Orwell talked about socialism in many of his books, but was inspired to write Animal Farm by what he saw as a current belief that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was taking steps toward socialism for millions of poor Russians. Orwell thought that Stalin's rise to power was a betrayal of the socialist principles for which Lenin, Trotsky, and he had supposedly revolted. The fact that Russia was fighting Hitler also made Orwell's beliefs more disagreeable to leftist thinkers. Orwell thought that the U.S.S.R. was not progressing toward socialism but totalitarianism. Orwell began thinking about how he could best communicate his opinions on socialism and Stalin. Orwell was inspired to write Animal Farm after he saw a village boy whipping a cart-horse.
