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Paranoid Tabloid Journalists and General Yuskovich of John Gardner's The Man From Barbarossa (1991)?

DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
edited June 2014 in Literary 007 Posts: 18,281
In Paul Simpson (ed.), The Rough Guide to James Bond (2002) (pp. 59-60) there is the following interesting passage in the review section on John Gardner's The Man From Barbarossa (1991):

"[General Yevgeny] Yuskovich is the Russian general from hell, the kind of figure conjured up by paranoid tabloid writers with space to fill and readers to terrify. Gardner uses him here to change tack, playing up political intrigue, in an attempt, presumably, to answer those critics who insisted that his Bond novels were becoming ever more irrelevant. The book seems a re-tread of Gardner's Icebreaker, only this time the villain who unites the intelligence agencies against him is not a Nazi nostalgia freak but a Communist nostalgia freak."

Now, this is a very interesting passage as I happen to be reading The Man From Barbarossa just at this present moment and am started a lengthy new The Bondologist Blog article on it, as well.

I was wondering if any members here on MI6 Community would happen to have any old cutting/memories of paranoid tabloid journalism about renegade Russian generals from the period of say 1989 until 1999? If so I'd be very glad to hear from you either in this thread or by PM.

What were your thoughts on reading The Man From Barbarossa when it first came out in a very changeable world in 1991?

Did you feel that John Gardner had finally delivered a James Bond novel that seemed to be lifted from the newspaper headlines of the day?

Was he inspired by Soviet hard-line generals in the press at the time on which to base his villain General Yevgeny Yuskovich?

"James Bond meets the reality of a secret intelligence officer" seems to be as relevant a topic as ever what with Jeffrey Deaver's Carte Blanche (2011) where his new version of James Bond (born in 1982) is a veteran of the Afghanistan campaign that formed part of the fabled 'War on Terror' and the advent of the release of the James Bond film to top all James Bond films being released to mark the 50th Anniversary of the cinematic James Bond in October 2012 - Skyfall.

I know that this is surely an obscure area of Bondology, but I'm known as the backwoodsman of the literary James Bond on MI6 by now and this stuff really interests me. I hope that I'm not alone in this sentiment, however and I want you mi6 members to engage with this complex subject matter and give your reasoned and considered views.

I'm waiting to hear what you think on this one?....as I feel it's more relevant than ever, now in 2014, some 23 years on from the publication of John Gardner's highly experimental novel The Man From Barbarossa. I am referring here of course to Putin being viewed as the new Hitler or Mussolini by some commentators over his fascistic actions in the Crimea and Ukraine, which was (let us not forget) the first annexation of territory in Europe since 1945.

Comments

  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Any members here want to share their views/memories on this one at all? I'm all ears.
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    edited June 2014 Posts: 5,745
    The only thing I can think of from the '89 to '99 time frame is the Yugoslavia debacle, where perhaps people were worried some Commies would come out of the wood work and try to form new regimes in the slicing and dicing of new nations in that area of the World.

    I could easily see it. The UN splits up some of the war-torn European countries and the Communists move in and take over.

    However it is pure speculation as I was born in '94. :) Would make for a great story, though.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited August 2014 Posts: 18,281
    JWESTBROOK wrote: »
    The only thing I can think of from the '89 to '99 time frame is the Yugoslavia debacle, where perhaps people were worried some Commies would come out of the wood work and try to form new regimes in the slicing and dicing of new nations in that area of the World.

    I could easily see it. The UN splits up some of the war-torn European countries and the Communists move in and take over.

    However it is pure speculation as I was born in '94. :) Would make for a great story, though.

    Thank you very much for that, @JWESTBROOK. That was something I'd never considered before!

    Also, I'd really love to hear from more members who may (or indeed may not!) remember this period of history.
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