Preface Animal Farm

By David Villacorta


The preface is written to address the British and western public at the time of the book’s
publication in 1945. To understand the preface it is necessary to fathom the context in
which Britain lived at the time the book was written. The war was soon to be over but the
alliance with the Soviets during the war to fight Nazi Germany made the content difficult
to tolerate by the British government. For many years, as Orwell explains it, the way the
British public viewed the events of Russia was seemed as something “away”, they had no
idea about deportations, concentration camps, interrogations, etc. When Stalin turned
into the side of the allies in World War II, The English government supported the actions
of the Russians to maintain the “war effort”.

So the author stated all those points to make the public understand the nature of the
book. The fact that he used pigs to depict Russians, especially to Stalin and Trotsky, could
have caused some resentment among the soviets. He even explains how a publisher
house refused to publish Animal Farm because it could create tension in the diplomatic
side.

It’s also important to say that Orwell did not write this book because and anti-soviet or
because he belonged to the rich class of the English society and just wanted to state how
much he hated communists. He had worked side by side with the socialists republicans
during the Spanish civil war and had endured difficult hardships throughout his life,
probing this fact when he died at a young age. He lived intensely, and after he and his
wife received persecution by the communist sided with Stalin in Spain for being accused
of being “Trotskyists” he decided to say something about it. So he didn’t just “decide” to
write this satire, he pre-conceived years before it was written.

It also interesting to mention that there is a preface for the Ukrainian edition. I do not
know how this book reached Ukraine, considering that this country was a soviet state,
however, in this preface, he sort of explains the same background he explained for the
British public only that aimed in the understanding of the Ukrainian society.

The book was written during turbulent times (WWII) and it was printed in a key year for
the development of political and economic events which led the course of the 20th century
and until today. That year the Allie forces defeated Germany and set foot the events to
which Churchill had labeled as “the iron curtain”, causing polarization among the entire
world in two principles: if you are capitalists, you are American, if you are socialists-
communist, you are influenced by the soviets, and the world, in means of politics and
economics and other areas, was only understood based on that principle. So, the book, in
all, as the writer said, it’s meant for the average public, so that the less literate individual
may be able to understand fully, that’s why he chose animals to depict it, because we
humans torture and take advantage of animals, making it clear and easier for everyone to
understand.