#43 Strategic Moves (31st Anniversary Review)

[SkyWarp]

The Soviet Union didn't dissolve until 1991, so the book is accurate at the time it came out.  But only just barely. 

[MysteryFan89]

The Soviet Union didn't dissolve until 1991, so the book is accurate at the time it came out.  But only just barely. 

September, 1990 is when the book came out. 

Strategic Moves is heavily dated by Pyotr and Petra Zigonev and Aleksandr and Katrina Dancek being referred to as citizens of the USSR, and the Dancek's being KGB agents. Also, the Glasnost movement and the further opening of communication between the Soviet Union and Western powers (such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America) that took place in the late-1980's and early-1990's, is a major plot event in the book. Also the Berlin Wall is mentioned as having come down recently, dating Strategic Moves as occurring sometime between the 9 of November 1989 and the 31st of December 1991.

Castle Fear takes place within days of Strategic Moves. Therefore the story takes place sometime between the 9 of November, 1989 and the 31 of December, 1991.

-- The Hardy Boys Wiki

[tomswift2002]

Okay, whoever wrote this book didn't know that Kiev, USSR is now Kiev, Ukraine. I'm pretty sure the wall came down in 1990. Maybe I'm messed up on dates, but no one uses that term anymore. KGB, I think is the FSB now.

The wall fell on November 9, 1989, however the official German reunification did not occur until October 3, 1990, (at which time reunified Berlin became the German capital once again) and then the USSR dissolved on December 31, 1991.

[MysteryFan89]

The wall fell on November 9, 1989, however the official German reunification did not occur until October 3, 1990, (at which time reunified Berlin became the German capital once again) and then the USSR dissolved on December 31, 1991.

So the book had come out at the end of when it being called the USSR?

[tomswift2002]

So the book had come out at the end of when it being called the USSR?

Yes.  So the book was outdated very quickly.  That's why "Strategic Moves" and "Castle Fear" are products of that 2 year period and can only take place then (I don't recall a mention of East Germany specifically, just the wall coming down).  They are like the original 1929 "The Mystery of Cabin Island".

[MysteryFan89]

Yes.  So the book was outdated very quickly.  That's why "Strategic Moves" and "Castle Fear" are products of that 2 year period and can only take place then (I don't recall a mention of East Germany specifically, just the wall coming down).  They are like the original 1929 "The Mystery of Cabin Island".

It's a good books, but hard to follow due to the timeframe, and my total lack of understanding of the USSR.

[MysteryFan89]

Yes.  So the book was outdated very quickly.  That's why "Strategic Moves" and "Castle Fear" are products of that 2 year period and can only take place then (I don't recall a mention of East Germany specifically, just the wall coming down).  They are like the original 1929 "The Mystery of Cabin Island".

Cabin Island, what about it?

[tomswift2002]

Cabin Island, what about it?

Page 101 has the Hardy's finding a notebook with a date of "October, 1917" and then Frank immediately saying that was "eleven years ago" and dating the theft to sometime in 1913, which was 15 years before the setting of the book in December 1928 (the book finishes on the afternoon of December 31, 1928).  Because of this, "The Shore Road Mystery" (1928) is also dated to sometime prior to December 1928.

[MysteryFan89]

I've reading this book, (hench my posts about it) and I think this story would work very today with everything going on.