| | '''''The Deputy''''' was a 1963 play supposedly written by [[Rolf Hochhuth]], a playwright who lacked a high school diploma. The basic idea of the play was that Pope Pius XII was an anti-semitic, Nazi collaborator. | | '''''The Deputy''''' was a 1963 play supposedly written by [[Rolf Hochhuth]], a playwright who lacked a high school diploma. The basic idea of the play was that Pope Pius XII was an anti-semitic, Nazi collaborator. |
| − | Recent investigations<ref>Ion Mihai Pacepa, "Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican", [[National Review]] Online, 25 January 2007, accessed at http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUzYmJhMGQ5Y2UxOWUzNDUyNWUwODJiOTEzYjY4NzI=</ref> have described the KGB's efforts to discredit the Church's authority in Western Europe after [[World War II]], which focussed on Pius XII, and it now appears that ''The Deputy'' emerged from the cloud of influence of the [[Soviet]] intelligence apparatus. In 1963, [[General]] [[Ivan Agayants]], the famous chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, told his allied [[Romanian]] intelligence agents in [[Bucharest]] that a project known as "Seat-12" had materialized into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII. | + | Recent investigations<ref>Ion Mihai Pacepa, "Moscow’s Assault on the Vatican", [[National Review]] Online, 25 January 2007.</ref> have described the KGB's efforts to discredit the Church's authority in Western Europe after [[World War II]], which focussed on Pius XII, and it now appears that ''The Deputy'' emerged from the cloud of influence of the [[Soviet]] intelligence apparatus. In 1963, [[General]] [[Ivan Agayants]], the famous chief of the KGB’s disinformation department, told his allied [[Romanian]] intelligence agents in [[Bucharest]] that a project known as "Seat-12" had materialized into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII. |
| | Agayants took credit for the outline of the play, and claimed that it had voluminous appendices of background documents put together by his experts with help from documents purloined from the Vatican. Agayants also claimed that ''The Deputy’s'' producer, [[Erwin Piscator]], was "a devoted [[Communist]] who had a longstanding relationship with [[Moscow]]. In [[1929]] he had founded the Proletarian Theater in [[Berlin, Germany|Berlin]], then sought political asylum in the Soviet Union when Hitler came to power, and a few years later had "emigrated" to the [[United States]]. | | Agayants took credit for the outline of the play, and claimed that it had voluminous appendices of background documents put together by his experts with help from documents purloined from the Vatican. Agayants also claimed that ''The Deputy’s'' producer, [[Erwin Piscator]], was "a devoted [[Communist]] who had a longstanding relationship with [[Moscow]]. In [[1929]] he had founded the Proletarian Theater in [[Berlin, Germany|Berlin]], then sought political asylum in the Soviet Union when Hitler came to power, and a few years later had "emigrated" to the [[United States]]. |