In this blog post, we’ll examine how George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ delivers a scathing critique of dictatorship that transcends time.
“Animal Farm” is a satirical novel by George Orwell that was first published in the United Kingdom on August 17, 1945. According to Orwell himself, the events in the novel reflect the signs that appeared prior to the 1917 Russian Revolution and the events that unfolded in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s regime afterward.
George Orwell was a pen name; his real name was Eric Arthur Blair. Born in 1903 in Bengal, British India—then a British colony—as the son of a minor civil servant, he moved to England with his mother at the age of two and settled in Oxfordshire. Although he graduated from Eton College on a scholarship, he chose not to attend university and instead went to Burma to serve in the police force; it was there that he began writing with the aim of becoming an author. In 1928, he moved to Paris and settled in the Rue du Port-de-l’Etoile in the 5th arrondissement; during this period, he gained a reputation as a journalist by contributing to the French magazine ‘Le Monde’.
While living in the suburbs of London in 1936, Orwell married Eileen O’Shaughnessy; it is generally believed that the satirical elements in ‘Animal Farm’, which differed from his earlier works, were influenced by his wife, who was his intellectual partner.
Orwell began writing ‘Animal Farm’ in November 1943 while working as a literary editor for ‘Tribune’, a left-wing magazine that supported the Labour Party, and completed the manuscript in February 1944. The original title was ‘Animal Farm: A Fairy Story’, but when it was published in 1945, the subtitle was omitted, and it was released simply as ‘Animal Farm’.
At the time, there was a prevailing atmosphere among the British intellectual class of reverence for the Soviet Union—a wartime ally—and Stalin, and Orwell harbored deep resentment toward this. The manuscript was repeatedly rejected by publishers in both Britain and the United States, making publication difficult; Orwell even considered self-publishing and wrote a preface titled “Freedom of the Press” criticizing publishers’ censorship. However, that preface was not included in the actual published edition and was later discovered among his manuscripts.
Despite these publication difficulties, the book was released in 1945 by Seeker & Warburg and became a commercial success. The rapidly changing postwar international situation and the emerging currents of the Cold War between the wartime allies played a decisive role in this success.
Through a simple and humorous story, Orwell symbolically illustrates how Stalin and his followers betrayed the spirit of the Russian Revolution. Although the work takes the form of a fable, the animals in the story each satirize real-life figures. Old Major, a Yorkshire pig, is a composite satire of Marx and Lenin; he stirs the hearts of the farm animals, igniting the flames of revolution and establishing principles.
The large and imposing Napoleon, a Berkshire pig, satirizes Stalin and serves as the story’s villain. Snowball, Napoleon’s rival who overthrew Mr. Jones to become the farm’s first leader, primarily satirizes Trotsky while also reflecting certain aspects of Lenin.
In addition, the animals in the novel—such as Squealer, who is mobilized for Napoleon’s propaganda; Minimus, who writes poems praising Napoleon; and the revolutionary pigs who are branded as Snowballists and executed—represent the political and social figures of the Soviet Union at the time.
The events in the novel are also based on actual events in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s reign. Biographer Jeffrey Myers has pointed out that “every element of the work carries political significance,” and Orwell himself stated in the author’s preface to the 1947 Ukrainian translation that “I intended this work to be a satire on the Russian Revolution.” In that preface, he wrote, “Over the past ten years, I have become convinced that, for the socialist movement to recover, the myth of the Soviet Union must be shattered.”
Toward the end of the novel, Boxer—a loyal horse who had always held the belief that “Napoleon is always right”—is ultimately sold off despite his unwavering loyalty and meets a tragic end. This scene metaphorically illustrates the sorrow of the people betrayed by the leaders of the revolution. Furthermore, scenes such as Skiller indoctrinating the animals with a distorted version of history and the plan to build a windmill demonstrate that while the story is grounded in actual history, Orwell creatively adapted certain elements or altered their chronological order to advance the narrative.
This novel depicts socialist theory and the struggles and sacrifices involved in realizing it from the animals’ perspective, persuasively presenting the absurdity of the ruling class—which tramples on the animals’ loyalty—within a simple and humorous narrative.
‘Animal Farm’ was included in ‘Time’ magazine’s list of the 100 Best English-Language Novels and ranked 31st on the Modern Library’s list of the 20th Century’s Best Novels. It also won the 1996 Retro Hugo Award and is widely read as the 60th volume in the ‘Great Books of the West’ series.
