What influences in Orwell's life led him to see totalitarianism as such a threat to humanity?

One of the
largest was the rise to power and the way that Stalin used his power to create a powerful
totalitarian state on the back of the deaths of millions and millions of people in the Soviet
Union.  Having also seen the aftermath of Hitler's rise to power and the holocaust, one can
understand a reasonable fear of totalitarianism and the results of its emergence.

This, combined with his concern for the poor and the working class and
the...