What do you think?
Rate this book
An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent
The thrilling true story of Richard Sorge - the man John le Carré called 'the spy to end spies', and whose actions turned the tide of the Second World War
Richard Sorge was a man with two homelands. Born of a German father and a Russian mother in Baku in 1895, he moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. A member of the angry and deluded generation who found new, radical faiths after their experiences on the battlefields of the First World War, Sorge became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy.
Like many great spies, Sorge was an effortless seducer, combining charm with ruthless manipulation. He did not have to go undercover to find out closely guarded state secrets - his victims willingly shared them. As a foreign correspondent, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society in the years leading up to and including the Second World War. His intelligence regarding Operation Barbarossa and Japanese intentions not to invade Siberia in 1941 proved pivotal to the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war.
Never before has Sorge's story been told from the Russian side as well as the German and Japanese. Owen Matthews takes a sweeping historical perspective and draws on a wealth of declassified Soviet archives - along with testimonies from those who knew and worked with Sorge - to rescue the riveting story of the man described by Ian Fleming as 'the most formidable spy in history'.
Richard Sorge was a man with two homelands. Born of a German father and a Russian mother in Baku in 1895, he moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. A member of the angry and deluded generation who found new, radical faiths after their experiences on the battlefields of the First World War, Sorge became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union's most formidable spy.
Like many great spies, Sorge was an effortless seducer, combining charm with ruthless manipulation. He did not have to go undercover to find out closely guarded state secrets - his victims willingly shared them. As a foreign correspondent, he infiltrated and influenced the highest echelons of German, Chinese and Japanese society in the years leading up to and including the Second World War. His intelligence regarding Operation Barbarossa and Japanese intentions not to invade Siberia in 1941 proved pivotal to the Soviet counteroffensive in the Battle of Moscow, which in turn determined the outcome of the war.
Never before has Sorge's story been told from the Russian side as well as the German and Japanese. Owen Matthews takes a sweeping historical perspective and draws on a wealth of declassified Soviet archives - along with testimonies from those who knew and worked with Sorge - to rescue the riveting story of the man described by Ian Fleming as 'the most formidable spy in history'.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published December 10, 2019
About the author
Owen Matthews
14 books133 followersOwen Matthews is a British writer, historian and journalist. His first book, Stalin's Children, was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Books Award, the Orwell Prize for political writing, and France's Prix Medicis Etranger. His books have been translated into 28 languages. He is a former Moscow and Istanbul Bureau Chief for Newsweek Magazine. Matthews has lectured on Russian history and politics at Columbia University's Harriman Centre, St Antony's College Oxford, and the Journalism Faculty of Moscow State University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
January 15, 2020
Who was the greatest spy of the twentieth century?
Was it Kim Philby (1912-88), who served Moscow for three decades? Philby’s revelations led to the execution of numberless British and American agents behind the Iron Curtain, and his defection in 1963 pushed the CIA’s James Jesus Angleton over the abyss into the full-blown paranoia that almost destroyed the Agency.
Or was it Eli Cohen (1924-65), whose undercover work in Damascus helped Tel Aviv win the lightning Arab-Israeli war in 1967?
How about Aldrich Ames (1941-)? He compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other officer in history . . . until Robert Hanssen‘s arrest seven years later in 2001.
And British nuclear scientist Klaus Fuchs (1911-88) gave Josef Stalin the secret of the atomic bomb.
In fact, perhaps that greatest spy was none of these men. It might well have been someone, either a man or a woman, who is entirely unknown to history, someone whose work has never come to light.
But in An Impeccable Spy, Owen Matthews makes a convincing case that Richard Sorge (1895-1944), “Stalin’s Master Agent,” merits the distinction. Certainly, Ian Fleming thinks so. He termed Sorge “the most formidable spy in history.”
Was this man really the greatest spy of the twentieth century?
So, why would Ian Fleming say that about Richard Sorge? Here, from the pages of Owen Matthews’s brilliantly researched biography, are a few facts:
Scholar, journalist, and spy
Sorge, who was born in the Russian Empire of a Russian mother and a German father, spoke both languages flawlessly (among others). He held a doctorate in political science from the University of Hamburg and in the course of his life turned out turgid scholarly articles as well a torrent of analysis and commentary on Chinese and Japanese politics for Germany’s most prestigious newspaper, the Frankfurter Zeitung. He was so widely respected both as a journalist and as a scholar that some of those closest to him during World War II refused to believe after the war that he had been a spy.
He was equally effective in spying on Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan
Sorge was an active Communist who began spying for the Comintern immediately after World War I and, later, for Soviet military intelligence (today the GRU). Nonetheless, he managed to join the Nazi Party and eventually become a close personal friend and part-time employee of the German ambassador to Tokyo. Through his access to top-secret Nazi communications, he was able to advise his handlers in Moscow of Germany’s intention to invade the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, he was also running agents who were embedded at the very top of the Japanese government and was equally able to monitor Japan’s on-and-off-again plans to invade Siberia.
