Myths and Truths about Richard Sorge

[Paul Rigby]

TOKYO RESIDENTS. MYTHS AND TRUTH ABOUT THE SCOUTS RICHARD SORGE

Источник: http://rusdozor.ru/2015/10/19/tokijskij-...rde-zorge/
© RusDozor.ru

The hero of French cinema In 1964, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev saw the film by French director Yves Ciampi "Who are you, Dr. Sorge?" Hudozhestvennny film was dedicated to the history of the German journalist who is in fact a resident of Soviet intelligence in Japan.

Impressed by what he saw, Khrushchev ordered to find out whether there was a spy in real life. After receiving an affirmative answer, Khrushchev ordered a review of all materials related to Sorge. September 4, 1964 the newspaper "Pravda" published an article about Richard Sorge. It scout described as a hero, the first to receive information about the plans of attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union June 22, 1941. The article claimed that only the personal ambitions of Stalin and his distrust of the scout led to the fact that no appropriate measures were taken to repel the German invasion.

Oct. 14, 1964, Nikita Khrushchev was removed from all his posts and sent into retirement. The resignation of the Soviet leader, however, had no effect on the processes associated with the name Sorge. November 5, 1964, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Over the next decades, the image created in the 1960s, but was fixed in the public consciousness. Hero of the spy, who suffers because of distrust of leadership caused by manic suspiciousness "Great Leader", but continued to serve the motherland and sacrifice for her life - so were Richard Sorge Soviet citizens.

German Azerbaijan

In fact Sorge, invented in the time of Khrushchev, much different from the real person. There was in fact no reports of the exact date of the beginning of the war, no faithful love of the only woman remaining in the Soviet Union and then became a victim of repression. Few people know, but Richard Sorge to the most recent days have not learned the Russian language perfectly, although his mother was Russian. He had an amazing life and amazing destiny, more similar to the book of James Bond, the only difference is that at the end of his "book of life", he still failed ...

Richard Sorge was born on October 4, 1895 in the Russian Empire, in Baku, in the family of a German engineer Gustav Wilhelm Sorge and his second wife, Nina Semyonovna Kobeleva. Father Richard worked in the oil company of Nobel brothers, and then opened his own studio drilling equipment. When Richard, the youngest of five children, three years old, the family moved to Germany Sorge. Russian boy did not know the language - in the family spoke only German.

The war made him a communist

Great-grandfather Richard was Friedrich Adolph Sorge, associate of Karl Marx on the First International. Richard had never seen it - at a relative measures in the US when he was 10 years old - but always admired him. Father Richard died early, having, however, to create a good family material conditions. These conditions sufficed before the First World War. In 1914, Richard Sorge, who was not yet 19 years old, volunteered to join the military. The young man seized patriotic impulse, he rushed to the front to fight for Greater Germany. Richard was almost the entire war, from 1914 to 1918, rising to sergeant Field Artillery and received three wounds. Third, the last almost cost him his legs - because of its effects, he walked with a limp for the rest of life. Richard returned from the front with an aversion to war, and those who set off this massacre. In the hospital he first met with the left socialists and joined their movement.

Five minutes shot Ph.D.

War-torn man retained strength of character. On the front he left without completing the last grade of school. During treatment in hospitals Richard managed to pass the exams in high school and enrolled at the Medical Faculty of the University of Berlin. Then he changed the medicine to study political science and economics. After demobilization in January 1918, Sorge was transferred to the University of Kiel.

Surprisingly, in these years, Richard successfully combines exercise science and policy. He participates in a number of performances of the left forces, and at the same time in August 1919, defended his doctoral thesis at the Department of State Law on "Imperial rates of the Central Union of German Consumers' Societies." The author of the thesis, which received brilliant reviews, shortly before it was almost executed for participating in the uprising. In October 1919, the Socialist Group joins Richard Sorge of the Communist Party of Germany. Sorge has been a lot of work of the party, headed by the German Communist Party School. In 1924, during the 9 th Congress of the KKE Richard Sorge accompanied by a group of representatives of the Communist International, attending the congress. After that Richard gets a job offer in Moscow, in the structures of the Communist International.

