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Stalin's Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring

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Richard Sorge,the man who changed the course of history,my favourite spy.

Born in 1896 at Baku ,Azerbaijan, to a German father and a Russian mother.Sorge grew up as a loyal citizen of imperial Germany and upon the outbreak of First World War enrolled in Kaiser's army.It was while recuperating from a battle wound that he came under communist influence.Soon after Germany's surrender he joined communist party and later went on to become a comintern agent.

Impressed by his activities Sorge was recruited into the GRU by Jan Karlovich Berzin founder and its head.After completing his posting in Shanghai, China, Sorge was assigned to Tokyo. Things were hotting up for the Russians .After the Mukden incident in September 1931,the Japanese army invaded Manchuria and the buffer zone which shielded Soviet Far East ceased to exist.Now Kwantung Army stood at its very door step.

In Germany Hitler had come to power.Germany and Japan were trying to forge closer ties which could lead to an encircling alliance. Hence Sorge was told to penetrate the German Embassy by his Soviet masters. For this purpose he started perfecting a journalistic cover .Took up the job of Tokyo correspondent of German paper Frankfurter Zeitung and also got a accredition to the German Embassy in Tokyo. Then reinforced his bonafides by taking Nazi party membership.

In Tokyo Sorge befriended Col.Eugen Ott the German military attache who later became the ambassador and won his trust .Soon Ott started passing confidential information to his friend.After the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 Sorge worked in the Press section of the Embassy. GRU now had eyes in the Nazi citadel and access to information of crucial importance to Soviet strategic planning.Sorge's bonhomie with the German Embassy officials in Tokyo helped him to know Hitlers's biggest secret:Nazi Gernany was planning to invade Soviet Union.The information was first brought to his notice by Lt.Col. Erwin Scholl who succeded Ott to the post of Military Attache. This report was later confirmed by Ambassador Ott, Sorge promptly informed his Soviet masters.

But Stalin contemptously brushed aside this report and later paid a heavy price for doing so.Another important contact that Sorge cultivated in Japan was Ozaki Hotsumi with whom he became friendly at Shanghai . Hotsumi , a journalist working for Japanese daily Asahi ,had many contacts in Nipponese Government circles.With the help of this wily Japanese ,Sorge informed Moscow of how Germany and Japan were co-ordinating their policies . On 27 September 1940 Japan signed Tripartite Pact, joined Rome -Berlin Axis.The pact designed to ensure mutual security of Axis powers ;however,Germany had other designs.

Berlin wanted to harness Tokyo in its global strategy to contain her adversaries. Soviet Union had a cause for concern. On June 22 ,1941,Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa,the invasion of Soviet Union.Immediately the Nazi Foreign Minister Hans Joachim Ribbentrop started putting pressure on Tokyo. He wanted Japan to renounce its neutrality pact with Russsia and fall on her rear.

It was now that Sorge scored the biggest intelligence triumphs of his career. Sorge through his Japanese contact Hotsumi endeavoured to find out for his Soviet masters how Japan would react to this proposal.Tokyo procrastinated adopted a policy of cautious opportunism. Besides relations with Western powers deteriorated when US imposed an oil embargo on August 1 1941.Attempts to resolve the dispute through diplomatic means failed.Konoye Government resigned and war party under Hideki Tojo assumed power October 16,1941.This made war with US certain.

The Soviet Far East for a while would be safe from the depredations of Kwantung Army.By mid-October 1941,Sorge's radioman tapped out in Morse code to Moscow of these political developments which had a profound historical impact. Wehrmacht's armoured spearheads were now within the striking distance of Moscow as Stalin started denuding Far Eastern front. According to John Keegan in his "'Second World War" ,the force withdrawn amounted to 10 divisions ,1000 tanks and 1000 aircraft in October and November.The redeployed Siberian divisions managed to contain the German drive to take the Soviet Capital. Later Marshal Zhukov used them to launch a massive counter-offensive which evicted the German invaders from the approaches to Moscow.

Undoubtedly Sorge's information was instrumental in saving Soviet capital which otherwise would have been difficult to defend.This brings to my mind what Napoleon had said two centuries ago "one spy in the right place is worth 20,000 men in the field."Tokyo spy net work which worked flawlessly, impeccably was betrayed to Tokko (Japanese special Police) by Ito Ritsu, a communist turned police agent. Tokko apprehended few members of the spy network ,a trail which led to Ozaki and Sorge.After a trial which lasted for two years both died in the gallows of Sugamo prison on Nov.7,1944.

The author has written a spicy account of Sorge's life . Many pages of the book is filled with lurid details of this remarkable agent's private life which I found boring. In the foreward Mr Whymant says this is by no means a final book on Richard Sorge. I wonder what more details on him need to be unraveled.On the whole a well - written book,use of Japanese words has made the prose quite colourful..

Well written, hard to put the book down. Especially interesting for history buffs. Many lessons can be learned by the way that Dr. Sorge used his charm and personality to influence the German Diplomatic Corps. This book should be required reading for anyone in the intelligence community. Learn from the past...

This is a very interesting book for anyone who wants to discover the inner secrets of USSR's repulse of the German onslaught in 1941. Richard Sorge was a charismatic communist idealist who became a useful tool at the hands of GRU and set a highly efficient network of spies inside Japan from 1933 to 1941. Whymant proves that many things that are known about Sorge are pure myths (like that he was arrested in bed, while lying in the arms of a Japanese beauty) and constructs a wonderful story of the man and his era, jumping from the great strategic issues to the twists and oddities of that extremely dynamic and charming personality. I found extremeley sad the fact that Sorge was so afraid of returning to the USSR (where he was considered a drunkard, a womanizer and a trotskist) albeit he served her so well, and he felt so lonely that let himself to be trapped by the agents of the "Tokko" secret police. Also mysterious was his behavior after his arrest when he cooperated completely with his captors providing them with a wealth of information on GRU's actions in Japan. A highly recommende book for the fans of deadly spying games on a grand scale.

The book was very well written using many different sources such as the people who knew him as well as Richard Sorge himself. For someone who is going to read this book they should remember that this book does center on Richard Sorge and not only on his spying. Therefore it sometimes gets a little tedious when it quotes someone's feelings about him and how they were suspicious of him. Overall it is very good and shows the reader what the life of a spy is really like.

The economic boycott of Japan by America, Britain, China and the Dutch East Indies of oil and other essential raw materials had a cause. That cause was Japan's incursion into China and Indochina.
Japan refused to give up the territories occupied. Japan had also become a member of the three powers, Germany, Japan, Italy.
Without meeting the conditions of giving up territories occupied and leaving the allignment with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the economic boycott would not go away.
The move to militancy and the decision to go to war with Britain and the United States now proved inevitable.
In Japan, a Soviet spy, Richard Sorge, saw this development at its' source. Stalin refuted the reports of German build-up to attack the Soviet Union which lead to deep entry into Russia and immense loss of life.
Conditions lead to conditions. War was inevitable. Chaos follows calm. Intelligence ignored, the stage for a widened war was soon to follow.

I first became aware of Richard Sorge in college history class. My professor was awed by him. A well written book about a very interesting person. He was mostly unhappy, albeit a productive and effective man, but unappreciated as so often happens. I found it interesting, and I'm surprised a movie hasn't been forthcoming by now, but I'm a history buff too.