Ironically, for years Berlin took his reports on Japanese politics more seriously than Moscow. “Sorge ‘regularly got telegrams with scoldings and admonitions’ from his handlers. “Stalin was convinced he [himself] knew the truth about Germany and Japan’s intentions. No information that Sorge could provide, however solidly sourced, was capable of swaying the paranoid khozain — boss of the Kremlin — from his belief that Germany had been successfully contained but that Japan remained a fatal threat. The truth was precisely the opposite.”
Sorge’s reports answered Moscow’s #1 question
During the 1930s, Imperial Japan represented a far bigger threat to the Soviet Union than Germany, and Moscow’s view of the two countries became even more entrenched after the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939. Following the invasion of the USSR (June 22, 1941), the question of Japan’s intentions became even more important. Thus, as Matthews reports, “The effort to avoid a two-front war with Germany and Japan became the basic motive of every Russian diplomatic action from the last months of 1936 almost until the end of the Second World War.”
If the Japanese were to invade from the east while the Germans were threatening Moscow and Leningrad from the west, Stalin’s government might well fall. From the perspective of his masters in Moscow, then, Sorge’s main task both in Shanghai (1930-32) and in Tokyo (1933-41) was to learn whether Japan was likely to invade Siberia — and, if so, to exert influence to head off the attack. Through a ring of spies he recruited, Sorge kept his handlers fully apprised of the rapidly changing currents of Japanese military policy for more than a decade. Amazingly, it also seems likely that, at least for a time, his agents helped to shift the objectives of the Japanese military from the north (Siberia) to the south (Indonesia and Singapore).
Sorge uncovered the biggest secret of the war
Those of us in the West are prone to regard the time and place of the Normandy Invasion as the biggest secret of World War II. However, at least as important, if not more so, was the date and extent of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. After all, less than a year and a half before, Hitler and Stalin had pledged not to invade each other’s country. Any intention to break that pact would have been (and certainly was) earth-shaking. Sorge was one of several Soviet agents who predicted the invasion. But he reported the news not just once but in a flurry of increasingly hysterical messages to Moscow. Unfortunately, as the world now knows, Soviet intelligence discounted or played down all those reports because Stalin adamantly refused to believe them.
Surprising revelations from Matthews’s research
Matthews’s exceptionally thorough research has turned up what at least to me were startling revelations. Here are two:
Stalin had a plan to invade Germany
One of the justifications Hitler used in launching Operation Barbarossa was that he feared the USSR might pre-empt the attack and invade Germany first. It turns out, this was not sheer fantasy. “Stalin did indeed have a plan in place for invading German-occupied Poland and the Reich itself, if the need arose,” Matthews reports, “known as Operation Groza, the Russian for thunderstorm. In today’s Russia the very existence of this plan remains deeply controversial, as it contradicts the official historiography of an innocent Stalin double-crossed by Hitler. But the document can be found in a so-called osobaya papka, or special file, in the Russian Defence Ministry archive.”
Japanese diplomats in Washington were ignorant of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor
In innumerable ways, Matthews demonstrates how complex and often contradictory was the political reality in Tokyo. There was, of course, a tug of war between the military and the civilian government. But the Japanese navy and the army were at least equally at odds, routinely pushing for different strategies in the Pacific. And, of course, there were many factions within the government as well. The result could be monumentally confusing, all of which made Sorge’s highly sophisticated understanding of the situation so much more valuable. For example, “Even as Admiral Yamamoto’s naval strategists worked on their secret plans to destroy the US Pacific Fleet, official Tokyo still held on to the hope that a peace deal with America would give them a free hand to expand in Asia.” Yet most American accounts of those negotiations have held to this day that the Japanese diplomats in Washington were perfectly aware of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor.
Only years later was Sorge recognized for his accomplishments
Matthews isn’t alone in thinking Sorge “The greatest spy of the twentieth century.” “Over a hundred books have been written in Japanese about the Sorge spy ring, and a thriving Tokyo-based Sorge Society holds well-attended annual conferences.” And “Sorge was made a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union” in the 1960s when Nikita Khrushchev was General Secretary of the CPSU.
About the author
British historian and journalist Owen Matthews has written five books to date, of which An Impeccable Spy is the most recent. He has worked for Newsweek magazine since 1997, serving as Moscow Bureau Chief from 2006 to 2012.
Was it Kim Philby (1912-88), who served Moscow for three decades? Philby’s revelations led to the execution of numberless British and American agents behind the Iron Curtain, and his defection in 1963 pushed the CIA’s James Jesus Angleton over the abyss into the full-blown paranoia that almost destroyed the Agency.
Or was it Eli Cohen (1924-65), whose undercover work in Damascus helped Tel Aviv win the lightning Arab-Israeli war in 1967?
How about Aldrich Ames (1941-)? He compromised more highly classified CIA assets than any other officer in history . . . until Robert Hanssen‘s arrest seven years later in 2001.
And British nuclear scientist Klaus Fuchs (1911-88) gave Josef Stalin the secret of the atomic bomb.
