Seventeen Moments of Spring, a Soviet James Bond Series? Official Discourse, Folklore, and Cold War Culture in Late Socialism

The Soviet television mini-series Seventeen Moments of Spring is one of the most important products of popular culture in the USSR. In the Cold War context, viewers considered the series’ main character Stirliz as an alternative to the western hero James ”ond. “lthough the mini-series was produced in the 1970s, it communicates values that are close to Stalin-era paterns. While ordinary Soviet citizens criticized the numerous weaknesses about Stirliz, they never questioned the underlying communist ideology in the numerous anecdotes.