Presentation: Cold War Bond

Our group presentation is on the links between the Cold War Era and James Bond. Temporally and aesthetically the two match. At the core of the James Bond story is a fight between good and evil, where the good and the evil are painted both by the perceptions of the author and the perceptions of the reading public. If not for the views of the public at the time, James Bond could not have existed with such success. Our presentation about all we could fit in to a thirty-minute presentation about these topics and others that derive from these basic theses.
What I have done in the group is attempt to paint a picture of what the Soviets (Russians) are and what the perception of them was. Much of what we are taught in schools or in the movies is either exaggerated or completely untrue. Much like what happened to the Germans after Hitler and the Nazis, the Russian people were held to believe in all the doctrines and dogmas of their leaders. This just is not true. Fear held them under the control of the leading ranks, and dissension against the upper echelon meant interrogation for you, sometimes for those around you, time in the camps (Gulag), and possibly death. “Suddenly she remembered. What about the spoon she had stolen? Was it that? Government property!” (Pg. 71) Here Tatiana is trying to figure out why she has been summoned to the apartment of the head of the Department of Interrogation and Execution, or referred to by her as the Department of Torture and Death.
The Soviets instituted a program of propaganda to help prop up the legitimacy of their leaders beliefs. I have brought in some examples of this, mostly from World War II, or the Great Patriotic War, as the Soviets and now Russians refer to it. As a people, the Soviets are constantly portrayed as the enemy, and I think this is key to the James Bond/ Cold War connection. The stories play up the fact that the Russians are evil. “The are hard people. With them, what you don’t get from strength, you won’t get from mercy. They are all the same, the Russians.” (Pg. 176) Not only are the Russians demonized, but they are all lumped together, removing individuals from the equation.
The Russians were made to play a part in the Cold War Era. Not to say that all of the information is dishonest and untrue, but more designed to illicit a certain reaction. The Terrors and the Five Year Plans and the Gulag are all true, but they were actions taken against the people of the Soviet states, not designed by them. The leaders terrorized them.
Work Cited
Fleming, Ian. From Russia with Love. New York: Penguin Books, 2003.