In fact, perhaps that greatest spy was none of these men. It might well have been someone, either a man or a woman, who is entirely unknown to history, someone whose work has never come to light.
But in An Impeccable Spy, Owen Matthews makes a convincing case that Richard Sorge (1895-1944), “Stalin’s Master Agent,” merits the distinction. Certainly, Ian Fleming thinks so. He termed Sorge “the most formidable spy in history.”
Was this man really the greatest spy of the twentieth century?
So, why would Ian Fleming say that about Richard Sorge? Here, from the pages of Owen Matthews’s brilliantly researched biography, are a few facts:
Scholar, journalist, and spy
Sorge, who was born in the Russian Empire of a Russian mother and a German father, spoke both languages flawlessly (among others). He held a doctorate in political science from the University of Hamburg and in the course of his life turned out turgid scholarly articles as well a torrent of analysis and commentary on Chinese and Japanese politics for Germany’s most prestigious newspaper, the Frankfurter Zeitung. He was so widely respected both as a journalist and as a scholar that some of those closest to him during World War II refused to believe after the war that he had been a spy.
He was equally effective in spying on Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan
Sorge was an active Communist who began spying for the Comintern immediately after World War I and, later, for Soviet military intelligence (today the GRU). Nonetheless, he managed to join the Nazi Party and eventually become a close personal friend and part-time employee of the German ambassador to Tokyo. Through his access to top-secret Nazi communications, he was able to advise his handlers in Moscow of Germany’s intention to invade the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, he was also running agents who were embedded at the very top of the Japanese government and was equally able to monitor Japan’s on-and-off-again plans to invade Siberia.
Ironically, for years Berlin took his reports on Japanese politics more seriously than Moscow. “Sorge ‘regularly got telegrams with scoldings and admonitions’ from his handlers. “Stalin was convinced he [himself] knew the truth about Germany and Japan’s intentions. No information that Sorge could provide, however solidly sourced, was capable of swaying the paranoid khozain — boss of the Kremlin — from his belief that Germany had been successfully contained but that Japan remained a fatal threat. The truth was precisely the opposite.”
Sorge’s reports answered Moscow’s #1 question
During the 1930s, Imperial Japan represented a far bigger threat to the Soviet Union than Germany, and Moscow’s view of the two countries became even more entrenched after the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939. Following the invasion of the USSR (June 22, 1941), the question of Japan’s intentions became even more important. Thus, as Matthews reports, “The effort to avoid a two-front war with Germany and Japan became the basic motive of every Russian diplomatic action from the last months of 1936 almost until the end of the Second World War.”
If the Japanese were to invade from the east while the Germans were threatening Moscow and Leningrad from the west, Stalin’s government might well fall. From the perspective of his masters in Moscow, then, Sorge’s main task both in Shanghai (1930-32) and in Tokyo (1933-41) was to learn whether Japan was likely to invade Siberia — and, if so, to exert influence to head off the attack. Through a ring of spies he recruited, Sorge kept his handlers fully apprised of the rapidly changing currents of Japanese military policy for more than a decade. Amazingly, it also seems likely that, at least for a time, his agents helped to shift the objectives of the Japanese military from the north (Siberia) to the south (Indonesia and Singapore).
Sorge uncovered the biggest secret of the war
Those of us in the West are prone to regard the time and place of the Normandy Invasion as the biggest secret of World War II. However, at least as important, if not more so, was the date and extent of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. After all, less than a year and a half before, Hitler and Stalin had pledged not to invade each other’s country. Any intention to break that pact would have been (and certainly was) earth-shaking. Sorge was one of several Soviet agents who predicted the invasion. But he reported the news not just once but in a flurry of increasingly hysterical messages to Moscow. Unfortunately, as the world now knows, Soviet intelligence discounted or played down all those reports because Stalin adamantly refused to believe them.
Surprising revelations from Matthews’s research
Matthews’s exceptionally thorough research has turned up what at least to me were startling revelations. Here are two:
Stalin had a plan to invade Germany
One of the justifications Hitler used in launching Operation Barbarossa was that he feared the USSR might pre-empt the attack and invade Germany first. It turns out, this was not sheer fantasy. “Stalin did indeed have a plan in place for invading German-occupied Poland and the Reich itself, if the need arose,” Matthews reports, “known as Operation Groza, the Russian for thunderstorm. In today’s Russia the very existence of this plan remains deeply controversial, as it contradicts the official historiography of an innocent Stalin double-crossed by Hitler. But the document can be found in a so-called osobaya papka, or special file, in the Russian Defence Ministry archive.”
Japanese diplomats in Washington were ignorant of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor
In innumerable ways, Matthews demonstrates how complex and often contradictory was the political reality in Tokyo. There was, of course, a tug of war between the military and the civilian government. But the Japanese navy and the army were at least equally at odds, routinely pushing for different strategies in the Pacific. And, of course, there were many factions within the government as well. The result could be monumentally confusing, all of which made Sorge’s highly sophisticated understanding of the situation so much more valuable. For example, “Even as Admiral Yamamoto’s naval strategists worked on their secret plans to destroy the US Pacific Fleet, official Tokyo still held on to the hope that a peace deal with America would give them a free hand to expand in Asia.” Yet most American accounts of those negotiations have held to this day that the Japanese diplomats in Washington were perfectly aware of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor.
