Even after Hitler had repudiated his non-aggression pact with Stalin by launching Operation Barbarossa and most left-wing intellectuals were to "laud the virtues of the Soviet Union at the tops of their voices even on the right, keeping Uncle Joe sweet was regarded as mandatory—Orwell went on insisting that the Soviet regime was a tyranny. Even as the Red Army battled the Panzers to a standstill on the outskirts of Moscow. At this distance, it is hard to imagine what a lonely line this was to take. But when it came to a principle Orwell was the sort of man who would rather shiver in solitude than hold his tongue."