Communist dynasty
Richard Sorge, apparently, was written to become a communist. His great-uncle Friedrich Adolf Sorge was Karl Marx's personal secretary and edited the famous "Communist Manifesto". And although he died when Richard was only 11 years old, a revolutionary spirit reigned in his family.
The future scout was born in 1895 in Baku. Where Richard's father, engineer Gustav Wilhelm Sorge, worked for the Nobel family firm, which developed oil fields and processed oil into kerosene. There, a German engineer married a Russian citizen Nina Kobeleva. In 1898, the family returned to Germany.
In 1914, Richard Sorge volunteered for the German army and fought on the Western Front. He was seriously wounded in the battles of Verdun and was discharged. Since then, he has been limping all his life. For his courage in battles, he was promoted to non-commissioned officer and awarded the Order of the Iron Cross, II degree.
In 1917, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party. Two years later, he joined the German Communist Party. Simultaneously with this event, he graduated from the university and received a master's degree in economics. Then Sorge entered the Frankfurt Institute for Sociological Research. From 1920 he worked as editor of the communist newspaper Bergische Arbeiterstimme in Solingen. He took an active part in the propaganda activities of the communists. Because of which he was forced to emigrate to the USSR in 1924.
Taking Soviet citizenship, Sorge became a member of the CPSU (b) and soon began working in the central apparatus of the Comintern. There he was noticed in 1929 by one of the founders of the GRU, Jan Berzin. Who offered to go to work in intelligence. We have already written more than once that the Glavrazvedupr was financed much less than the OGPU-NKVD. Therefore, his chiefs were looking for agents for military intelligence among the ideological communists, members of the Comintern.
Sorge was surprised at the proposal at first. After all, he is strongly "exposed" in Europe as a result of his party activities. But Berzin declares that Sorge will work in the East, where it is rather problematic to meet someone from his acquaintances. Sorge agrees to become a scout and is sent to an intelligence school near Moscow. During that period, Sorge met his future wife, Ekaterina Maximova.
In 1930, Richard Sorge was sent to Shanghai. At that time, a serious conflict was brewing in Asia, in which not only China and Japan were involved, but also the USSR, England and France with their Asian colonies. And, of course, the USA. So Shanghai literally swarmed with representatives of various special services, members of social movements and journalists who also provided services to various intelligence services. It was in Shanghai that Sorge met the future German ambassador to Japan, Yugen Otto, and the Japanese journalist Hotsumi Ozaki. Both of these people will play a huge role in the future activities of the Soviet intelligence officer. The first is "blindly", and the second is deliberate.
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Successful "predictions" from the Cabinet of Ministers
It was during the period of work in Shanghai that the first inconsistencies in the biography of Richard Sorge begin. According to one version, on the recommendation of the diplomat Otto, he joined the NSDAP in 1933, while still in China. According to the second, after Shanghai, Sorge came to Germany, where he made the necessary connections with the Nazi party and even with the Gestapo. But the visit to Germany was most likely a myth, for the reason already voiced: there Sorge was remembered by many as a communist. So we'll stick with the first version. According to which Sorge, on behalf of Moscow, left for New York. There he appeared at the German embassy, introduced himself as a journalist and managed to impress the embassy's press attaché. Which brought Sorge to the representatives of the influential German newspapers "Börsen Courier" and "Frankfurter Zeitung". The scout immediately told reporters that he was not going to compete with them in the United States,and is going to leave for Japan. Where these newspapers did not have their correspondents. what Hotsumi Ozaki told him about in China.
Among other things, Sorge had a letter of recommendation from Eugen Otto, who spoke very positively about a real Aryan and an expert on Asia. Sorge gets official cover and heads to Tokyo. A well-educated man with degrees in economics and sociology, Sorge is quickly becoming a leading specialist in the Far East. And after Yugen Otto arrives as ambassador to Japan, the Soviet intelligence officer becomes one of his closest assistants. He helps the diplomat to compile reports on the economic and social situation not only in Japan, but also in China. Moreover, Sorge predicted Japanese attacks on Hong Kong and South China. Although in Germany it was believed that the main military plans of the Japanese concerned Northern China, controlled by the communists. Here is how Sorge himself wrote about it in one of the German newspapers in April 1938:“Japan in its expansion has never focused only on the north and northwest directions. Formosa, the first fruit of this advance, and later the seizure of islands in the Pacific, gave Japan so many interests in South China that an invasion of South China and even military operations from there against North China is by no means inconceivable. The possibility of such a development of events becomes even more likely due to the completely changed attitude of Japan towards England. "The possibility of such a development of events becomes even more likely due to the completely changed attitude of Japan towards England. "The possibility of such a development of events becomes even more likely due to the completely changed attitude of Japan towards England."
When Sorge's prophecy was fully confirmed, Jugen Otto's trust in him became boundless. The scout became a part of his family and close circle of friends. Getting there simply invaluable information about what is happening in Germany.
However, there is another version of how Sorge received classified information from the German embassy. According to some reports, Otto's wife, Helma, was the scout's mistress. And the diplomat constantly shared his secrets with her, which she passed on to Sorge. But again, this version is hard to believe. Otto was an experienced diplomat and would hardly have told a woman (even a wife) about big secrets.
