Let's celebrate the end of our #ColdWitch research journey with a very special Bookburners crossover edition of Cold Witch History Lessons. Let's take a look into the Codex Gigas, also known as the Czechoslovakian Devil's Bible.
Strap on your helmets and let's spend this Sunday traveling through time into the world of "The Witch Who Came in from the Cold."
This cursed astronomical clock will tell you almost anything, except for the time of day.
In the 1960s, Nikita Khrushchev commissioned the construction of a giant underground bunker near the Czech town of Misov, located southwest of Prague and less than 40 miles from the German border. Some say that the site was such a guarded secret that it is not even known whether nuclear warheads were actually ever placed there, though many have surmised that the bunker was fully operational during the Cold War. So, what's left of the nuclear bunker? Take a look at these great photos!
As any real agent knows, inconspicuous accessories are some of the most important gear a spy can carry. Now, who can truly say they've never dreamed of owning a gun disguised as lipstick? James and Jane Bonds of the world, eat your heart out.
Spend a few years in this Anytown, USA-themed training school and you too could one day infiltrate the smallest American towns!
During the post-Stalin period, cultural institutions were given a new life and, fueled by increased cultural import, artistic experimentation grew dramatically throughout the country. This growth was particularly apparent in Czech film poster design, lasting even past the Prague Spring and up to the fall of the USSR. Take a look at some works by our favorite graphic designers of the era.
"There is more power in blue jeans and rock and roll than the entire Red Army” --Régis Debray
Want to learn the art of Cold War espionage? Need to guard some Very Important Secrets? Wow, do we have a video for you!
Microdot encryption, a spy favorite, refers the reduction of a text or an image to the size of a small disc, often the size and shape of a typographical dot, such as a period or the tittle of a lower-case j or i. This encryption technique was primarily used to prevent detection by unintended recipients, particularly when conveying sensitive or classified materials.
Of the many devices these spies used, some are certainly more *creative* than others. Take a look at some of the stranger spy gear we've come across in our #ColdWitch research journey
Who was Horace Pile? For a humble Australian electronics components salesman, he made a surprising number of visits to the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) at Salisbury. Could he have been one of the leading Soviet intelligence operatives in Australia?