Richard
Sorge,
code
name
Ramsay,
was
the
most
famous
Russian
spy
in
Japan
during
World
War
Two.
Sorge
was
born
in
Baku,
Russia,
today’s
Azerbaijan,
on
October
4,
1895.
His
father
was
a
German
mining
engineer,
his
mother
was
Russian.
In
1898
the
family
moved
to
Berlin,
Germany
where
Richard
had
a
happy,
comfortable
childhood.
World
War
One
broke
out
in
October
1914.
Sorge
volunteered
on
the
front.
In
March
1919,
he
was
seriously
wounded
by
a
grenade.
The
injury
caused
him
to
walk
with
a
limp
for
the
rest
of
his
life.
During
his
convalescence,
he
read
Karl
Marx,
the
father
of
scientific
socialism.
Sorge
took
to
the
revolutionary
spirit
with
passion.
He
signed
up
for
the
German
Communist
Party
and
joined
“Apparatus
M,”
a
covert
group
that
aimed
to
organize
a
revolution
in
Germany
similar
to
the
Bolshevik
Revolution
in
Russia.
In
1920,
Sorge
earned
a
degree
in
political
science
and
began
teaching.
However,
he
was
soon
fired
for
his
radical
ideas.
Sorge
decided
to
leave
for
Moscow,
where
he
became
a
secret
agent
for
Comintern,
an
organization
that
united
communist
parties
from
around
the
globe.
In
1929
he
was
transferred
to
“Fourth
Bureau,”
a
Russian
military
espionage
department.
After
some
brief
assignments
in
Europe,
Sorge
was
sent
to
Shanghai,
China
for
three
years,
where
he
was
responsible
for
all
espionage
activity.
During
his
stay
in
China,
Sorge
developed
a
cover
as
a
correspondent
for
the
daily
newspaper,
Frankfurter
Zeitung,
that
he
would
use
from
then
on.
Hitler
rose
to
power
in
1933.
Sorge
received
orders
to
gather
information
on
Nazi
Germany’s
foreign
policies
and
organize
a
spy
ring
in
Japan,
Germany’s
main
ally
in
World
War
Two.
On
September
8,
he
arrived
in
Yokohama.
Sorge
was
extraordinarily
cultured
and
refined.
His
personal
library
numbered
over
a
thousand
books
on
the
Orient.
He
was
gifted
with
great
intelligence,
charm
and
was
a
gifted
communicator,
all
of
which
led
to
him
becoming
a
protagonist
of
fashionable
society
in
Tokyo.
There
were
only
five
people
in
his
spy
ring,
and
they
worked
on
a
shoestring
budget.
Sorge
had
only
one
transmitter
and
was
allotted
just
a
thousand
dollars
per
month.
Despite
these
handicaps,
he
managed
to
obtain
extraordinary
results.
On
May
15,
1941,
more
than
a
month
in
advance,
he
transmitted
the
exact
date
of
Operation
Barbarossa,
the
Nazi’s
plan
to
invade
the
Soviet
Union.
Stalin
doubted
the
information
and
did
not
take
provisions.
As
a
result,
Russian
soldiers
were
initially
overwhelmed.
Sorge
was
disillusioned
that
Stalin
did
not
believe
his
information.
He
started
drinking
heavily
and
took
fewer
precautions.
As
a
result,
he
was
discovered
by
the
Japanese
a
few
months
later
in
October
1941.
At
his
hearing,
Sorge
confessed
everything,
saying:
“If
I
had
worked
for
the
Allies
instead
of
Russia,
history
would
crown
my
name
with
the
same
halo
it
used
to
crown
the
names
of
Winston
Churchill
and
Franklin
Roosevelt”.
Richard
Sorge
was
executed
on
November
7,
1944
at
ten
o’clock
in
the
morning.
He
was
49.