Communism

Communism is a major theme in the novel “Agent 6” by Tom Rob Smith. Communism is a political and economic system in which propaganda claims the individual is meant to be free and equal, but in reality, is subordinate to the State and the elites of the country. Communism comprises absolute State control of the lives of citizens in every aspect, relying on brute force, barbaric secret police, and military power to dominate and achieve its ends. Though Communism, by the time of much of the novel’s setting in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s does not resemble the terror-like Communism of Stalin’s days in power prior to 1953, it is still very dangerous and still very feared, and has terrifying consequences for those it sets its sights on.

In the novel, the Soviet state security and secret police force, the MGB-turned-KGB, conducts operations of sheer...