Friday, March 12, 2010

In the '80s, did Americans call them Soviet spies or Russian spies?

Please cite sources if you can. Thanks.
In the '80s, did Americans call them Soviet spies or Russian spies?
Both.
In the '80s, did Americans call them Soviet spies or Russian spies?
Both, I think.
Reply:We called them both interchangeable , but mostly Russian


Seems like on TV and books it was Soviet, but in common conversation it was Russian





BTW- Loved those James Bond Books :)
Reply:Soviets, Russians, Comrades, Commies, Red Caps, Knob Goblins, Vodka Slingers, Fur Heads, etc.





Read a book.
Reply:The terms were used interchangeably. Those terms were used from (at least 1946) 'til the fall of the Soviet Union, with "Soviet" being the more common adjective. After the fall of the USSR, "Russian" was/is used.
Reply:Commie spy!
Reply:The terms were used interchangeably, because at that time Russia and the Soviet Republics were the same thing.
Reply:Since Russia was formerly known a the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formal accusations or evidence of spying tended to be referred as Soviet espionage while informally in America it was referenced as Russian.
Reply:Good point. Almost everyone said "Russian spy," but newspapers and books tended to say "Soviet spy," presumably because it was more correct; Russia being only one of the nations making up the old Soviet Union. Nobody else cared much; the communists and the Russians were the same thing to us.





The Russian spy was often a comic character in literature and plays; possibly the best of these were Boris Badenoff and Natasha Fatale, cartoon characters on the TV show "Rocky and his Friends." In literature, fictional Russian spies were as often female as male.
Reply:Hmmm. I mostly remember references to KGB. That was far more specific and dated from the 50s to the 90s when (supposedly) the last KGB agencies were disbanded. We know now that most of the hardline KGB agents became part of the Russian Mafia.
Reply:Soviets.
Reply:For the common layman it was more likely "Russian" spy, because of limited knowledged and grasp of what the U.S.S.R. was beyond the fact that "they were our enemies, we have to beat them." Among the more educated, sophisticated circles, and in the government, such people were most likely referred to as "Soviet" spies, for such a label embodies the meaning of the United Soviet Socialist Republics more fully, carried more negative connotations, and even sounded creepier and as mystical as communism sounds today. Before the 80s people lived in fear of being pointed out as a spy, no matter if as a "Russian" or a "Soviet," and saw the probability of one living among them. During the 80s the U.S. had long gained the upper hand against the USSR (by winning the Space Race, and getting ahead in nuclear development) and this dominance climaxed in 1889 with the fall of the Berlin Wall; the population was more at peace with itself and saw Soviet/Russian spies as outsiders and less likely to be integrated as before the 1980s.Considering this, one can strongly argue that the 80s was a period in which spies and thus their labels or way of referring to them as, was not as well defined or delineated, this in part due to less tension from the population to use or appreciate each term as negatively.
Reply:russkies

flowers anniversary

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