History
Nicholas the Second was the last Czar (ruling king) of the Russian Empire. Born from the royal bloodlines of the royal Russian family, he grew up in rich conditions until his grandfather (the existing czar) was assassinated, then the family moved to Gatchina Palace outside the city. Throughout Nicholas's childhood, the royal family was viewed negatively upon the citizens, and this did not change after he claimed the throne due to his father's unexpected death in 1894 (Wikipedia, 2013). With weak political training and inexperience, Nicholas did not associate himself much with the political and economical issues / factors which were taking place. This lead to countless incorrect decisions with little development of the poor situation the country has fallen into (famine, riots, etc.), and eventually leading to his own downfall as well as the uproar of working-class citizens, triggering the Russian Revolution. It was during the revolution when Nicholas was forced to abdicate due to the rising of Vladimir Lenin, a communist revolutionary. Hiding from the civil war which took place, he was shortly discovered and assassinated together with his family on 1918 (from "Nicholas II", Daniels, n.d.).
Character Relation & Success
From the characters in Animal Farm, Farmer Jones is considered as a direct link to Nicholas the Second, due to the many similarities they share. Nicholas, as a Czar, displayed irresponsibility and a carefree attitude which lead to the failure of ruling his country well, thus resulting in riots and rebellion breaking loose. The same consequence happened with Mr. Jones as he failed to tend to the animals needs (whilst living his carefree life getting drunk), starving them which eventually lead to an animal rebellion. Because of these similar incidents, both Nicholas and Jones were forced to resign / leave their ruling position, which supports the idea that both of them are examples of failed leaders. George Orwell depicted Nicholas the Second as Farmer Jones with much success because Jones was always never the focus of main plot and he ignored all activity / needs of the animals despite being the ruler of them all, much like how Nicholas II was always looked down upon (hence a more "background" character of the revolution) and ignorant like Jones. Since Nicholas was an important trigger to the whole revolution incident, Orwell incorporated this fact when creating Farmer Jones; showing him as the start of the animal rebellion, which makes him very easily linkable to Czar Nicholas (assuming the readers are familiar with the Russian Revolution).