The agent of the Comintern

Sorge at this moment is already married first marriage. His wife Christine will travel with him in the USSR, but the struggle for communist ideals quickly bored girl, two years later, she will throw Richard and return to Germany. Sorge himself spent five years in various positions in the Comintern, colleagues remember principled rigidity of judgment and a great capacity for work. Moscow is not formally divorced Richard met with Ekaterina Maximova, who became his second wife. In the fall of 1929 Sorge transferred to work in the Red Army Intelligence - the future of the GRU. So it becomes an employee of the Comintern military intelligence. For intelligence, he is a real find - in fluent German, well educated, erudite man, able to cause me to location. In addition, great Sorge writes not only the thesis but also articles for the periodical press, which allows it to operate under completely plausible descriptions of the German journalist.

Mission to China

In 1930 he began working as a reporter for the German newspaper in China, under the government of Chiang Kai-shek. The information he reported to Moscow recognized very valuable. In China, Sorge meets Hotsumi Ozaki, Tokyo correspondent of the newspaper "Asahi Osaka." It was a historic meeting - it Ozaki will be one of the main informants Sorge during his work in Japan. Ozaki eventually share the sad fate of Sorge ... Sorge's trip to China was completed in 1932, and immediately after the preparation for the mission in Japan. But first Sorge went to Germany to establish relations in the offices of the German media, which he was supposed to represent Japan. He lives in Germany, has already become a Nazi, in his name, he did not hide the fact that he lived in the Soviet Union. It was, they say, infatuation communist ideas, but I have left in the past. Sorge manages not cause anybody suspicious. In Japan, he travels, having acquired in Germany a mass of useful contacts and relationships, including diplomats, military and prominent figures of the Nazi party.

The journalist, racer and womanizer

Over the next few years, he not only makes Japan's extensive network of agents. At the same time he becomes a reporter, which is known and appreciated in Germany, a man whose articles attracted the attention of orientalists. However, he soul of the German nationals working in Japan. He participates in all parties and holiday fun, it entree into any offices of the German Embassy. Among his friends high-ranking Gestapo, which is responsible for the identification of "suspicious elements" among the citizens of the Reich in Germany. But Sorge, a lover of crazy races on a motorcycle, a connoisseur of fine liquor, ladies' man, is beyond suspicion. Moreover, when the military attache Eugen Ott, a friend of the journalist, became the German ambassador to Japan, Sorge was the place the press-secretary of the German Embassy. "Lovelace" - is not to be witty. The history of "Everlasting Love" at a distance of Ekaterina Maximova, to put it mildly, exaggerated. For several years in Japan Sorge lived his third, common-law wife, Hanako Ishii. And many of those who knew Sorge in Japan, saying that by his mistresses went to dozens. Suspect in this person resident Soviet intelligence was absolutely incredible. The Germans never suspected - even when Sorge was captured by the Japanese counterintelligence, representatives of the German Embassy fumed and raged, demanding the release of "innocent journalist." Then, when the Japanese presented convincing evidence and recognition of Sorge, official Berlin demanded the issuance of "traitor". However, the Japanese felt that the damage caused to the state Sorge, much more.

What is reported and what is not reported Richard Sorge

There are many myths associated with the activities of Richard Sorge. For example, this - during the repressions of 1937-1938 scout would withdraw to Moscow to be judged as an "enemy of the people". Sorge also allegedly suspecting such an opportunity, he refused to come to the Soviet Union. This version, however, is not confirmed. Moreover, after several years of intensive work, the scout has repeatedly appealed to Moscow with a request to revoke. However, to fully replace it proved Sorge there is nobody, and the information supplied to them, was too valuable to abandon this source. Colorful stories about how paranoid Stalin trampled encryption Sorge with the exact date of the German attack - pure fiction Khrushchev era. In fact, information about the date of the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union from Sorge came several times, and each time the dates were different. The fact that the source of information Sorge were members of the German Embassy and the German counter-intelligence in this period deliberately spread false reports among diplomats about the upcoming military action in order to mislead the enemy. Sorge really said that Japan has no intention to attack the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1941, which allowed to transfer under the reinforcements from Siberia to Moscow, which largely determined the outcome of the Battle of Moscow. But here it is necessary to understand - this crucial strategic information only became the Soviet command for a guide to action, when it was confirmed from several independent sources. Based on data of one scout in such a situation would be unacceptable frivolity.

