Changes

[[Image:Hgdctuy6.jpg|right|thumb|George Orwell (Eric Blair)]]

[[Image:Hgdctuy6.jpg|right|thumb|George Orwell (Eric Blair)]]

'''George Orwell''' was the pen name for '''Eric Arthur Blair''' (1903–1950), a leading English writer and journalist who exposed the evils of [[totalitarianism]] in two novels published near the end of his life: [[Animal Farm]] and [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]].

'''George Orwell''' was the pen name for '''Eric Arthur Blair''' (1903–1950), a leading English [[socialist|socialism]] writer and journalist who exposed the evils of [[totalitarianism]] in two novels published near the end of his life: [[Animal Farm]] and [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]].

George Orwell learned about Stalinism when he volunteered to fight the Spanish [[Fascist]] forces to keep them from overturning the [[democratically elected]] socialist government of Spain in the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936-1939). He enlisted in the POUM (In English, Workers Party for Marxist Unity) Militia, and saw action on the Aragon front, where he fought side by side with [[Anarchist]]s and [[Communist]]s, as well as Republican regulars.  

The formative experience of Orwell's creative life was volunteering to fight the Spanish [[Fascist]] forces to keep them from overturning the [[democratically elected]] socialist government of Spain in the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936-1939). He enlisted in the POUM (In English, Workers Party for Marxist Unity) Militia, and saw action on the Aragon front, where he fought side by side with [[Anarchist]]s and [[Communist]]s, as well as Republican regulars.  

He became disillusioned with the Spanish government's policy of witholding arms from the POUM and the Anarchists, which he saw as an attempt by the Communists to water down the revolutionary nature of the Anti-Fascist resistance, and centralize power in the hands of the Moscow-backed Communist Party. Taking a bullet through his neck but surviving, Orwell was invalided to Barcelona, where he witnessed the Stalinist repression of Trotskyist and Anarchist parties. Orwell and his wife were forced to escape from Spain as fugitives, after the POUM was banned by the increasingly repressive regime.  

He became disillusioned with the Spanish government's policy of witholding arms from the POUM and the Anarchists, which he saw as an attempt by the Communists to water down the revolutionary nature of the Anti-Fascist resistance, and centralize power in the hands of the Moscow-backed Communist Party. Taking a bullet through his neck but surviving, Orwell was invalided to Barcelona, where he witnessed the Stalinist repression of Trotskyist and Anarchist parties. Orwell and his wife were forced to escape from Spain as fugitives, after the POUM was banned by the increasingly repressive regime.