George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a masterfully written classic, allegorically depicting Soviet Russia and Communism as a whole. The main characters are farm pigs who decide, at the dying words of an old boar, that it is within everyone’s best interests to overthrow the farmer. This can be directly compared to Lenin’s legacy and philosophy urging his followers to usurp the tsar and implement their own form of government. The two main pigs, Napoleon and Snowball, are almost direct incarnations of Russian Tyrant Joseph Stalin and Exiled Chauvinist Leon Trotsky. There is a third pig named Squealer, but he is Napoleon’s propaganda specialist, and does not have any direct historical counterparts, and is also not integral to the story. Animal Farm has interesting spins on the birth of Leninism, the Stalin vs Trotsky saga, and communism in general, all of which were greatly affected by the time in which it was written. 

Old Major, a large and battle worn boar, has visions of a futuristic utopia kept in line by a socialist regime. He teaches the three pigs a song called “Beasts of England” envisioning his dream, this can almost be directly correlated to The Development of Capitalism in Russia, a propaganda work that largely fanned the flames into the revolution and became the groundwork of the new regime. His death causes the pigs to succeed him and use his legacy as their battle cry. The pigs take over the farm, running off oft-drunk Farmer Jones(the Tsar and the monarchy that came with him), and claiming it in the name of “Animalism”. This fictional belief philosophy is a direct representation of the Neo-Marxism/Leninism that was infrastructure of the Soviet Union, after the death of the tsar. (Marxist)

After the pigs seized control of Manor Farm, and renaming it Animal Farm, there is a clear divide on how to run this new regime. Snowball(Trotsky) is a passionate idealist, and Orwell depicts him as efficient, intelligent, and almost benevolent. However, Snowball’s philosophies are no match for the insidious nature of Napoleon, whose tact and ambition, quickly plant him as the vocal leader of Animal Farm. Napoleon uses brutal militaristic tactics to maintain control of the regime, even training litters of puppies to eventually become his hands(NKVD). After an eventual disagreement over the proposition of a windmill, Napoleon banishes Snowball from the farm. Eventually, after a turnaround on Snowball’s windmill plan, Napoleon initiates a purge of all of Snowball’s supporters, reminiscent of one of many of Stalin’s bloodbath executions. (History)

Orwell has satirical views on communism as a whole. The phrase “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” most certainly applies. The socialist state seemed superior in contrast to the passive aristocracy of the incumbent regime. Universal equality is an appealing theory, but only a theory. All communistic states revert back to an aristocracy, with an oppression of the poor and middle classes, with the upper classes and government prospering. The elite few live off the work of the many poor. Ironically the undoing of all the regimes were similar in fashion. 

The regimes oppressed the common man while keeping few in power, and they were all suddenly and efficiently set ablaze, falling almost as quickly as they started, no matter how strong their foundations were. The common thread was the regime that followed always held violently differing ideals and were lead by young and upstart “radicals”. These political ideals, once fully formed became the foundation of the regimes, but at the start they were usually boiled down to a simple ideal which became a unifying rally cry for the oppressed. This is just another instance in history where a political statement is shown to be so malleable that is twisted into an attractive piece of propaganda that blazes across a nation, setting the regime on fire.

George Orwell wrote Animal Farm between 1943-44 and it was published in 1945. He was inspired to write the work as a testament to is trials in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The communism that was rampant there was so deplorable, Orwell sought to let people know of the same atrocities supposed “ally” Joseph Stalin was afflicting on his own people, a truth that had been largely overlooked because of the horrors of the Nazi regime and the Japanese Empire. The book became wildly successful and almost ironically foretold the exact events of the cold war, and event that hadn’t even really started, that would soon span the next few decades and shape the modern world’s governments. All of these facts are intertwined with a fictional narrative to give this story. In the preface of Animal Farm, Orwell states when the first spark lit, “...I saw a little boy, perhaps ten years old, driving a huge carthorse along a narrow path, whipping it whenever it tried to turn. It struck me that if only such animals became aware of their strength we should have no power over them, and that men exploit animals in much the same way as the rich exploit the proletariat.” (Animal Farm preface)

These sentiments are exemplified in Animal Farm. Animal Farm is the symbolic regime of Russia, with the oft-drunk Farmer Jones representing the luxurious tsar. The neighboring farm of Pinchfield represents Nazi Germany, while Foxwood is the capitalist societies of the Allied powers. Orwell brilliantly crafts aspects of the rise of Soviet Russia, the chasm between Stalin and Trotsky, and general socialism into Animal Farm. He writes a history book as if it were a work of fiction, turning fact into fantasy and creating an interesting allegory for an otherwise heavy subject matter.
