[bzbarsky]

> Orwell was quite a devout communist

I don't think that's true in his post-Spain days, depending I guess on how you define "devout communist". I would say he was a devout socialist and an ardent anti-communist after Spain.

I am having no luck finding it, but one quote that has stuck with me is where he talks about how if the anti-Fascist forces in Spain won they would obviously establish a totalitarian state which would only be "good" by comparison with the Fascist alternative and would be terrible in any sort of objective sense.