George Smiley's obsession

George knows and trusts Vladimir and realises there must be more to it. When he twists Mostyn's tail and discovers that Vladimir had proofs and it concerned the Sandman (Karla) he was never going to let it drop.

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It explain in the first movie, Smiley obsessed with Karla for three reasons

1. Karla almost distoryed the Circus with his agent Bill Haydon.

2. Bill is also his wife's lover.

3. Since Bill is dead, Smiley turned his rage against Karla.

In the first series we learn that literally hundreds of agents died directly or indirectly because of Karla. Hundreds of others were rendered useless to the Circus. In a comment from Lacon it was pointed out that the Circus could still "die of the common cold."

George finally saw a way to put a stop to Karla's activities. It was a mixture of personal and professional reasons which led Smiley to end Karla for good. There was revenge for the personal damage done to him and a desire to complete his life's work.

In the le Carre books Karla has always been George’s nemeses. I would think that if asked George would definitely say that it was not personal, that Karla posed the greatest risk to England and the Circus. The reason that he kept pursuing the issue is that he alone knew the whole Karla history and could put the bits of information he was getting into context. I think that if he’d read about the General’s death in the paper as an ordinary punter, George would have mourned his death but no more. He would have continued his literary pursuits in quite retirement. But since he was asked by Oliver Lacon to “tidy up the bits” and his subsequent discovery of the whole conspiracy he was compelled by his nature to see it through to its logical conclusion.