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Dr Sorge aka "Ramsay"

Richard Sorge (Russian: Рихард Зорге) (October 4, 1895 - November 7, 1944) is considered to have been one of the best Soviet spies in Japan before and during World War II, which has gained him fame among spies, and espionage enthusiasts. His NKVD codename was "Ramsay". He was also a journalist, working in Germany and Japan. Image File history File links Information. ... Image File history File links Dr_Richard_Sorge_spy. ... Image File history File links Dr_Richard_Sorge_spy. ... is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Spy and Secret agent redirect here. ... The NKVD (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del  ) (Russian: , ) or Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for political repressions during Stalinism. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ...

Early life

Sorge was born in the settlement of Sabunchi,^[1][2] suburb of Baku, Azerbaijan, which was part of Imperial Russia at the time. He was the youngest of the nine children of Adolf Sorge (d. 1911) a German mining engineer and his Russian wife Nina Semionova Kobieleva.^[3] His father's lucrative contract with the Caucasian Oil Company having expired, Richard Sorge's family moved back to Germany: in Sorge's own words, Coordinates: , Country Azerbaijan Government  - Mayor Hajibala Abutalybov Area  - City 260 km²  (100. ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start...

"The one thing that made my life a little different from the average was a strong awareness of the fact that I had been born in the southern Caucasus and that we had moved to Berlin when I was very small."^[4]

The cosmopolitan Sorge household was "very different from the average bourgeois home in Berlin."^[5]

Although Richard Sorge claimed his grandfather was Friedrich Adolf Sorge, an associate of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Friedrich Adolf Sorge was Richard Sorge's great-uncle.^[6] Friedrich Adolph Sorge was born in Saxony in 1826 and died in the USA in 1906. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895) was a German social scientist and philosopher, who developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... Friedrich Adolph Sorge was born in Saxony in 1826 and died in the USA in 1906. ...

In October 1914 Sorge volunteered to serve during World War I. He joined a student battalion of the 3rd Guards, Field Artillery. During his service in the Western Front he was severely wounded in March 1916 when shrapnel cut off three of his fingers and broke both his legs, causing a lifelong limp. He was promoted to corporal, received an Iron Cross and later medically discharged. “The Great War ” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Artillery (disambiguation). ... Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West. ... It has been suggested that Fragmentation (weaponry) be merged into this article or section. ... A stylized version of the Iron Cross, the emblem of the Bundeswehr, Germanys Armed Forces. ...

During his convalescence he read Marx and adopted communist ideology, mainly due to the influence of the father of a nurse whom he had developed a relationship with. He spent the rest of the war studying economics in universities of Berlin, Kiel and Hamburg. Sorge received a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Hamburg in August 1919.^[7] He also joined the KPD, the German Communist Party. His political views, however, got him fired from both a teaching job and coal mining work. He fled to Moscow where he became a junior agent for Comintern. This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... , For the city in the United States, see Kiel, Wisconsin. ... Location Coordinates Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DE6 First Mayor Ole von Beust (CDU) Governing party CDU Votes in Bundesrat 3 (from 69) Basic statistics Area  755 km² (292 sq mi) Population 1,754,317 (11/2006)[1]  - Density 2,324 /km² (6,018... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political Science is the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behaviour. ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period. ... For other uses, see Moscow (disambiguation). ... The Comintern (Russian: Коммунистический Интернационал, Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional – Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including...

Red Army Spy

Sorge was recruited as a spy for the Soviet Union and using the cover of being a journalist he was sent to various European countries to assess the possibility of communist uprisings taking place. This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ...

From 1920 to 1922 Sorge lived in Solingen, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia. He was joined there by Christiane Gerlach who had been the wife of Dr Kurt Albert Gerlach, a wealthy Communist who had also been Sorge's professor of political science in Kiel. Sorge and Christiane married in May 1921. In 1922 the Communists relocated him to Frankfurt, where he gathered intelligence about the business community. In the summer of 1923, he took part in the Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche (First Marxist Work Week) in Ilmenau, Thurinigia, an event subsidized by Felix Weil. After an attempted communist coup in October 1923 Sorge continued his work as a journalist. At the same time, he helped with organizing the library of the Institute for Social Research, of which Gerlach was meant to be the first director. Müngstener Brücke, a railroad bridge between Solingen and Remscheid. ... Coat of arms Location Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DEA Capital Düsseldorf Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) Governing parties CDU / FDP Votes in Bundesrat 6 (from 69) Basic statistics Area  34,084 km² (13,160 sq mi) Population 18,033,000... Kurt Albert Gerlach (1886 - October 19, 1922) was a German sociologist. ... For other uses, see Frankfurt (disambiguation). ... Felix Weil (1898-1975) was a founding member and the original financial provider for the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. ... The Institute for Social Research (German: Institut für Sozialforschung) is a research organization covering topics such as sociology and continental philosophy, best known as the institutional home of the Frankfurt School. ...