Only years later was Sorge recognized for his accomplishments
Matthews isn’t alone in thinking Sorge “The greatest spy of the twentieth century.” “Over a hundred books have been written in Japanese about the Sorge spy ring, and a thriving Tokyo-based Sorge Society holds well-attended annual conferences.” And “Sorge was made a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union” in the 1960s when Nikita Khrushchev was General Secretary of the CPSU.
About the author
British historian and journalist Owen Matthews has written five books to date, of which An Impeccable Spy is the most recent. He has worked for Newsweek magazine since 1997, serving as Moscow Bureau Chief from 2006 to 2012.
August 13, 2020
“Аз, Рихард Зорге, ще видя сметката на тези свини в Берлин.”
Още преди Иън Флеминг и Джон льо Каре да запалят света по романтичния образ на тайния агент, историята, която знае как да режисира съдби, е изпратила на света първия, истински, най-голям шпионин, бащата на всички шпиони, прототипа за цяла плеяда филми и книги по темата.
Рихард Зорге е необикновен и това е най-малкото, което може да се каже за него. По-скоро магнетичен, отколкото красив и повече интелектуалец от всеки официален интелектуалец на пълно работно време. Зорге е човекът, който предупреждава Сталин за операция “Барбароса” през лятото на 1941 г., той е и човекът, разполагащ с това, което наричаме днес, ексклузивната информация, че Япония няма намерение да нападне СССР. И двете новини имат съдбоносно значение за изхода от Втората световна война и съдбата на Съветска Русия.
Но докато се стигне до кулминацията в кариерата на Зорге, Оуен Матюс проследява подробно живота на германеца с руска кръв (и руска душа), като подробно описва не само приключенията му в Далечния Изток, но и заплетената външнополитическа обстановка в Китай и Япония – две страни, на които съм свикнала да не обръщам много внимание, когато чета за този период.
“Безупречен шпионин” е документална, книга, изчерпателна и добре написана, в която личната история на шпионина и тази на държавите, в които е резидент, едновременно вълнува и обогатява интелектуално.
(Като съвсем случайна бележка, понеже обичам исторически куриози, е че блицкригът е усъвършенстван като тактита...в степите на Беларус!)
Романтичната страна на агентурния живот е разбита на пух и прах в книгата. Авантюризмът е неутрализиран от постоянна серия малки и големи предателства, усмиряване на вътрешните демони, експлоатиране на иначе мили и човешки качества с цел заблуда, измама, съблазън, манипулация.
Много ми се искаше да не харесам Зорге. Обективните факти сочат към това. Предател и измамник, пияница и женкар, с деспотичен и невъздържан нрав. Но Зорге заслужава поне противоречива оценка, преди да бъде съден. Неосъществен учен, дяволски харизматичен, Зорге използва дарбите си, за да постигне неща, които никой друг преди него не е постигал. Голямата драма е не само в капана на двойнствения живот, но и в парадокса да е по-уважаван и обичан от тези, които шпионира, отколкото от тези, за които шпионира. Впрочем, един от многото, които се нареждат в дългия списък от пожертвани от Кремъл таланти.
P.S. Книгата е вероятно е повече от писателски проект за автора – вътре се споменава негов близък роднина, който също е участник в събитията от онова време.
“Ключът за успеха на Зорге е, че той рядко краде тайни – той ги търгува.”
“...вероятно единственият човек в историята, който е член едновременно на германската нацистка партия и съветската комунистическапартия.”
“Добрият шпионин може да предопредели изхода от една битка или хода на важни преговори – но разбира се, само ако му вярват.”
Още преди Иън Флеминг и Джон льо Каре да запалят света по романтичния образ на тайния агент, историята, която знае как да режисира съдби, е изпратила на света първия, истински, най-голям шпионин, бащата на всички шпиони, прототипа за цяла плеяда филми и книги по темата.
Рихард Зорге е необикновен и това е най-малкото, което може да се каже за него. По-скоро магнетичен, отколкото красив и повече интелектуалец от всеки официален интелектуалец на пълно работно време. Зорге е човекът, който предупреждава Сталин за операция “Барбароса” през лятото на 1941 г., той е и човекът, разполагащ с това, което наричаме днес, ексклузивната информация, че Япония няма намерение да нападне СССР. И двете новини имат съдбоносно значение за изхода от Втората световна война и съдбата на Съветска Русия.
Но докато се стигне до кулминацията в кариерата на Зорге, Оуен Матюс проследява подробно живота на германеца с руска кръв (и руска душа), като подробно описва не само приключенията му в Далечния Изток, но и заплетената външнополитическа обстановка в Китай и Япония – две страни, на които съм свикнала да не обръщам много внимание, когато чета за този период.
