The second of two salons as part of Leeds Lit Fest 2026.
This talk will examine the influence of George Orwell’s participation in the Spanish Civil War on his writing and politics, on his many subsequent essays, and in particular, on his two most important works, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The Spanish Civil War broke out on 18th July 1936. Orwell arrived on Boxing Day and, unable to join the International Brigades, he joined a POUM unit – a Spanish workers’ militia. A decision that would change the course of his thinking and work.
He was sent to the Aragon front; his experience there was anticlimactic. After 115 days, he returned to Barcelona at the end of April 1937. The revolutionary atmosphere that had bid them farewell had evaporated. People wanted an end to disorder and privations. Most significantly, the Spanish Communist Party had had enough of the Spanish revolution
Fighting broke out between the Republican army and Barcelona’s anarchists and POUM militia; Orwell was on the losing side. When the fighting stopped, a propaganda offensive began. POUM was declared a fascist organisation. Orwell went into hiding and was tried for treason in his absence. He and his wife, Eileen, narrowly escaped but, back in England, he found that the press parroted the communist line: that he had been part of a pro-Franco fifth column, and he feared attack or assassination by Stalinists.
Michael will show how Orwell’s Spanish experience informed his writing, particularly his preoccupation with themes of language subversion, the corruption of power, and the loss of humanity.
