’s threat to Lenin could have increased his susceptibility in Stalin, therefore advising his party member not to elect him as the party leader. Obviously the origin of this source is when Stalin was only beginning to become known makes it a reliable source seeing as Lenin was obliged to make the right choice for party leader elections so his entire work would not collapse and go to waste, therefore it clearly supports the idea that Stalin was a threat to Russia during his rise to power, and even Lenin saw him as an inconvenience. In Lenin’s last years, as he was confined to a chair nearly completely paralyzed, could carefully observe the sneaky tactics that Stalin used in order to make sure when Lenin had passed away, he would be the only person to step up to take his place.

The movie // Animal Farm // is quite an important source as it is a very close interpretation of George Orwell’s novel. The purpose of the movie is on the sole basis of George Orwell’s novel, to represent the rise of Stalin. However in the movie, they could have played on visual and auditory aspects. The bleak atmosphere generated in the movie seems to contrast the usual bright primary colors of everyday cartoons and plain drawn characters. The movie is darkly colored and generally textured backgrounds of almost vague intentions. In several scenes, directors John Halas, John Halas managed to move away from physical portrayals onto emphasizing with light and motion throughout the movie for the scene. Even the voices of the animals are not normal conversations but rather animal noises to be able to emphasize intonations etc. for the understanding of the message of the movie. The limitations of this movie is that it is supposed to be the visual representation of the book, however it could possibly be that the director would have altered the scenes to make it portray a different moment in history of the rise of another political leader on the past, as most movies that are based on books are tweaked. Although, for a historian studying the rise of Stalin, both sources are quite reliable to support the idea that Stalin created terror in Russia when he was coming to power and what he chose to do, in order to succeed in this.

“I have in mind stability as a guarantee against a split in the immediate future, and I intend to deal here with a few ideas concerning personal qualities.” Lenin’s Testament