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George Orwell was the pen name for Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950), who was a leading English writer and journalist who exposed the evils of communism 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), who was 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]].

A disrespectful liberal as a youth, George Orwell learned about communism when he volunteered to fight the Nationalists to keep them from taking over in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Taking a bullet through his neck but surviving, Orwell discovered that the communists (the [[International Brigades]]) fighting in that war were worse than the Nationalists led by [[Francisco Franco]]. Orwell himself was defending the republican form of government, known as the Republicans.

A lifelong revolutionary socialist, contributing to the Left-Labour periodical Tribune up till his death, 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 Anarchists and Communists, 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. Despite his persecution, Orwell continued to support the Republic upon his return to England, viewing a Communist dominated Spain as better than a Fascist Spain.

Orwell had only ten years left in his life when he returned.  During that period he and his wife adopted a baby boy, but then Orwell's wife died shortly thereafter.  In those ten years Orwell wrote his famous anti-communist classics described above, first spending three years on the short story [[Animal Farm]] (1944), and then perhaps five years on the longer novel [[1984]] (1949).  He died of tuberculosis the next year, and requested a full Anglican funeral, reflecting his return to the Christian faith.

Orwell had only ten years left in his life when he returned.  During that period he and his wife adopted a baby boy, but then Orwell's wife died shortly thereafter.  In those ten years Orwell wrote his famous anti-communist classics described above, first spending three years on the short story [[Animal Farm]] (1944), and then perhaps five years on the longer novel [[1984]] (1949).  He died of tuberculosis the next year, and requested a full Anglican funeral, reflecting his return to the Christian faith.