Napoleon

Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from the late twenties to the early fifties.

At the start of the book, Napoleon is described as a young Berkshire boar who was large and fierce looking, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. This can be seen as quite ominous and sinister.

Napoleon is not as clever as Snowball and when Old Major dies it is Snowball who takes the lead leaving Napoleon in the background.

Napoleon soon starts to take charge of the food, firstly the milk which he commandeers for the pigs, suggesting that all animals are not equal.

Some time later he takes the puppies and secretly educates and indoctrinates them.

Napoleon and Snowball emerge as rivals, like Stalin and Trotsky, and they seldom agree.

Napoleon can be compared with the young Stalin; poorly educated and power hungry.

Snowball is similar to Leon Trotsky; well-educated and wanted everyone’s lives to be improved, not just a minority.

Napoleon is cunning and can usually turn events to his advantage.

During the first attack on the farm, Napoleon is nowhere to be seen. It is Snowball who will work out a strategy for the battle and lead the animals to victory, as Trotsky did during the Russian Civil War. However, later in the novel as Stalin did, Napoleon will re-write history and claim that Snowball was on the side of Mr Jones, and was actually trying to lose the battle for the animals, and it was he, Napoleon, who won the battle by attacking Snowball and preventing him from achieving his aims.

Like Stalin, Napoleon twists the truth for his own benefit and cult of personality.

When Snowball announces the plans for the windmill, Napoleon disagrees with them, undermines him, denounces him as a traitor and gets the dogs, whom he had trained, to chase him away, leaving Napoleon in sole charge. Again, there are clear links with Russia as Trotsky was persecuted by Lenin’s Secret Police and later executed.

Without Snowball, Napoleon can become increasingly autocratic like Stalin.

All committees are abolished as are Sunday meetings meaning like in Russia, no one other than those at the top, or principally Napoleon/Stalin, has a say in the running of the country/farm.

Stalin was obsessed with protecting Russia from foreign invasion. Napoleon is obsessed with protecting the farm from attack and he resurrects the plans for the Windmill and passes them off as his own.

Now he has complete power, Napoleon rejects Animalism as Stalin rejected the promises of the October Revolution and starts to demonstrate the bloody nature of his rule as he uses the revolution as a descent into tyranny.

Stalin would oust his opponents, silence debate about the options for the development of Communism and distance himself from the Russian people.

Napoleon becomes increasingly preoccupied with his position and status. He has bodyguards in the form of the puppies who he took and educated, clearly representing the Secret Police.

He blames Snowball for everything that goes wrong until, like with Trotsky, he is airbrushed from history and not mentioned.

Napoleon is a dictator; an autocrat who creates an atmosphere of hysteria and like Stalin, introduces show trials, in which some of the animals confess to being in league with Snowball, and at this, Napoleon has the dogs tear the confessors into pieces. Stalin would kill dissenters and even their families; people would confess to crimes they had committed in order to protect their families from persecution.

Squealer now starts to appear in the story as the propaganda tool of Napoleon. He pacifies the animals when they are upset or angry, convincing them that they have misunderstood the correct interpretation of the commandments. This is similar to the propaganda machine Stalin set in place to preserve his position.

Napoleon acquires absolute power.

The pigs move into the farmhouse and sleep in the beds, they have better food and Napoleon has his own room and eats only from the Crown Derby dinner services and eats sugar. Like Stalin, he increasingly distances himself from the other animals and is only seen on special occasions.

As Stalin betrayed the Revolution, Napoleon starts trading with the farm’s neighbours (who are human and earlier regarded as enemies). This is significant as it goes against the commandment issued during the ‘revolution’ and Napoleon is engaging in capitalism. The necessity to trade with the enemy applied to Stalin too as he was forced to import US and Canadian grain during the 1930s famine.

By the end of the novel, most of the commandments have been altered. Napoleon and the other pigs learn to walk on two legs, carry whips and entertain their human neighbours, play cards and drink alcohol.

Napoleon is now nothing like Mr Jones, he is much worse, like Stalin was worse than Tsar Nicholas II.

The commandment ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’ reflects the character of Napoleon in that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.