Animal Farm Resources

Historical Backdrop: Orwell and the Times in Which He Lived

Animal Farm was published in August of 1945--a crucial moment in European and world history. In the previous four months, President Roosevelt, Mussolini and Hitler had died and Winston Churchill had been voted out of office. Germany had surrendered, and the U.S. had dropped atomic bombs over Japan. Of the big three Allied leaders, only Stalin survived.

In some ways, Animal Farm stands at the very beginning of the Cold War. During World War II, Russia had been an ally of the U.S. and England. After the battle of Normandy in February of 1944--when the Allies first began to beat back the German forces--Western nations felt a strong feeling of solidarity with the Russian people. The Russian army had suffered great losses, but it had helped protect England from a German invasion. As a result of the pro-Russian atmosphere, Orwell had a hard time finding a publisher for Animal Farm.

However, in the years following Animal Farm's publication, Russia fell farther and farther out of favor. In this respect, the novel stands as a predictor of what would later come to pass. However, it is important to note that Orwell's attack of Russia did not come from the political right--as most capitalist thinkers would attack it. Rather, Orwellís complaint was from the left. He was concerned with the damage that the Soviet state did to the cause of socialism. He wrote in the preface to the Ukrainian edition:

"Nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of Socialism as the belief that Russia is a Socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated. And so for the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the socialist myth was essential if we wanted a revival of the socialist movement."

KARL MARX: THE FATHER OF COMMUNISM

In 1848, German political philosopher Karl Marx with Friedrich Engels, published an influential pamphlet called the Communist Manifesto. Marx's criticism focused on the dominant political and economic system of his time, known as "capitalism." Germany, the United States, and England were powerful nations that lived under this system, and they were exporting it--sometimes by force--over the face of the globe. Capitalism encourages competition between its citizens, and provides rewards in an unequal way. Capitalist nations defended this distribution of goods on the grounds that the factory owners had often taken risks, or mastered skills, that the meat-packer had not. Therefore, the factory owner deserved the extra benefits.

Marx directed scathing attacks against this philosophy. The capitalist nations, he argued, allowed the wealthy few to amass huge fortunes, while the numerous poor toiled in unsafe factories for low wages, lived in wretched filth, and died before their time. Worse still, the rich denied equal opportunity to the poor, hoarding goods and reserving advantages like education and health care for themselves. Vast mansions existed alongside tenement-houses; in the one, every possible luxury could be found and every need was met, while next door whole families stuffed themselves into single rooms and ate meager rations. How could it be fair that the wealthy few had extra millions in the bank, while the masses struggled to survive, or starved to death?

Writing from Paris--where he lived in exile--Marx spoke of the dawning of a new social order based on the equal distribution of wealth and possessions among a nation's citizenry. In such a society, Marx theorized, tranquil relations would prevail between all men and women, and age-old problems like poverty, ignorance, and starvation would vanish. The rich would be compelled to yield their surplus to the poor, and individuals would produce according to their abilities, and consume according to their needs. Everyone would have what they needed, and no one citizen would possess more than another. 

An idealistic vision of the future--which would never arrive, Marx realized--until certain events came to pass. A brilliant economist and social critic, Marx understood that massive obstacles stood in the way of his better world. Casting his eye back across the arc of history, he asserted that in every era the same fundamental conflict emerged: The few well-placed and powerful sought to maintain their wealth by actively suppressing the natural desires of the many poor. These cruel circumstances were hard to change because the rich had no reason to share, and possessed the means by which to control the impoverished masses. The sheer numbers of the downtrodden represented a definitive advantage, however, and a declaration of war on their part would resolve the dispute. Marx took the view that it was the destiny of history itself that this battle should take place, and that the victorious poor would usher in an age of justice and equality. 

The Stalin Epigram by Osip Mandelstam