The theme of Animal Farm is not difficult to understand. Orwell intended to criticize, in an allegorical way, the totalitarian communist regime he saw in Russia. Though he agreed with many Marxist principles, Orwell was unable to accept the communist interpretation of socialism because he saw many similarities between the communist governments and the previous czarist regimes in old Russia. Communism, he thought, was inherently hypocritical.
So, in order to understand better the events described by George Orwell in his famous novel Animal Farm, it is important to know the revolution that took place during the first half of the 20th Century in Russia that destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union, paying special attention to its political system that was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) which in fact became the only party permitted by Constitution.
Due to the complexity of the events, here we are going to focus on the Soviet history under Communist Party rule, beginning with the October Revolution of 1917 and how it is related to the system established in Animal Farm, but I recommend you to visit the links provided below for further information and a better understanding of the allegorical meaning of the novel:
- BBC documentary: An analysis of Animal Farm as a representation of the corruption of the revolution by its leaders and of the rise and fall of Stalinism.
George Orwell «Animal Farm»_ historical context.
- Documentary dealing with the Russian Revolution:
Part 1 (Duration : 09:38)
Part 2 (Duration : 09:25)
Part 3 (Duration : 09:49)
- Original reports from The Times:
Russian Revolution 1917
- Wikipedia’s article about the Russian Revolution:
Russian_Revolution_(1917)
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Russian society in the early twentieth century was bipolar: a tiny minority controlled most of the country’s wealth, while the vast majority of the country’s inhabitants were impoverished and oppressed peasants. Communism arose in Russia when the nation’s workers and peasants, assisted by a class of concerned intellectuals known as the intelligentsia, rebelled against and overwhelmed the wealthy and powerful class of capitalists and aristocrats. They hoped to establish a socialist utopia based on the principles of the German economic and political philosopher Karl Marx.
In February 1917, Tsar Nicholas II, the monarch of Russia, abdicated and the socialist Alexander Kerensky became premier. At the end of October, Kerensky was ousted, and Vladimir Lenin, the architect of the Russian Revolution, became chief commissar. Almost immediately, as wars raged on virtually every Russian front, Lenin’s chief allies began jockeying for power in the newly formed state; the most influential included Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Gregory Zinoviev, and Lev Kamenev. Trotsky and Stalin emerged as the most likely heirs to Lenin’s vast power. Trotsky was a popular and charismatic leader, famous for his impassioned speeches, while Stalin preferred to consolidate his power behind the scenes. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin orchestrated an alliance against Trotsky that included himself, Zinoviev, and Kaminev. In the following years, Stalin succeeded in becoming the unquestioned dictator of the Soviet Union and had Trotsky expelled first from Moscow, then from the Communist Party, and finally from Russia altogether in 1936. Trotsky fled to Mexico, where he was assassinated on Stalin’s orders in 1940.
In 1934, Stalin’s ally Serge Kirov was assassinated in Leningrad, prompting Stalin to commence his infamous purges of the Communist Party. Holding “show trials”. Stalin had his opponents officially denounced as participants in Trotskyist or anti-Stalinist conspiracies and therefore as “enemies of the people,” an appellation that guaranteed their immediate execution. As the Soviet government’s economic planning faltered and failed, Russia suffered under a surge of violence, fear, and starvation. Stalin used his former opponent as a tool to placate the wretched populace. Trotsky became a common national enemy and thus a source of negative unity. He was a frightening specter used to conjure horrifying eventualities, in comparison with which the current misery paled. Additionally, by associating his enemies with Trotsky’s name, Stalin could ensure their immediate and automatic elimination from the Communist Party.
These and many other developments in Soviet history before 1945 have direct parallels in Animal Farm: Napoleon ousts Snowball from the farm and, after the windmill collapses, uses Snowball in his purges just as Stalin used Trotsky. Similarly, Napoleon becomes a dictator, while Snowball is never heard from again. Orwell was inspired to write Animal Farm in part by his experiences in a Trotskyist group during the Spanish Civil War, and Snowball certainly receives a more sympathetic portrayal than Napoleon. Every animal character in the novel is based on one «protagonist» of the Russian Revolution:
But though Animal Farm was written as an attack on a specific government, its general themes of oppression, suffering, and injustice have far broader application and modern readers have come to see Orwell’s book as a powerful attack on any political, rhetorical, or military power that seeks to control human beings unjustly.
