The paper examines the portrayal of two central topics in Orwell’s novel Animal Farm (1945), namely, ‘oppression’ and ‘revolution’. It focuses on Old Major’s speech, who is the wisest and oldest of the animals. He unites the farm against humans inspiring the animals’ rebellion. The aim of the study is to contrast the Russian (1989) and Greek (2005) target versions of Old Major’s speech, where references to oppression and revolution peak. The study intends to highlight differences in the way the target versions shape oppression and revolution and to account for these differences in terms of pragmatic theoretical concepts. Findings show that oppression and revolution are more vividly shaped in the Russian target version than in the Greek one, along with pessimism for the farm’s current situation, enforced implications of hard work and exhaustion, collective awareness and optimistic prospects of a revolution. The research offers insight into narratives in target cultural environments and enriches cross-cultural understanding of variation in relational patterns.