Old Major is the allegorical figure for Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin, depending on your interpretation of the text. Both men stood for basically the same thing, and these things was what Orwell was exploring in the novel.
The Old Major is the pig that got the idea of the Revolution. He was the cleverest of animals and leader until the hour of death. It represents the intelligent, sensible man, concerned with the well-being of his fellow men. The old Major is a mixture of Karl Marx, famous for having transmitted his socialist beliefs through texts, full of revolutionary content, based on economics and philosophy, with Vladimir Lenin idealist of the principle of revolution. He is Major who spreads the seeds of revolution among animals. Like Marx, it was only after Major's death that his egalitarian ideals were applied.
