Ignorant, worthless article.
“That was the trap real volunteers fighting for the republic — like George Orwell — were caught in.”
Orwell fought for the anarchists, and after the communist government crushed them and killed their leader he realized it was a hoax...and wrote “Animal Farm” afterwards. He saw through the government’s lies, where they described great victories where there had been no battle and no mention at all of disastrous defeats. In the end, unlike the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, anyone who wanted to leave Franco’s Spain was free to do so (and a huge majority didn’t).