Orwell and Communism

John Newsinger, Bath Spa University College, on 15 January 2002

When George Orwell died he was in the process of trying to counter the belief that Nineteen Eighty Four was an anti-socialist novel. He insisted that he was a man of the left and that the book was written from a leftwing stance. In fact, the book together with Animal Farm became a mainstay of Cold War propaganda with both the British and American governments sponsoring its publication abroad and its translation to the big screen. How did this come about?

Orwell's hostility to Communism really originates during his time in Spain. He served in the POUM militia, mixing with men and women who were extremely hostile to Communism. At the time, he did not share this hostility and was taking steps to transfer to the International Brigades. The Communist take-over in Barcelona is May 1937 put a stop to this and turned Orwell into a lifelong opponent of Communism, but an opponent from the left. He came to oppose Communism not because the Russian Revolution of 1917 was wrong, but because, as far as he was concerned, it had been betrayed.

Orwell was desperately interested in trying to understand what sort of society the Soviet Union was and read a large amount of dissident literature on this subject: Trotskyist, anarchist and other. The conclusion he came to was that the Soviet Union bore no relation to any idea of socialism that was current until post-1917 and that in fact since 1917 Russia had been developing away from socialism. He came to the conclusion that what you had in Russia was a collectivised or socialised economy, which he sometimes called socialist, but that was in the hands of a bureaucratic tyranny that was guilty of just about every crime against the socialist idea imaginable. In this respect he was very influenced by a particular Trotskyist heresy, the notion of bureaucratic collectivism, that Russia was a new type of society neither capitalist nor socialist. The key intellectual influences on him in this respect were Franz Borkenau and Dwight Macdonald.

It is this view of the Soviet Union that is given fictional expression in Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four - an uncompromising hostility to the Soviet Union from the left.

He believed that the support that a section of the intelligentsia gave to Communism was the most shameful hypocrisy and was not afraid to point this out. This earned him many enemies, both in his lifetime and since. As far as he was concerned, `destroying the Soviet myth' as he described it was vital if a healthy socialist movement was ever to be re-established.

John Newsinger

Discussion

The point was made that when the war commenced there was a Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact and the Communists made peace with Germany. This changed dramatically with Russian-British-USA alignment, and from then onwards considerable pro-Russian propaganda built up, and Stalin became `Uncle Joe'.

The speaker pointed out that Orwell supported the war against Fascist Germany.

A member reminded us that Left wing intellectuals in England were persuaded by Marxist ideology, for example, Sydney and Beatrice Webb. The Mitford's, and also Edward the VIII and the Cambridge spies, could be added to this distinguished list. Malcolm Muggeridge, however, had the sense to find out for himself by visiting Russia and, as a result, turned decisively away to the Right.

Orwell was himself an intellectual, but with real experience of false ideology led by tyranny when serving with the POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War.

Orwell's origins were discussed. Originally working class, he always dressed down, and smoked in all his photos. He faced suspicion from workingmen rather like Wedgwood-Benn in our own time. He was an Old Etonian but preserved working class eccentricities such as drinking from a saucer!

The question arose as to why Communism was so successful for so long . To illustrate this, Martin Sturge recounted his experience in Russia in Sept. 1961, when he visited a disused monastery near Moscow. He quoted, in Russian, what an old lady key holder waiting outside said to him, " know this friends, we must wait" - presumably for the fruits of Communism, which the poorer and ignorant people believed in, although Christianity was banned. The building of factories led to urbanisation by those seeking job opportunities. Although initially impressed and amazed at the availability of books and reading them with "wide eyed wonderment", only the more sophisticated intellectuals realised all was censored by the state. The 2.5 -3% party members and Union leaders had attended camps to learn the party line and form cadres in the community and factories. A visitor suggested it was successful initially because of the ignorance and extreme poverty, which existed before. She pointed out it was actually not natural to share.

The speaker said, there was much subsidisation and the ubiquitous secret police even guarded public photocopiers. He quoted a John Major joke, about a man who wants to assassinate Stalin, but gives up, as the queue is too long!

Although people were at first impressed by the building of new factories and increased employment, all stagnated due to lack of competitiveness and incentive, the fatal flaw of communism.

Another visitor suggested Animal Farm was not obviously a political satire, but many strongly disagreed stating that it was a fairy tale only to children. Its political message was very strong, especially when considered in conjunction with Nineteen Eighty Four. Unlike many other creative artists, such as Pound for Fascism, or Sartre for Communism, Orwell was too experienced with the realities of politics and the acquisition of power by seductive theoretical dogma, to delude himself or others of the truth.

Rodney Tye said, Nineteen Eighty Four, reminded him of Kafka's Trial as a study of apparently benign ideology, translated into `Insidious Bureaucratic Tyranny'. He made further disturbing comparisons with the European Union of today. The speaker thought this was an unfair comparison, as no force or coercion such as the secret police was involved in Europe.

The convenor summed up by saying that he had always seen politics in Britain as boring since the end of the war . But perhaps this was a good thing as it made revolutions and political extremism difficult to stir up. The qualities of laziness and the ability to laugh at themselves for which the British were well known, were an advantage after all, so fanatics or extremists, like Oswald Mosley, were not taken seriously. Perhaps the democratic process with alternating governments was as near to Utopia as we are likely to get.

Peter Valentine