“Безупречен шпионин” е документална, книга, изчерпателна и добре написана, в която личната история на шпионина и тази на държавите, в които е резидент, едновременно вълнува и обогатява интелектуално.
(Като съвсем случайна бележка, понеже обичам исторически куриози, е че блицкригът е усъвършенстван като тактита...в степите на Беларус!)
Романтичната страна на агентурния живот е разбита на пух и прах в книгата. Авантюризмът е неутрализиран от постоянна серия малки и големи предателства, усмиряване на вътрешните демони, експлоатиране на иначе мили и човешки качества с цел заблуда, измама, съблазън, манипулация.
Много ми се искаше да не харесам Зорге. Обективните факти сочат към това. Предател и измамник, пияница и женкар, с деспотичен и невъздържан нрав. Но Зорге заслужава поне противоречива оценка, преди да бъде съден. Неосъществен учен, дяволски харизматичен, Зорге използва дарбите си, за да постигне неща, които никой друг преди него не е постигал. Голямата драма е не само в капана на двойнствения живот, но и в парадокса да е по-уважаван и обичан от тези, които шпионира, отколкото от тези, за които шпионира. Впрочем, един от многото, които се нареждат в дългия списък от пожертвани от Кремъл таланти.
P.S. Книгата е вероятно е повече от писателски проект за автора – вътре се споменава негов близък роднина, който също е участник в събитията от онова време.
“Ключът за успеха на Зорге е, че той рядко краде тайни – той ги търгува.”
“...вероятно единственият човек в историята, който е член едновременно на германската нацистка партия и съветската комунистическапартия.”
“Добрият шпионин може да предопредели изхода от една битка или хода на важни преговори – но разбира се, само ако му вярват.”
September 27, 2020
Радикалните епохи са наковалнята, от където се раждат радикални личности. Не че такива не се раждат във всички времена, но просто в една мирна и спокойна среда те биха били учени, писатели, политици, бизнесмени... или просто пройдохи и бохеми.
Към края на Първата световна война двама млади германци се възстановяват от раните си в две военни болници. И двамата са проявили смелост и самообладание в месомелачката, и двамата са отличени за заслуги с орден, и двамата понасят брутална физическа болка, и двамата се питат как могат да променят този луд свят. Единият се казва Адолф Хитлер. Другият - Рихард Зорг��.
Единият подпалва света. Другият се посвещава на каузата на пролетариата. Зорге не вярва в родината, защото животът му е пъстра смесица от рождено място Баку, майка рускиня и баща германец. Не вярва в Бог - кой Бог би допуснал касапница в такива индустриални мащаби? Не вярва в буржозния морал - какъв морал са уютната, умишлена слепота, ограничеността и лицемерието? Зорге вярва в промяната. И в себе си като неин двигател. Вярва в дълга и мисията. И продължава да ги изпълнява, дори когато целият свят се обърне срещу него, не спира да предупреждава, не се отказва и не се продава.
Затова пияницата, често плашещ немските и японските си приятели в Токио, всъщност е трезвеник, който не издава никакви тайни дори на границата на припадъка след катастро��а или просто след поредния запой, попълнил запасите му с информация. Чаровникът, омайващ мъже и жени, всъщност е дълбоко и неизличимо самотен. А бохемът е аскет под прикритие през цялата си нелека кариера като резидент на военното разузнаване на СССР в Токио.
Зорге вярва в простото човешко достойнство - затова и посреща края хладнокръвно. Не заради идеология или сляпа вярност (СССР отдавна го е изоставил и той отлично го знае) - а просто защото това е единственото, което му остава. Него нито параноичните му, страхливи и некоментентни шефове в Москва, нито немските нацисти, които дълбоко ненавижда и презира, нито дори привикналите на стоицизъм японски надзиратели и палачи могат да му отнемат. Напълно логично, преживе той получава признание единствено от тези, срещу които се бори. Японците и днес го уважават.
Прекрасно е, както е писал Джон льо Каре, че Боговете, на които Зорге е служил, вече са мъртви. Ще дойдат нови, разбира се, както показва цялата човешка история. И пак ще има хора като Зорге - нееднозначни дори за самите себе си стоици, които обаче няма кротко да чакат съдбата си.
Не останах с усещането, че Оуен Матюс нацелва навсякъде “честотата” на героя си, макар самият автор да е наполовина руснак и журналист. Най-малкото защито още в самото начало лепва етикет на героя си като “лош (?!) човек, но безупречен шпионин”. Но периодът в Япония, теченията на световната политика в Източна Азия и СССР, хладните решения с масово кървави последици, и насред това - една човешка душа - са описани с достатъчно фактология и разбиране.
Към края на Първата световна война двама млади германци се възстановяват от раните си в две военни болници. И двамата са проявили смелост и самообладание в месомелачката, и двамата са отличени за заслуги с орден, и двамата понасят брутална физическа болка, и двамата се питат как могат да променят този луд свят. Единият се казва Адолф Хитлер. Другият - Рихард Зорг��.
