Colonel General Nicholai Sergenovitch Grubozaboyschikov (Russian: Генерал-полковник Николай Грубозабойщиков) is the Head of SMERSH in Ian Fleming's 1957 James Bond novel From Russia, With Love. The character is also known by his first initial, "G", in the same way that Sir Miles Messervy, the Head of the British Secret Service in Fleming's novels, is known as "M". The character is subsequently mentioned in Anthony Horowitz's 2015 James Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis.
Novel biography[]
Background[]
At the time of the novel, General Nicholai Sergenovitch Grubozaboyschikov is the Head of SMERSH[1], the "murder apparatus" of the Soviet Committee of State Security (KGB),[2] and is known as "G", in the same way that Sir Miles Messervy, the Head of the British Secret Service in Fleming's novels, is known as "M". The General's appearance is described in detail in Chapter Four of the novel. He is "a tough-looking, thick-set man of about fifty", with a sharp, narrow face, a deeply cleft chin and a broad, grim mouth. He has a clean-shaven head but thick black eyebrows, over bulging brown eyes with flabby pouches beneath them. The whole effect is of "a hard, unyielding face of formidable authority". He smokes cheap cardboard Moskwa-Volga cigarettes and has a fondness for using peasant obscenities in his conversation.
Grubozaboyschikov has had a distinguished military career. His ribbon bar, also described in Chapter Four, comprises the Order of Lenin (twice), the Order of Suvorov, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star (twice), the Twenty Years' Service medal, the Medal "For the Defence of Moscow", the Medal "For the Capture of Berlin", the British CBE and the American Medal for Merit. However, his post-war career in the MGB was hampered by the enmity of Beria, who controlled State Security.[3] By 1952 Grubozaboyschikov was deputy to one of the Heads of the MGB, but his post was abolished when the MGB was absorbed into Beria's own MVD on 5 March 1953. Grubozaboyschikov thereafter plotted to help bring about Beria's downfall, working under the secret instructions of General Serov. Beria fell from power on 26 June 1953 and was executed on 23 December following,[4] and Serov was appointed Head of the newly formed KGB on 13 March 1954. As a reward for his loyalty, Grubozaboyschikov was given command of SMERSH, now subordinated to the KGB.
From Russia, With Love[]
When Grubozaboyschikov came to power as Head of SMERSH the Soviet intelligence machine had recently suffered a series of high-profile defections and exposures, including that of the cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko in September 1945, the rocket scientist Grigori Tokaev in 1947, the atomic physicist Klaus Fuchs in January 1950, the assassin Nikolai Khoklov in February 1954 and the diplomat Vladimir Petrov in April 1954.[5] "G" as Head of SMERSH was therefore charged by the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet, through Serov, with carrying out "an act of terrorism within the intelligence field", to restore Soviet credibility in the international intelligence community without any public culpability.
In a meeting, described in Chapters Four to Six of the novel, with the other Soviet intelligence chiefs — Lieutenant-General Slavin, of the GRU; Lieutenant-General Vozdvishensky of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Colonel of State Security Nikitin,[6] of the KGB — it was determined to target the British Secret Service by assassinating and disgracing (killing "with ignominy") one of its most able agents, James Bond. Bond had already brought about the deaths of two valuable Russian agents, Le Chiffre (in Casino Royale) and SMERSH s own "Mr. Big" (in Live and Let Die) — G is quick to point out that these reverses took place before he assumed command — and had ruined another Russian plot "three years ago" in Moonraker. Grubozaboyschikov hands the formulation of the operation over to SMERSH's Head of Plans, the chess grand master Colonel Kronsteen, and its execution to the Head of Operations, Colonel Klebb.
G does not appear further in the novel From Russia, With Love, and it is unknown what his eventual fate is. The attempt to murder and discredit James Bond ends in unmitigated disaster for SMERSH with the death among others of its Chief Executioner, Donovan "Red" Grant, the capture of its Head of Operations, Rosa Klebb,[7] and the incidental destruction of the Russian consulate in Istanbul.
Trigger Mortis[]
The character is briefly mentioned in Anthony Horowitz's 2015 James Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis, which states that as of 1957, General G's whereabouts were still unknown to the British Secret Service following the disastrous failure of his last operation.[8] Horowitz has the General succeeded by Colonel Vladimir Gaspanov. Fleming notes that SMERSH is ultimately disbanded on the orders of Nikita Khrushchev in 1958 and is replaced by the Special Executive Department of the MWD (formerly NKVD).[9]
With a Mind to Kill[]
The sequel to Trigger Mortis reveals that Grubozaboyschikov fell from grace after his failure to kill Bond and spent five years imprisoned at a Siberian gulag. His health has been shattered by his experiences and he now walks with a limp, having lost much of his left foot to frostbite. The freezing Siberian air damaged his lungs and left him in constant pain; it now requires significant effort for him to eat and to sleep. Although his subordinates still refer to him as "General" G he is no longer a general or even an official at all. Nine years after the events of From Russia With Love, Grubozaboyschikov has joined a conspiracy of renegade intelligence figures known as Stalnaya Ruka who plan to overthrow Khrushchev's moderate government and install a hardline Communist in his place.
