Revolution? In ‘Homage to Catalonia’
Revolution exists only as an ideal in Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’, true revolution of a Socialist nature that Orwell idealizes exists only in the slogans and banners which Orwell describes in the romantic opening of the first chapter. There are three variants of the word ‘revolution’ in this book, the Socialist revolution, the Fascist revolution of Franco, and finally the communist revolution within the ranks of the socialist government, none of which are synonymous with Orwell’s idealised version. Revolution to Orwell was black and white ,good versus evil, a revolution of, “The New Statesman version of war, as the defence of civilization against a maniacal outbreak by an army of Colonel Blimps in the pay of Hitler”(197), and one which Orwell himself admits in his reflection as being ignorant of the true politics of the situation.
The first form of revolution, the Socialist revolution was one which really only existed through informalities and propaganda, which could as Orwell himself admits only exist in a time of war. This revolution was the ideal of Orwell, the POUM and the anarchists forming a political zeitgeist which represented the egalitarian society that the bearded fruit juice drinkers could only dream of existing in. This revolution logistically, was how one may have imagined such an idealistic movement to be, ill equipped with ancient rifles and bombs which were so rusted that they would be given nicknames after being fired from one side to the other without ever exploding. One could argue that this combination of idealization and dysfunction could be surmised in the paradoxical anger of an officer towards a soldier who had just called him ‘senor’, “Are we not all comrades?”(8), a scene which gives an almost ‘Dad’s Army’ feel to the shabby war machine of the socialists.
The standing government of Spain at the time had entered into the Socialist faze of a pendulum form of politics, which would swing in favour of conservative government should support from the major cities of Spain commanded it. In resistance to a revolution led by Franco the country-side Fascists were pitted against the city dwelling socialists who, this essay would imagine fought on either side only by geographical placement. Orwell describes the blurred lines of the revolution of the Spanish people against the Fascists as deserters would ‘trickle’ across the lines, hearing the calls of propaganda, “why fight against your own class”(45). Orwell also describes the again strange calls of “Buttered Toast” which were used to coax the opposing fighters, a tactic which not only must have had genuine but slightly humorous effect on the Fascist fighters but one which exemplifies the true nature of the war. It was not a socialist revolution but rather a scarring civil war which left the Spanish people themselves hungry and dying.
The Fascist revolution as a result was clearly one facet of a proxy war between the powers of Italy, Germany and Russia. Franco’s army propped up by Italian and German support was not a revolution of the people, rather, “His revolution was a military mutiny backed up by the aristocracy and the Church….it was not so much an attempt to impose Fascism as to restore feudalism”.(199) Orwell here understands more-so than before the political realities of the ‘Fascist revolution’, namely that is not a real revolution, as it would imply a movement led by the people, rather as a military coup d’états.
This contrasts greatly with Orwell’s almost boyish fantasy of ‘killing his first Fascist’, a view which is humanised following his sprint after a soldier who, comically to Orwell manages to stay out of reach of his bayonet. The attack of chapter six exemplifies this almost foolhardy hunger for gunfire which Orwell longed for in the boredom of inter-battle periods, but this can almost be understood. Orwell was not baying for human blood, rather he was looking for a physical attack on the ideals of this ‘Fascist Revolution’ a black-shirt scalp which would make him feel like that the misery of the trench was worth it. We however now understand that even as Orwell was chasing a fleeing man around with a pointed gun blade, a revolution of different sorts was occurring in the cities of Spain.
The Communist revolution was a reaction to the aforementioned proxy war, with Soviet and Stalinist control being asserted upon the previously independent fractions which had been united in the ‘Orwellian’ version of socialist revolution. Soviet and Russian control had propped up the otherwise weak cities of Spain against the tide of Fascist dissent coming from the east, and now it had begun to sanitize and regulate the previously disorganised Leftist government. Andrés Nin the POUM leader had been arrested on the 15th June that year, militia men of the POUM were being arrested and control was being asserted from Moscow onto the ranks of the Independent socialists and anarchists. Orwell at the time says, “But it is a different matter to send men into battle and not even tell them that behind their backs their party is being supressed, their leaders accused of treachery, and their friends and relatives thrown into prison”(170). Here we see Orwell’s dream handshake with the Italian anarchist fade, one revolution is being usurped for another. The Comrades of the trenches; POUM, anarchist, PSUC, FAI, CNT, UGT etc. all of whom had been brothers in arms had now become fractured acronyms, either you were aligned with Stalinist or a “Spanish Trotskyists [plotting] With Franco”(244), as one newspaper headline read.
Thus we can see that no real revolution existed, not in the Orwellian sense, only an air of it was carried through the songs and flags of the POUM. The communist usurping of the genuine left had been supressed in order to make way for a revolution which mirrored the Fascist totalitarianism, the Fascist revolution was merely military muscle flexing of the darker sides of European totalitarianism, and the great socialist revolution that Orwell had come to Spain in search of was only brief handshake which had left him with a hole in his neck.