Единият подпалва света. Другият се посвещава на каузата на пролетариата. Зорге не вярва в родината, защото животът му е пъстра смесица от рождено място Баку, майка рускиня и баща германец. Не вярва в Бог - кой Бог би допуснал касапница в такива индустриални мащаби? Не вярва в буржозния морал - какъв морал са уютната, умишлена слепота, ограничеността и лицемерието? Зорге вярва в промяната. И в себе си като неин двигател. Вярва в дълга и мисията. И продължава да ги изпълнява, дори когато целият свят се обърне срещу него, не спира да предупреждава, не се отказва и не се продава.
Затова пияницата, често плашещ немските и японските си приятели в Токио, всъщност е трезвеник, който не издава никакви тайни дори на границата на припадъка след катастро��а или просто след поредния запой, попълнил запасите му с информация. Чаровникът, омайващ мъже и жени, всъщност е дълбоко и неизличимо самотен. А бохемът е аскет под прикритие през цялата си нелека кариера като резидент на военното разузнаване на СССР в Токио.
Зорге вярва в простото човешко достойнство - затова и посреща края хладнокръвно. Не заради идеология или сляпа вярност (СССР отдавна го е изоставил и той отлично го знае) - а просто защото това е единственото, което му остава. Него нито параноичните му, страхливи и некоментентни шефове в Москва, нито немските нацисти, които дълбоко ненавижда и презира, нито дори привикналите на стоицизъм японски надзиратели и палачи могат да му отнемат. Напълно логично, преживе той получава признание единствено от тези, срещу които се бори. Японците и днес го уважават.
Прекрасно е, както е писал Джон льо Каре, че Боговете, на които Зорге е служил, вече са мъртви. Ще дойдат нови, разбира се, както показва цялата човешка история. И пак ще има хора като Зорге - нееднозначни дори за самите себе си стоици, които обаче няма кротко да чакат съдбата си.
Не останах с усещането, че Оуен Матюс нацелва навсякъде “честотата” на героя си, макар самият автор да е наполовина руснак и журналист. Най-малкото защито още в самото начало лепва етикет на героя си като “лош (?!) човек, но безупречен шпионин”. Но периодът в Япония, теченията на световната политика в Източна Азия и СССР, хладните решения с масово кървави последици, и насред това - една човешка душа - са описани с достатъчно фактология и разбиране.
April 22, 2019
The first few hundred pages I found were hard reading but eventually once I got my head around the multiple names and plans I enjoyed this book.
It wasn't as 'unputdownable' as a Ben Macintyre book but actually I have probably learnt quite a bit more from this one. I always wondered how Japan fitted into the WW2 and whilst I'm still not 100%, I am someway to understanding. One of the most confusing things about this time I think are all the non-aggression pacts being signed, it's hard to understand who had what agreements with who.
It wasn't as 'unputdownable' as a Ben Macintyre book but actually I have probably learnt quite a bit more from this one. I always wondered how Japan fitted into the WW2 and whilst I'm still not 100%, I am someway to understanding. One of the most confusing things about this time I think are all the non-aggression pacts being signed, it's hard to understand who had what agreements with who.
July 6, 2020
As early as April 1941 British intelligence informed Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin of German intentions to discard the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 and invade Russia. Stalin seemed to ignore those warnings and others as he would do on June 21, 1941 when London once again warned him of the impending German attack. Unbeknownst to many in Europe Stalin did take certain precautions, for example, relocating Soviet industry east of the Ural Mountains and certain military accommodations as he had read MEIN KAMPF and believed eventually war with Germany was inevitable. By November 1941, the German onslaught would be stymied outside of Moscow as Owen Matthews relates in his superb biography, AN IMPECCABLE SPY: RICHARD SORGE STALIN’S MASTER SPY.
Richard Sorge was a fascinating character and had the personality traits, the skills of a chameleon, and intellect to ingratiate himself with diverse types of people, manipulate them, and gather and cull intelligence. In fact, at one time he was spying for the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany simultaneously. He eventually became embedded with German and Japanese officials, military types, and others which allowed him to gather intelligence to play a crucial role in saving the Soviet Union from a disaster in 1941 and enabled Stalin and his countrymen to defeat the Nazis is 1945. Sorge survived for nine years as a spy in Tokyo. He was able “to steal the most closely kept military and political secrets of both Germany and Japan while hiding in plain sight.”
Matthews main thesis revolves around Stalin’s need to know whether Japan would attack the Soviet Union. Once Sorge provided the answer he moved Soviet troops from the east to block the Nazis in the west. Without that knowledge and troop movements the course of the war would have been quite different. What is fascinating despite the value of his intelligence he turned over to his handler’s Soviet intelligence chiefs did not trust him and as a result were very wary of the information he sent until after the Nazi invasion. It must always be kept in mind that during the Stalinist period that was dominated by Stalin’s paranoia with show trials and purges leading to the execution of thousands Sorge was able to navigate the intelligence minefield to survive until arrested by the Japanese in 1941 and executed in 1943.
