It's not just in the opening sentences that Orwell uses the passive. 
Notice the wording here, at the very moment he condemns the passive:

"In addition, the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference 
to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds (by 
examination of instead of by examining)."

I have long found the irony here too delicious. And to judge from the 
context in which this sentence appears, I suspect it's the law of 
prescriptive retaliation in operation rather than a self-conscious use.

Karl Hagen

Edgar Schuster wrote:
> Craig may well be right about Orwell's sentiments; however, Orwell himself 
> near the end of his essay offers a set of six "rules" (the word is his).   His 
> fourth rule is "Never use the passive where you can use the active."   He 
> doesn't say "where you can use the active" but not the passive.   But he uses 
> passives in four of the first 15 sentences of "Politics," and it's not at all 
> difficult to substitute actives for each them.
> Hurrah for Craig's "we need a more functional orientation to language so that 
> choice can be built on something more than personal or group prejudice."
> 
> Ed Schuster
> 
> 
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