During Cold War, CIA used ‘Doctor Zhivago’ as a tool to undermine Soviet Union

Washington Post ^ | April 5, 2014 | Peter Finn and Petra Couvée

[C19fan]

A secret package arrived at CIA headquarters in January 1958. Inside were two rolls of film from British intelligence — pictures of the pages of a Russian-language novel titled “Doctor Zhivago.”

The book, by poet Boris Pasternak, had been banned from publication in the Soviet Union. The British were suggesting that the CIA get copies of the novel behind the Iron Curtain. The idea immediately gained traction in Washington.

[C19fan]

This was a quote from the piece:

“Pasternak’s humanistic message — that every person is entitled to a private life and deserves respect as a human being, irrespective of the extent of his political loyalty or contribution to the state — poses a fundamental challenge to the Soviet ethic of sacrifice of the individual to the Communist system,” he wrote.

Looking at the events here over the past several weeks it seems the Pasternak's are losing and the Strelnikov's are winning.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“Looking at the events here over the past several weeks it seems the Pasternak’s are losing and the Strelnikov’s are winning.”

In the grand scheme of things, there’s no way the communist/socialist model will last. It’s morally and philosophically wrong, and contrary to the direction of human history and spiritual evolution.

IMHO the only way we will effectively address all of the issues humanity is facing is by growing as moral, charitable, spiritual beings. That has to happen by free will, and one individual at a time. It also requires that we pass on to our children what we learn.

The approach of the ‘self-convinced’, such as many ‘progressives’ in the current administration, is to use any means available to subvert choice and free will and force what they think are ‘solutions’. It’s an ‘ends justifies the means’ approach steeped in ignorance - ironically pushed on the rest of us by those who think they are the only ones who aren’t ignorant.

So, for now, you’re probably right that the Strelnikovs appear to be winning. But, this too shall pass.

[Mach9]

Too bad they didn’t use “Witness.”

[Squidpup]

Could have used the movie version to bore them to death...

[KarlInOhio]

Constant balalaika music was one of the interrogation techniques at Gitmo until the CIA interrogators started to confess too. :-)

[Migraine]

Could have used the movie version to bore them to death...

To each his own, I guess; but I find in the 1965 movie a quote to address every ideological situation that ever occurs in the byplay between mindless alinskyism and fondness for the liberties expressed in the Bible and the Constitution.

I find the movie to be the best ever made.

It is kind of cerbral, though, and artistic. So it does lose its appeal to many on those counts.

[dfwgator]

“The private life is dead in America, the NSA has killed it,”

[dfwgator]

I find the movie to be the best ever made.

Agreed.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks C19fan.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree. It won some Oscars, which would never happen now because it doesn’t criticize liberty.

[Mark17]

I thought Julie Christie was gorgeous when she was young.

[Sherman Logan]

IOW, the commies were right when they claimed it was a capitalist plot.

Good.

[GOPJ]

The newly disclosed documents, however, indicate that the operation to publish the book was run by the CIA’s Soviet Russia Division, monitored by CIA Director Allen Dulles and sanctioned by President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Operations Coordinating Board, which reported to the National Security Council at the White House. The OCB, which oversaw covert activities, gave the CIA exclusive control over the novel’s “exploitation.”

This was back in the day when the Central Intelligence Agency was long on 'intelligence'...

I'm also surprised Obama hasn't banned the book in the United States... it supports ideas liberal elites would find revolutionary... and anti-government. Then again so many democrats are functionally illiterate - - couldn't read a book like this if they wanted to... guess they have nothing to worry about.