Similarities Between Animal Farm And Joseph Stalin

In the satirical novel, Animal Farm by George Orwell, the character of Napoleon is an allegory to the vicious USSR dictator, Joseph Stalin who ruled Russia during the Russian Revolution. In the novel, Napoleon became the leader after the demise of Old Major and the expulsion of Snowball from the farm. In the same way, Joseph Stalin became the leader after the decease of Vladimir Lenin and the exile of Leon Trotsky. The similarity between these incidents shows how precisely the book has been written down. George Orwell accurately portrays the character of Joseph Stalin through Napoleon in his allegorical novella, Animal Farm since both leaders were shrewd, selfish and always placed their personal gain before their people.

Joseph Stalin, during

At first, he even “tried to build socialism in his country alone” but that did not turn out much in his favor (Joseph Stalin Discovery Education). One of the first audacious move by Stalin was the implementation of the Five year plan between 1928 and 1932. This plan was aimed towards “the collectivization of agriculture and [to] essentially [create] large industrial communities that would feed the growing industrial state. The [Soviet Union’s] economy and industry did grow, but collectivization [was] achieved only with the dramatic sacrifice of the Russian people” (Joseph Stalin Speech on Leninism and Trotskyism). This decision costed him millions of lives but the improvements in production were phenomenal. The increased industrial production brought profits for the growing country but at the same time, the agricultural production took a lot of lives and left many people starving and hungry for days and even weeks. Although history has it that Stalin was a brutal general and always looked for his self-interest, he did do some good things which made Russia the strongest nation at that time. Along with giving women equal rights and creating the first completely literate society, he defeated Nazi Germany and “through a series of conferences with

Even though Napoleon first disagrees with the construction of the windmill, “[he announces] that the windmill [is] to be built after all. He [does] not give any reason for his change of mind, but merely [warns] the animals that this extra task would mean very hard work; it might even be necessary to reduce their rations” (Orwell 57). Napoleon probably wants to take all the credit of the windmill and not share it with Snowball. He even uses Squealer to spread the word that the “windmill [is], in fact, Napoleon’s own creation” and Snowball just copied his ideas (Orwell 57). Napoleon often uses Squealer as propaganda to make sure that all the animals do not think about Napoleon being a corrupt leader and always agreeing on what he says. When the issue of beds come up, the animals are in a state of confusion because they specifically remember that Animalism is against beds but Squealer, “attended by the two or three dogs, was able to put the whole matter in its proper perspective” (Orwell 67). This steers the readers to think that whenever the farm animals are in a state of confusion regarding what Napoleon is doing and think that it is incorrect at some degrees, Squealer will always step in to clear the doubts in favor of Napoleon. These incidents prove the thesis as