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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Gripping account of book smuggling operation of western literature such as Orwell’s Animal Farm into Poland during the Cold War. Top read!
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
The CIA Book Club details the secret book programme that distributed millions of books across the Iron Curtain from the 1950s until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Newspapers, pamphlets, and books were transported by truck, yacht, balloon, and in travellers’ luggage, among other methods, to the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Literature, including George Orwell’s 1984, was transported into Soviet-controlled countries to combat censorship and indoctrination by demonstrating the parallels between the Orwellian dystopia and Communism. Miroslaw Chojecki, an underground Polish publisher who endured beatings, force-feeding and exile, and George Minden, the mastermind behind the cause, who believed entertainment, culture, and diversity of thought could aid liberation in Eastern Europe, were just two of the many who sought to galvanise the people of Poland. However, there is also a concern highlighted by underground publishing regarding the West’s patronising tone and the risk that countries in the Eastern Bloc could become puppets of the West rather than independent countries with their own cause. Nevertheless, illicit literature pervaded Poland by the late 1980s and Soviet censorship collapsed.
This book offers a new and interesting addition to Cold War historiography, emphasising the powers words hold as a means of liberation and resistance.
Newspapers, pamphlets, and books were transported by truck, yacht, balloon, and in travellers’ luggage, among other methods, to the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Literature, including George Orwell’s 1984, was transported into Soviet-controlled countries to combat censorship and indoctrination by demonstrating the parallels between the Orwellian dystopia and Communism. Miroslaw Chojecki, an underground Polish publisher who endured beatings, force-feeding and exile, and George Minden, the mastermind behind the cause, who believed entertainment, culture, and diversity of thought could aid liberation in Eastern Europe, were just two of the many who sought to galvanise the people of Poland. However, there is also a concern highlighted by underground publishing regarding the West’s patronising tone and the risk that countries in the Eastern Bloc could become puppets of the West rather than independent countries with their own cause. Nevertheless, illicit literature pervaded Poland by the late 1980s and Soviet censorship collapsed.
This book offers a new and interesting addition to Cold War historiography, emphasising the powers words hold as a means of liberation and resistance.
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
informative
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.