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Jayne Wichayanuwat

Mr.Bishop

English 12

December 6, 2017

Russian Revolution and Animal Farm: the Parallel Story

Russian Revolution was a war between the king and the government and the citizen.

Most of the Russian population did not satisfy with the way the king, Tsar Nicholas II, led the

country, people still starving and Russia entranced in World War I. The war wipe out all of

the royal house’s member and provoke communism in Russia. In Animal Farm, George

Orwell, the author, wrote the story based on the real situation happened in Russia during the

Russian Revolution. He created most characters symbolize as political leaders, working class

and Tsar Nicholas II. Moreover, the characters in the novel are using the same tactics as in the

Revolution. And also the event such as the war in the story, the outcome are the same In

George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the story in the novel is reflected from the Russian

Revolution.

The main character in the Animal Farm is based on the important leader during the

Russian Revolution. There are not many important person during the Russian Revolution that

made big changes, but the one that actually made the changes, George Orwell, the author,

reflect them into the character in the novel. Mr. Jones, the last human who owns the farm,

represents as Tsar Nicholas II, the last king. Russia poorly prepared when entered World War

I, most soldiers were settled at the Eastern Front. The railway was ordered to be built for an

easier transportation, but because of the lack of food, it made the construction harder.

Heywood (2013) said that the food shortages during the railway construction made the

production slower and many historians agreed that this is one of the causes in the fall of Tsar 

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND ANIMAL FARM !2

Nicholas II. (p.754). Not only caused the railway built slower, food shortages also affected

people to be starving in the whole country. Later, thousands of people protested against the

Tsar and made him gave up his power on the 2nd of March 1917. While in the Animal Farm,

Mr. Jones took a bad care of the animal in the farm, he left them starving for many times. “...

our lives are miserable, laborious, and short… we are given just so much food as will keep

the breath in our bodies.” (Orwell, 1996, p. 6-7). As Mr. Jones was drunk and came home

late, the animals need to feed themselves with the leftovers in the bins, the human came to

chase them out but then the animals got into the rebellion where they all run after Mr. Jones

and his crew out of the farm. The situation in both Russian Revolution and the Animal Farm

are the same, they both starved their people which made them angry, later the people rebelled

against them and made both the Tsar and Mr. Jones gave up their power. Another main

character that the author reflected was Napoleon.

Furthermore, Orwell based his character Napoleon as Joseph Stalin. Stalin and

Napoleon both are dictatorship who ready to kill anyone who is against them. When

Napoleon made a contract with Whymper with 400 eggs a week, the hens were pretty angry

about it, Napoleon reacted to the hens by “[Napoleon] ordered the hen’s rations to be stopped,

and decreed that any animal giving so much as a grain of com to a hen should be punished by

death… Nine hens had died in the mean time.” (Orwell, 1996, p. 76). Napoleon did not care

about the death of the hens, he just wanted someone who can give him what he needed, and if

they do not benefit him he just going to get rid of them. Meanwhile in Russia, there were

some farmers who were wealthier than others because they got more property, and Stalin did

not like that. Stalin wanted the wealthier farmers to give up their own farm which they are not

agreed to do, so he used violence in order to own it. “Stalin had nearly a million of his own

citizens executed, beginning in the 1930s. Millions more fell victim to forced labor,
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND ANIMAL FARM !3

deportation, famine, massacres, and detention and interrogation by Stalin’s

henchmen.” (Haven, 2010). These two stories show that, even with their own people if they

are opposed to the government, they all would get killed. Like mentioned earlier, Napoleon

had a rival, which the author represented into the other character.

Orwell also created and Snowball as Leon Trotsky. Trotsky was one of Stalin’s rival,

their two policy to lead Russia was about the same but one thing that made them different

was that Stalin was more violence. Stalin is believed to be behind the assassination of Trotsky

because he was opposed to him. Kirker and Wilkins (1961) states that “Finally the

assassination of Trotsky on August 20, 1940, by a person believed to be a Stalinist agent was

convincing proof that the questions of guilt or innocence… ” (p.525). It was like Stalin

himself ordered his people to get rid of Trotsky, whose intension never wanted to harm Stalin.

On the other hand, because Napoleon and Snowball disagreed on the windmill, Napoleon

wanted to make all of the decisions himself so he kicked Snowball out of the farm, “…nine

enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the bam. They dashed

straight for Snowball… Then [Snowball] put on an extra spurt and, with a few inches to

spare, slipped through a hole in the hedge and was seen no more.” (Orwell, 1996, p.53).

