I think it is pretty clear from Orwell's acts and writings that he clearly identified as a socialist until he went to the grave. Just not a very orthodox one that could be pidgeon-holed into a certain strand.

He wrote of his sympathies for the Trotskyists of the POUM and libertarian socialists/anarchists of Spain, but said he could never exactly be one.

He spent the remainder of his years in the democratic socialist wing of the Labour Party, which was actually the Right of the party at the time. He strongly opposed the party's Stalinist wing.

Anyway. We should remember to differentiate between all these left-wing groups. Stalinists executed and hounded Trots, Anarchists, etc. amongst other differences between thousands of other splinter groups.

You can easy be anti-Stalinist (anti-Communist with a Capital-C as I like to call it) and still a communist/socialist. Anarcho-communism is nothing like Marxist-Lenninism.

Damn random rantings. Sorry! Need sleep!