According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the May Days conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union had become a totalitarian autocracy built upon a cult of personality while engaging in the practice of mass incarcerations and secret summary trials and executions. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described "Animal Farm" as a satirical tale against Stalin (""""), and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that "Animal Farm" was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".