Recently I've been replaying Goldeneye 007 for the Wii and it has reminded me of the obsession of spies when I was younger. However, as you may know, if you've played Goldeneye it's very anti-communist and anti-Russian. Are there any spy books which are pro-USSR or just plain pro-communist? Thanks in advance.

  • skollontai [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    The Dead Stay Young by Anna Seghers is fascinating. Starts with the failure of the German Revolution, and covers the covert lives of German communists until the late 30s. Is it "good"? The English translation isn't exactly a masterpiece of literature, but the perspective is interesting enough it doesn't matter.

    Seghers was a German communist (and former Jew) herself, who had to leave the country but went back to East Germany after the war, where she won the Stalin Peace Prize in 1951.

  • MirrorMadness [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Hey so Stalin's Secret War is pretty great. It's a nonfiction history of German intelligence/Soviet counter-intelligence during WW2. As you'd expect, the Germans are incredibly arrogant and don't take the Soviets seriously. What you don't expect is how badly the NKVD clowns on German intelligence throughout the war. Though technically it is history, I also don't want to spoil it for you.

    • Earthbadger [she/her,any]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Nothing is more interesting than history ha. I'll definitely give it a shot, thanks for the suggestion.