Which features does Napoleon in Animal Farm have in common with famous dictators from history?

Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, a ruthless dictator who
overtook Russia and ruled with an iron fist. Similar to Stalin, we see Napoleon use
tactics to gain and maintain control of the farm. He is very greedy, rationing the food
for the labouring animals and overindulging on the supplies himself. Like Stalin, he
unashamedly breaks the original tenets of animalism, significantly Old Major’s vision of
equality. Furthermore, just as Napoleon erodes Old Major’s ‘seven commandments’,
arguably Stalin, as well as ignoring the initial ideas of the Soviet Union, broke the
biblical Ten Commandments – stealing (became very rich without much of an explanation
for where it came from), murder (killed ‘criminals’ without sufficient evidence),
coveting your neighbor’s goods (invaded other countries) and
more.

Napoleon’s competitor for power on the farm is
Snowball. Napoleon is described as being ‘large’, ‘fierce-looking and ‘the only
Berkshire on the farm’, immediately setting him up as a threat to the dream of equality.
While we learn that Napoleon is ‘not much of a talker’ but has ‘a reputation for getting
his own way’, Snowball is described as being ‘quicker in speech and more inventive’ –
from this it is clear that Snowball is the ideal animalist leader and probably the most
likely successor to Old Major. But when Napoleon expels Snowball and claims all power
for himself, Orwell shows us that nothing can ever work as it is intended and the most
cut throat always get their way. In context, this mirrors Stalin’s horrific treatment of
Trotsky, his contemporary revolutionist. Like all the pigs, Napoleon is ‘one of the
cleverest animals’, but of course he does not use this quality to ensure the success of
animalism. It seems that Napoleon aims to replace ‘religion’ (Moses’ story of
‘sugar-candy mountain’) and assumes a god-like role himself – though he inspires the
fear of the omnipotent god rather than the love of the omni-benevolent
one.

Like Stalin, Napoleon does of course use others to
maintain control. The constant feed of propaganda voiced by Squealer is the main example
of this. Additionally, he indoctrinates the sheep to replace their incessant bleating of
‘four legs good, two legs bad’ with ‘four legs good, two legs better!’. He also puts
Snowball in the position of a scapegoat, shifting the blame of all failures on to him.
Furthermore he uses the fear of Jones to maintain power, showing that the harsh working
hours and mean portions of food is the lesser of two evils, Squealer saying repeatedly
‘surely you do not want Jones back?’.

In conclusion,
Napoleon is an original revolutionary who betrays the ideals of the Rebellion, is
corrupted by power and ends up ruling Animal Farm as its dictator. He represents not
only Stalin but in the wider picture the corruption of mankind and Orwell’s despair for
society, with a story of promised-freedom-turned-sour which is globally all too
familiar.