Richard Sorge: The Soviet's Spy in World War II Japan

The Weider History Group's web site http://www.historynet.com/ offers an interesting piece on Richard Sorge, the Soviet's spy in Japan in World War II. The piece was written by Stuart D. Goldman.

Working under the cover of a German journalist, the half-German, half-Russian Sorge reported to the GRU, Soviet military intelligence. His spy ring was eventually rolled up by the Japanese and he was hanged in 1944.

You can read the piece via the below link:

http://www.historynet.com/the-spy-who-saved-the-soviets.htm

I read a good book on Sorge a while back called Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring by Gordon W. Prange. If you're interested in Sorge, espionage and World War II, you'll find this book fascinating.

Sorge has often been compared to Ian Fleming's fictional secret agent James Bond and some state that Fleming based Bond on Sorge.

Although Sorge, like Sidney Reilly, the British spy, was a womanizer and a somewhat glamorous spy, I don't believe that Ian Fleming based Bond on the communist agent.

Fleming based Bond on the British Navy commandos and secret agents he met while serving as a World War II British naval intelligence officer. Fleming also infused Bond with a good bit of his own personality.

Fleming, of course, knew of Sorge and his accomplishments as a wartime spy. Sorge is considered to be one of the greatest spies of the 20th Century.

In 1965 the Soviets declared Sorge a Hero of the Soviet Union and commemorated his life with stamp (see below).


You can read more about espionage (and crime) via the link below to my old blog at GreatHistory.com.
*
http://greathistory.com/members/pauldavisoncrime/blogs/recent-posts