Source: The Bulwark
by Cathy Young
“Orwell’s novel ends with a development that, at the time, had no parallels in Soviet reality: The pigs adopt human ways, from sleeping in beds to drinking alcohol and finally wearing clothes and walking upright. … Orwell, a democratic socialist, thus seems to be envisioning a scenario in which the Soviet regime evolves into a state capitalist oligarchy and drops its Communist trappings. That never came true — or did it? Not quite in the way it happens in Animal Farm; but, after the fall of the Soviet Union and a brief democratic interlude, that’s pretty much where things have ended up.” (09/26/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/animal-farm-never-gets-old-george-orwell-80-anniversary