Arpith Siromoney šŸ’¬

Re-reading Animal Farm

Some of the smaller details are meticulously exact. Due to the exigencies of the war, Stalin had made various opportunistic compromises. He had recruited the Russian Orthodox church to his side, the better to cloak himself in patriotic garb, and he was to abolish the old socialist anthem ā€œThe Internationaleā€ for being too provocative to his new capitalist allies in London and Washington. In Animal Farm, Moses the raven is allowed to come croaking back as the crisis deepens, and the poor exploited goats and horses and hens are told that their beloved song ā€œBeasts of Englandā€ is no longer to be sung.

There is, however, one very salient omission. There is a Stalin pig and a Trotsky pig, but no Lenin pig.