6 replies to this topic

[Hardyboy]

I've been a Bond fan for over 20 years now, I've scanned many Bond reference books and surfed many Bond net sites, and I don't think I've ever seen this topic addressed. . .

Why do the two KGB chiefs who appear in the Bond films--Gogol and Pushkin--share their names with great poets/playwrights of Czarist Russia? Is this perhaps a subtle political statement that was being made by EON--that Russia's poetic past has been coopted by fearsome Soviet bureaucracy? Is it mere coincidence? Or is it just an example of the screenwriters being lazy and/or cute--picking the first Russian names that spring to mind?

[brendan007]

do you have the original script for goldeneye? that sounds really interesting, do you think they would have got the same actor guy, cause wasnt he in that stupid sliders show back then

[Blue Eyes]

It's interesting to note that in the original script for GoldenEye Pushkin was involved. I guess in a way it plays on what General Koskov mentions above. He's not hard in the script towards Bond, however, he still is very much a part of 'Mother Russia'. It's an interesting appearance.

[Mister Asterix]

I would think that this was due to the fact that Pushkin was mearly a rewrite of Gogol. Since Walter Gotell was not available for the majority of shooting for The Living Daylights the character was changed from Gogol to Pushkin and John Rhys-Davies took up the part. I would guess that it was an inside joke with the writer to keep the part named for a Russian writer.

[General Koskov]

That's interesting about the screenplay, B.E. I wrote a M./Bond/Pushkin scene where Pushkin tells MI6 about SMERSH (as a hard-liner breakaway from the 'new' KGB (which has a different name for SMERSH)) in CR.

Where did you get this screenplay, Blue Eyes?

[General Koskov]

Perhaps because these two generals were not the 'hard-liner' Soviets everyone was afraid of, and generally kinder to the West, Eon named them after famous persons from before communist times?

What about Orlov/Koskov/Oroumov? Are they all evil bastards from Tsarist Russia? ;d

[Blofeld's Cat]

Maybe it was a lack of imagination on the part of the screenwriters in coming up with Russian "iconic" names to represent the nation as a whole.