Orwell realized early on who the bad guys were, when the communists turned on the group he joined/supported. They killed many and their leaders, and he realized it was all a hoax - the “new boss” was the same as the “old boss”.
He was lucky to survive; enemies in front and behind...
I’m reading Federico Jimenez De los Santos book, Memorias del Comunismo, which is completely alarming, because I think the same scenario is occurring now...not in Russia, not in Spain, but in the US.
I have friends who are Catalans (that is born there from families that can boast generations upon generations) who are being excluded from society because they speak Spanish in everyday life and appreciate the culture of their country, Spain. They also speak Catalan and are even left-wing...but obviously not enough to be PC. One friend who lives in an area targeted for having “espanolistas” (sorry for lack of diacritical...my new keyboard wouldn’t do it!) is very afraid, because the Spanish government is not strong enough to protect them and obviously the “Catalan government” doesn’t want to. And the Church is completely political, left wing and catalanista, so there’s no hope from that direction.