# From Russia With Love question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 22, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981 "2025-06-22T16:03:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/1 "2025-06-22T16:03:12Z")
The plot of **From Russia With Love** gets set in motion when Soviet corporal Tatiana _thinks_ she’s being tasked with an important assignment by a Soviet colonel: she’s told the whole thing is classified far above the level of the security guy at the consulate; say anything about this to anyone, you’ll be shot. What already got spelled out for us, at that point, is what later gets spelled out for James Bond: that, while Tatiana _thinks_ this is an official mission, the “colonel” defected a while back and no longer works for the Soviets; this was just, uh, someone in the employ of a crime syndicate, relaying instructions from someone else in said crime syndicate, while passing it off to Tatania as something else. So: does anyone ever actually clue _Tatiana_ in? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/2 "2025-06-22T16:46:44Z")
On the one hand, I think after the fight in the hotel room, Bond could tell her, “Oh by the way, Klebb wasn’t a Soviet agent for some time..” On the other, Bond (and probably all of MI6, and Rosa for that matter) thinks Tatiana is just a stupid child. And they are also correct. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/3 "2025-06-22T18:36:42Z")
Seems to me she doesn’t care that much and switches sides when she realizes she’s never had it so good in her life. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/4 "2025-06-22T19:48:15Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > she realizes she’s never had it so good in her life. And then next week when Bond stops returning her calls, and she has to get a job…? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/5 "2025-06-22T20:51:31Z")
Hey, that’s Bond for you. A real Charlie Harper. I’m sure the British government will treat her as well as any other defector and give her a sinecure. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/6 "2025-06-22T21:59:34Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So: does anyone ever actually clue _Tatiana_ in? Well, having just got the new 4K UHD 007 Connery Collection, I popped in the DVD to check: _Nope_. In the final hotel room scene when she shoots Rosa Klepp I suppose she might have thought something strange was going on, but all Bond says about the matter was “Yes, she had her kicks.” And at the end when they’re on the boat in Venice, he repeats the earlier line “We won’t always be working on the company’s time, will we?” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/7 "2025-06-22T22:43:53Z")
From memory, when Tatiana shot Klebb, she didn’t shoot her because she was SPECTRE, but because she was trying to kill her true love, Bond. Tatiana probably doesn’t even know what SPECTRE is. I wonder how much she actually understands. Bond should have left her on the train. She was just dead weight. Better down the road without that load. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/8 "2025-06-22T23:38:18Z")
I seem to recall a scene just before the dinner in the dining car, in which Bond treats her very badly and she remains depressed until she passes out from the drug administered by Grant. What was their tiff about? Does he accuse her of being a fraud and threaten to expose her? ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/9 "2025-06-23T00:11:17Z")
After discovering Kerim has been murdered, Bond demands the truth from Tatiana. She denies knowing about the killing. He slaps her and calls her a liar. She says she will tell him when they get to England. He say she may not know everything, but “tell me what you know”. She can only reply that she loves him. So there was understandably a little(?) friction between them in the dining car. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/10 "2025-06-23T12:41:54Z")
The needlessly convoluted plot of the film comes from the fact that they wanted to work **S.P.E.C.T.R.E.** into it as the Real Bad Guys. In Fleming’s novel, there’s no SPECTRE and no such deception. It’s the Smert Spionem “SMERSH” agency that wants to “get” Bond, and he’s simply trying to steal the SPEKTOR (not “LECTOR”) decoder. Rosa Klebb is a Russian intelligence officer, not a double agent. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/11 "2025-06-23T12:54:18Z")
**Nitpick:** It’s “Smert’ **sh** pion **am** ” (Смерть шпионам, "“Death to spies” ), --am being the dative plural. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/12 "2025-06-23T14:31:02Z")
Double nitpick: And Fleming apparently did his own thing, spelling it "[Smiert Spionam"](https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/flemingi-fromrussiawithlove/flemingi-fromrussiawithlove-00-h.html). 😇 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/13 "2025-06-23T15:03:14Z")
I guess he didn’t know Russian. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/14 "2025-06-23T16:04:31Z")
It’s my favourite Bond film, and one of the best novels too (although as Cal pointed out, SPECTRE aren’t in it), but I’ve never thought about that really. Does Bond just hand Tania over to the Hard Man, or the Soft Man (I think that’s what they were called in _The Man With The Golden Gun_??), or does he take pity and let her go? Doubt it would’ve been safe for her back in Mother Russia, as Grant would put it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/15 "2025-06-23T17:47:10Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > I’ve never thought about that really. Does Bond just hand Tania over to the Hard Man, or the Soft Man (I think that’s what they were called in _The Man With The Golden Gun_??), or does he take pity and let her go? See, what gets me is: put aside what’s _going_ to happen; what’s _already_ happened? Imagine, for the sake of argument, that she starts the movie as a loyal Soviet corporal who gets told to pretend she’s fallen in love with some British guy — and pretend to be willing to help him steal stuff while pretending to want to defect — and she replies _oh, hell, yeah! Of COURSE I’d do that for the Soviet Union! What, you’re asking me to sleep with a handsome guy for the Soviet Union? Shit, man, that’s NOTHING; I’d gladly DIE for the Soviet Union! WOO!_ (_U-S-S-R! U-S-S-R!_) And, from there, well, maybe she genuinely falls in love with Bond _but maybe she doesn’t._ Maybe, per her instructions, she just acts like she’s in love with him. So if Bond explains that Tania was never actually on an official mission for the USSR — because Klebb is a filthy traitor to the cause — then gunning Klebb down is what Tania would do whether she’s still a loyal Soviet who’d love to go back home or whether she’s turned her back on all of that and decided to live happily ever after with Bond. Oh, sure, if she _doesn’t_ know, then shooting Klebb is her mistakenly _thinking_ that she’s choosing Bond over the USSR; but, if she _does_ know, then, well, she’s just killing some criminal who betrayed the Soviet Union, and _so what?_ ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/16 "2025-06-23T17:55:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Bond should have left her on the train. She was just dead weight. Better down the road without that load. Never unload a sexy, cute woman who will kill for you. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-russia-with-love-question/1019981/17 "2025-06-23T18:17:03Z")
Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way.