Walter Kolarz

Who was Walter Kolarz?

Walter Kolarz was a British-based scholar of the communist world who wrote widely on ethnic and religious issues.

Kolarz was born in Teplitz-Schonau in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at Charles University in Prague, then moved to Berlin to work as a journalist. However, he was expelled by the Nazis in 1936. He moved to Paris, before fleeing to London in 1940.

Kolarz worked as a journalist for United Press of America, before joining the BBC in 1949, specialising as an analyst on Soviet and East European affairs.

Kolarz married Alexandra Lipovsky in 1939 and they had one son.

A number of Kolarz' books were compiled by others in the wake of his early death.