Why Control and his team are singing Russian national anthem?

Why Control and his team are singing Russian national anthem? - Through glass of black and white anonymous male musician in headphones singing with microphone while recording song in modern studio

Control and his team shown singing Russian national anthem along with a person with Lenin mask on. His team was working for British Intellingence in shortcut called Circus.

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I didn't understand why are they doing this?



Best Answer

As explained here:

That’s when the show-stopper comes on, the office Santa (I’m fairly sure that’s a drunk Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds), aka Soldier), slovenly dressed, adorned with a Lenin mask, and demanding his music, the State Anthem of the Soviet Union. The idea that the MI-6 office Christmas party would engage in a group singalong of their primary’s enemy’s national song (might this have come from somebody’s memoir? or from le Carré?) is just wickedly stinging, a cunning little piece of evidence of the service’s deep cynicism, the cynicism that both makes them highly effective at analysis and agent recruitment (nobody recruits an agent like the British, ask anybody in intelligence—they’re rivaled only by the Cubans, no lie) and renders them vulnerable to would-be penetrating moles of the right class and ilk.




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Why Control and his team are singing Russian national anthem? - From above of vintage light box with THANK YOU DOCTORS inscription placed on green surface
Why Control and his team are singing Russian national anthem? - Back view of anonymous ground crews in uniforms and headsets meeting passenger helicopter on airfield after flight against cloudless blue sky
Why Control and his team are singing Russian national anthem? - Football fans resting with mug of beer on terrace of bar



Why Russia has no national anthem?

This anthem proved to be unpopular with the Russian public and with many politicians and public figures, because of its tune and lack of lyrics, and consequently its inability to inspire Russian athletes during international competitions.

What is the anthem of the ROC?

The "Three Principles of the People" is the party anthem of the Kuomintang as well as the national anthem of the Republic of China (ROC) adopted in 1930 by the ROC as the "National Anthem of the Republic of China".

What instruments are used in the Russian national anthem?

  • Flute.
  • Oboe. Recorder.


Is the USSR anthem illegal?

Singing or playing the former anthem of the Soviet Union or any other former anthems of the Soviet Republics is punishable with a sentence of up to five years in prison. In July 2019, the Constitutional Court upheld the law, equating communism to Nazism.



Roy Jones. The Russian National Anthem. That's respect for the nation.




More answers regarding why Control and his team are singing Russian national anthem?

Answer 2

It is a dark ironic joke.

The Circus job is (mostly) to oppose eastern-block spys who are controlled by the Soviet Union. Their enemy is the Soviets. But their enemy is also the group they most need to understand. They probably know the Soviets as well as they know their own society: they would not be effective spys if they were not.

They are also somewhat cynical. For example, in Smiley's interview with Karla (the Soviet spy boss) he says something like "we are not so different you and I" (shown in the TV series, recounted verbally by Smiley in the movie). This demonstrates a certain flexibility of perspective when thinking about their opponents.

So it is unsurprising that a bunch of somewhat cynical experts on the Soviets, would, ironically, sing their enemy's anthem at a fun event like a christmas party.

One suspects that Karla's team wouldn't be singing the British national anthem if they even had christmas parties. Karla is portrayed not as a pragmatic cynic but as a committed ideologue who would not appreciate the irony.

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Images: Brett Sayles, Karolina Grabowska, Maarten van den Heuvel, Laura Tancredi