Meanwhile your quote highlights the fact that Orwell thought that being honest about the Soviet Union and its critiques in political discussions is a mark of intellectual honesty, which isn’t really pro-fascist, since you can critique the United States and still be anti-communist after all.

In that case, you reject the reasoning in the initial quote.

When the Soviets were fighting the Nazis, criticizing the Soviets was either pro-fascist or it was not pro-fascist. If it’s pro-fascist, then Orwell was a hypocrite for doing so. If it isn’t pro-fascist, then the reasoning in OP’s quote is wrong.

Somehow this “our side or their side” broke down for him when considering the Soviets fighting on the same side as the Allies.