“The Spy, come from the cold” Le Carré in summary


The action takes place in the sixties, during the Cold War, when espionage was one of the main means of fighting between the two hostile political systems. The head of the British residency in East Berlin Alec Limas, after the death of one of his main agents, a member of the SED, Karl Rimek, retires to London and is threatened with retirement. It is believed that in the fight against East German intelligence, whose operational department is headed by Hans Dieter Mundt, Lymas lost, losing all his best agents.

However, the leadership of British intelligence gives Limas the last chance – to take part in a risky operation to discredit Mundt in the eyes of the GDR government as an agent of London. Limas allegedly fired for retirement, and some time he drags on a miserable existence, drunk. Limas knows that the people of Mundt will contact him sooner or later, because, like a former scout, he has valuable information, for which foreign intelligence will pay a lot, and Limas is

poor. The lover of Limas, a member of the British Communist Party Elizabeth Gold, is also involved in the operation.

The people of Mundt contact with Aymas and invite him to move to Holland, where he will be able to tell them everything he knows and get a large sum of money. In Holland, he meets with the German intelligence officer Peters, who is trying to extract from Limas all the details of the agency work. The goal of Limas is to provide such information that Chief Mundt Fiedler, who hates his subordinate, could use for his own purposes. To meet with Fiedler Limas eventually transferred to the GDR. Limas tells Fidler that British intelligence has in this country a very valuable agent with whom London maintains contacts directly and whose name is unknown to Limas himself. They may well be Mundt, who used to be a resident of East German intelligence in London and miraculously escaped after his failure when he was wanted by the search for all of England.

During the conversations with Fiedler, the question arises: in what way do the warring systems see the justification of their actions? Fiedler justifies

any crimes by the fact that the socialist system is protected from counter-revolution, that in the struggle for peace and progress one hundred percent justice can not be, that intelligence is a weapon in the hands of the party, etc. Limas’s answers are not so categorical, but it is nevertheless clear that the end justifies the means, although Limas himself is far from cynicism, unlike Fidler. He is already tired of the endless struggle and wants to return home to England.

However, Mundt learns about Fiedler’s machinations and arrests him and Limas, the latter at the time of arrest in the fight kills the guard, and now he must be judged according to the laws of the GDR. In prison in Lima, Mundt interrogates, but at the last moment appears Fidler, who presented his materials to the Presidium of the State Council and found support there. Mundt is arrested and he will be tried by a tribunal appointed by the Presidium, Fidler will act as a prosecutor, and Limas is a witness of the charge. Defend Mundt will be the famous lawyer Karden, who is going to present to the court an unknown witness to the defense, This witness is Elizabeth Gold, who, unsuspecting, comes to the GDR at the invitation of the German Communists. From her testimony, Cardin extracts information, that behind Limas there is a British intelligence service – after the disappearance of Limas to Elizabeth came some people, she received no one knows from whom a significant amount of money, etc. Limas made the mistake of contacting this woman – she knew too much, nothing at the same time understanding in what is happening. Limas deceived Fiedler, who was trying to smear Mundt, an honest member of the party, to this conclusion Karden and the entire tribunal come, believing that the machinations of Western agents have been exposed. It recognizes and Лимас, only at the last moment guessing, in what the true plan of its chiefs led by well-known Smiley consisted. Mundt is justified, and Fiedler is awaiting punishment-that is exactly what was sought in London, for Mundt was that very important agent who, without knowing it himself, hinted at Fidler Limas. Limas and his beloved used for their own purposes first British intelligence, and then Fidler for Mundt’s displacement and, finally, the GDR’s judicial machine allegedly to expose the intrigues of the enemy, who in fact in the person of Mundt comes out of the water and helps Limas and Elizabeth escape from prison. However, both of them are already unnecessary to anyone – the warring systems used them, and the heroes die, shot by the border guards at the time of crossing the border into West Berlin. Such is the fate of a particular “little” person, wiped out by the millstones of the hellish machine of the “cold war”. However, both of them are already unnecessary to anyone – the warring systems used them, and the heroes die, shot by the border guards at the time of crossing the border into West Berlin. Such is the fate of a particular “little” person, wiped out by the millstones of the hellish machine of the “cold war”. However, both of them are already unnecessary to anyone – the warring systems used them, and the heroes die, shot by the border guards at the time of crossing the border into West Berlin. Such is the fate of a particular “little” person, wiped out by the millstones of the hellish machine of the “cold war”.


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“The Spy, come from the cold” Le Carré in summary