Introduction to Animal Farm
George Orwell intentionally wrote this novel with Russia, Stalin,
Trotsky, and socialism in mind. Below
are some definitions and explanations that will give some historical background
to this insightful novel.
Socialism - Stalinism - Trotskyism
Socialism is usually
defined as "
common ownership of the
means of production". Broadly speaking the State, representing the
entire nation, owns all the means of production, and everybody is
"employed" by the State. This does not mean that you have no private
possessions such as clothes and furniture, but it means that land, mines,
ships, etc. are
collective. In the
end the State is the only producer. Contrary to capitalism, it is claimed that
socialism can solve the production and consumption problems. Normally a
capitalist economy cannot consume all it produces. There is always a surplus
production going to waste and there is always unemployment. In a socialist
economy these problems allegedly do not exist. The State simply "calculates"
which products are needed and then does its best to produce them.
Stalinism is based on, among other things, a number of writings by
Josef Stalin, but any real Stalinist theory does not exist. The closest we get
is the doctrine of "socialism in one country", with which Stalin in
the late 1920s claimed that it was possible to implement socialism in one
isolated country alone - as opposed to the teachings of the original Marxism.
During Stalin’s reign a bureaucracy developed along with a small clique of
leaders and a terror regime with persecutions and purging of all critical
elements. This is what is normally meant by Stalinism - for Orwell, as well.
Trotskyism refers to Leon Trotsky’s contribution to the Marxist
theory. Trotsky did not believe that socialism could be implemented in one
country alone. Neither did he believe that the revolution came in different
phases - e.g. first a bourgeois revolution, then a proletarian one. The
proletarian revolution had to be on the political agenda everywhere, also in
less developed countries - hence the concept of the
permanent revolution.
After Trotsky had been driven from the USSR in 1929, Trotskyism was founded as
a political movement, which among other things was characterized by a sharp
criticism of the USSR.
Animal Farm
In 1943 Orwell felt that the people in
England, because of their
admiration for the Russian war effort, consciously or unconsciously overlooked
the faults of the communist regime in the
USSR. He also felt that the English
communists used their position as unofficial representatives of the
USSR to prevent
the truth from coming out - just as they had done in connection with the
Spanish Civil War.
"Indeed, in my opinion, nothing has
contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of Socialism as the
belief that Russia
is a Socialist country. [...] And so for the past ten years I have been
convinced that the destruction of the Soviet myth was essential if we wanted a
revival of the Socialist movement." [CEJL vol. 3 p. 458]
That was why Orwell wrote
Animal Farm which is the story of the
revolution betrayed. The tale is based on Orwell’s experiences in
Spain that had
subsequently led him to study power structures during revolutions, especially
the Russian.
Although Orwell was an anti-communist he was not on the side of traditional
ruling class, neither so in
Animal Farm. Throughout the book he is on
the side of the animals. But from Day One of the revolution it is clear that a
new elite is about to replace the old rulers. The new elite are the pigs. It
was the pig called Major who had come up
with his revolutionary theories and who had died before the revolution. After
the breakout of the revolution, which happened spontaneously, the pigs assume
leadership with Napoleon and Snowball in front. The pigs assume privileges and
end up telling the other animals what to do and eating the best food.
As in Spain during the Civil War objective truth or history is disappearing
from
Animal Farm. Historical facts change according to what suits the
pigs as in the case of the windmill. Originally it was Snowball's idea and
Napoleon had of course been opposed to the windmill. But after Snowball has
been driven away the mill is to be built after all. Those animals that vaguely
remember how things were are told that actually it had been Napoleon's idea and
that he had opposed Snowball for tactical reasons. Another example is the seven
commandments that change concurrently with the pigs resembling human beings
more and more. Eventually the seventh commandment, "All animals are
equal" has had the following added: "but some animals are more equal
than others.
In
Animal Farm Orwell is not on the side of the humans. The pigs are
the villains in the tale and they become more and more like humans. In the end
of the book, pigs and humans are playing cards.
When someone cheats, at row
starts.
"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and
they were all alike. No question now, what had happened to the faces of the
pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and
from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was
which." [AF p. 119]
In other words, old and new tyrannies are the same. Authoritarian forms of
government, whether based on social or political castes, are basically alike
and they are all a danger to freedom - as has always been claimed by
anarchists. Orwell argues against the Russian revolution that was betrayed in
the same way that anarchists did as early as the 1920s. The anarchist traits in
Orwell were to become more pronounced and form an essential part of
Nineteen
Eighty-Four.
