A Socialist 007: East European Spy Dramas in the Early James Bond Era

Until 1989, the Eon James Bond film series was officially unavailable to Eastern European cinema audiences. The only exception was former Yugoslavia, which saw the release of Diamonds Are Forever (UK: Guy Hamilton, 1973) in 1973. Yet, Central and Eastern Europe did not escape the global phenomenon of the Bond films. By the mid-1980s, Polish, Hungarian and Yugoslav VHS markets, both underground and legal, boasted bootlegged Bond videos in circulation. Some East German viewers could watch West German TV channels which occasionally broadcast the adventures of 007; others, particularly educated urbanites with exposure to Western popular culture, were no strangers