yes it is about Marxism
George Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War
he saw the Communists up close, first hand, and wanted to warn people about going down that path
he hated communism with a passion and his dystopian novels clearly reflect that attitude
he was referencing Communist methods of totalitarian control in 1984
just because totalitarians all over the spectrum sometimes also use similar methods, doesn't mean Orwell didn't have communism in mind specifically, when writing 1984 and Animal Farm
your knee jerk impulse to defend the left leads you astray again
Orwell was wise enough to see the threat of the illiberal left was greater than the threat from the illiberal right
and he emphasized the former more than later in his writings as a result, despite being on the left himself, he wasn't a partisan hack who had to pretend the radical right was worse and tunnel vision on them, he had too much experience with both to be under that delusion