The Fall of the Iron Curtain in One Photo
A symbolic depiction of the end of the Cold War.
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How Did a Sneaky Villain Become a Noble Hero?
Every spy fiction lover knows about James Bond, George Smiley, Harry Palmer and other favorite heroes of the worldwide popular genre. Writers like Ian Fleming, John Le Carre and Len Deighton made these characters the favorites of readers. But, a long time ago, much before the Cold War, the spies were usually seen as sneaky villains. However, things change in the 19th and especially the early 20th century when the spy was not seen as being creepy and evil anymore, but as noble man who saves the world or believes in a certain cause. The following books prove that theory very easily.
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Did the Soviets Avoid the Early Collapse of the Iron Curtain?
In the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet influence in Romania was very strong. The USSR controlled the country’s economy and political life. That was completely expected since the new government after the end of the Cold war was pro-Soviet. The first serious efforts to bring back sovereignty appeared in the 1960s. The communist government of Romania wanted to become economically independent and release the country from the covert and overt Soviet actions that made this country a satellite state under the strong control of the USSR. Therefore, regarding international relations, these two countries weren’t in equal position. The USSR had the power over Romania. And Romania wanted to make its own decisions. So, Soviet informal controls needed to be stopped.
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Two German Resistance Groups That Made Hitler Afraid
During WWII, resistance was something that posed a serious threat to the Nazi regime. Members of the resistance groups were of different socioeconomic backgrounds, but also had different political affiliations. They were from the extreme left to extreme right of the political spectrum. They also spanned a wide spectrum of age – from youth to elderly. Their fighting activities posed a serious threat to the Nazis, but only two groups strengthened their position. In other words, they developed a strategy that helped them to become a truly serious opponent to the regime. The first was the Beck- Goerdeler Group, named after Carl Goerdeler and Ludwig Beck. The second group was Kreisau Circle with Helmuth James von Moltke. This group was named after von Moltke’s estate in Silesia.
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