A comparison of Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution

George Orwell’s controversial novel “Animal Farm” has often been

thought of as Orwell’s opinions, or interpretations of historical events
that happened around the time it was written. The historical event that it
is most often compared to is the Russian Revolution. “Animal Farm” and
the Russian Revolution have many similarities and ideas. The
characters, settings, and the plots are close if not exactly the same. In
addition “Animal Farm” is a satire and allegory of the Russian
Revolution , and it seems that George Orwell meant for it to be that
way.

Karl Marx was a German scholar who lived in the nineteenth century, he
was an idealist who spent most of his life studying and writing about
history and economics. Marx wrote books that stated that the only way
to establish justice was for the workers to overthrow the capitalists by
means of violent revolution. He urged workers around the world to revolt
against their rulers. “Workers of the world unite” he wrote. “You have
nothing to lose but your chains”. During the Russian Revolution Marx’s
ideas were used by a man named Lenin who had overthrown Russia\'s
irresponsible leader “ Nicholas the Second” Lenin had better ways to
keep Russia alive and happy for the workers of Russia had been living
in poverty for quite a few years. Later in the Revolution the noble Lenin
was also over thrown by one of his communist comrades Joseph Stalin.
Stalin was a quieter simpler sort of man and while he was in rule the
communist party took many privileges. Also Stalin used many of Lenin’s
ideas that he had earlier opposed. It seemed to be most important to
Stalin that he stay in power and I order to do this he used many brutal
tactics. Chief among his creations were highly effective political
weapons such as an effective propaganda spreading machine that
more and more promoted that Stalin was a nearly god like creature, and
also he had a secret police force which kept the country silent through
the years of terror. At one point during Stalin\'s rule he organized what
were called “show trials” in which many people he did not approve of
curiously confessed to solemn crimes and were immediately executed
or sent to prison. eventually Stalin began trading with non-communist
countries of western Europe, although he continued to be hostile to
Germany. Then in 1939 he shockingly signed a non-aggresion pact with
Hitler. Not long afterwards Hitler broke the agreement and attacked
Russia.

This takes us up to the time of the writing of “Animal Farm”. As you can
see almost every event in the novel can be traced directly to an event in
Russia during the period from 1900-1943, such as the “show trials” too
the executions outside the farm house, or the overthrowing of “Nicholas
the Second” to the battle of Cowshed. also all most all of the characters
from “Animal Farm’ can de traced to a person or group of people
involved in the Russian Revolution for example Napoleon represents
Stalin in the way that he is obsessed with keeping power , and that he
gives the pigs special treatment, also the way he use propaganda to
make outsiders believe everything is great and that he is a god like
leader who could never do wrong. But one of the most obvious reasons
that napoleon represents Stalin is the way Napoleon over threw
Snowball the way Stalin over threw Lenin. Also as is proven by the
previous statement Snowball represents Lenin, in the way that he took
the teachings of Old major (Karl Marx) and over threw Mr. Jones
(Nicholas the second). Snowball was a great speaker as was Lenin,
both were highly regarded by their followers and both were betrayed by
their comrades. Also there was boxer who represented the working
class, Molly who was white Russia, and who could forget the evil dogs
of Napoleon who inspire the role as the secret police of Joseph Stalin.
The Farm of course is Russia with its poor conditions and no good
government.

“Animal Farm” is a great example of “Political satire”. The novel was

written to criticize the totalitarian regimes and particularly Stalin’s rule in
Russia. In chapter one it tells how Orwell feels about the novel also it
gives reference to the farm and how it relates to Russia. But you can
see all the satire in chapter two, it tells how inefficient the idea of
communism is. Human Nature cannot handle communism, we are to
devious and demanding of things we want , we are “bossy”. From
chapter two to until the last chapter shows how the book is a satire and
in the end has a conclusion that was apparent from the first page. In
closing the moral of the Novel and the teachings of the Russian
Revolution is that Dictatorship will not work and that the dream that
Stalin and Napoleon both possessed of one race or species taking over
the world is impossible and will never be anything more than a dream.
Everybody depends on everyone else to much to make it alone.