Richard Sorge: Leading the Intelligence Network in Japan (1933-1941)

Abstract

The public of the West learned about the activities of the outstanding Soviet intelligence agent Richard Sorge immediately after the end of the Second World War, thanks to the assessments of his activities in American sources. In the USSR, he became widely known only in 1964 thanks to Nikita Khrushchev. The article shows that the combination of personal and professional qualities of Sorge, ideological motivation allowed him to achieve outstanding results in intelligence activities. It is noted that under his leadership, illegal residencies in China, and then in Japan, received unique intelligence information, which helped the leadership and military command of the USSR to make informed political and military-strategic decisions. Richard Sorge was one of the most prominent intelligence officers in the history of the intelligence services. The authors describe facts that characterize the daily work of an intelligence officer: how he headed residencies in extremely difficult countries for work, successfully managed agent networks, personally conducted recruiting work, collected important intelligence information, analyzed it and prepared reports to Moscow. The organization of networks led by Sorge has been studied by many foreign intelligence services and has consistently been highly rated. In publications dedicated to Sorge, two approaches to creating his image are clearly traced, which is noted by the authors of the article. The first approach presents him as the archetype of a movie hero, agent and super spy, receiving classified information in alcoves and restaurants. It is designed for the general reader and first appeared in the West. Another image, partially ideologized and propagandistic, spread in the USSR and East Germany. He presented Richard as a knight of the revolution without fear or reproach. In this article, the authors made an attempt to create a real and objective assessment of his activities, in particular in Japan. The authors of the article, using Western and new Russian sources, have chosen the method of historical psychology in order to represent the way of thinking of this outstanding person and connect it with his actions in leading the group entrusted to him.