You should do a little bit of research on blade velocity triangles. You'll see that
- Stators swirl the air
- Blades de-swirl the air
So if you look at several rows of stator-blade pairs, the air flow will look like a stepped helix. This video has an alright explanation of the theory:
If you want to have a good look inside engines, I recommend the AgentJayZ channel on youtube, he does excellent show"show and telltell" of components in an engine though doesn't cover all theory very well, for example: