The fourth protocol

This article deals with the novel "The Fourth Protocol". For the film of the same name, which is based on the novel, see The fourth protocol (film) .

The fourth protocol is a thriller by the British author Frederick Forsyth , published in 1984 and filmed in 1987.

title

The title The Fourth Protocol or the English original title The Fourth Protocol alludes to four fictitious secret additional protocols to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . The fourth of these additional protocols is an agreement between the then three atomic powers - the USA , Great Britain and the Soviet Union - which obliges these states not to use unconventional methods for nuclear weapons , e.g. B. by smuggling to bring it to another country and detonate there.

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The book is set mainly in Great Britain during the Cold War .

On New Year's Eve 1986, the professional burglar Jim Rawlings steals some valuable diamonds from a high-ranking public service person and accidentally steals some stolen highly classified documents. However, because of his patriotism, he sends these documents to the UK domestic secret service MI5 .

At the same time, the exposed British double agent Kim Philby , who now lives in Moscow, claims at a party that British democracy is far more unstable than is usually assumed in the Soviet Union. In response to a personal request from the CPSU General Secretary , to whom this was reported, Philby stated that the Labor Party had a good chance of winning the British general elections expected in the next 18 months . He also explains that practically all key positions within the Labor have been slowly but continuously filled by people from the wing of the extreme left. Only officially a moderately left-wing course is being pursued under Neil Kinnock , but after the election victory, the extreme left would depose Neil Kinnock within the party and introduce a Marxist-Leninist system in Great Britain and leave NATO and disarm on a massive scale. The Secretary General then instructs Philby, General Marchenko from the GRU , an academic named Krilov and the physicist, chess player and friend of General Secretary Rogov to work out “Plan Aurora”, which is to secure Labor's election victory. The Secretary General is already an old man who took up the top post in the Soviet Union years ago with great goals. However, he has to admit that he could not achieve any of his goals, which is why he desperately tries to land his last big coup with the "Plan Aurora" and to perpetuate himself.

In the UK, MI5 agent John Preston delivers a report on the extreme left to MI5 deputy chief Brian Harcourt-Smith. However, he is currently in the process of filling all key positions with his protégés and has Preston's report archived; Preston himself is transferred to another department. However, this is how he comes across the case with the stolen documents. Preston can find out that the leak is George Berenson, an anti-communist and strong supporter of South Africa . Harcourt-Smith tries to pull Preston off the case, Sir Nigel Irvine, head of the Secret Intelligence Service and his cancer-stricken friend and still head of MI5, Sir Bernard Hemmings, continue to put Preston on the case. Preston discovers that Berenson's contact Jan Marais, who pretends to work for South Africa, is actually working for the Soviet Union, and so Berenson agrees to work as a double agent from now on, supplying Jan Marais with false information.

In the meantime, a small group led by Philby has begun the implementation of “Plan Aurora” without involving the KGB . The top agent Valeri Petrofsky is smuggled into England under the name Duncan Ross, where he settles in Ipswich . From here he drives all over England to collect various, harmless-looking objects that were brought to England by couriers from the Eastern Bloc.

However, one day a Russian sailor is beaten up by youths in Glasgow . John Preston, meanwhile transferred again by Harcourt-Smith, is assigned to the case when the seaman commits suicide in the hospital. Among the seaman's few belongings there are three metal discs. Preston brings this to an expert at a British weapons research institute, who identifies two of the discs as aluminum and the third as pure polonium , which can only be used to make atomic bombs. From then on, Preston believes that there is a Russian agent in England who is assembling an atom bomb, but he is given leave of absence by Harcourt-Smith. Thereupon he is now covertly searching for further couriers on behalf of Sir Nigel Irvine.

In Moscow, General Karpov, head of the KGB's Illegal Operations Department, suspects that a major operation is underway in Britain without his involvement, even though he was head of the Department for Britain for years. Angry about this, he investigates and finally blackmailed the academic Krilov. From this he learns that he, Krilov, worked out a plan with the code name "Aurora" with Philby, General Marchenko and Rogov. This involved the smuggling of an atomic bomb into England by ten couriers, which was assembled there by a technician and an agent and then detonated by the agent near an American base in England. The whole thing should have been such that the British public believed that an American atomic bomb had accidentally exploded, resulting in a wave of anti-Americanism and pacifism. Since the Labor Party is the only party that has unilateral disarmament in its program, it and the extreme left would have been certain of an election victory. Karpov also learns from Krilov about the four secret additional protocols to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that the Secretary General has rejected the idea and ordered all four participants in the drafting commission to remain silent.