If Matthews were a novelist, it would be difficult to create a character like Richard Sorge. His personality and lifestyle make it difficult for any biographer. Sorge lived most of his life in the shadow world where his survival depended upon secrecy. Despite this need he was an extrovert and in many ways an exhibitionist who manipulated people, was a womanizer, and at times could be considered an alcoholic who saw himself as an intellectual who believed he should be an academic. One of the best sources for Sorge must be taken with a grain of salt. Once arrested by the Japanese he admitted to an idealized version of his life to interrogators. He left an extensive correspondence with Moscow and numerous letters to his wife Katya, along with his journalistic and academic writings left quite a record. Matthews summarizes Sorge well describing him as a man with three faces. One face was that of a social lion, “the outrageously indiscreet life of the party, adored by women and friends. His second, secret, face was turned to his masters in Moscow. And the third, the private man of high principles and base appetites living in a world of lies, he kept mostly to himself.”
Matthews traces Sorge’s life growing up mostly in Berlin, his experiences in World War I that turned him into a socialist because of what he experienced and eventually a true believer in communism. Matthews explains in a clear fashion how he grew more and more convinced in his own radicalization and how he was recruited by the Comintern which was developed by Lenin to help spread world revolution. However, after Lenin died in 1924 and Stalin seized power it became a vehicle to protect the Soviet Union. Matthews carefully lays out Sorges evolution intellectually from WWI to his move to Moscow in 1924.
Matthews is highly effective in relating numerous tidbits about Sorge personally and events in Germany, Russia, and Japan during his subject’s intelligence career, i.e., sharing lodgings during his training as a spy with Chou En-Lai and Josip Broz Tito, providing details about the internal competition between military and civilian elements in Japan, the thought processes of different historical figures, and other examples. Sorge’s cover was as a journalist and commentator throughout his career. This afforded him exposure to important decision makers and helped develop sources for his spy networks.
Matthews offers a wonderful description of Shanghai in the early 1930s, a city that consisted of bordellos, drugs, banking, trade – “the pleasurable city.” Shanghai was nicknamed the “whore of the orient” where gangsters and warlords mixed with bankers and journalists. With no residence permit for foreigners it was Asia’s espionage capitol. The city was used as a hiding place for members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to escape persecution from Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang. Sorge used his base in Shanghai to ingratiate himself with German military officers who trained the Kuomintang. Eventually Sorge’s best sources as he built his network were Nazis and military types. He assumed the role of a “debauched bourgeoisie expatriate,” a role he played well.
The author discusses many of the important figures in Sorge’s life and intelligence work. Agnes Smedley, an American socialist and journalist who had access to the CCP was recruited by Sorge and plays a prominent role in the creation of the Shanghai network. Max Christiane-Clausen became Sorge’s radio operator when he moved on to Tokyo was invaluable as was Hotsumi Ozaki who had excellent contacts in the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai and eventually joined Sorge in Tokyo, along with businessmen and officials in the Kuomintang. Yotoku Miyagi, a young artist from Okinawa developed into an excellent member of the Tokyo network. Later Eugen Ott, a senior member of the German embassy in Tokyo as a senior military attaché and eventually replaced Herbert Dirksen as German ambassador to Japan was an exceptional source.
For Stalin, Sorge was able to provide information on Japanese expansionism particularly his fear of an attack against Russia. Matthews follows developments within the Kwantung Army and Japanese civilians and how it impacted Sorge’s work. Stalin feared the anti-Comintern pact of Japan, Germany, and Italy and his paranoia would lead to the purges. In an important chapter, “Bloodbath in Moscow” Matthews lays out the impact of the show trials that led to the executions of Lev Kamenev and Grogiry Zinoviev, 1.6 million arrests, and 700,000 executions, the gutting of the Soviet officer corps, the intelligence community, and other officials. It is fascinating how Sorge navigating the atmosphere in Moscow in the late 1930s was able to survive. Later, Sorge concluded he was trapped in Tokyo as war became obvious and worked to meet Moscow’s needs which centered on the fear of a German-Japanese alliance which would surround the Soviet Union and making sure Hitler attacked anyone except Russia.
Matthews is correct when he argues that Hitler did not believe Japan would make a good ally because of his own racial proclivities seeing them as inferior. This became the impetus for the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. In addition, fighting broke out on the Soviet-Mongolian border between Japanese and Russian forces called the Nomohan incident which would have a profound impact on the Second World War. Tokyo kept the fighting localized as it did not want to fight Russia and the ongoing war in China at the same time. The Kwantung armies influence would be strengthened as they pushed for expansion against their Asian neighbors and leave Russia alone. This would lead to trying to remove the British and American fleets as a threat as they engaged in trying to create a “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
Matthews does a good job describing the planning and machinations emanating from Berlin, Tokyo, and Moscow as the date of the Nazi invasion approached throughout the Spring 1941 culminating in the German onslaught on June 22, 1941 along with the reaction of the major principals involved. Stalin’s attitude during the entire period was one of distrust believing that what he was received was misinformation designed to weaken the Soviet Union. Information contrary to his beliefs like what he received from Sorge can be summed up in his comment that “you can send your ‘source’ from headquarters of German aviation to his fucking mother. This is not a source but a dezinformator – a dis-informer.” By June 1941, the powers that be in the Kremlin had turned a deaf ear to Sorge’s reports/warnings. Sorge grew depressed as more and more he was ignored.
