Ben MacIntyre’s piece in The Times, February 29 2020, Putin’s spies are pulp fiction characters. Here is my comment.
In 1968, at about the same time as the Soviet series, similar story was filmed and released as series on Polish Communist tv. It is about an agent of Polish Communist underground infiltrating the war-time Abwehr, German military intelligence in occupied Poland.
One should remember that this was the time, when children of the first generation of post-war Communists were growing up and this series provided them with a role model.
At about that time, or just a couple of years later, there was a weekly slot introducing to intelligence activities in the Sunday morning children tv show. It was called Invisible Hand, Niewidzialna Ręka.
Communist military intelligence continues to be of key importance in Poland. One of them is a high-profile internationally active politician, a graduate of Oxford. See my tweets of Feb 12 and Dec 19 2019.
@LechSBorkowski