Grubozaboyschikov is introduced in the novel meeting with the other leaders of Stalnaya Ruka — Irma Kirilenko, Erik Mundt, Grigory Volkhov and Colonel Boris — to discuss Bond's supposed assassination of M. It is decided by a vote of 3 to 2 to smuggle Bond into Russia and use him to assassinate Khrushchev.[10] General G votes in favour of the plan because he hopes to have Bond killed as soon as his mission is complete in revenge for Bond's many humiliations. The final decision is made by the leader of Stalnaya Ruka, Alexander Shelepin, who agrees that they should use Bond. General G later meets with Boris and Kirilenko in his old offices, where the three listen to a report by the colonel's assistant Katya Leonova on Bond's behaviour. After Katya leaves, Kirilenko informs Boris that they suspect Bond may be faking his brainwashing due to his possible involvement in the death of Francisco Scaramanga. Grubozaboyschikov has arranged for one of Scaramanga's American associates to come to Moscow and identify him. The attempt fails when the associate mistakes another man for Bond and reports that he is not the agent he met in Jamaica.
Bond finally comes face to face with General G at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. Grubozaboyschikov tells Bond that his mission is to kill "the man in seat 12" — Khrushchev — later that night during a performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. He then kicks Bond repeatedly in the groin as a "test" of his loyalty to the cause. Bond forces himself not to retaliate against the elderly spymaster. General G comments that he would have done far worse if Bond did not need to be in good physical condition for the plot to succeed. As in his first appearance, General G's final fate is unknown after his schemes fail yet again, though a CIA agent mentions that they will make sure the Russians know Grubozaboyschikov was behind the plot against Khrushchev and he will probably kill himself — if he has not already done so.
Film adaptation[]
General Grubozaboyschikov does not appear in the 1963 film adaptation of the novel, starring Sean Connery as James Bond. In the film, the plot against Bond is mounted by Ernst Stavro Blofeld's criminal organisation SPECTRE, as revenge for the death of Doctor Julius No in the previous film, Dr. No.[11] Rosa Klebb is a SPECTRE agent placed within SMERSH, and runs the operation using SMERSH resources (including Tatiana Romanova), but without the knowledge of the Soviet government. The film character with the nearest approximation to Grubozaboyschikov's role in the plot is Blofeld himself. Notably, the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me would introduce the film series' first Soviet intelligence Head, incidentally a General with the initial 'G', in the form of General Gogol.
Trivia[]
- The word "Grubozaboyschikov" (Грубозабойщиков) means "coarse cutters" or "rough cut".
See also[]
- Colonel Gaspanov
- Colonel-General Nikitin
- General Gogol
- General Pushkin
References[]
- ↑ In an "Author's Note" at the beginning of the novel, Fleming claims that his descriptions of SMERSH and Grubozaboyschikov as its Head were factual and accurate at the time of writing, the beginning of 1956. However, although a historical SMERSH did exist until 1946, the department featured in the novel is entirely fictional. General Grubozaboyschikov never existed.
- ↑ The Committee of State Security is now better known by its abbreviation, KGB, though Fleming erroneously uses the abbreviation MGB (denoting the defunct Ministry of State Security) throughout the novel.
- ↑ In Chapter 2 of Fleming's earlier Bond novel Casino Royale, the historical Beria is described as having personal direction of the fictional SMERSH himself.
- ↑ In Chapter 2 of Fleming's novel Live and Let Die, Bond wondered who controlled SMERSH "now that Beria was gone".
- ↑ All historical.
- ↑ Nikitin, promoted to Colonel General, later appeared as the Head of SMERSH in Christopher Wood's 1977 novel James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me, though he does not appear in the film The Spy Who Loved Me, of which Wood's book was the novelisation. In the film his role is filled by the character of General Gogol. Wood's description of Nikitin is remarkably similar to Fleming's of Grubozaboyschikov, right down to the details of uniform and medals.
- ↑ Klebb's eventual death is later confirmed in Chapter 2 of Dr No.
- ↑ Horowitz, Anthony (2015). "Chapter 6: Nürburgring", Trigger Mortis (in English). Hachette UK, p.81. ISBN 9781409159155.
- ↑ Fleming, Ian (2004). "Chapter 5: SPECTRE", Thunderball (in English). Penguin Classics. ISBN 9780141187594.
- ↑ Bond is supposed to be under the influence of the Russian brainwashing he experienced in The Man with the Golden Gun
- ↑ In the continuity of the novels, Dr No comes directly after From Russia with Love (as opposed to directly before in the film continuity), beginning with Bond having just recovered from being poisoned by Rosa Klebb's spiked shoe.