It's hard to say what lay in the man's heart at the end. He never gave up on the idea of socialism. But knowing a thing or two about human nature- this is somewhat understandable. It is almost impossible sometimes for people to give up totally on an ideology they had built their entire lives around. Blair/Orwell was obviously an intelligent man. Lord only knows what intellectual contortions he got up to in his own thoughts that allowed him to denounce the communists while still believeing in socialism. Perhaps he saw them as "those radicals"- "those radicals will the doom of us all", while pardoning himself for believing in some pure form of the philosophy.
But I have to say, the last thing I want to do is sit around and make excuses for the man. Regardless of his own personal leanings, he understood communism inside out and although this might be because he was one himself, it also allowed him to create 1984 and Animal Farm in the chilling manner he did.
Personally, I'm willing to let the man's deeds (his works) speak for themselves. I believe in the end he did us more service than evil.