The Life of Oscar Otter: An Allegory of the Russian Revolution

Chapter 3

"Abdicating! Can you believe it?"

"I know! Who would have thought? What's to happen now?..."

The chatter in the streets was constant as those who weren't there when it happened read about it in that morning's paper. The news spread like wildfire throughout all of Russia as every newspaper and gossip magazine wanted to cover the reasons behind the Tiger's abdication. The stories circulated with help from Moon and his supporters who wanted the truth to reach as many animals as possible to gain more animals on their side.

As a result of the Tiger stepping down, many changes came about, all supposed to be in the animals' interest. A new government was established in the hopes of appeasing the animals. A council of animals ascended control and ostensibly took into account the interests of the animals as well as tried to distribute resources more equally. Oscar strongly suspected, however, that they were simply animals that had been part of the Tiger's own inner circle and were actually just keeping everything to themselves as the Tiger did.

Luckily for the animals, that wasn't the only governing power after the Tiger abdicated. There was also another group, led by Moon, that was better at representing the animals. Moon's group adopted their name as the Petrograd Soviet and was made up of a large group of working class animals that were elected by other working class animals in order to keep everything fair. The two groups struggled with each other for power for a long time, neither being able to win against the other. However the Soviet began devising a plan to gain full control of Russia, and be rid of the Tiger's influence once and for all.

Oscar, having lived on the outskirts of Petrograd since he was born and because he so vigorously attended and spoke at Moon's lectures, was elected to be part of the Soviet. This was an amazing opportunity for him and he gladly took it, looking forward to being part of making their country better. He gladly accepted and began working right away, taking care to attend every meeting and declare his opinions on certain matters.

Because he was now working in the soviet, he got to work side by side with some of his favorite revolutionaries, including Marvin Moon and Warren Wolf. Moon was head of operations at the soviet, but he always made sure to take everyone's opinions into account. He was the voice that led to the protests in the first place and he had many reasons for getting involved in the cause, as he explained to the listening crowds of Petrograd. He was part of the Bolshevik party which believed in firmly guiding other animals because they were unable to decide such things for themselves.

Wolf, on the other hand wasn't head of the soviet, but he did have a very high position in it. He was head of the military efforts for the soviet, which meant that Oscar often worked under him in his department because of his previous experience fighting.

Wolf and Moon, although they agreed on many things, disagreed about how they should approach running the soviet. Wolf was a menshevik and believed in less control from the government and more choice from the animals. They were also willing to make peace with the other powers around them and were less focused on the elite and educated and more on everyone getting a say.

Oscar, although tied up at first with his feelings of loyalty and admiration towards Moon, decided that he much preferred the ideals of the mensheviks. Over the next months working under the soviet, Oscar worked tirelessly and quickly worked his way up and easily became one of the soviet's higher tier workers, even getting to work directly with Wolf.

The soviet, not able to afford the split in ranks, held a series of debates deciding which party would prevail and which would sink. Oscar was with Wolf in supporting all animals' rights, and he stood firm in his menshevik beliefs. Unfortunately, the vote went to the bolsheviks, earning them their name, and Wolf pivoted at the last second to the bolshevik party and his relationship with Moon was repaired.

The whole uniting process had taken several months, and with the joint control between the soviet and the dumas (the governing body left over from the Tiger's ruling days), progress was slow. But now that the soviet was united under the bolsheviks, they believed it was time for action.

In the month of October, eight months after the abdication of the Tiger, Moon, now the official leader, led another revolt, this time against the dumas.

Surprisingly, their encounter was bloodless. The dumas, frightened by the massive size of the group of animals that the soviet had on their side, stepped down almost immediately.

The soviet now had complete control of Russia, and everything was going surprisingly well for them. They were establishing new laws and attempting to fix the mess left behind by the Tiger. One of their first actions was making peace with the country that had dragged them into the war in the first place, Germany.

Germany's demands were high and the peace treaty was extremely costly for Russia, leaving them with significantly less land than before. A war that was supposed to gain them many profits ended up costing them dearly, and the soviet was left to clean up that mess. However, while the Soviets were attempting to fix that, a new problem arose, leaving them with no time to deal with their economic problems.