Meanwhile, John Preston struggles in vain to find another courier. After a month of unsuccessful search, however, a supposed Austrian named Franz Winkler is identified at Heathrow Airport , who is in fact Czech and behaves very conspicuously. After a spectacular trip to Chesterfield , where Preston can only follow Winkler with difficulty, Winkler disappears in a house that belongs to two Cypriots. As it turns out a short time later, there are two Greeks who fought on the communist side in the Greek civil war . Harcourt-Smith tries to arrest Winkler so that Preston can lose the case, but he escapes arrest by jumping spectacularly from a moving train. Preston is now forced to covertly monitor the house of the two Greeks for a whole week. Shortly before Sir Bernard Hemmings' patience breaks, Petrofsky appears in said house to send one last radio message home via a secret transmitter. After another chase, which is quite easy due to a tracking device, Preston and his team end up in front of another house where they suspect Petrofsky. However, the professional Petrofsky only changed the vehicle and escaped again. However, the two Greeks were taken into police custody.

However, due to a large peace demonstration, Petrofsky's route with his vehicle is restricted, which is why Preston can catch up with the Russian again with the help of a helicopter and a trick. The finished nuclear weapon, which a Russian technician had assembled the day before, is now ready in Petrofsky's house. Before the technician can board his flight, however, he is removed by Petrofsky as instructed and buried in a forest. Preston has now called in a SAS team , which storms the house a few hours later. Although Petrofsky is already badly wounded, the commander of the SAS team shoots the Russian against Preston's will. Before the Russian dies, he says one last word: "Philby".

In the last chapter, Preston confronts Sir Nigel Irvine with his assumption that Philby had betrayed “Plan Aurora” himself in order to be able to spend his retirement years in his native Great Britain in return. Because of the damage to the Soviet Union, Petrofsky's death had also been agreed. Nigel Irvine teaches him better, however: he himself exposed the Russian by indirectly making an agreement with the angry General Karpov that Karpov would reveal the location of the transmitter to him and that Sir Nigel Irvine would ensure that Petrofsky was not alive is caught in order to avert greater damage to the Soviet Union.

The book ends with Brian Harcourt-Smith being advised to leave MI5 because of his total misjudgment of the danger posed by a Russian agent, whereupon he accepts a position as director of a bank. Preston also leaves MI5 and moves to a security company, where he earns a multiple and can finally afford a divorce - with custody of his son, to whom he is very attached. Sir Nigel Irvine and Sir Bernard Hemmings retire, the latter dying in the same year. Jan Marais is taken into custody by the South African authorities, while George Berenson is spared prosecution due to the fact that he was "turned around" and is able to spend his old age in the Caribbean. When General Karpov learns that his spy Berenson has changed sides and that Nigel Irvine suggests via a double agent that Berenson was a double agent from the start, he has to admit that years of espionage work are useless. The book ends with the sentence: "It was the master's last stroke."

Most important people

English people

• John Preston: British secret agent and main character in the novel
• Sir Nigel Irvine: Chief of British Foreign Intelligence Service MI6
• Sir Bernard Hemmings: Head of British MI5, head of the British domestic secret service, with cancer
• Brian Harcourt-Smith: Vice President of MI5 and de facto chief of MI5 due to Sir Hemmings' illness
• George Berenson: Senior civil servant believes he is spying for South Africa but is really spying for the SU
• Harold "Kim" Philby: exposed English-Soviet double agent who now lives in Moscow

Russians

• General Secretary of the CPSU: Most powerful man in the SU, disaffected and old, he wants to immortalize himself before he leaves
• General Karpov: Head of the KGB's Department of Illegal Actions, doesn't like being ignored
• Krilov: Academic and UK specialist, involved in drawing up Plan Aurora
• General Marchenko: Senior GRU official, involved in the development of Plan Aurora
• Rogov: Chess professional and nuclear physicist, personal friend of the Secretary General and involved in the development of Plan Aurora
• Valeri Petrofsky: top agent of the KGB, is "snatched away" from the KGB and sent to England
• Jan Marais: South African, staunch communist and agent of the KGB

publishing company

The book was originally published by Hutchinson & Co. This publisher is now part of the Bertelsmann subsidiary Penguin Random House , which now sells the book under the name arrow books .

Real backgrounds

As is typical for Frederick Forsyth, the facts are well researched, only the actual story is fictional. The people mentioned in the book, such as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , double agent Kim Philby, and Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock are all real people. In the mid-1980s, the Labor Party really went through an enormous political slide to the left. B. the fairly exact description of the structure of the Special Air Service corresponds to reality.

Adaptations

In 1987 the book was filmed under the same name with the main actors Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine . In contrast to the book, the film leaves out the political conflicts within the Labor Party.

There is also a computer game based on the book from 1985.

source

• Forsyth, Frederick (1984): The Fourth Protocol , arrow books, 444 pages, ISBN 0-09-158630-5