Tatiana Romanova

The Soviet cipher clerk sent to trap Bond in From Russia, with Love.

Tatiana Romanova is a Soviet cipher clerk in Ian Fleming's 1957 novel From Russia, with Love and its 1963 film adaptation, where Daniela Bianchi played her with her voice dubbed by Barbara Jefford.

Quick Facts

Portrayed by: Daniela Bianchi (film)
Voice: Barbara Jefford (film); Kari Wahlgren (video game)
Series: James Bond
Creator: Ian Fleming
Gender: Female
Affiliation: KGB (novel) and SPECTRE (film)

Facts from the source article.

Background

A corporal in Soviet Army Intelligence newly assigned to the consulate in Istanbul, Tatiana is chosen by her commanding officer Rosa Klebb for a plot to murder and discredit a significant Western agent, James Bond. In the novel Klebb heads a section of SMERSH; in the film she has defected to SPECTRE and manipulates Tatiana into believing she is on a mission for her country. Her task is to seduce Bond and have him take her to England with a code machine, the Spektor in the book and the Lektor on screen, with a promotion to captain promised if she succeeds. She tells the Istanbul station chief Darko Kerim, Ali Kerim Bey in the film, that she will defect with the machine only if Bond assists, claiming to have fallen in love with him after seeing his picture in a secret file.

M and Bond believe it is a trap but judge the prize worth pursuing, exactly as the plot's instigator, the chess champion Kronsteen, predicted. In Istanbul Bond finds her in his bed wearing only a black velvet choker and black stockings; Klebb's men film them through a one-way mirror to embarrass MI6. On the Orient Express Kerim is killed, and the assassin Red Grant, pretending to be an MI6 agent named Nash, sedates Tatiana and plans to murder them both before Bond defeats him. It is never made clear what becomes of Tatiana in the novel: in her last appearance she is still heavily affected by the sedatives, sleeping in the British consulate while Bond confronts Klebb. In the film she shoots Klebb in Venice, saving Bond from a poisoned dagger-tipped shoe, and the two are last seen on a boat as Bond drops the incriminating film into the canal.

Fleming set Romanova against Grant as parallel defectors to argue the moral superiority of Britain over the Soviet Union at a time of real fears after the Burgess-Maclean affair, portraying her Moscow life as dull and her superiors as twisted. Fleming drew contrasts between the Soviet Union and the West throughout, always to the benefit of the latter: the officers of SMERSH live in fear of their superiors while relations between MI6 officers are warm and friendly.