What Is Animal Farm an Allegory For? The Russian Revolution Explained
Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of Joseph Stalin. The farm stands for Russia, the animals' rebellion for the revolution, and the major events of the book, from the Battle of the Cowshed to the final dinner with the farmers, follow the history of the Soviet Union up to the Second World War.
Orwell, a socialist who opposed dictatorship, wanted to show how the hopes of the revolution were betrayed. This guide matches the book's events to history; the characters have their own guide.
| Event in the book | Real history |
|---|---|
| Old Major's dream | The ideas of Marx and the call for revolution |
| The rebellion against Jones | The 1917 revolution against the Tsar |
| Battle of the Cowshed | The Russian Civil War |
| Snowball driven out | Trotsky's expulsion and exile |
| The windmill | Stalin's Five-Year Plans for industry |
| The hens' revolt | Peasant resistance to collectivization |
| Confessions and killings | Stalin's purges and show trials |
| Deal with Frederick | The 1939 pact with Nazi Germany |
| Battle of the Windmill | The German invasion of 1941 |
| The final dinner | The Tehran Conference of 1943 |
How does the rebellion match the Russian Revolution?
Old Major's speech echoes Karl Marx's call for workers to overthrow those who exploit them. Mr. Jones, a neglectful, drunken owner, stands for Tsar Nicholas II, whose failing rule collapsed in 1917. The animals' sudden uprising, sparked when Jones forgets to feed them, mirrors how hunger and war brought down the old regime. Renaming the farm and creating Animalism parallel the founding of the Soviet state and its ideology.
↑ Back to the topWhat does the Battle of the Cowshed represent?
When Jones and neighboring farmers try to retake the farm, Snowball leads the defense. This matches the civil war of 1918 to 1921, when the old order, supported by foreign powers, tried and failed to reverse the revolution, and Trotsky organized the Red Army to victory.
↑ Back to the topHow does Napoleon's rise match history?
After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin and Trotsky fought for control. Stalin won by controlling the party machinery and the secret police, and Trotsky was exiled in 1929. In the book, Napoleon wins with his secret dogs and drives out Snowball. Napoleon then adopts the windmill plan he opposed, just as Stalin took over ideas of rapid industrialization once associated with Trotsky.
↑ Back to the topWhat do the windmill and the executions represent?
The windmill stands for Stalin's Five-Year Plans, which forced rapid industrialization at enormous human cost. The hens' protest over their eggs echoes peasants who resisted collectivization and suffered famine. The forced confessions and executions in chapter seven match the show trials and purges of the 1930s, in which many were made to confess to plotting with Trotsky.
↑ Back to the topWhat does the Battle of the Windmill represent?
Napoleon sells timber to Frederick, who pays with forged banknotes and then attacks the farm and blows up the windmill. This mirrors the 1939 pact between Stalin and Hitler, broken when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The costly victory reflects the Soviet Union's enormous losses in the war.
↑ Back to the topWhat does the final scene represent?
In the last chapter Napoleon hosts the neighboring farmers, and a quarrel breaks out over a card game when two players play an ace of spades at once. This is usually read as the 1943 Tehran Conference, where Stalin met the leaders of Britain and the United States, and as Orwell's prediction that the alliance would soon turn into rivalry, which it did in the Cold War.
↑ Back to the topMore about Animal Farm
This guide discusses the whole plot, including the ending.