Sorge Richard is one of the prominent 20th century scouts. His group acted in Japan for many years, informing the leadership of the USSR about the political situation in the world.
Early years, youth
Richard was born in Sabunchi (Azerbaijan) on October 4, 1896. His father was German, worked as an engineer in an oil company. Mother is Russian, her father was a railwayman.
The family later lived in Germany. Richard's childhood was calm, the family was quite wealthy. Sorge studied well, but did not finish secondary education, as the First World War began, and he went to the front in 1914 as a volunteer. For his merits, he was promoted, awarded with the Iron Cross.
In 1917, Richard was seriously injured, he was operated on, but he became disabled, and he was commissioned. Being cured, Richard talked with the socialists, studied the works of Marx.
After writing out, Richard began to study further, graduated from university, became a scientist in the field of state and law. Sorge also defended a dissertation in economics.
Political activity
Richard is familiar with the Communist leader Thalmann, participated in the 1918 uprising, engaged in arming the population. He also led revolutionary activities in Berlin, Hamburg.
In 1924, Richard began to live in Moscow, where he was invited by employees of the Comintern. He was an employee of the information department, party research institute. His articles on the revolutionary movement in the USA, Germany, were published in large media.
Intelligence service
In 1929, Richard began cooperation with the intelligence of the Red Army, then became a resident of the Intelligence Directorate. In 1930, Sorge began work in Shanghai. He made acquaintance with Hotsumi Ozaki, a Japanese journalist with communist views, who provided the intelligence officer with the necessary information. The scout also had acquaintances among influential people. He was able to collect information about advisers.
Since 1933, the scout has been operating in Japan, where he was able to organize a network of agents. He got a job at the foreign embassy as an employee of the German media. Richard's group operated until 1941, and managed to find out about the German attack. Information was also received that Japan would not fight. This made it possible to transport divisions from Moscow to the east.
In 1941, Richard, other members of the group were arrested and found evidence of their activities. Senior friends could not help Sorge. He was sentenced to death, executed on November 7, 1944.
Information about the Sorge group became available to ordinary people only in the 60s. For a long time, the country's leadership did not take into account the merits of a scout, but in 1964 he was awarded the title Hero of the USSR (posthumously).
