What if the animals ran the world? George Orwell tried to answer this question on a smaller scale in his 1945 novel, Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a satire on Stalinism and the Russian revolution. Orwell wrote this novel at a time when communism was on the rise and Joseph Stalin ruled with an iron fist. The ideas in Animal Farm parallel in many ways the communist ideology. Orwell illustrates how easily swayed the public can be, and how easily susceptible to corruption are those in power. The story takes place on a farm somewhere in England. ....