One of Monday night's events for the Cultural Exchanges Festival was on Cold War spy stories from Eastern Europe. This was a discussion by a panel of scholars who, in different ways, witnessed life behind the Iron Curtain. This also served as a preview of their upcoming book on the subject, which I'm definitely going to buy.
The first part of the discussion revolved around the panellists' personal experiences during the tail end of the Cold War. This included talk about the requirement to be positive when speaking to one's parents over the phone, or the fact that members of underground art movements who were blasé about being interrogated later turned out to be informants.
The panel also discussed the "File Stories" which they have used in their book. They were able to acquire all manner of STASI files on individuals which had been declassified and these reveal a myriad of information the secret police collected on them. It's quite unnerving, especially in this modern digital age.
All in all, it was a thoroughly intriguing experience.
Andrew Roberts
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