In 1924 he and Christiane moved to Moscow where he officially joined the International Liaison Department of the Comintern, also an OGPU intelligence gathering body. Apparently his dedication to duty led to his divorce. In 1929 Sorge became part of the Red Army's Fourth Department (Intelligence)^[8] He remained with the Department for the rest of his life. Obedinennoe Gosudarstvennoe Politicheskoe Upravlenie (or OGPU) (Combined State Political Directorate, also translated as All Union State Political Board) was the name of the secret police in the Soviet Union in one of the stages of its development. ...

In 1929 Sorge arrived in England to "study the labour movements, the status of the Communist Party and the political and economic conditions in Britain." He was instructed to remain undercover and not to become involved in politics while living in England. For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Look up Undercover in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In November 1929 Sorge returned to Germany where he was instructed to join the Nazi Party and not to associate with left-wing activists. To help develop a cover for his spying activities he obtained a post working for the newspaper, Getreide Zeitung. National Socialism redirects here. ...

Tombstone of Richard Sorge, Tama cemetery, Tokyo/Japan 1965

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China 1930

In 1930, Sorge moved to Shanghai, to gather intelligence and foment revolution. Officially, he worked as the editor of a German news service and for the Frankfurter Zeitung. He made contact with another spy, Max Klausen. Sorge also met Agnes Smedley, the well-known left-wing journalist working for the Frankfurter Zeitung. She introduced Sorge to Hotsumi Ozaki, who was employed by the Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun. Later Hotsumi agreed to join Sorge's spy network. For other uses, see Shanghai (disambiguation). ... The Frankfurter Zeitung was a German newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. ... Agnes Smedley, (February 23, 1892--6 May 1950) was an American journalist and writer known for her chronicling of the Chinese revolution. ... The Frankfurter Zeitung was a German newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. ... Hotsumi Ozaki (尾崎秀実 Ozaki Hotsumi, 1901 - April 29, 1944) was a journalist working for the Asahi Shinbun. ... Asahi-OSAKA office Asahi is a common name in Japan, for other uses see Asahi. ...

As a journalist Sorge established himself as an expert on Chinese agriculture. This gave him the freedom to travel around the country making contacts with members of the Chinese Communist Party. In January 1932 Sorge reported on fighting between Chinese and Japanese troops in the streets of Shanghai. In December he was recalled to Moscow.

Japan 1933

GDR postage stamp commemorating Richard Sorge

In May 1933 the Soviet Union decided to have Sorge organize a spy network in Japan. As a cover, he was sent to Berlin with the code name "Ramsay" ("Рамзай" (Ramzai, Ramzay)), to renew contacts in Germany so he could pass as a German journalist in Japan. In Berlin he insinuated himself into Nazi ranks, read a great deal of Nazi propaganda, devoted particular attention to Hitler's Mein Kampf and attended so many beer halls with his new acquaintances that he gave up drinking lest his tongue be loosened by alcohol. His total abstinence does not appear to have made his Nazi companions suspicious and was an example of his devotion to and absorption in his mission. He later explained to Hede Massing, "That was the bravest thing I ever did. Never will I be able to drink enough to make up for this time."^[9] Sorge was a heavy drinker and, later, his drinking came to undermine his work. While in Germany, he was able to get commissions from two newspapers, the Borsen Zeitung and the Tagliche Rundschau. He also got support from the Nazi theoretical journal, Geopolitik. Later he was to get work from the Frankfurter Zeitung. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Disambiguation Page Global Depositary Receipt East Germany ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... From A Counterintelligence Reader [1]: Hede Massing, an Austrian-born Soviet intelligence operative who served in the United States in the 1930s . ...

