In March 1984, Polish customs officers discovered a truck filled with illicit materials destined for the opposition movement Solidarity, which had been banned by the communist regime. The shipment included forbidden literature and printing presses, funded by the CIA as part of a broader effort to undermine communist regimes in Eastern Europe. This operation, which employed various ingenious methods for smuggling, played a crucial role in providing dissenters with the intellectual tools needed to challenge oppressive systems, compellingly illustrating the intersection of literature and political resistance during the Cold War.
The shipment was to be delivered to the Polish opposition movement Solidarity. The country's communist leader, Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski, had banned Solidarity three years earlier.
As Charlie English argues, in his entertaining and vivid new work, The CIA Book Club, this programme was a success. It played a part in defeating Polish communism.
For Poland's dissidents the printing presses sent by the west were the equivalent of guns or tanks. As one put it, literature nourished the soul and gave Poles a sense of a bigger human context.
During the same cold war period the CIA was splurging $700m on supporting Mujahideen fighters in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. For Poland's dissidents, the printing presses sent by the west were the equivalent of guns or tanks.
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