Animal Farm Background

Around the 1930s, Orwell became a socialist and even fought in the Spanish Civil War, something his friend Henry Miller had warned him against, calling it “sheer stupidity.” Orwell, being a member of The Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), fought alongside the Republicans and other Marxist and anarcho-syndicalist groups against the Nationalists. Though the Republicans were successful, the pro-Stalin forces eventually took over. It is reasonable to assume that this part of Orwell’s life led him to write scathingly critical accounts of the Soviet Union. In fact, many characters in Animal Farm are often interpreted as leaders of the Soviet Union.