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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
The CIA Book Club (UK Publication April 2025) is a fascinating story.
During the Cold War, when the Soviets had instigated year-zero policies in the counties they controlled, denying their citizens the right to celebrate or even acknowledge their country’s history before Soviet rule, underground literature was a powerful tool of subversion.
Newspapers, magazines, and books which criticised the regime, honoured the past, or which portrayed the freedoms of democracy, even if tangentially, all played their part in fighting the regime’s attempts to control thought.
Recognising this, the CIA took to funding, through elaborate means, the distribution of printed materials within these countries, eventually working with dissidents to establish smuggling routes where the machinery and supplies to establish underground presses could be delivered to eager hands.
This is the story of the men and women whose bravery, commitment, and sacrifice helped to bring down the Soviet Union. Their acts of resistance were a fine art - CIA funds were needed, but the discovery of any direct link between the US and the underground press could provoke international conflict. If underground opposition was too belligerent, too defiant, then the Soviet armed forces would be called in to stamp it out.
With the underground presses trying to espouse the cause of political freedom, there were internal concerns that international funding risked making them puppets, mouthpieces for the interests of the West rather than patriots with a cause and will of their own.
It’s a remarkable story of perseverance, hope, and ingenuity. In even the darkest times the voice of opposition was heard, not least because the system’s sexism meant that state surveillance concentrated on the men in the underground, assuming that the women couldn’t be doing anything of true importance - a fatal mistake.
Gripping and inspiring, English renders a story of complex connections and loyalties with clarity, energy, and obvious respect.
During the Cold War, when the Soviets had instigated year-zero policies in the counties they controlled, denying their citizens the right to celebrate or even acknowledge their country’s history before Soviet rule, underground literature was a powerful tool of subversion.
Newspapers, magazines, and books which criticised the regime, honoured the past, or which portrayed the freedoms of democracy, even if tangentially, all played their part in fighting the regime’s attempts to control thought.
Recognising this, the CIA took to funding, through elaborate means, the distribution of printed materials within these countries, eventually working with dissidents to establish smuggling routes where the machinery and supplies to establish underground presses could be delivered to eager hands.
This is the story of the men and women whose bravery, commitment, and sacrifice helped to bring down the Soviet Union. Their acts of resistance were a fine art - CIA funds were needed, but the discovery of any direct link between the US and the underground press could provoke international conflict. If underground opposition was too belligerent, too defiant, then the Soviet armed forces would be called in to stamp it out.
With the underground presses trying to espouse the cause of political freedom, there were internal concerns that international funding risked making them puppets, mouthpieces for the interests of the West rather than patriots with a cause and will of their own.
It’s a remarkable story of perseverance, hope, and ingenuity. In even the darkest times the voice of opposition was heard, not least because the system’s sexism meant that state surveillance concentrated on the men in the underground, assuming that the women couldn’t be doing anything of true importance - a fatal mistake.
Gripping and inspiring, English renders a story of complex connections and loyalties with clarity, energy, and obvious respect.