When Snowball tries to get the animals to vote on the windmill, Napoleon has Snowball chased off of the farm (and perhaps killed) by a pack of vicious dogs. Napoleon then claims the windmill idea as his own, and blames poor Snowball for all of the farm's problems. Napoleon eventually breaks one of the principles of Animalism by trading with neighboring farms, and Napoleon overall becomes a ruthless dictator, moving into the farmer's house. All of the Seven Commandments are broken by the pigs, and eventually they cannot be distinguished from the humans at all.
There are many parallels between Animal Farm and the Russian Revolution. Orwell was making the comment that the revolution actually put an even more oppressive and deadly government into place than the one that was overthrown. Manner Farm can be seen as representing Russia, and the three pigs also represent the major historical figures of the Russian Revolution. The farmer, Mr. Jones, is obviously Tzar Nicholas II that was overthrown at the start of the revolution. Slaughter and hunger, like the animals experienced under the farmer, were common in Russia for the people. Old Major is a representation of Lenin, who lead the Bolshevik party, which took control when the Tzar was first overthrown. Lenin and Old Major both idealized a communal nation. Neither was in power for long. Old Major hated people with a of animals on the farm.
Napoleon the pig is obviously supposed to be Joseph Stalin. First Snowball is driven off of the farm by dogs, in the same way that Stalin killed Trotsky using his KGB agents. Stalin did not want to listen to the ideas of the people, but rather just wanted absolute power, just like Napoleon. Squealer, the pig, is modeled after Stalin's propaganda campaigns. The plan for the windmill, which never happened, is a parallel to Stalin's plans to improve agriculture and industry in the U.S.S.R. The Order of the Green Banner started by Napoleon is the same as the Order of Lenin. Stalin had moved Lenin's body to a shrine in the same way that Napoleon digs up Old Major's skull.
Orwell's book has created such a lasting impression on the public because it is story which is familiar to all of us, regardless of an individual's knowledge of the Russian Revolution. The characters are archetypes, as the historical figures have come to be, of the human condition. There are the powers that be which oppress, and there are the people that revolt, and there is the cycle as each power that comes to be is revealed as corrupted. Animal Farm is a stern warning about the past and future of governmental power.
Bibliography
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Hunter, Lynette. "Animal Farm: Satire into Allegory." George Orwell: Contemporary Critical Essays. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Orwell, George. Animal Farm.
Pipes, Richard. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
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