Protect and Survive: Britain's Cold War Revealed

Opening on 4 April 2019, exactly 70 years since the foundations of NATO were formed, The National Archives’ new exhibition ‘Protect and Survive: Britain’s Cold War Revealed’ will offer a fascinating insight into life in Britain during the turbulent Cold War era.

The immersive exhibition will recreate a government bunker and a 1980s living room, showing the impact of the Cold War on the government and on ordinary people’s lives. Visitors will see a range of archival material including George Orwell’s infamous list of suspected communist sympathisers, memos written by Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill and a plan of Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb’s fateful spy mission.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of high-profile events exploring the Cold War from a multitude of perspectives. Speakers will include Dame Stella Rimington, former Director General of MI5, who will discuss her extraordinary career in government and subsequent success as a writer.