Sorge arrived in Yokohama on September 6, 1933. He was warned by his spymaster not to have contact with the underground Japanese Communist Party or with the Soviet Embassy in Tokyo. His spy network in Japan included Red Army officer and radio operator Max Gottfried Friedrich Clausen^[10], Hotsumi Ozaki, and two other Comintern agents, Branko Vukelic, a journalist working for the French magazine, Vu and a Japanese journalist, Miyagi Yotoku, who was employed by the English-language newspaper, the Japan Advertiser. Max Clausen's wife Anna acted as ring courier from time to time. From summer 1937, Clausen the spy operated under cover of his firm set up with Soviet funds but which in time became a commercial success, M Clausen Shokai suppliers of blueprint machinery and reproduction services. For a tire company, known by Yokohama Tyre, see Yokohama Rubber Company. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Tokyo ), the common English name for the Tokyo Metropolis ), is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and, unique among the prefectures, provides certain municipal services characteristic of a city. ... Hotsumi Ozaki (尾崎秀実 Ozaki Hotsumi, 1901 - April 29, 1944) was a journalist working for the Asahi Shinbun. ... The two-letter abbreviation VU has several different meanings: VU is the country code of Vanuatu; .vu is its ccTLD. Air Ivoire, IATA airline designator Vivendi Universal, now Vivendi SA, a French company active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ...

In 1933-1934 Sorge built a network to collect intelligence for the NKVD in Japan. His agents had contacts with senior politicians and through that, to information of Japan's foreign policy. He also recontacted Hotsumi Ozaki who developed a close contact with the prime minister Fumimaro Konoe. Ozaki copied secret documents for Sorge. The NKVD (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del  ) (Russian: , ) or Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for political repressions during Stalinism. ... A countrys foreign policy is a set of political goals that seeks to outline how that particular country will interact with other countries of the world and, to a lesser extent, non-state actors. ... Hotsumi Ozaki (尾崎秀実 Ozaki Hotsumi, 1901 - April 29, 1944) was a journalist working for the Asahi Shinbun. ... Fumimaro Konoe Prince Fumimaro Konoe (è¿‘è¡ž{è¡› in Shinjitai} 文麿 Konoe Fumimaro) (sometimes Konoye, October 12, 1891–December 16, 1945) was a Japanese politician and the 34th (June 4, 1937–January 5, 1939), 38th (July 22, 1940–July 18, 1941) and 39th (July 18, 1941–October 18, 1941) Prime Minister of Japan. ...

At the time, collecting intelligence from inside Germany was more dangerous and difficult. Sorge was sent to Japan to collect information on Germany's plans. This was a similar tactic with the other soviet rings spying on Germany. The evidence of his communist past in German security files was overlooked, or hidden, according to Prange.

Officially Sorge joined the Nazi party and became a German journalist in Tokyo. In Tokyo he came to work closely with the German embassy and ambassador Eugen Ott. He used the embassy for double-checking his information, having access to telegrams in Ott's office. He even had an affair with Frau Ott, proof that he was entirely trusted at the embassy, but the stress also increased his drinking. National Socialism redirects here. ... Major General Eugen Ott (??-??), German ambassador to Japan (1938-1942), Military attaché to Japan (??-1938). ...

Wartime Intelligence supplied by the Sorge Ring

Sorge supplied the Soviet Red Army with information about the Anti-Comintern Pact, the German-Japanese Pact and warned of the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1941 Sorge is said to have informed them of the exact launch date of Operation Barbarossa. Moscow answered with thanks but Stalin largely ignored it^{[citation needed]}. This was the case with information supplied by the other networks, including Leiba Domb's Red Orchestra spy network on the German Borders (Stalin was reportedly so angry with Domb's information that he ordered that Domb be 'punished for spreading such lies'. Luckily, the order was not followed). The Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and Japan on November 25, 1936. ... The Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and Japan on November 25th, 1936. ... This article is about the actual attack. ... Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia  Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian Günther von Kluge Franz Halder Maresal Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Gariboldi, ARMIR Joseph Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... Leopold Trepper (February 23, 1904 - January 19, 1982) was an organizer of the Soviet spy ring Rote Kapelle (Red Orchestra) prior to and during World War II. Leopold Trepper was born to a Jewish family on February 23, 1904, in Nowy Targ, Poland (part of Austria-Hungary in that time). ... Die Rote Kapelle (the Red Orchestra) was the name given by the Gestapo to two Communist resistance rings in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. The Gestapo used the name Red Orchestra to refer to the Schulze-Boysen / Harnack group, an anti-Hitler resistance movement in Germany with international...

