Boxer – Boxer represents the working class. Boxer is portrayed as being a dedicated worker, but as possessing a less-than-average intelligence. His personal motto was, “I will work harder!” The novel describes the horses as being the pig’s “most faithful disciples” and that they “absorbed everything that they were told [by the pigs], and passed it on to the other animals by simple arguments”.

Pigs
The Communists
Napoleon – Napoleon is Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union. Animal farm skips the short rule of Lenin (and seems to combine Lenin with the character Old Major), and has Napoleon leading the farm from the beginning of the revolution.

Squealer – This pig represents the Russian media, which spread Stalin’s version of the truth to the masses.

Snowball – Snowball represents Leo Trotsky. Trotsky was one of the original revolutionaries. But as Stalin rose to power he became one of Stalin’s biggest enemies, and was eventually expelled from the Politburo in 1925 – one year after Stalin took control of the nation. In the novel, Snowball was exiled from the farm just as Trotsky had been in 1929. But Trotsky was not only exiled in body, he was also exiled from the minds of the Russian people – His historical role was altered; his face cut out of group photographs of the leaders of the revolution. In Russia he was denounced as a traitor and conspirator and in 1940 a Stalinist agent assassinated him in Mexico City.

Old Major – The father of ‘Animalism’. He represents Karl Marx, but in some ways also symbolizes the original communist leader – Vladimir Lenin. (In the book, Old major’s skull is displayed in a similar manner to the way Lenin’s remains were displayed to the public) The book also says that Old Major had been exhibited at shows under the name Willingdon Beauty, but I’m not sure whether or not this is a reference to a real-life.