George Orwell wrote Animal Farm as an allegorical satire of Soviet communism. The novel, published in 1945, uses talking farm animals to represent figures like Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky. It depicts the animals overthrowing their human farmer and establishing a new social system, only to see their revolution devolve into a totalitarian dictatorship worse than the one they overthrew, mirroring Stalin's rise to power in the Soviet Union. Orwell based the major plot points and characters on real events from the Russian Revolution and Stalin's regime. The novel serves as both a critique of totalitarianism and a predictor of how communist systems could go wrong if power is concentrated in the hands of a single ruler.

1. Animal Farm
Historical
Introduction
Mrs. Jacob
McGuffey High School

2. An Introduction
 Written by George Orwell
 One of most famous satirical allegories of
Soviet totalitarianism
 Orwell based major events in the book on
novels from the Soviet
Union during the Stalin
era

3. An Introduction
 Animal Farm was
published in 1945- a
crucial moment in
European and world
history
 In some ways, Animal
Farm stands at the very
beginning of the Cold
War
 The novel also stands
as a predictor of what
would later come to
pass for Russia

5. Karl Marx: The Father of Communism
 In 1848, German political philosopher Karl
Marx published a pamphlet called the
Communist Manifesto.
 Marx’s criticism focused on the dominant
political and economic system of his time,
known as “capitalism.”
 Capitalism encourages competition between
its citizens, and provides rewards in an
unequal way.

6. Karl Marx: The Father of Communism
 Marx directed scathing attacks against this
philosophy.
 The capitalist nations, he argued, allowed the
wealthy few to amass huge fortunes, while
the numerous poor toiled in unsafe factories
for low wages, lived in wretched filth, and
died before their time.

7. Karl Marx: The Father of Communism
 Writing from Paris--
where he lived in
exile--Marx spoke of
the dawning of a new
social order based
on the equal
distribution of wealth
and possessions
among a nation's
citizenry.

8. A Country in Turmoil: Russia 1900-1918
 In 1883, Karl Marx died in London, England. At the
time of his passing, the full-scale revolutions he had
predicted had not occurred, and no nations had
declared themselves communist.
 Throughout Europe, discontented workers met to
plot the overthrow of political systems that were not
communist in nature.
 Among the leaders of these wide-spread
movements were two Russians--Vladimir Lenin and
Leon Trotsky.

9. A Country in Turmoil: Russia 1900-1918
 Within Russia itself, a
young man recently
converted to the cause
of democratic socialism
hoped to unseat the
leader. His given name
was Joseph
Dzhugashvili, but he
adopted the surname
Stalin, which translates
as "man of steel."

10. A Country in Turmoil: Russia 1900-1918
 Russia, however, little had changed in
centuries. The Czar still occupied the royal
throne and dictated state policy without
regard to the concerns of the people.
 Russian citizens thus faced enormous
hardships: grinding poverty, hunger, and
joblessness were widespread.
 In 1914, tensions between the expanding and
increasingly wealthy nations of Europe
exploded in World War I.

11. A Country in Turmoil: Russia 1900-1918
 Between 1914 and 1917, the cities of Russia
witnessed many minor revolts among the
citizenry.
 Tens of thousands of hungry workers joined
the communist "soviets"--the Russian word
for "councils"--which organized massive
protests and labor strikes to show their
displeasure at food shortages and the
endless prosecution of the war.

12. A Country in Turmoil: Russia 1900-1918
 In a remarkable and
long-awaited moment,
the Czar's soldiers
stood aside and let the
people take control of
the streets. On February
28, 1917, Czar Nicholas
II admitted defeat, and
left the royal throne.

13. The Communist Takeover
 Lenin was aided by two
prominent communist
allies: his old friend Leon
Trotsky, and a new
acquaintance, Joseph
Stalin.
 The three guided soviet
policy, promising workers
and soldiers food,
abundant land, and an
end to Russia’s
involvement in the war.
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14. The Communist Takeover
 In October of 1917, Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin
decided to make their move.
 Thousands of soviet workers and soldiers were
armed and informed of a plan to seize the
government.
 On October 24, 1917, the assault on the Winter
Palace in St. Petersburg, where the Provisional
government was headquartered, began.
 By the following night, the Provisional Government
had fallen, and Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin were
poised on the verge of ushering in the first-ever
Communist government.

15. Communism’s First Years: 1917-1922
 The new soviet government quickly stripped all land
from owners, and forbade the holding of private
property.
 Fields were to be redistributed according to need.
Hired labor was outlawed.
 Banks and businesses would be "nationalized"
gradually; that is, they would come under state
control, so that owners could not divide profits
unfairly.
 The communist era had begun: Its goal was equality
and peace for all, and forever.

16. Communism’s First Years: 1917-1922
 Between 1918-1921, a civil war raged between the
communists and their enemies. Led by Leon
Trotsky, the "Red Army" prevailed, and the
communists maintained their hold on power.
 Before Lenin could formulate an answer, and bring
about the golden days of the new government, he
suffered three paralyzing strokes. In 1922, the last
episode took his life. A new leader must step
forward, but both Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin
coveted the seat of power.

17. Trotsky and Stalin: 1922-1940
 The Stalin era lasted for 25 years.
 By the early 1940's, Russia had achieved an
industrial strength that was equal to the
former world leaders in the capitalist
countries.
 Stalin maintained his grip on power through
the use of political and social terror. He
increased the size of Russia's internal police
force (KGB) drastically, and he used them to
spy on suspected enemies within the country.

