I think the author’s intent was for 1984 to be read as anticommunist propaganda.
He had to flee Spain to avoid being arrested by Stalinists in the Spanish civil war, when they suddenly declared their Anarchist and Trotskyist allies (whom Orwell was fighting alongside) to be ‘Secret fascists’ [1] and began to round them up to for uh… Fun times by all.
He had to flee Spain to avoid being arrested by Stalinists in the Spanish civil war, when they suddenly declared their Anarchist and Trotskyist allies (whom Orwell was fighting alongside) to be ‘Secret fascists’ [1] and began to round them up to for uh… Fun times by all.
So yeah that tracks.
[1] Homage to Catalonia, Chapters 10 and 11
I’m aware; I’ve read it. Considering everything else about Orwell, I don’t think he was a very reliable narrator of events during the civil war.