Animal Farm: Events in History at the Time of the Novel

by George Orwell

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Events in History at the Time of the Novel

The seeds of revolution in Russia. During the 1880s czarist-ruled Russia with its vast imperial holdings increased its participation in the world economic community while it underwent a process of industrialization. Although still an essentially agrarian nation (peasants constituted 80 percent of the population), Russia saw during this time a drastic increase in both the business and the wage-earning classes-or, in socialist terminology, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Much of the motivation behind the approaching political revolution came from the dissatisfaction of peasant farmers, who bore a hefty share of the costs of industrialization but received little of its benefit; the farmers also intensely resented the aristocracy's entitlement to vast portions of precious land. A secondary spark came from the populist revolutionary intelligentsia, whose primary goal had always been to overthrow czarist rule. It was from these young idealists-men such as Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), and Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)-that the Russian Social Democratic, or Marxist, Party grew. Of these men, it was Lenin who would inherit the role from the German philosopher Karl Marx as communism's leader. In 1903 Russian Marxists split into two groups: the Bolsheviks ("majority men") were led by the hard-liner Lenin, who demanded a single party consisting of a small revolutionary elite, while the Mensheviks ("minority men") advocated a larger, more encompassing party.

The Bolshevik Revolution. In response to bitter labor unrest and widespread demands for representative government, Czar Nicholas II instituted a parliamentary body called the Duma in 1906. The Duma's power, however, was largely superficial; any concessions of authority by the czar were designed merely to appease revolutionaries rather than effect real change. Nevertheless, the situation in Russia did stabilize, the economy began to expand, and revolutionary groups like the Bolsheviks declined in membership.

World War I, however, reversed this trend by driving a permanent wedge between the Russian government and its people. The peasants and the proletariat alike went off to war to die by the millions, and the Duma was suspended. On March 8, 1917, food riots broke out in Petrograd, Russia. With the help of revolutionary intellectuals, these riots quickly turned into political insurrections in which crowds shouted "Down with the czar!" The losing imperial army sided with the revolutionaries, the czar yielded, and Russia became a republic. A provisional government was established, but unrest and chaos continued. As Lenin's Bolsheviks vied for power, they shaped their platform around three main points: first, an immediate peace settlement with Germany; second, redistribution of land to the peasants; and third, transfer of factories, mines, and other industrial plants from the capitalists to the workers. By promising "peace, land, and bread" to the soldiers, peasants, and workers, the Bolsheviks won a majority in the Petrograd Soviet (or workers' council), and in November 1917 took over the Winter Palace, ousting Alexander Kerensky's provisional government. Lenin immediately resolved to negotiate a peace with Germany and to expropriate millions of acres of privately held land.

Joseph Stalin. After a series of strokes, Lenin died in 1924 at the age of fifty-four. His obvious successor appeared to be Leon Trotsky, who had been a companion of Lenin throughout the revolution and was nearly as well known. But unlike Lenin, Trotsky was essentially an intellectual, uncompromising in his devotion to the ideals of the revolution and outspoken in his contempt for what he perceived to be the recent erosion of those ideals. At the Party congress elections in 1927, he was routed by a heretofore inconspicuous Georgian named Joseph Stalin. Not long afterward, Trotsky was labeled a leftist and exiled to Siberia; later he was banished from the Soviet Union.

In 1928, with Trotsky expelled, the Party immediately made use of his ideas by launching the first of a series of Trotsky-inspired Five-Year Plans, which were designed to make Russia militarily and industrially self-sufficient, and to overcome the backwardness that had long plagued it. This same process occurs in Animal Farm-Napoleon adopts Snowball's idea of building a windmill after Snowball is chased off the farm. Between 1928 and 1936, Russia made astounding economic strides. The spirit of workers, who labored long hours for low wages, was sustained by propaganda, and by the hope that once the basic industries had been established, improved living conditions would follow.

For the new Russia, however, the price of economic success was totalitarianism. Every aspect of life was supervised and regulated by the government. In the 1930s the Communist Party underwent a drastic purge. A third of its membership was expelled for allegedly sympathizing with Trotsky. When Serge Kirov, an old friend of Stalin's, was found assassinated (probably by Stalin himself) in his own office, Stalin used the incident as a pretext to strike out against his opponents, real or imagined, by executing over a hundred persons. During the 1930s, one Bolshevik after another was accused of crimes against the state. Oddly, every one of them confessed in full to the charges brought against him, and was summarily executed. These "purge trials" appear, in very thinly disguised form, in Animal Farm:"Without any further prompting [the four pigs] confessed that they had been secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion.... When they had finished their confession the dogs promptly tore their throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal had anything to confess" (Orwell, Animal Farm, p. 56).

British opinion of Stalin in the 1940s. Though true insight into Soviet political affairs was difficult during these years, many in the West who were aware of Stalin's excesses were appalled by his actions. Great Britain soon had another reason to resent Stalin. The Soviet leader signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler on August 23, 1939, fearing that France and Britain would be only too happy to let the Soviet Union take the brunt of a Nazi attack. Under the pact, Stalin and Hitler agreed to partition Poland. Stalin was given a free hand in the eastern Baltic region in exchange for a pledge to stay out of any war between Germany and Poland, or between Germany and any of the Western democracies. The Nazi-Soviet pact was the final step toward war. A few days later, on September 1, Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II. The British and French had been betrayed by Stalin: "The recriminations in London and Paris against the double-dealings of Stalin were loud and bitter. The Soviet despot for years had cried out at the 'fascist beasts' and called for all peace-loving states to band together to halt Nazi aggression. Now he had made himself an accessory to it" (Shirer, p. 544).

By the time Orwell was writing Animal Farm, however, Stalin had turned face again and become a key ally to Britain in the war against Germany. British opinion shifted in his favor as a result. Indeed Animal Farm's anti-Stalinist stance troubled prospective publishers of the book, and it wasn't until the war had ended that Orwell's novel was finally published.