Animal Farm, George Orwell's novel about a group of animals who run their own farm, may appear to be nothing more than a "fairy story" at first glance. However, the events in Animal Farm are allegorical to Soviet Russian politics from 1919-1953. Specifically, many aspects of the plot of the novel relate to the policies set forth by Stalin during his dictatorship. For example, common aspects in both the novel and history were the purges, the five-year plans, and warfare.
Both Stalin and the character Napoleon used purges to consolidate political power. The so-called "second Bolshevik Revolution" was used by Stalin to eliminate political enemies (108). Even the most devout communists were killed or jailed simply because they, "might oppose the party or refuse to do its bidding," (109). This is paralleled in Animal Farm when Napoleon suddenly forces Snowball out of the farm and for no apparent reason animals were killed for being counterrevolutionary. For example, Napoleon killed, "the same four pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Sunday Meetings," (92). .
Another example of parallel between Stalin and Napoleon was their five-year plan. After Lenin's NEP, "Stalin's objective was to make the Soviet Union a modern industrial power," (105). The odds of this seemed very unlikely, but total output actually increased. However, a weakness of the plan was that the plans favored heavy industry, there fore starving the Russian people. This is paralleled in the book with Napoleon's wish to build the windmill to make the farm more efficient. Just as in history though, the animals noted that, "they were generally hungry," (129). Because the windmill only provided machinery, it failed to allow for additional rations. .
A last parallel between novel and history is their regard for war. Stalin had signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in 1939 as part of his foreign policy because, "Germany was Stalin's greatest fear," (111).
