Animal Farm: Why do the animals confess to crimes when they will be slaughtered?

One part about Orwells’ fantastic book Animal Farm I don’t seem to get.

Napoleon calls a meeting of the animals and the large dogs grab the four disruptive pigs and drag them to the front of the meeting. The pigs confess they are in league with Snowball and are executed. After that many more animals voluntarily confess their crimes and are executed.

This is the part I don’t get. Why do the other animals come forward and confess when they know they will be slaughtered?

Is it because of fear or guilt at betraying the cause?

Thoughts please.

A satire of the Commies. I don’t know if they beat the snot out of them or gave them drugs in a “mental hospital”. The Soviet Justice system gave them four(?) days to talk you into confessing and then they had to let you go, so I imagine they were pretty good at it. The latter from a book about the Russian serial killer, the hospital from Stalin.

Because they loved Big Brother.

All the major events in Animal Farm relate directly to historical events in Russia during the first 30-odd years after the revolution.

The events in chapter 7 are Stalin’s show trials of the 1930’s where his own friends confessed to being Trotskyites even though they weren’t. People at the time asked why they confessed knowing they would be executed.

A good discussion of it all is here . Just remember Napoleon is Stalin, Snowball is Trotsky and the dogs are the secret police.

Thanks don’t ask and carnivorousplant.

I knew about the russian revolution thing but I just didn’t understand why they confessed on their own. Got it now.

PS: That link is great. What a F**ked up time that must have been for anyone living in Russia.

The novel Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler examines the motivations of a Soviet show trial defendant and why such a person would confess to crimes he didn’t commit even when guilt could lead to death.