Harry Peter Smollett, OBE (1912–1980), born Hans Peter Smolka and sometimes using that name as a pen name even after he changed it by deed poll, was a journalist for the '' Daily Express'' and later a Central Europe correspondent for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

''. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Smollett became head of the Russian section at Britain's Ministry of Information and was responsible for organising pro-Soviet propaganda. He was later identified as a Soviet agent. Born in Vienna, he came to Britain in 1933 as an

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

agent codenamed "ABO". Although he changed his name to Smollett on becoming a naturalised British subject in 1938, he returned to using the surname Smolka when he returned to Vienna after the war. According to the

Mitrokhin Archive The "Mitrokhin Archive" is a collection of handwritten notes which were secretly made by the KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin during the thirty years in which he served as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Dir ...

, Smollett had been recruited by

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...

. George Orwell included him on the list of those who "in my opinion are crypto-communists, fellow-travellers or inclined that way and should not be trusted as propagandists" that he gave to the

Information Research Department The Information Research Department (IRD) was a secret Cold War propaganda department of the British Foreign Office, created to publish anti-communist propaganda, including black propaganda, provide support and information to anti-communist pol ...

in 1949 as "almost certainly agent of some kind" and "a very slimy person" (see ''

Orwell's list In 1949, shortly before he died, the English author George Orwell prepared a list of notable writers and other people he considered to be unsuitable as possible writers for the anti-communist propaganda activities of the Information Research D ...

'').

Timothy Garton Ash Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSA (born 12 July 1955) is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Most of his work has been concerned with the contemporary history of Europe, with a spe ...

stated that Smollett "was 'almost certainly' the civil servant on whose advice the London publisher Jonathan Cape rejected Orwell's ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to c ...

'' as an unhealthily anti-Soviet text".Ezard, Joh
"Blair's Babe - Did love turn Orwell into a government stooge?" 21 June 2003
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Retrieved 4 June 2013.

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

's biographer,

Michael Shelden Michael Shelden (born 1951) is an American biographer and teacher, notable for his authorized biography of George Orwell, his history of Cyril Connolly’s ''Horizon'' magazine, his controversial biography of Graham Greene, and his study of the las ...

, refers to the

inside joke An in-joke, also known as an inside joke or a private joke, is a joke whose humour is understandable only to members of an ingroup; that is, people who are ''in'' a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest. It i ...

that appears in the film ''

The Third Man ''The Third Man'' is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard. Set in postwar Vienna, the film centres on American Holly Martins (Cotten ...

'' (1949), filmed in Vienna. Greene wrote the screenplay and used the name Smolka for a bar because Smolka/Smollett had given uncredited advice on the filming.Leab, Daniel J. (2008) ''Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm'', p. 144. Penn State Press
At Google Books. Retrieved 4 June 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smollett, Peter George Orwell 1912 births 1980 deaths Austrian spies for the Soviet Union Journalists from Vienna British male journalists Austrian emigrants to England Officers of the Order of the British Empire Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom