Vladimir Lenin once said “Sometimes – history needs a push”. What Lenin is referring to in this quote is revolution, which is just what the animals on Mr. Jones’s farm plan to do in belief that animals are superior to humans and should be treated better than slaves to man in George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm. Mr. Jones treats the animals on his farm with little to no respect for their well-being, seeming to only care about the income they supply for him. When the idea of taking what they feel is rightfully theirs is brought on by a wise pig, Old Major, the animals start a rebellion.
Sometimes together and sometimes not, the animals learn to manage the farm on their own and survive together without the help of humans. George Orwell uses specific parallels in the novel to connect the characters and events on Animal Farm to their equivalents in the Russian Revolution. Both figuratively and literally, the main figures in Animal Farm are directly linked to real life people who took part in the Russian Revolution through how they acted, what they did, and what they believed in to show a different representation of running a civilization and war.
Mr. Jones is seen as a negative character who is kicked out of his position of power just as Tsar Nicholas II during the Russian Revolution, especially in the way they rule against people and the way that the citizens view them. Tsar Nicholas was the last russian emperor who was also known as a leader who mistreated his citizens and ignored their pleas for a social recall, similarly to the animals on Animal Farm. One night, when Mr. Jones was particularly angry, “he and his four men were in the store-shed with whips in their hands, lashing out in all directions.
This was more than the hungry animals could bear” (Orwell 19). Just like the people who were mistreated by Tsar and protest for social reforms, the animals can take no more of the abuse and “demand” better treatment. Mr. Jones is portrayed as this negative character that leads to a need for change because that is just how Tsar impacted Russian citizens before the Revolution. A more literal parallel is the reference to Tsar Nicholas when Mr. Jones is kicked out of his place of power and dies shortly after.
When Mr. Jones sees how the animals are reacting against him, he and his men are “in full flight down the cart-track that led to the main road, with the animals pursuing them in triumph” (Orwell 20). The author adds this direct comparison to show how the animals’ reactions compare to those of the people against Tsar. Just like him, Mr. Jones is taken out of his place of power by force, the oppressed finally realizing they deserve better. Mr. Jones is the first negative character met in Animal Farm, just as Tsar is the first enemy in the conflict that was the Russian Revolution.
Through comparing the two, we see how a real life rebellion is started, as well as how it compares to the real life event. Old Major plays the character who supplies the inspiration for the revolution and essentially transforms the farm into Animal farm, similarly to Vladimir Lenin in turning Russia into the USSR. Both Old Major and Lenin believed that the oppressed should turn to revolution as a means of getting the treatment and leadership they deserve. In a speech that Old Major gives to the animals before the rebellion, he says that “almost overnight [they] could become rich and free. What then must [they] do?
Why, work day and night, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race” (Orwell 9). Just like Old Major is to animalism, Lenin was to communism, and he urged the people that revolution was necessary for economic equality. Another more literal comparison between Old Major and Lenin is that they both die before they can witness the impact that their influence has on the society which they motivated in the first place. Old Major does not think that “[he] shall be with [the animals] for many months longer, and before [he dies, he feels] it [his] duty to pass on to [the animals] such wisdom as she has] acquired” (Orwell 6).
Old Major knew he was old and was going to die, and so, just like Lenin, he feels the need to share the important information to his comrades before his demise. Vladimir Lenin and Old Major both had the wisdom to be able to influence the oppressed citizens, or in this case, animals, into revolting for what they believe in: equality. Joseph Stalin could easily be compared to Napoleon in the fact that both are considered to be some of the most brutal leaders of their times, as well as their strategy of instilling fear into those who they want to oppress.
In Animal Farm, Napoleon uses aggressive looking dogs to guard him at all times and implant terror into the minds of the animals, just as Stalin used the KGB during his rule over Russia. When Napoleon comes out of the farmhouse one night, he is accompanied by “his nine huge dogs frisking around him and uttering growls that sent shivers down all the animals’ spines. They all cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing was about to happen” (Orwell 82).
Napoleon uses the dogs to not only protect him, but to also make the animals too afraid to stand up for themselves, which is essentially what the KGB did for Stalin and his citizens. Napoleon is seen as as much of an enemy as Mr. Jones is by the end of the book, just as Joseph Stalin is known as one of the most miserable and brutal leaders of his time. When Whymper comes to see the society in Animal Farm, he believes “he [is] right in saying that the lower animals on Animal Farm did more work and received less food than any other animals in the county” (Orwell 137).
The animals on Animal Farm doing more work and receiving less food is beneficial to Napoleon, just as Joseph Stalin had an easier time ruling when the lower class wasn’t treated with the respect that they deserved. Joseph Stalin and Napoleon are both the second negative characters seen being compared in Animal Farm versus the Russian Revolution after Mr. Jones and Tsar Nicholas. What Orwell attempts to do in Animal farm by finding parallels between the plot and the Russian Revolution is show how the vices and virtues of running a civilization can be represented through something as simple as animals on a farm.
Orwell uses literal and figurative ideas and concepts to connect the enemies and “heroes” in Animal Farm to the real humans who took part in the Russian Revolution. By comparing the specific characters like Old Major to Vladimir Lenin it is possible to see the comparisons between something as outlandish like Animal Farm to something as serious as the Russian Revolution. Through satire, the reader can see how ridiculous the Russian Revolution has the potential to seem when it is directly compared to animals who revolt for their rights and take over their farm to run on their own.
