Russia's spooky mania for its hero spies

[emad]

The Independent
Former spymaster Putin throws the Kremlin behind a wave of Bond-style books and films glorifying the bloody past of the KGB, now the FSB. And ordinary Russians lap it up. Andrew Osborn reports
28 February 2005


The democracy-hungry crowds who cheered as the statue of Soviet Communism's most reviled secret policeman was toppled in 1991 could not have imagined it in their most lurid dreams. But they are gradually being forced to accept an unsettling new reality in President Vladimir Putin's Russia: KGB chic is back and it is prikulno (cool) to be a secret agent.

Of an evening, diners in central Moscow's Shield and Sword restaurant (the emblem of the KGB) can be observed sipping Joseph Stalin's favourite red wine in the shadow of a replica of the very statue that was toppled. Felix Dzerzhinsky or Iron Felix, the bloodthirsty Pole who founded the forerunner to the KGB and unleashed the Red Terror against Vladimir Lenin's opponents, stares vigilantly into the middle distance as customers munch on wild game.

From blockbuster films where Russia's answer to James Bond saves the world, to television series glorifying the deeds of Soviet and Russian spooks, the world's most feared intelligence service is back in vogue, carefully nurtured by Mr Putin, a former KGB spymaster. As Russia's democratic credentials come under scrutiny from the rest of the world, the country is in the grip of spy mania, and the FSB, the Federal Security Service, the successor organisation to the KGB, is basking in its afterglow.

Fourteen years ago, such a phenomenon would have been unthinkable. Vladimir Kryuchkov, who then headed the KGB, was among those who tried and failed to execute a military coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. His undemocratic actions discredited the organisation and it was quickly disbanded, renamed and reorganised. But for the new FSB, with one of its own in the Kremlin and much of the government made up of former spies, times have changed. "Chekhists," "KGBshniki" or "FSBshniki" (all slang Russian terms for spies) are "in" again.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=615422

[bryant69]

1. It's hard to know how to inerpret this

I love James Bond flicks for one thing--so I can kind of see why Russian's would find these sorts of films interesting. I'm also not sure that the KGB of the Soviet era and todays KGB are equivalents.

Bryant
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