Secrets of the radio operator issued

By the fall of 1941, the Japanese intelligence services were following on the heels of Sorge. His first radio message was intercepted in 1937. In 1938, his team almost failed because of the resident. Sorge crashed on a motorcycle to present themselves with a large sum of money and secret documents. Saved only by the fact that Sorge did not lose consciousness until such time as it is able to transfer all come to his radioman-cipher group Max Clausen. Clausen also had to withdraw from the home of Richard Sorge compromising documents before the staff of the German Embassy sealed his paper. At Max Clausen in the history of Richard Sorge is not the most worthy role. When in October 1941 the police arrested Sorge and his group Clausen on the first interrogation gave all that he knew about the encryption codes that allowed the Japanese to read the telegrams of the Soviet resident. If he Sorge, recognizing that a communist and working on the Soviet Union, did not renounce his views and beliefs, which is confirmed by the materials of his interrogation, the Max Clausen not only told what he knew, but also throw mud at their comrades and then, who served. Calling a spade a spade, a man saved his own skin, and he saved her, received a life sentence instead of a death sentence that has been imposed Sorge and Ozaki Hotsumi. Surprisingly, after the liberation in 1946 to Max Clausen issues have arisen. He was treated in the USSR, and then went to East Germany and ended his life respected and honored pensioner GDR.

Was Sorge "inconvenient witness"?

The death sentence was handed down Richard Sorge, September 29, 1943. More than a year he spent on death row awaiting execution. And around this fact, there is another myth - that Stalin had allegedly turned down an offer for the exchange of Japanese Sorge. The source of this legend is considered to be another Soviet agent, member of the "Red Orchestra" Leopold Trepper, the word refers to the Japanese general, with whom he shared a cell in the Lubyanka prison. But, first, no other source confirms the reality of such a proposal. Second, it does not stand up to criticism of the Stalinist motivation of refusal - allegedly the leader did not want to remain in the living witness who knows about the "secrets of June 22". However, the caveat is that this "mystery" had to know at least one more person - Max Clausen radio operator transmitted coded messages Sorge. As you already know, this "witness" for some reason was not executed the NKVD and not rotted in the camps, and happily lived their days in the GDR. This can be explained only by one - there was no mystery, as there was no offer from the Japanese on the exchange. And strange to the proposal looked. Formally, the USSR and Japan is not at war, but Japan was an ally of Germany. And as if in the eyes of Moscow, Berlin looked issuing its agent, which is a German citizen?

Heart scout

Richard Sorge was hanged in the Tokyo jail "Sugamo" November 7, 1944 at 10:20 am. The body Scout was very strong - the prison doctor gave cardiac arrest only after eight minutes. For many years it was believed that before his execution Sorge shouted: "Long live the Red Army! Long live the Communist International! "However, found in 2004 in Japan, a document describing the procedure execution is not recorded anything like this. They say that Sorge was quiet, thanked prison officers and held in the chamber for the execution of sentences. It is possible, of course, that Japanese officials do not dare make a sedition in the protocol, but, most likely, the last words of Richard Sorge - just one of the many myths about it. His popularity in the West in the early 1960s, Soviet spy obliged Americans. It is they who, after the Second World War was found in the archives of the Japanese "business Sorge." For several years, these materials have been studied as an aid for the Soviet secret police. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, Americans are also very interested in the question is not whether the Soviet Union was pushing Japan into war with the United States.

All the secrets will not be disclosed ever

In 1949, materials about Sorge were published first in the Japanese press, where they moved in the media of other countries. Initially, Richard Sorge was buried in a common grave in the yard of the prison "Sugamo". Subsequently, the remains of Soviet intelligence were reburied American occupation authorities in the Tama Cemetery in Tokyo saluting military honors. As already mentioned, the myth of Richard Sorge, created in the USSR in the mid-1960s, is far from the truth, but there is no doubt that Richard Sorge was an outstanding intelligence, to serve the Soviet Union and the end believed in their ideals. All the secrets of Richard Sorge, may never be revealed until the end. Such is the fate of the scout.