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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ella Creamer

The CIA smuggled the Guardian into the eastern bloc during the cold war

The Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications and Public Performances in Warsaw.
The Main Office for the Control of the Press, Publications and Public Performances in Warsaw. Photograph: Zbyszko Siemaszko/National Digital Archive

The CIA smuggled the Guardian Weekly to eastern bloc countries during the cold war, a new book reveals. Copies of this newspaper were sent as part of a broader secret programme that got literature by authors including George Orwell and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn behind the Iron Curtain.

In the early 70s, Guardian Weekly was sent to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, said Charlie English, former head of international news at the Guardian and author of The CIA Book Club.

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