RUSSIAN REVOLUTION IN ANIMAL FARM !

Chananan Sanamchai
Mr. Matthew Bishop
1202
December 7, 2017

George Orwell, or Eric Arthur Blair, his real name, was a British novelist and socialist. One

of the reason that he wrote Animal Farm was because he felt bad for people in the lower class and

those who are poor. This novel is one way of him showing that the power of people who were being

oppressed can change the society. Also, this novel is like a reflection about the Soviet Union after

the Russian Revolution. The timeline and characters in Animal Farm are similar to the timeline and

people who play important role in the Russian Revolution. The story in Animal Farm begins with

old Major convincing other animals that they should rebel against human because human is the

reason why they are living in a miserable life. The animal starts the rebellion, creates their own

rules, and live on their own. They are off to a good start but Napoleon, one of the pig, start to take

control of everything and act like a human. Later in the novel, all of the pigs are not different from

human at all and other animal do not know the difference between the pigs and human. In Animal

Farm, Orwell represent the important people that involved in the Russian Revolution through the

main characters such as Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon.

In Animal Farm, Old Major, who is respected by other animal in the farm, is a reflection of

Karl Marx who convinced people in working class to overthrow the upper class and create equality

in their society. Marx was a German philosopher and revolutionary socialist who published The

Communist Manifesto, a political pamphlet, which presents about the class struggle and the

problems of capitalism. The Communist Manifesto is one of the document that the Communism

followed and Old Major is the one who tells other animals about his thought towards human and the

idea of equality among the animals. In the first chapter of Animal Farm, Old Major says Is it not

crystal clear, comrades, that all the evils of this life of our spring from the tyranny human beings?
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION IN ANIMAL FARM !2
Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own (Orwell, 1996, p.9). Old

Majors speech is what give other animals the idea of Animalism and inspire them to rebel, which is

the same as The Communist Manifesto that was written by Marx. Marx was one of the first

theorist of communism that was responsible for the spreading of communism after the publication

of the Communist Manifesto (Scaliger, 2014). The Old Major is the one who start the idea of

Animalism and cause other animal to rebel which is the same as Marx who responsible for the

starting of communism and the rebellion of the working class against the upper class. Orwell not

only represented Marx with Old Major by how they stimulate others to revolt, but he also represent

Leon Trotsky through Snowball.

Orwell represents Leon Trotsky, who was a leader of the Russian Revolution, through

Snowballs role during the rebellion. Leon Trotsky was a Marxist revolutionary and a leader of the

Russian Revolution. In Animal Farm, Snowball is the one who leads other animals during the

rebellion. In the fourth chapter, it says Snowball, who had studied an old book of Julius Caesars

campaigns which he had found in the farmhouse, was in charge of the defensive

operations (Orwell, 1996, p. 40). This quote suggests that Snowball is the one who is in charge of

making the plan that they will use to fight the human. Also, in an article named Trotskys End, it

states that Trotsky was the one who was in charge of being the leader during the war (Bridges,

2015, p. 50) At the beginning of the story, Snowball is the one who leads the rebellion against Jones

and his men and he is the one who create the plan that other animals use and in charge of being the

leader. which is the same as Trotsky, the leader of the Russian Revolution. This is how Orwell

represents Snowball as Trotsky. As Orwell uses Snowball to represent Trotsky, he also represents

the person who was on the opposite side of Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, with Napoleon.

Napoleon, the Berkshire boar who act like an opposition of Snowball, is a representative for

Joseph Stalin, the dictator leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin was the dictator leader of the Soviet

Union from 1929-1953. Under his control, the society in the Soviet Union became change from
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION IN ANIMAL FARM !3
peasant society to industrial. Napoleon is a fierce-looking boar who did not actually follow the

words of Old Major but instead take all the advantage and becomes a dictator. He actually acts more

and more like human later in the novel and he also has the nine dogs that follow his command. He

ordered the hens rations to be stopped, and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of

corn to a hen should be punished by death. The dog saw to it that these orders were carried out. []

Nine hens had died in the meantime (Orwell, 1996, p.76-77). According to an article, Human

Rights Group Publishes Names of Those Responsible for Stalin's Purges, it said that under the

leadership of Josef Stalin, up to a million peasants, Communist party, government, and Red Army

officials disappeared and were killed on suspicion of disloyalty to party ideas (Transitions, 2016).

Orwell presented Napoleons characteristic in the very similar to Stalins characteristic. In Animal

Farm, Napoleon has the nine dogs that he uses to get rid of his enemies or those who would not

follow his order which is the same as Stalin and his NKVD. Both of them are almost identical

because they both are dictator and have their own people that they use to get rid of those who do not

follow them.

As Orwell had empathy for the lower class, he portrayed those who were mainly involved in

the Russian Revolution through the main characters in Animal Farm. Throughout Animal Farm, the

story is parallel to the Russian Revolution and each character in the story represent people that were

involved. Old Major, Snowball, and Napoleon are the main characters that can be clearly seen that

they represent Marx, Trotsky, and Stalin, respectively.

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References

Bridges, L. (2015). Trotsky's End. Russian Life, 58(4), 48-56.

Human Rights Group Publishes Names of Those Responsible for Stalin's Purges. (2016).

Transitions Online, 1.

Orwell, G. (1996). Animal Farm. New York, NY: New American Library.

Scaligera, C. (2014). Land of the Free? (Cover story). New American (08856540), 30(18), 10-17.