Bill Haydon: You really are a poison dwarf, Toby. Why don't you fuck off to his majesty and stop trying to involve me in your little cabaret.
Control: All I want from you is one codename: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier...
George Smiley: ...Spy.
George Smiley: We are not so very different, you and I. We've both spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one each other's systems.
Bill Haydon: As I said, you may fuck me but you still have to call me "Sir" in the morning.
Control: A man should know when to leave the party.
George Smiley: He's a fanatic. And the fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt.
Bill Haydon: I thought I'd pop down and catch a glimpse at the new girl before Bland gets to her.
Peter Guillam: Ah, yes, Belinda the Blonde.
George Smiley: I want to talk about loyalty, Toby. Control recruited you, didn't he? He found you starving in a museum in Vienna, a wanted man. He saved your life, I heard. And yet, when the time came... When it came to picking sides between him and Allenine, you didn't hesitate. It's understandable, perhaps, with your war experience. You survived this long, I suppose, because of your ability to change sides, to serve any master.
Easterhase: What's... What's this about, George?
George Smiley: It's about which master you've been serving, Toby.
Connie Sachs: It was a good time back then.
George Smiley: It was a war, Connie.
Connie Sachs: A war we could be proud of.
George Smiley: What did you think of Control's theory?
Jim Prideaux: I thought it was madness!
Oliver Lacon: There's a mole, right at the top of the Circus. And he's been there for years.
Answer: As this story was set during the Cold War era, this was a deliberate mockery of the Soviet Union and its policies against holiday celebration and religious freedom. The entire story revolves around the prospect of a Russian Mole among the British Secret Service and Intelligence Community-at that moment, complete with a mocking Stalin Santa Claus, they were letting off steam against their reviled rivals.
Erik M.