Napoleon used dirty tricks to make Snowball lost his power, in this case, it can assume that

Stalin did the same to Trotsky to get him out of his way. With the characters based on the

Revolution, the decision of them in creating the ruling system are the same.

The government style in the farm is the same as communism in Russia. After Tsar

Nicholas II abdicated, the Provisional Government wanted to come up with a new ruling

style, it is called “Communism”. businessdictionary.com gave the definition of communism

as “Economic and social system in which all (or nearly all) property and resources are

collectively owned by a classless society and not by individual citizens.” Communist values
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND ANIMAL FARM !4

equality among people. To add on, dictionary.cambridge.org explained that communism is a

belief in no social classes and government values workers that work hard, even through they

would only get what they need to breath. Same as in Animal Farm, After got rid of Mr. Jones,

Napoleon and Snowball, the pigs that are the leader of the farm, shared their idea of the new

rules “No animal must ever tyrannize over his own kind… All animals are equal” (Orwell,

1996, p.7). This shows that the novel and the Revolution have the same idea of having

equality among citizen. Furthermore, the idea of working hard for the government and get

only what you need to survive also be in the Animal Farm, “Throughout the spring and

summer they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August Napoleon announced that there would

be work on Sunday after noons as well. This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who

absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.” (Orwell, 1996, p.59). Since

there is no class and money exchanged system in the farm, all the animals need is food. With

the reduction of the food, it is and indirect way of forcing the workers to work more, and the

only one who gets the benefit is Napoleon, their leader. And because the stories are reflecting

each other, the event then occurred with the same result.

The battle of cowshed is symbolized for the civil war during the Russian Revolution.

After the fall of the Tsar, some people still believed in monarchy and wanted Russia to use

the same system, these people are called “ The Whites”. Bullock (2008) explained the start of

the Civil War as “when notable Whites general formed a volunteer army in South Russia in

November/December 1917” (p.4). The White army had to fight against the new government

which replaced the Tsar, The Bolsheviks. He also mentioned the end of the war that the war

ended in 1922 with the victory of the Reds or the Bolsheviks. (Bullock). Just the same in

Animal Farm, after Mr. Jones got kicked out from his own farm he gathered men to win his

farm back, “Jones and all his men, with half a dozen others from Foxwood and Pinchfield,
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND ANIMAL FARM !5

had entered the five- barred gate and were coming up the cart-track that led to die farm…

Obviously they were going to attempt the recapture of the farm” (Orwell, 1996, p.40). The

fight between human and the animals end when Mr. Jones decided to retreat and never come

back. By saying Mr. Jones wanted to win his farm back is like the White army that wanted to

use the old system in Russia, but both fights were failed and the current ruler still use their

governing style.

In conclusion, Orwell created a mirror story of Russian Revolution in “Animal Farm”.

He displayed the main character as the real political leader in Russia, whether it is Mr. Jones

as the last king of Romanov, Tsar Nicholas II, Napoleon as Joseph Stalin, or Snowball as

Leon Trotsky. The government style in both story are all the same. In Russian Revolution,

they came up with Communism which is a system that values equality and hard-working,

while in Animal Farm they use Animalism which also value equality and hard-working

animal. Moreover, the battle of Cowshed represents the Russian Civil War. The motive to

fight against the new government is because they believe in the old system, but sadly the

outcome from both wars are that they lost. With the novel based on a real story, it makes the

reader understand easier about how bad the situation was at the time it happened and hope a

tragic like this would never happen again.

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References

Bullock, D. (2008). The Russian Civil War 1918–22. Osprey Publishing.

Businessdictionary.com. (n.d.). Communism. Retrieved from

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/communism.html

Dictionary.cambridge.org. (n.d.). Communism. Retrieved from

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/communism

Haven, C. (2010). Stalin killed millions. A Stanford historian answers the question, was it

genocide? Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/2010/09/23/naimark-stalin-

genocide-092310/

Heywood, A. (2013). Spark of Revolution? Railway Disorganisation, Freight Traffic and

Tsarist Russia's War Effort, July 1914–March 1917. Europe-Asia Studies, 65(4),

753-772. doi:10.1080/09668136.2013.767580

Kirker, H., & Wilkins, B. (1961). Beard, Becker and the Trotsky Inquiry. American

Orwell, G. (1996). Animal Farm. New York, NY: New American Library.

Quarterly, 13(4), 516-525. doi:10.2307/2710373