But Sorge's sphere of interests was not limited to obtaining information about German plans. Moscow demanded intelligence on Japan's plans. And Sorge supplied the required information, receiving it from the cabinet of the Japanese Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe. In this case, the journalist and poet Hotsumi Ozaki provided assistance in obtaining information. Who entered the so-called "Breakfast Circle", where Konoe gathered several dozen of the most educated and intellectual Japanese, with whom he consulted every week on almost all issues of domestic and foreign policy of the country. It was from Ozaki that information was received about the plans of the Japanese military about attacks on Soviet troops in the area of Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River. This information helped to regroup the Soviet troops in time and repel the Japanese.
Forgotten Scout
In 1938, a struggle began in the USSR between two special services: the NKVD and the GRU. As you know, the first one won. The "godfather" of the scout Richard Sorge Jan Berzin was arrested and soon shot. Military intelligence officers recalled en masse to Moscow, where they were subjected to repression. Richard Sorge also received an order to come to Moscow. But the scout did not go, sending a telegram to Moscow: “With gratitude I accept your greetings and wishes regarding the vacation. However, if I go on vacation, it will immediately cut the information."
Moscow continues to insist on a "vacation" for all agents of the network, and Sorge once again replies: “Due to the current martial law, we are postponing our terms of returning home. We assure you once again that now is not the time to raise a question about it. " Furious at the insubordination of the scout, the NKVD officers recouped his wife Zorge Ekaterina Maksimova. She was arrested, accused of having links with a German spy, and exiled to camps in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Where she died of a cerebral hemorrhage on July 3, 1943.
Funding for the intelligence network led by "Ramzai" (the operational pseudonym of Sorge) was stopped. But the scout did not stop his activities. He sends messages to the center about Germany's preparations for a war with the USSR, but these reports are not believed. And here again conflicting information appears. In the 60s, the radio telegram "Ramsay" was made public, in which on June 15, 1941 he names the exact date of the German attack on the Soviet Union. However, many military intelligence researchers call this telegram a fake. In 2001, an employee of the press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Colonel Vladimir Karpin, bluntly stated: “Unfortunately, this is a fake that appeared in Khrushchev's times. The intelligence did not name the exact date, did not say unequivocally that the war would begin on June 22”.
If Karpin is right, then how can you explain that after the start of the war, Sorge's messages began to be taken very seriously? And such a coup from mistrust to trust could only be caused by the fact that Sorge's messages were fully confirmed by subsequent events.
In July 1941, having received the latest information from Ozaki, Sorge transmitted to the center information that Japan was not going to enter the war with the USSR in 1941, as Hitler insisted on. Moscow would like to believe this data, but they ask to clarify the information. After some time, Sorge once again confirms that Japan's military plans lie in a different plane: against the United States and the British colonies in Indochina. Moreover, Sorge reports about the impending attack on Hawaii (recall that on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, as a result of which the United States actually lost the Far Eastern Fleet).
The reports of "Ramzai" are discussed at the highest level, Stalin personally gets acquainted with them. Who decides to believe these reports and orders the transfer of 28 divisions from the Far East. Which helped to defend Moscow in the fall-winter of 1941.
This was one of the last reports from Richard Sorge. On October 18, 1941, he was arrested. And again different versions come into conflict. According to one of them, Sorge was "passed" by his mistress, whom he picked up in some cabaret. According to another, the transmitter was tracked and the radio operator was arrested, who, under torture, betrayed the rest. But the third version is most likely true. Shortly before Sorge's arrest, the Japanese secret police arrested one of Hotsumi Ozaki's friends on suspicion of belonging to the Communist Party. During interrogations, he betrayed all his acquaintances with similar views. One of them belonged to the Ramsay intelligence network. And during a search in his house, the police found a lot of materials incriminating Ozaki. After which he was arrested too. Well, when they checked the connections of the arrested person,contacted the German journalist Richard Sorge and several other agents of the "Ramsay" network. And again, during the searches of the intelligence officers, some evidence was discovered that Ramzai-Sorge worked for the USSR.
Hitler, who was informed that a Soviet intelligence agent was operating at the German embassy, was furious. He immediately recalled Yugen Otto from Japan and demanded that the Japanese hand over Sorge. But those had other plans. They suggested that the USSR leadership exchange the arrested intelligence officers (a total of 17 people were arrested) for Japanese intelligence officers arrested in the Soviet Union. Who made the decision to refuse, again remains a mystery. Either Stalin himself, or Beria, who did not forgive Richard Sorge for disobedience when he was ordered to return to Moscow. Be that as it may, but the name of Sorge was not only classified, but also forgotten in the country for which he did so much. In May 1943, a trial was held over members of the Ramsay group. Ozaki and Sorge were sentenced to death by hanging. Which took place on November 7, 1944.
The Americans were the first to widely publicize the activities of the Soviet intelligence officer. After the occupation of Japan, they got some documents on the "Ramsay group". In August 1951, a Senate Commission hearing on anti-American activities was held in the United States. CIA and FBI officers tried to prove that it was the activities of Richard Sorge that led to the fact that in 1941 Japan attacked not the USSR, but the United States. A fairly wide circle of people abroad learned about the Soviet intelligence officer. The story of Sorge captivated the French director Yves Ciampi. In 1961, his film "Who are you, Doctor Sorge?" Was released.
Around 1963, Nikita Khrushchev watched this film. He was surprised and delighted at the same time. I am surprised that I have not heard anything about this intelligence officer, but admired his work in Japan. Khrushchev instructed the special services to conduct a special investigation and find out what is true in the film and what is fictional. It turned out that the truth is even cooler than what is shown in the film. On November 5, 1964 (after Khrushchev's resignation), Richard Sorge was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and streets and schools throughout the country began to be named after him.
Journal: Forbidden History №13 (30), Mikhail Korzinin
