My (limited) understanding of this history is that it was during the Spanish civil war that George Orwell started becoming disillusioned with Socialists/Communists who talked of human rights etc but then denied and defended Joseph Stalin at every turn.
None of my comments are a defense of Franco. I just know that some of the fiercest critics have no moral standing to make the complaint.
Homage to Catalonia was a wonderful read. Problem is I couldn’t tell who the bad guys were. Orwell joined a rag tag group that was ill trained, ill equipped and spent many nights sleeping in the mud and stench. His wife stayed in Barcelona in the meantime. He took a bullet in the neck. Could have cost him his life. If so it would not have written 1984 a decade later. Not something I would have undertaken. Strange.