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Explain the apparent differences between Squealer in Animal Farm and the Russian newspaper, Pravda, as instruments of propaganda.

Firstly, Squealer only became significant as an instrument of propaganda for the pigs after the Rebellion when Mr. Jones and his men were ousted from the farm, whilst Pravda existed long before the February Revolution of 1917. The newspaper had already been established in 1903 when the Tsarist regime was still in power. Squealer only gained importance after Old Major's speech in the big barn, when the animals started preparations towards an overthrow.


Secondly, the newspaper had originally been created as a journal which provided information on the arts, literature, and social life, a type of entertainment tabloid, whilst Squealer had no such function before or after the Rebellion. Although his purpose before the actual revolution was to motivate the animals in preparing for the rebellion, his sole directive, soon after the event, was to convince the other animals that the pigs were acting in their best interest, as is illustrated by his clever explanation for the pigs' exclusive claim to the milk and windfall apples in chapter 3:



"It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades," cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, "surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"  



Another significant distinction between the two is that once it was discovered that Pravda was used to publish political rhetoric, it was banned by the Tsarist government and appeared under various pseudonyms during the period before the Rebellion. Mr. Jones had not at any time suspected that the animals were secretly planning to overthrow the farm and, therefore, had no reason to sanction Squealer or any of the other animals, for that matter.


Furthermore, Pravda was moved to a different country and became a political mouthpiece for a Ukrainian political party, Spilka, which ran its publication from Vienna. It was only in 1912 that Lenin decided to make Pravda his organisation's political mouthpiece. Squealer was always a spokesperson for the pigs only, and never acted on behalf of anyone else. 


Another minor contrast lies in the fact that, essentially, Pravda had been controlled by different masters, such as Lenin and later Stalin. Squealer served only one leader, Napoleon. There had never been any other in control of the farm as it had been in Russia, from before and after the Revolution.


Despite these differences, the overall purposes of both Pravda and Squealer were the same: to propagate a particular political ideology and, more importantly, to confuse and mislead followers into believing that, whatever their leaders did, they did it for the general good by constantly assuring them, through blatant misinformation, that they were better off than they had ever been before.

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