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Lillian McNutt

Mrs. Petersen

Western Studies

6 May 2017

Animal Farm

In 1945, George Orwell published his literary masterpiece, Animal Farm. The book

satirizes and reflects the Russian Revolution as well as the following era of rule by the Bolsheviks

and Stalin. With parallels, implications, and predictions, Animal Farm proved to ring true on

many levels for the Russian Revolution and revolutions in general. Tying the real cruelties of the

Russian Revolution to the fantasy world of Manor Farm, Orwell teaches us ideals through history.

The Russian Revolution, sparked by the re-entrance of Lenin into Russia and fueled by hatred for

the Czar, marks a bloody time in history during which strong concepts were soured by human

inadequacy. The Russian Revolution was caused by the shortcomings of the Romanov Dynasty

and the ambitions of three men. The vision of revolution will be not only set, but shattered by the

latter.

The Romanov Family had been in control of Russia for the past 300 years, and Czar

Nicholas II was the ruler in 1917. Past Russian rulers had bounced back and forth between more

liberal ideas and the upholding of the Old Regime. Nicholas II was a strong proponent of the

second. A bad leader, he was just like Mr. Jones from Animal Farm. Jones was always “too

drunk” (Orwell 3). Overall, he had four fatal flaws that led to the removal of the Romanov

Dynasty from the Russian throne. Losing the Russo-Japanese War was a major blow to Russia’s

credibility and Nicholas’ power. Japan, one of the many victims of Western European

Imperialism, had studied Imperialistic and military tactics to find a way to beat the Europeans at

their own game. When Russia lost a war against a country that had been so recently exposed to
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the outside world, they lost their status as prominent power of the time. Czar Nicholas’ entrance

into and persistence in WWI was another strike. The alliances that roped Russia into WWI ended

up proving devastating for the country. In Catrine Clay’s King Kaiser Tsar, she discusses the state

of Russia as the war dragged on. Morale was low and “discontent among the troops on the

Eastern Front was spreading to the cities back home, causing social unrest” (Clay 329). Czar

Nicholas’ third mistake was moving his headquarters to the front lines. As Nicholas narrowed his

focus in on the war, he left Rasputin in charge of the rest of the government. Rasputin was widely

hated and eventually assassinated by the boyars. Because of this unrest, divides grew in the

government.

Czar Nicholas II’s fourth and arguably most fatal flaw was his dissolving of the Duma.

When he agreed to the creation of this legislation, Russia gained the hope that things could

change, and the entire government would shift to a more modern, liberal system. Nicholas,

backed by his wife Alix, “rejected the requests [of the Duma]. He remained convinced that the

concessions he had made following the 1905 revolution had been a mistake” (Clay 329). We see

this same need for revolution in Animal Farm. The animals are starving because Jones, the

perpetually drunk, tyrannical farmer refuses to feed them. The poor living conditions and unfair

rule spread unrest among the farm animals. The standing disdain of the general population for the

current system and Czar Nicholas’ bad choices led to a very unstable Russia that was crying out

for new options. A man by the name of Vladimir Lenin answered that call.

Exiled from Russia for years and smuggled back in to the country by the Germans,

Vladimir Lenin proved a turning point in Russia’s history. Lenin was a loud Bolshevik who

thought that pure Marxism was the best solution, and that the peasant revolt was not only

inevitable, but necessary. He has close ties with Old Major from Animal Farm. Old Major

addresses the animals soon before his death and tells them that “all the evils of this life of ours
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spring from the tyranny of human beings… get rid of man, and the produce of our labor would be

our own” (Orwell 9). It is clear to see Lenin’s political mastery in his promises of bread, land, and

peace to the Russian people. Starving and war worn, they latched on to whatever and whomever

they believed could give them what they really needed. Ultimately, Lenin followed through, but

only for a short period of time. After the Bolsheviks took over in October of 1917, a civil war

ensued. Lenin’s army was known as the Red Army, which fought against anti- Bolshevik forces

who called themselves the White Army. This was a brutal war where Lenin eliminated all his

opposition. He waged total war under the name of War Communism, in which the “government

owned everything and soldiers could take what they needed from the peasants” (Nelson). After

winning the war, Lenin instated his New Economic Policy. Lenin was a vision-caster, an idealist.

He yearned for a worldwide communist revolution and wanted unity among all peoples. Old

Major directly resembles this, especially in his teaching of Beasts of England to the animals. Old

Major is a dreamer, but dies before he gets to see his dream fulfilled. In a similar fashion, Lenin

died in 1924.

After Lenin’s death, his vision for Russia slowly but surely faded out of view as new men

with new ambitions came to power. In Animal Farm, these men are portrayed by Snowball and

Napoleon. The former represents Leon Trotsky, while the latter represents Stalin. In Robert

Service’s Trotsky, he details the beliefs, effects, and exile of Leon Trotsky. He states that he

“conserved in his head a vision of a future world where each man and woman would have the

opportunity for self-fulfillment in service of the collective good” (Service 3). Trotsky and

Snowball both proved their value not only in their rousing speeches, but in their military prowess.

Trotsky led the Red Army to a victory over the White Army, and Snowball led the animals in the

defeat of the humans at the Battle of Cowshed. Trotsky’s vision was similar to Lenin’s, but Stalin

had other plans.

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Joseph Stalin was a master of politics who developed an iron grip on a nation for 24 years.

As party secretary at the time of Lenin’s death, Stalin found it easy to transition into the role of

dictator. His main goals were to remain in power and make the USSR a major world power. That

being said, Lenin’s goals were to make Russia an example communist society and create a

Marxist paradise. Obviously, the goals of these two men end up being very different. Stalin,

when he takes power, is given absolute power. The old mantra “absolute power corrupts

absolutely” rings true time and time again. He remained in power, but at the exorbitant cost of

millions upon millions of lives. According to Robert Service in his book Stalin, “Stalin did not

just incarcerate and murder. In applying physical and mental torment to his victims, he degraded

them in the most humiliating fashion. He derived deep satisfaction from this” (Service 5). Every

person whom Stalin suspected might be against him happened to disappear in the middle of the

night. His secret police were mostly to blame for this. Likewise, Napoleon raised up a force of

secret police that eliminated those who potentially posed a threat to his power. These dogs were

used to remove Snowball from the farm. Napoleon also used Squealer, or propaganda, to taint the

images of previous heroes and alter memories. In the same way, Stalin would remove people

from their past fames, and even from photographs. Boxer blindly believes that “Napoleon is

always right” (Orwell 56). He represents the uneducated proletariat with blind loyalty to Stalin.

Stalin marks the full cycle of the Russian Revolution. Though the revolution was intended

to be a linear movement away from the Old Regime towards a communist society, it ended up

coming full circle. From tyrant to tyrant, the revolution brought little change. Orwell speaks to

this cycle in Animal Farm. At the end of the text, the pigs have become the humans that were so

hated in the first place. So great was the resemblance that the “creatures outside looked from pig

to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say

which was which” (Orwell 141). Absolute power always corrupts, no matter whose hands it is in.
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Works Cited

Clay, Catrine. King, Kaiser, Tsar. New York: Walker, 2006. Print.

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Signet Classics, 1996. Print.

Service, Robert. Stalin. London: Macmillan, 2004. Print.

Service, Robert. Trotsky. London: Macmillan, 2010. Print.

Nelson, Ken. " Biography for Kids: Vladimir Lenin ." Ducksters. Technological Solutions, Inc.

(TSI), May 2017. Web. 13 May 2017.