18. Trotsky and Stalin: 1922-1940
 In 1934, Stalin set a series of political
"purges" in motion. High-ranking officials in
the Soviet government were systematically
arrested, forced to admit to crimes they did
not commit, and summarily executed.
 Stalin's death in 1953 brought many of his
excesses to an end, but the basic institutions
and patterns of the life that he had created
remained.

20. The Animals
 The events and
characters in
Animal Farm
are all carefully
drawn to
represent the
history of the
Soviet Union.
The other characters have their
parallels in the real world, but care
should be taken with these
comparisons as they do not always
match history exactly and often simply
represent generalized concepts.

21. The Animals- Pigs
 Napoleon: a Berkshire
boar
 Orwell modeled him after
Joseph Stalin, while giving
him the name of the
French military leader
Napoleon, both of whom
set up dictatorship whose
repression and despotism
was similar or worse than
the governments which
they supplanted.

22. The Animals- Pigs
 Snowball, a white boar, is
a rival of Napoleon who
contends for control of the
farm after the rebellion.
 Inspired by Leon Trotsky,
Snowball is a passionate
intellectual and is far more
honest about his motives
than Napoleon.

23. The Animals- Pigs
 Squealer, a small fat
porker, serves as
Napoleon's public
speaker. Inspired by
Vyacheslav Molotov and
the Russian paper
Pravda.
 He represents all the
propaganda Stalin used to
justify his actions.

24. The Animals- Pigs
 Minimus is a poetical pig
who writes the second
and third national
anthems of Animal Farm
after the singing of
"Beasts of England" is
banned, representing
admirers of Stalin both
inside and outside the
USSR such as Maxim
Gorky.

25. The Animals- Pigs
 Old Major is based
upon both Lenin and
Marx.
 Old Major is the
inspiration which fuels
the rest of the book.

26. The Animals- Pigs
 Pinkeye is a small piglet who tastes Napoleon's
food for poisoning.
 The Piglets are hinted to be the children of
Napoleon (albeit not truly noted in the novel), and
are the first generation of animals to actually be
subjugated to his idea of animal inequality.
 The Rebel Pigs are pigs who complain about
Napoleon's takeover of the farm but are quickly
silenced and later executed. This is based on the
Great Purge during Stalin's regime.

27. Humans
 Mr. Jones is the owner of Manor Farm. He is based
on Czar Nicholas II. There are also several
implications that he represents an incompetent and
autocratic capitalist.
 Mr. Frederick is the tough owner of Pinchfield, a
well-kept neighboring farm. He represents Nazi
Germany and Adolph Hitler.
 Mr. Pilkington is the easy-going but crafty owner of
Foxwood, a neighboring farm. He represents the
western powers, such as Britain and the U.S.
 Mr. Whymper is a man hired by Napoleon to
represent Animal Farm in human society. He is
loosely based on George Bernard Shaw who visited
the U.S.S.R. in 1931 and praised what he found.

28. Other Animals
 The three horses, Boxer, Clover and Mollie
represent the three social classes. Boxer represents
the lower class, Clover the middle and Mollie the
upper. In the end, Boxer, or the lower class, is the
one that gets the most exploited by the pigs.
 Boxer is one of the most popular characters. He is a
Shire horse. Boxer is the tragic avatar of the working
class, or proletariat: loyal, kind, dedicated, and the
most physically-strong animal on the farm, but naive
and not clever, never progressing beyond the fourth
letter of the alphabet. His ignorance and blind trust
towards his leaders led to his death and their profit.

29. Other Animals
 Clover is Boxer's mate
and a fellow draft horse.
 She represents the
educated, but
essentially naive lower
middle class people
who acquiesce to the
subversion of principles
by the powerful.

30. Other Animals
 Mollie is a white mare
who likes wearing
ribbons and sugar
cubes (which represent
luxury) and being
pampered by humans.
She represents upper-
class people, the
Bourgeoisie who fled
from the U.S.S.R. after
the Russian Revolution.

31. Other Animals
 Benjamin is a donkey
who is cynical about the
revolution.
 He represents the
Jewish population in
Russia who were there
before the Revolution
and fully expected to be
there after the Soviet
Union fell (which they
were).

32. Other Animals
 Moses is a tame raven
who spreads stories of
Sugarcandy Mountain,
the "animal heaven."
 Moses represents
religion (specifically the
Russian Orthodox
Church), which has
always been in conflict
with Communism.

33. Other Animals
 Muriel is a goat who reads the edited
commandments. She may represent
intelligent labor.
 The Hens represent the Kulaks, landed
peasants persecuted by Stalin.
 The Dogs are Napoleon's secret police
and bodyguards.
 The Cat shows the unethical, silent
rejections of the new order — unwilling to
work, yet encouraging others to do so,
and acting bravely in the face of threats,
but disappearing when there is actual
danger.

34. George Orwell

35. George Orwell
 Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950),
better known by the pen name George Orwell, was a
British author and journalist.
 Noted as a novelist, as a critic and as a political and
cultural commentator, Orwell is among the most
widely admired English-language essayists of the
20th century.
 He is best known for two novels critical of fascism,
Stalinism and totalitarianism written and published
towards the end of his life: Animal Farm and
Nineteen Eighty-Four.