What was Orwell's role in the Spanish Civil War? How did his experience influence his political beliefs?

Answer 1

A great believer in the legitimacy of the Republic, Orwell joined the militia of the POUM -- at this stage, political parties and anarchists essentially formed their own units. The POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista) was an independent Leninist group that, unlike the Communists, supported immediate revolution. Orwell spent his war mostly in the trenches of the army unsuccessfully besieging Zaragoza. There he was wounded.

The POUM's suppression by an alliance of Liberal Catalans and Communists following a civil war within the Civil War in Barcelona in May 1937, and the methods the Communists used to influence and eventually dominate the Republican Government undoubtedly influenced his subsequent views and writings.

Try his fine book Homage to Catalonia.