He did fight for the communist side in the Spanish Civil War, but he was doing so because of primarily social (anarchist) ideals, rather than economic views. It

He did fight for the communist side in the Spanish Civil War, but he was doing so because of primarily social (anarchist) ideals, rather than economic views. It's more accurate to say he fought against fascism than to say he fought for communism. He directly states that much of his views on language come from his work for the UK government (although I'm not aware of him directly saying that about Newspeak, it's fairly clear where the idea comes from in his work as a propagandist). It's popular among people who want to co-opt 1984 as an anti-communist work, to represent Orwell as having been a communist who later saw the light of capitalism, but the truth is that Orwell was a communist until the day he died. 1984 was a criticism of totalitarianism, not communism, and while 1984 focused primarily on how Stalinism had perverted the communist movement, Orwell was very conscious of the fact that many of the symptoms of the disease of totalitarianism under communism, could equally occur under the totalitarian capitalism. But again, I think it's more relevant to see Orwell as an anarchist than as a communist.