The allegory that the story contains allows for interpretation on a number of levels. I think one of the most important interpretations and messages of the book concerns the Russian Revolution.
Animal Farm is a sort of representation of the events in Russia beginning with the fall of the Tsar in
1917. It is mainly about Stalin’s government of the country from the 1920s to the end of the Second
World War. Orwell criticizes Stalin for his barbaric and undemocratic methods in a country where everyone was meant to be equal. The main moral is "to avoid one evil one should take care not to fall into another"(the animals kicked the farmer out in hopes of a better life but became more miserable under the pigs).
Communism says that there is no such thing as equality in the farm/communism. Also the animals were told they were living a better life , however the fact is they were living in an illusion and were in fact worse off than before. At first it was democratic (Napoleon and Snowball) but after
Napoleon's reign, the pigs under thought that their new freedom was getting taken away, so they slowly decided to dominate the other animals and took away their rights and made them more miserable than ever. The pigs who were the smarter animals of the revolution who kicked out the humans, but after awhile become worse than those they replaced.
Also, Orwell's message was mainly power is very intoxicating. If you abuse your power, you may well lose it. Evidence is when Mr. Jones had total power over the farm, but he was ignorant, and lost his power. Napoleon also abused his power in many ways too. Not only was it just Napoleon, but all pigs have abused their power simply by taking advantage of the other animals with there smarter beings. Towards the end of the novel, most of the animals have come to realize the tyrant Napoleon really is but cannot stand up to argue as Napoleon's power has grown to such an extent that almost everyone fears him, even humans.
The book ends with a meeting between the pigs and the neighboring humans. The animals look on through a farmhouse