How Did Orwell Know? George Orwell, Stalin & the Power of Truth

George Orwell wrote Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four before the full reality of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe had unfolded. So how did he see it coming?

In this episode of History Book Buffs, Antonia Senior and Roger Moorhouse discuss Orwell’s extraordinary political insight, his warnings about Stalinism and totalitarianism, and why his work still shapes political writing today.

Prompted by Antonia Senior’s Orwell Prize shortlist for Stalin’s Apostles, the discussion explores Orwell’s legacy through the worlds of espionage, Soviet propaganda and Cold War history. Did people already know about Stalin’s crimes in the 1930s? What did Orwell understand that so many intellectuals missed? And what separates Orwell’s democratic socialism from the revolutionary communism embraced by figures such as Kim Philby and the Cambridge Five?

The conversation covers Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Why I Write, the Spanish Civil War, Soviet propaganda, Harry Peter Smollett, Alexander Orlov, Kim Philby, Václav Havel, samizdat publishing and the continuing battle between truth and political myth.

Topics discussed:

• George Orwell
• Animal Farm
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
• Why I Write
• Stalin and Stalinism
• The Cambridge Five and Kim Philby
• Soviet propaganda
• Harry Peter Smollett
• Spanish Civil War
• Eastern Europe and dissident movements
• Political writing and truth