As in The Hunt for Red October (1984, see separate entry), the theme of betrayal is an important one in The Cardinal of the Kremlin. Like the Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius, Col. Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov has chosen to betray his country. Unlike those of Ramius, Filitov's motivations are vague and confused. He is angered by his wife's death, but he partly blames himself for it, just as he sees himself as somehow responsible for the incompetency that killed his sons. He is the only man to have received three Hero of the Soviet Union Medals for his service as a tank commander during World War II, but now he is a spy. And with each new secret he passes to the U.S., he drinks himself into a stupor.
Thus, betrayal is no easy action.....
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