Gordon Prange's analysis (1984) was that the closest Sorge came to predicting the launch date of Operation Barbarossa was 20 June 1941 and Prange comments that Sorge himself never claimed to have discovered the correct date (22 June) in advance.^[11] The date of 20 June had been given to Sorge by Lt-Col Friedrich von Schol who was assistant military attache at the German embassy in Tokyo.^[12] As Sorge took pride in and sought the credit for the spy ring's work, Professor Prange may have taken Sorge's failure to claim that he had discovered the correct date as conclusive evidence that Sorge in fact did fail to discover it. Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia  Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian Günther von Kluge Franz Halder Maresal Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Gariboldi, ARMIR Joseph Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor...

In 1964, the Soviet press reported that on 15 June 1941 Sorge had broadcast a dispatch saying that, "The war will begin on June 22."^[13] Writing before previously-embargoed material was released by the Russian authorities in the 1990s, Prange and those writing with him appear not to have accepted the veracity of this report. More recently, Stalin was quoted as having ridiculed Sorge and his intelligence prior to the launch of Operation Barbarossa: Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia  Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian Günther von Kluge Franz Halder Maresal Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Gariboldi, ARMIR Joseph Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor...

"There's this bastard who's set up factories and brothels in Japan and even deigned to report the date of the German attack as 22 June. Are you suggesting I should believe him too?" ^[14]

On 14 September 1941 Sorge advised the Red Army that the Japanese were not going to attack the Soviet Union until a) Moscow was captured, b) the size of the Kwantung Army was three times that of the Soviet Union's Far Eastern forces and c) a civil war had started in Siberia. ^[15] This allowed the transfer of Siberian forces to the Moscow front and the successful Russian counterattacks in December 1941. The Kwantung Army or Guandong Army (関東軍 Japanese: Kantōgun) was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that originated from a Guandong garrison established in 1906 to defend the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. ...

Toward the end of September 1941, Sorge transmitted information that Japan was not going to attack the Soviet Union in the East.

"This information made possible the transfer of Soviet divisions from the Far East, although the presence of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria necessitated the Soviet Union's keeping a large number of troops on the eastern borders..."^[16] The Kwantung Army or Guandong Army (関東軍 Japanese: Kantōgun) was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that originated from a Guandong garrison established in 1906 to defend the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Various writers have speculated that this information lead to events that allowed the Soviet Union to repulse and eventually turn the tide against the Nazis. To this end, Sorge's information might have been the most important spy work in World War Two. At Chimki, a place at the Moscow city border enroute to Sheremetyevo International Airport, there is still a memorial plaque reminding visitors of this defining point of modern history. Sheremetyevo International Airport (Russian: Шереме́тьево) (IATA: SVO, ICAO: UUEE), is an International airport which serves Moscow, Russia. ...

The second most important piece of information he passed along concerned the Battle of Stalingrad - the turning point in the war which is considered one of the bloodiest and largest battles in history.^{[citation needed]} Richard Sorge alerted Moscow that Japan would attack the Soviet Union from the East as soon as the German army captured any city on the Volga, thus effectively disrupting oil supplies from Baku and also ammunition and food supplies sent by the allies from the Persian Gulf through Iran, Soviet Azerbaijan and up the Volga river.^{[citation needed]} Combatants Germany Romania Italy Hungary Croatia Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Friedrich Paulus # Erich von Manstein Hermann Hoth Petre Dumitrescu Constantin Constantinescu Italo Garibaldi Gusztav Jany Vasiliy Chuikov Aleksandr Vasilyevskiy Georgiy Zhukov Semyon Timoshenko Konstantin Rokossovskiy Rodion Malinovskiy Andrei Yeremenko Strength Army Group B: German Sixth Army # German Fourth Panzer... Coordinates: , Country Azerbaijan Government  - Mayor Hajibala Abutalybov Area  - City 260 km²  (100. ... Map of the Persian Gulf. ...

