Literary Review

Like many who work in secret intelligence services, Vladimir Putin was heavily influenced by spy fiction. His imagination was coloured by novels and films, and he spoke of his amazement that ‘one man’s efforts could achieve what whole armies could not. One spy could decide the fate of thousands of people.’ Putin was especially entranced by the immensely popular television series Seventeen Moments of Spring, first shown in 1973 and often repeated. It was about a Russian spy who burrowed his way into the senior ranks of the Nazi Party and unearthed a secret wartime agreement between Germany and America