Animal Farm - George Orwell

In the novel Animal Farm, George Orwell told the history of the Russian Revolution by using a farm and its members to symbolize major characters and their actions in Russian history. The author used compelling similarities between the familiar faces of history and the animals on the independent farm. Throughout this composition, you will be shown Joseph Stalin's contributions and how they are related to the actions of Napoleon from the novel Animal Farm.

When Vladimir Lenin died in 1924, there was a struggle for power over Russia between Trotsky, who symbolized Snowball, and Stalin, who symbolized Napoleon. Trotsky was a brilliant individual, but Stalin was a nationalist who was loyal to his country (Yurkovsky, N/A). This is easily compared to how Snowball was the smartest of the pigs, and all the pigs were loyal to Napoleon. Trotsky as did Snowball believed that communism would possibly spread from one area to another. Stalin was more focused on having Russia prosper, and Napoleon felt the same way about the future of Animal Farm. By 1929, Stalin built up his power so that he could exile Trotsky from Russia (Hirsch, 25), as Napoleon did to Snowball (Orwell, 67-68).

When Stalin came to power he thought that Russia was at least a century behind the West. He constructed a plan called the Five Year Plan that would hopefully catch Russia up with the technology of the industrialized world (Cyril, N/A). The plan included consisted of many of Trotsky's ideas, which Stalin had previously opposed. This can be connected to how Napoleon had many plans for Animal Farm that might help it be self sufficient, some of which were stolen from Snowball. One such idea was that of a windmill that would produce electricity to benefit the citizens of Animal Farm (Orwell, 71).

Russia's economy was based mostly on growing crops with over twenty five million farms. Although farming was very popular, the yields from the harvests were hardly enough to provide for the farmers and their families. This can be related to the conditions that the Animals on Animal Farm had to face. They worked hard to grow and collect a harvest, but still they had a depleting supply of food, causing many animals to be under fed (Orwell, 73).

One of the first things that Stalin did when he came into power was have the history of Russia rewritten to his liking. One example of this is when Stalin took the credit for a military victory at Tsaritsyn and