Arrests and trials

As the war progressed, it was becoming increasingly dangerous for Sorge to continue his spying work. Nevertheless, in view of the critical juncture of the war, he continued spying. However, due to the increasing volume of radio traffic from one-time pads (used by the Soviets), the Japanese began to suspect a spy ring operating. The Japanese secret service had already intercepted many of his messages and begun to close in. Ozaki was arrested on October 14, 1944 and interrogated. Excerpt from a one-time pad. ... is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sorge was warned about the secret police closing in. He decided to leave Japan along with his Japanese lover, who he had met at a local bar. However, a minor mistake cost him dearly. Instead of burning a note warning him, he threw it away on the road. The incriminating note was promptly recovered by the policemen tailing him. Sorge was arrested on October 18, 1944 in Tokyo, in the house of his lover. is the 291st day of the year (292nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Initially, the Japanese believed that, due to his Nazi party membership and German ties, Sorge was an Abwehr agent. However, the Abwehr denied that he was one of their agents. Even under torture, he denied all ties with the Soviets. Sorge was not exchanged for Japanese prisoners of war, because the Soviet government as well as Sorge himself denied that he was spying for USSR. He was incarcerated in Sugamo Prison. The Abwehr was a German intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944. ... Sugamo Prison (Sugamo Kōchi-sho,Kyūjitai:巢鴨拘置所,Shinjitai:巣鴨拘置所) was built in the 1920s for political prisoners, using the prisons of Europe as a model. ...

East German journalists holding a memorial ceremony during the 1964 Summer Olympics

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Execution

Richard Sorge was hanged on November 7, 1944, 10:20 a.m. Tokyo time. Hotsumi Ozaki was hanged earlier on the same day. The Soviet Union did not acknowledge Sorge until 1964. It was argued that Sorge's biggest coup led to his undoing, because Stalin could not afford to let it become known that he rejected his intelligence data about the German attack in 1941. However, it should also be mentioned that nations seldom officially recognize their own spies. Hanging is the suspension of a person by a ligature, usually a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. ...

Sorge was survived by his mother, still living in Germany. He left his estate to Anna Clausen.^[17] He was buried in the Sugamo Prison (Zhogaya) graveyard.^[18] His remains were later relocated to Tama Cemetery in western Tokyo. His lover Hanako Ishii continued to visit his grave until her death.

Posthumous comment and analyses

On November 5, 1964 Richard Sorge was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union. This may have been prompted by the visit to his grave during the 1964 Olympics. Three East German journalists wrote Dr. Sorge funkt aus Tokyo in 1965, glad to celebrate a half-Russian, half-German hero who had acted against fascism, given that the former East Germany and the Soviet Union were then members of the Warsaw Pact. In the lead up to the award Sorge's claim that Friedrich Adolf Sorge was his grandfather was gladly repeated in the Soviet press.^[19] In a strange cold war oddity, these authors stirred up a free speech scandal with patriotic letters to former Nazis in West Germany, causing the Verfassungsschutz to issue a stern warning in early 1967: "If you receive mail from a certain Julius Mader, do not reply to him and pass on the letter to the respective security authorities."^[20] is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Hero of the Soviet Union (Russian: Герой Советского Союза, Geroy Sovyetskovo Soyuza) was the highest honorary title and the superior degree of distinction of the Soviet Union. ... Unofficial Seal of the Warsaw Pact Distinguish from the Warsaw Convention, which is an agreement about airlines financial liability and the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) between West Germany and the Peoples Republic of Poland. ... Friedrich Adolph Sorge was born in Saxony in 1826 and died in the USA in 1906. ... Verfassungsschutz (Constitution Protection) is the short name for any of Germanys federal and state-based secret services for the interior. ...

In 1961 a movie called Qui êtes-vous, Monsieur Sorge? (Who Are You, Mr. Sorge?) was produced in France in collaboration with West Germany, Italy and Japan. This movie was very popular in the Soviet Union as well. In the movie, Sorge was played by Thomas Holtzmann.

Holtzmann as Sorge

An interesting but rather little-known conspiracy theory of the Cold War held that Richard Sorge had only been "mock-executed" by the Japanese and had actually been returned to the Soviet Union where he continued to work for the KGB. Though many mysteries of the Cold War have been solved since the fall of communism in the USSR, no proof of this theory has emerged. In one of his novels, M.E. Chaber (pen-name of Ken Crossen), an American writer who penned the Milo March detective series, has his hero meet an unnamed Russian master-spy who, the books hints, is none other than Richard Sorge. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... For other uses, see Conspiracy theory (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

Quotes

• "A devastating example of a brilliant success of espionage." - Douglas MacArthur, General of the Army

• "His work was impeccable." - Kim Philby

• "In my whole life, I have never met anyone as great as he was." - Mitsusada Yoshikawa, Chief Prosecutor in the Sorge trials who obtained Sorge's death sentence.

