
Explosive Novels of the Cold War - lermontov
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/novel-explosives-of-the-cold-war/
======
merlincorey
As mentioned in another top-level comment, the explosives were actually novels
-- a bit of a play on words there, clearly.

One interesting thing to me, was to read that millions of copies of Orwell's
Animal Farm were distributed from West Germany via 10-foot (diameter?)
balloons, which were subsequently targets of communist airforces.

------
gumby
This is a great essay for the Spectator,* but what I’d really enjoy reading is
some James Bond style spy novels from the eastern side of the iron curtain
translated into something I can ready.

Soviet SF has been translated but can anyone recommend novels of derring-do
against the capitalists?

* I was a long time subscriber to the speccie for the quality of its writing, though most of it seemed like an (unwitting!) absurdist sendup of establishment toryism. It was especially enjoyable when Johnson was editor.

~~~
avmich
Try Yulian Semyonov's works. "Seventeen moments of spring" is about WWII spy,
but he has many novels generally of the other side of the story.

~~~
gumby
Thanks!

------
logfromblammo
Please note that, misleadingly, this article is about literature, not
chemistry.

~~~
h2odragon
Literature:
[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201111h.html](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0201111h.html)

Chemistry: [https://archive.org/details/milmanual-
tm-31-210-improvised-m...](https://archive.org/details/milmanual-
tm-31-210-improvised-munitions-handbook)

always a joy to link both of those

~~~
daveslash
Your first link, _" Homage to Catalonia"_ by Orwell -- a fantastic book. I
recommend it to _anyone_.

