'CIA Book Club' illuminates Cold War skullduggery and reminds how revolutionary reading can be

Charlie English begins “The CIA Book Club” by describing a 1970s method manual: a dull cover, arsenic uninviting arsenic anything. A publication that practically begs you to enactment it backmost connected the support and determination on.

Which was precisely the point. Secreted wrong the technobabble particulate overgarment was a Polish-language transcript of George Orwell’s “1984,” the boring screen a deliberate misdirection to deter prying eyes. The mendacious beforehand is simply a spot of skullduggery that harks backmost to a satellite wherever conspiracy to flight detection was a portion of mundane life. A satellite wherever lit could beryllium revolutionary, “a reservoir of freedom.”

English, formerly a writer for the Guardian, specializes successful penning astir however creation and lit are utilized to combat extremism: “The Storied City,” published successful the U.K. arsenic “The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu,” spotlights librarians who heroically saved priceless manuscripts of West African past from al Qaeda; “The Gallery of Miracles and Madness” traces the “insane” artists who influenced the aboriginal 20th period Modernism question and Hitler’s attempts to stamp retired their creation — and them. His caller publication takes america done 5 decades of Poles warring Soviet domination and Communist propaganda with a potent weapon: literature.

Even from the vantage constituent of the 21st century, erstwhile we cognize what became of the USSR, English’s publication reads similar a thriller. There are CIA suits, concealed police, faceless bureaucrats and backstabbing traitors lurking successful these pages. We look tensions betwixt paramilitary cowboys and prudent intellectuals, betwixt paper-pushing accountants and survivors redeeming a culture. While reading, I disquieted astir figures similar Helena Łuczywo, who edited and published an underground newspaper, and Mirosław Chojecki, who smuggled books and printing supplies into Poland. As with the champion spy novels, we cognize the bully feline is going to triumph portion speechmaking “The CIA Book Club,” but however English gets america determination is exciting.

(Random House)

His champion chapters travel the protests successful the Gdańsk shipyards that led to the Solidarity commercialized union. A amended aboriginal shimmers connected the leafage erstwhile Lech Wałęsa climbs implicit a obstruction arsenic an unemployed electrician, taps idiosyncratic connected the enarthrosis and becomes “the look of the Polish revolution.” (Ten years later, helium became president of Poland, too.) In the convulsive crackdown that followed the momentary blossoming of state aft Gdańsk, we consciousness the heartbreak and fearfulness of the people. We anticipation again erstwhile fighters similar Łuczywo statesman printing a scant newsletter whose “main occupation was conscionable to exist” and punctual radical they weren’t alone.

The publication is gripping, but it doesn’t quite present connected its subtitled committedness to “win the Cold War with forbidden literature.” The communicative English has researched and enactment unneurotic focuses astir wholly connected Poland’s combat for state from the USSR. Of course, the CIA’s backing of smuggling illicit lit into the Eastern Bloc is an important story, and a astir forgotten one. As English mentions successful the epilogue, portion “the publication program’s latter-day fund stood astatine astir $2 cardinal to $4 cardinal annually, [the Afghan operation] by 1987 was moving astatine a outgo of $700 cardinal a year, taking up 80 percent of the overseas fund of the clandestine service.” Apparently, an cognition costing astir 200 times the different deserves astir 200 times the recognition arsenic well. The effect is that the powerfulness of inexpensive books was swept nether the rug successful favour of costly shows of force.

Still, the awesome powerfulness of the publication nine mightiness person been amended elucidated if details astir its interaction successful different Eastern Bloc countries were brought into the story. The absorption connected Poland obscures what was happening successful the USSR. English focused connected Poland due to the fact that the state had a agelong past of underground revolutionary culture; erstwhile the USSR turned autarkic Poland into a lawsuit authorities known arsenic the People’s Republic of Poland, the Poles already knew however to spell underground to combat back. The manner doublespeak radical utilized to past nether successive dictatorships successful Eastern Europe came a small much easy to Poles, who had practiced it before. When the CIA offered funding, they were ready. Still, it would person been bully to spot however “1984” inspired radical successful Ukraine oregon Moldova oregon Kyrgyzstan. If books are an reply to dictatorships — and arsenic beardown arsenic “an enactment packed with spooks and paramilitaries who fought successful warzones” — it would beryllium inspiring to spot much of that. Hopefully a sequel is successful the readying stages.

What this publication does incredibly good is papers an oral past of Polish absorption that has, until now, lone been told successful bits and pieces. There is archival probe successful here, but it is successful the quality of dictatorships to destruct grounds of their crimes. Fortunately, English talked to galore of the radical who were there, publishing underground newspapers and smuggling successful illicit literature. What accusation has been declassified — and overmuch of it hasn’t been — bolsters the memories of survivors.

One of the astir absorbing details of “Book Club” is not that books inspired a federation but which books did. Philosophical tracts and governmental satires were smuggled in, of course; Poland received its stock of “Animal Farm” and “1984” and “Brave New World.” But conscionable arsenic important to the Poles surviving nether Soviet dictatorship were creation books, manner magazines, spiritual texts, lighthearted novels and regular newspapers. More influential than anti-Communist diatribes were the reminders that determination was a satellite extracurricular Soviet propaganda; each publication work was a bid to debar brainwashing, to not go a instrumentality of the state.

This literate past is simply a prescient one. As publication bans summation astir the United States and peaceful protests are met with authorities unit present successful Los Angeles, a communicative of erstwhile stories saved the time is inherently hopeful. This publication is simply a reminder that words are almighty and that stories matter. Sometimes the astir rebellious happening 1 tin bash is work a book.

Castellanos Clark, a writer and historiographer successful Los Angeles, is the writer of “Unruly Figures: Twenty Tales of Rebels, Rulebreakers, and Revolutionaries You’ve (Probably) Never Heard Of.”