From Imperial Police Member to Becoming a Writer; How Orwell Grew to be a “lifelong anti-Stalinist”

Leafing through one of his greatly celebrated titles, I recalled a quote of his own;

“The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.”

I purchased a copy of Orwell’s 1984 a few months ago. I was renting an apartment in Wivenhoe at that point. It was a modern, two-bedroom flat in the town’s centre. Situated only a few steps from the Co-op, it made my grocery shopping much easier. I had quite a big lounge area. Next to one of the white painted walls was a sofa together with a coffee table. On the opposite side was a wooden library. It was filled with some of my favourite titles I brought with me from the Czech Republic. The library was large, so there was still plenty of space left. As a result, I was constantly enriching it with new pieces. This was rather an easy task for a book lover like me. A few houses down the road, there was a small secondhand bookshop. An elderly lady was working there. Besides other titles, she provided me with a paperback copy of Orwell’s 1984.

Seated on a wooden bench, I was immersed in reading. The air, accompanied by a gentle breeze, was pleasantly warm. Birds were chirping. Beams of sunlight were creating subtle images on the river’s surface. Though it could’ve been sometime in October, it felt as if summer came back for a while. I was reading Orwell’s 1984. The book was stunning. I was eager to know more about the author. Opening my laptop, I spent the rest of the day reading about Orwell’s life. 

“I was in the police, which is to say that I was part of the actual machinery of despotism”

Named Eric Arthur Blair, George Orwell was born in 1903 in India. Since he grew up in a middle-class family, he started working right after he finished school. Following other family members, he registered as a policeman in Burma. He spent years in this position. Being a police officer allowed him to see into the heart of the political and social situation in Burma. What he experienced substantially altered his later life. With disgust, he surrendered all he had and relocated to Europe.

Due to being part of India, Burma was one of the British colonies. The British Empire was in power there until after the Second World War. Afterwards, many of the colonized states became independent. During the Empire’s reign, the Burmese nation proved to be very courageous. Their power and eagerness for independence made them a threat to the Empire. This caused Burma to remain under strong supervision. As a member of the police force, Orwell was compelled to take part in this ‘humiliation’ of his own nation. He could not tolerate this. In 1927 he left his native land, changed his identity and “threw himself into a poverty-stricken existence, living with the homeless, working low-wage jobs and struggling to become a writer.”

Though he never became a Marxist, Orwell regarded Marx “for his insights into the workings of a system built on profit”

Europe embodied an immense change in Orwell’s life. As mentioned, Orwell relocated to Europe in the late 1920s. When in India, he was living a decent life. Being raised in a complete family had provided him with everything that was necessary. He had a place to live, means of support and people to rely on. In simple terms, he was equipped to continue living a comfortable life. Under the given circumstances, however, Orwell was predestined to a different fate.

When he relocated to Europe, Orwell experienced poverty in the true sense of a word. He was living on the street. He had no or very minor jobs, which barely supported him. He was meeting people from other minority groups, such as tramps, miners or other workers. Living as a tramp himself, Orwell later wrote about these people with respect. In Down and Out in Paris and London, he described one of them as “capable of sharing his last crust with a friend.”

While living as a tramp, Orwell grew disgusted by the wealthy corporations that “squeezed every penny they could through low wages and meager pensions.” He refused to accept such establishment within the social construct. Therefore, he welcomed “Marx’s concept of socialism.” However, he never became a Marxist himself. Though he believed in the workers’ influential spirits, Orwell was very pessimistic about their power to stage a coup. He himself compared them to ants, “which can see small objects but not large ones.”

Orwell went to Spain to battle fascism, “but found himself face-to-face with another form of totalitarianism”

Orwell discovered himself to be somehow bound to the class of workers. Therefore, in 1936, he relocated to Spain to support them and fight Franco’s fascism. Though he arrived as part of a left-wing, he was not among the Stalinist militia. He joined the front militia of POUM - “Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification.”

Spanish Civil War took place in 1936. Franco’s military forces invaded Spain in order to seize control of the territory. However, this was not the only problem at that point. Together with the war’s outbreak, the Spanish working class staged a revolution. As Orwell himself wrote;

“Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and draped with red flags or the red and black flag of the anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties, [...], In outward appearances it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist.”

Orwell witnessed the endeavour of workers. He sympathized with them and their fighting for appreciation. Therefore, he became furious when the Revolution was betrayed by the Communist Party. An uncountable number of workers were injured, tortured or killed. Orwell was indignant about the outcome. Though he had never adhered to this phenomenon, this all “cemented Orwell’s bitter disgust with Stalinism.”

The sun was nearly going down the horizon. It’s got quite empty around here. Only a few dog fanciers were walking their dogs alongside the riverbank. I was listening to the birds chirping. While reading Orwell’s 1984, I underlined one sentence which Winston took a note of in his diary;

“Freedom is the freedom to say two plus two make four. 

If that is granted, all else follows.”

Orwell initiated his writing career in the 1930s. His first novels captured both experiences from his native land and subsequent relocation to Europe. In Burmese Days, he expounded on the hypocrisy and cruelty of the British Empire. In Down and Out in Paris and London or The Road to Wigan Pier, he recounted the poor living conditions of the lower class. Also, he wrote about homelessness, poverty, unemployment and suppression of the working class. Homage to Catalonia was dedicated to what he experienced when fighting in the Spanish Revolution.

During the 1940s, Orwell had raised public awareness of his role as a writer. In 1941, he began working for the BBC. He was granted an opportunity to speak openly about what he experienced. He very much appreciated it, as he himself said;

“I will do the talk if I can be reasonably frank.

I am not going to say anything I regard as untruthful.”

Later on, he published the two most celebrated novels of his career. Animal Farm and 1984 were regarded as “parables of failed revolutions.” Both became largely debated and examined for their genuine intentions. 1984, in particular, grew to be marked as a piece of “anti-Stalinist fiction.”

As Orwell himself claimed;

‘The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.’

One could say it is one of those hackneyed phrases. Plenty of people say it. But when it comes to it, only a few mean it. Such could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

During his long-standing career as a journalist, essayist and writer, Orwell achieved this goal. His novels were filled with real events - events that had written themselves into general awareness. As “one of the earliest and bravest anti-Stalinist writers,” Orwell made such events comprehensible to his readers. He made them readable. Proving his intentions, Orwell stated;

“What I have most wanted to do… is to make political writing into an art.”