Tatiana Romanova is introduced as a corporal in SovietArmy Intelligence, assigned to work in the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul as a cipher clerk. Her superiors, in connection with SMERSH, plan to sow dissension in the intelligence community by murdering and discrediting a significant figure in western intelligence. The target was James Bond. Her commanding officer is Rosa Klebb—in the screenplay adaptation, Klebb is secretly an agent for SPECTRE—who manipulates Romanova into believing that she is on an important mission for her country, when she is in fact merely a pawn in the terrorist organization's latest bid to destroy the British Secret Service. In the novel, Klebb is actually a member of the Soviet government, commander in chief of the Otdyel II section of SMERSH. Romanova's mission is to seduce Bond and have him take her to England to deliver a code machine, as well as plant false information, before being rescued from prison and returned to Russia. She is promised a promotion to Captain if she completes the mission. Once in Istanbul, she contacts Darko Kerim and tells him her plans: she will voluntarily defect from the Soviet Union and take the machine with her only if Bond assists in the operation. She claims to have fallen in love with Bond and developed a desire to live with him after seeing his picture in a secret file. Both M and Bond believe the offer to be a trap, but the prize is valuable enough to go for it. They react just as the main instigator of the plot, chess championKronsteen, had predicted. Bond then flies to Istanbul and contacts Kerim, spending several days there and waiting for contact. After a riot at a Gypsy camp, Bond returns to his hotel room and finds Romanova walking across the room and getting into his bed, wearing only a black velvet choker and black stockings. They make love, but are secretly filmed by Klebb's minions via a one-way mirror. The film is meant to be used to embarrass MI6. In the film, after meeting her again to verify the authenticity of her information, they blow up the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul to cover their escape. With the help of Kerim, they board the Orient Express and depart for Trieste and the Italian frontier. As a part of Kronsteen's strategy, the SMERSH/SPECTRE assassin Donovan 'Red' Grant kills Kerim. Bond contacts Grant, who is pretending to be an agent named Nash. After sedating Romanova, Nash reveals his identity to Bond, who then fights Grant in their train compartment. Prior to the fight, Grant explains that he is going to kill Bond and then execute the sleeping Romanova with Bond's gun, making it look like a murder-suicide. Bond finally defeats Grant and takes Romanova to Venice. It is there they meet Klebb again who, in an attempt to retrieve the LEKTOR and kill Bond, disguises herself as a maid and tries to eliminate the agent with a dagger-tipped shoe poisoned with blowfish venom. Romanova shoots Klebb, thus saving Bond. She and Bond are last seen on a boat in Venice, with Bond dropping the incriminating film into the canal. Similarly, in the novel, they board the Orient Express with Kerim, planning to travel to England over the course of four days. Kerim, instead of being killed by Grant, is killed by a Russian agent named Benz who had boarded the train earlier and also is killed in the struggle. This prompts the bombing of the Soviet Embassy in Istanbul in retaliation. Despite this, Bond elects not to leave the train for a plane or the embassy, after having fallen for Romanova and not wanting to cut their time short. Grant pretends to be Nash, an MI6 agent sent by M in response to the death of Kerim. After sedating Romanova, under the guise of standing guard over Bond, he waits until they are both asleep, and plans to murder them. However, due to his vanity, he taunts Bond, revealing details of a meeting with Rosa Klebb. This allows Bond to disarm Grant and save Romanova's life. It is unclear as to what ultimately becomes of Tatiana in the novel as in her last appearance, she is still heavily affected by the sedatives, sleeping in the British Embassy, while Bond confronts Klebb. It is presumed that she has been arrested and/or released by the British.
Other media
The character's role in the video game adaptation of From Russia With Love is more or less the same as in the novel and film, the only major difference being that she is now an unwitting double agent for a terrorist organization called "OCTOPUS". She is voiced by Kari Wahlgren. The character also appears in the 1993 James Bond comic book that takes place after the events of From Russia With Love, called Light of My Death, in which she is reinstated as KGB agent, aiding Bond in his mission against a shadowy villain who wants to provoke a war between the Soviets and the West.
