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All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

George Orwell, Animal Farm, 1945

Literature

The story behind the card

In the last chapter of George Orwell's Animal Farm (1945), the animals find that the Seven Commandments painted on the barn wall have been replaced by this single rule. The ruling pigs have turned 'All animals are equal' inside out. Orwell wrote the fable about the Russian Revolution and its betrayal under Stalin. With the Soviet Union a wartime ally, several publishers turned it down, T. S. Eliot at Faber among them, and the manuscript was nearly lost when a German flying bomb wrecked Orwell's London flat in 1944.

Türkçe oku
Bütün hayvanlar eşittir; ama bazı hayvanlar diğerlerinden daha eşittir.
George Orwell, Hayvan Çiftliği, 1945

George Orwell'in Hayvan Çiftliği (1945) romanının son bölümünde hayvanlar, ambarın duvarına yazılmış Yedi Emir'in yerinde tek bir kural kaldığını görür. İktidarı ele geçiren domuzlar, “Bütün hayvanlar eşittir” ilkesini tersine çevirmiştir. Orwell bu fablı, Rus Devrimi'ni ve devrimin Stalin döneminde nasıl ihanete uğradığını anlatmak için yazdı. Sovyetler Birliği savaşta müttefik olduğu için birkaç yayınevi kitabı geri çevirdi; bunlardan biri, şair T. S. Eliot'ın yöneticileri arasında bulunduğu Faber and Faber'dı. El yazması da, 1944'te bir Alman uçan bombası Orwell'in Londra'daki evini yıktığında az kalsın kaybolacaktı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: George Orwell
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