• "Sorge was the man whom I regard as the most formidable spy in history." - Ian Fleming

• "Richard Sorge was the best spy of all time." - Tom Clancy

• "The spy who changed the world." - Lance Morrow

• "Somehow, amidst the Bonds and Smiley's people, we have ignored the greatest of 20th century spy stories - that of Stalin's Sorge, whose exploits helped change history." - Carl Bernstein

• "Richard Sorge's brilliant espionage work saved Stalin and the Soviet Union from defeat in the fall of 1941, probably prevented a Nazi victory in World War Two and thereby assured the dimensions of the world we live in today." - Larry Collins

• "The spies in history who can say from their graves, the information I supplied to my masters, for better or worse, altered the history of our planet, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Richard Sorge was in that group." - Frederick Forsyth

• "Stalin's James Bond." - Le Figaro

• "There's this bastard who's set up factories and brothels in Japan and even deigned to report the date of the German attack as 22 June. Are you suggesting I should believe him too?"^[21] - Stalin prior to Operation Barbarossa

This article is about the American general; for the municipality in the Philippines, see General MacArthur, Eastern Samar. ... Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell Kim Philby or H.A.R. Philby (OBE: 1946-1965), (1 January 1912 – 11 May 1988) was a high-ranking member of British intelligence, a communist, and spy for the Soviet Unions NKVD and KGB. In 1963, Philby was revealed as a member of... Ian Lancaster Fleming (May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, journalist and Second World War Navy Commander. ... Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. ... Lance Morrow is professor of journalism and Fellow of the University Professors at Boston University, a writer for Time Magazine, and author of several books. ... Smileys People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979, by Random House (ISBN 0394508432). ... Carl Bernstein (left) and Bob Woodward (right)This image is pending deletion. ... Larry Collins is the writer of several historical books, mainly in collaboration with Dominique Lapierre. ... Frederick Forsyth. ... Le Figaro (English: ) is one of the leading French morning daily newspapers. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Виссарионович Сталин), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: იოსებ ჯუღაშვი&#4314... Combatants Germany, Romania, Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia  Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian Günther von Kluge Franz Halder Maresal Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Gariboldi, ARMIR Joseph Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor...

Further reading

• Whymant, Robert. Stalin's Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1996 (hardcover, ISBN 1-86064-044-3); New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2006 (paperback, ISBN 1-84511-310-1); referred to in the Notes below as "Whymant".
• Prange, Gordon W. Gordon Prange with Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon Target Tokyo The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring. New York: McGraw-Hill 1984. ISBN 0-07-050677-9; referred to in the Notes below as "Prange".
• Deakin, F.W. and Storry, G.R. The case of Richard Sorge. London: Chatto & Windus 1966 is an early, but sensitive and beautifully written account by two leading British historians of the time. It is informed by their differing perspectives, Deakin being an authority on 20th century European history and Storry an authority on 20th century Japan.

Gordon William Prange was the author of several World War II-based manuscripts, published after his death in 1980. ...

Notes

From A Counterintelligence Reader [1]: Hede Massing, an Austrian-born Soviet intelligence operative who served in the United States in the 1930s . ... Simon Sebag Montefiore (1965- ) is a British academic of jewish origin specializing in Russian History. ...

See also

• Agnes Smedley

Agnes Smedley, (February 23, 1892--6 May 1950) was an American journalist and writer known for her chronicling of the Chinese revolution. ...

See Related

An fictional account of Sorge's activities is Letze Karte spielt der Tod by Hans Hellmut Kirst, published in English as The Last Card (New York: Pyramid Publications, Inc., 1967) and Death Plays the Last Card (London: Fontana, 1968). Hans Hellmut Kirst (December 5, 1914 - February 13, 1989) was a distinguished German author. ...

The 2000 short story collection The Question of Bruno by Aleksandar Hemon also extensively features Sorge. Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Aleksandar Hemon is a Bosnian fiction writer living in the United States. ...

External links

• Qui êtes-vous, Monsieur Sorge? at the Internet Movie Database
• The 2003 Japanese movie Spy Sorge about Richard Sorge's life includes some scenes shot in Kitakyushu, including one at the West Japan Industrial Club in Tobata ward, and another (a press conference) at the Mitsui club in Moji-ko.