Animal Farm
(George Orwell)

George Orwell published Animal Farm in 1945, in England. The novella serves as an allegory criticizing the Stalin movement in the Soviet Union. Orwell, a socialist, believed Joseph Stalin’s brutal rise to power did not represent true socialism and instead represented a pure totalitarian government.

Many saw the Russian Revolution in 1917 as the first step toward a socialist regime. Orwell believed Stalin’s barbaric seizure of power mirrored the tyranny Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and others originally revolted against.

Scholars in England were attached to this romantic notion and ignored atrocities by the government. Orwell sought “destruction of the Soviet myth” in order to revive the socialist movement.

Animal Farm was released with the subtitle “a fairy story”, which was dropped for many publications. The story is told in the tradition of fairy tales or Aesop’s fables, with direct references to the Stalin regime. For example, Snowball is expelled by Napoleon from Animal Farm after becoming too popular.

Snowball represents Trotsky and Napoleon is Stalin. Trotsky, who like Snowball was a talented speaker, was expelled by Stalin, who like Napoleon, was best a securing power behind the scenes.

Animal Farm proved a difficult sell to publishers. In addition to fighting the “Soviet myth,” with World War II wrapping up, few wanted to hear criticism of a country that fought along side England to stop Nazi expansion.

A small publisher picked it up, and Animal Farm was released the same week America dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.