The Soviet James Bond: Radio 4 feature on BBC iPlayer

Quote :

In the depths of the Cold War, the Soviets had their own version of James Bond, a superspy whose adventures thrilled readers from Minsk to the Urals. But whereas Bond enjoyed champagne, gambling and beautiful women, the spy codenamed Stierlitz was a Russian patriot of austere tastes (though he does enjoy vodka and singing Russian songs). In novels like "Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat," Stierlitz carved a parallel path to that being followed by the great 007. Spy fan Miles Jupp explores the extraordinary legacy of the Soviet James Bond and his creator Julian Semyonov.

Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat - you couldn't make it up ....


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v59h9

The more famous offspring of this novel (I didn't even know there was a novel until now FWIW) is the TV series Seventeen Moments of Spring: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Moments_of_Spring

It was set in the closing months of WWII with "Shitrlitz" being the alias of the Soviet spy infiltrating the SS. Pretty good series from memory and still perhaps the most iconic show in Russian TV history. If GeneralGogol was still playing on the forum he could've attested to this.

Reminds me of Hans Kloss, a Pole inside the Nazi intelligence, hugely popular in Poland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Kloss_(fictional_character)