I didn’t know that part. I think everyone involved in the spanish civil war came away jaded though. Which communists did he inform on then, in the UK? Do you recall the years he started?
He didn’t seem to be much of a fan of british intelligence when he was writing his books anyway, he didn’t pull any punches.
Could you elaborate on the “coming away jaded” after the Spanish civil war? I’m interested on an outsider’s opinion (assuming you’re not a Spaniard like me)
a big part of it was people seeing first hand the Soviet’s sabotaging the CNT-FAI’s efforts, which I imagine was part of what turned Orwell against communists later in his life.
I still contend that if the Soviet’s supported the Syndicalists as much as the Nazis supported the Nationalists, CNT-FAI would have won the war.
No I’m an American with limited knowledge of the spanish civil war, I should know more but I don’t. I read half of for whom the bells toll, by Hemingway, didn’t particularly like the book either not that much of a hemingway fan, I hate him because he hunted big game animals too.
Just everyone you heard about that fought in the Spanish Civil war for the socialists, and I think it was fairly common for idealists to come to spain to fight with them just like europeans did in the American revolution, they all seemed to have lost their idealism and became pessimistic, like Orwell.
I didn’t know that part. I think everyone involved in the spanish civil war came away jaded though. Which communists did he inform on then, in the UK? Do you recall the years he started?
He didn’t seem to be much of a fan of british intelligence when he was writing his books anyway, he didn’t pull any punches.
Wikipedia article on Orwell’s list
Could you elaborate on the “coming away jaded” after the Spanish civil war? I’m interested on an outsider’s opinion (assuming you’re not a Spaniard like me)
a big part of it was people seeing first hand the Soviet’s sabotaging the CNT-FAI’s efforts, which I imagine was part of what turned Orwell against communists later in his life.
I still contend that if the Soviet’s supported the Syndicalists as much as the Nazis supported the Nationalists, CNT-FAI would have won the war.
No I’m an American with limited knowledge of the spanish civil war, I should know more but I don’t. I read half of for whom the bells toll, by Hemingway, didn’t particularly like the book either not that much of a hemingway fan, I hate him because he hunted big game animals too.
Just everyone you heard about that fought in the Spanish Civil war for the socialists, and I think it was fairly common for idealists to come to spain to fight with them just like europeans did in the American revolution, they all seemed to have lost their idealism and became pessimistic, like Orwell.