From Russia with Love, published in 1957, is the fifth James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming and is considered to be one of the best in the series – the film version is also highly regarded by fans and critics alike. Its biggest boost came four years after From Russia with Love was published from an article in Life magazine on March 17, 1961 in which US President John F Kennedy included it in a list of his favourite books; the James Bond novel was the only work of fiction in the list of ten.

The title of the book sometimes is printed with a comma, as From Russia, with Love, depending upon the publisher. It is more commonly printed without the punctuation.

Plot summary: From Russia with Love differs from Fleming’s previous Bond novels in that the first one third of the novel revolves around SMERSH’s executioner, Red Grant as well as the organisation, SMERSH, itself. This is also the first novel in which Bond receives a gadget from Q-Branch, although Q is not in the novel.

The novel is a series of elaborate plots and counterplots, between the British and the Russian intelligence agencies. It begins with SMERSH, the Soviet assassination agency, seeking to redeem itself from a series of failures that have made some within the Soviet government begin to criticize the organisation. SMERSH plans to commit a grand act of terrorism in the intelligence field. For this, SMERSH has targeted British secret service agent, Commander James Bond. Due in part to Bond’s defeat of Le Chiffre detailed in Casino Royale and Mr Big in Live and Let Die, Bond has been declared as an enemy of the Soviet state and has been issued a “death warrant” for immediate execution (“To be killed with ignominy”).

Mainly through the agency of Kronsteen, the chess-playing master planner, and Colonel Rosa Klebb, SMERSH lays a trap for Bond, by setting pretty young cipher clerk, Corporal Tatiana Romanova, to pretend to defect from her post in Istanbul, claiming to have fallen in love with Bond, after a glimpse from his file photograph. As an added incentive, Tatiana will provide the British agent with a Spektor decoder, a prize much coveted by MI6. The ultimate goal is to set up James Bond for assassination, and cause a scandal, but SMERSH doesn’t count on Tatiana actually falling in love with 007. The confrontation between Bond and Grant, the Chief Executioner of SMERSH, who contacts Bond in the guise of an MI6 agent, takes place on board the Orient Express on the journey from Istanbul to Paris, where Grant is killed by Bond. Later, after successfully delivering Tatiana to the West, Bond has a final encounter with Rosa Klebb which leaves her captured and 007 left poisoned.

See also:

• Bond novels: Ian Fleming