Jonathan Steele in his The Guardian review of May 16, 2019 agrees with Matthews that “Sorge recognized that Hitler’s invasion of the USSR was a major blunder for the Nazis, and he came close to revealing his true loyalties by shouting in front of his German colleagues that the idiot had lost the war. He had greater success in signaling the inevitability of war between the US and Japan three months before it happened. He did not predict the assault on Pearl Harbor but his report on Japan’s decisive shift of focus to conquests in the south allowed Stalin not to move troops to Siberia but make them available to block the Germans from moving further east into Russia.”
Steele concludes that “in the Brezhnev and Andropov eras in the 1970s and 80s, Sorge became a Soviet hero with a flood of books about him, even though he had been totally abandoned in 1941 when he was arrested in Tokyo. He had hoped the Soviet authorities would press the Japanese to let him go back to Moscow, but the Kremlin betrayed the man who had done so much for it. No effort was made to save him.”
Overall Matthews’ book is a spy thriller that doubles as an enthralling history of revolutionary Germany in the 1920s, Tokyo during the country’s prewar militarization, and Moscow in the 1930s, where Stalin’s mass terror consumed, among others, seven of Sorge’s military intelligence bosses, and Sorge’s ability to accumulate and transmit important intelligence through a series of networks he and his cohorts created. Matthews provides many insights into Sorge’s work and his impact on events and if you are a general reader or a spy aficionado this book should prove very satisfying.
Richard Sorge was a fascinating character and had the personality traits, the skills of a chameleon, and intellect to ingratiate himself with diverse types of people, manipulate them, and gather and cull intelligence. In fact, at one time he was spying for the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany simultaneously. He eventually became embedded with German and Japanese officials, military types, and others which allowed him to gather intelligence to play a crucial role in saving the Soviet Union from a disaster in 1941 and enabled Stalin and his countrymen to defeat the Nazis is 1945. Sorge survived for nine years as a spy in Tokyo. He was able “to steal the most closely kept military and political secrets of both Germany and Japan while hiding in plain sight.”
Matthews main thesis revolves around Stalin’s need to know whether Japan would attack the Soviet Union. Once Sorge provided the answer he moved Soviet troops from the east to block the Nazis in the west. Without that knowledge and troop movements the course of the war would have been quite different. What is fascinating despite the value of his intelligence he turned over to his handler’s Soviet intelligence chiefs did not trust him and as a result were very wary of the information he sent until after the Nazi invasion. It must always be kept in mind that during the Stalinist period that was dominated by Stalin’s paranoia with show trials and purges leading to the execution of thousands Sorge was able to navigate the intelligence minefield to survive until arrested by the Japanese in 1941 and executed in 1943.
If Matthews were a novelist, it would be difficult to create a character like Richard Sorge. His personality and lifestyle make it difficult for any biographer. Sorge lived most of his life in the shadow world where his survival depended upon secrecy. Despite this need he was an extrovert and in many ways an exhibitionist who manipulated people, was a womanizer, and at times could be considered an alcoholic who saw himself as an intellectual who believed he should be an academic. One of the best sources for Sorge must be taken with a grain of salt. Once arrested by the Japanese he admitted to an idealized version of his life to interrogators. He left an extensive correspondence with Moscow and numerous letters to his wife Katya, along with his journalistic and academic writings left quite a record. Matthews summarizes Sorge well describing him as a man with three faces. One face was that of a social lion, “the outrageously indiscreet life of the party, adored by women and friends. His second, secret, face was turned to his masters in Moscow. And the third, the private man of high principles and base appetites living in a world of lies, he kept mostly to himself.”
Matthews traces Sorge’s life growing up mostly in Berlin, his experiences in World War I that turned him into a socialist because of what he experienced and eventually a true believer in communism. Matthews explains in a clear fashion how he grew more and more convinced in his own radicalization and how he was recruited by the Comintern which was developed by Lenin to help spread world revolution. However, after Lenin died in 1924 and Stalin seized power it became a vehicle to protect the Soviet Union. Matthews carefully lays out Sorges evolution intellectually from WWI to his move to Moscow in 1924.
Matthews is highly effective in relating numerous tidbits about Sorge personally and events in Germany, Russia, and Japan during his subject’s intelligence career, i.e., sharing lodgings during his training as a spy with Chou En-Lai and Josip Broz Tito, providing details about the internal competition between military and civilian elements in Japan, the thought processes of different historical figures, and other examples. Sorge’s cover was as a journalist and commentator throughout his career. This afforded him exposure to important decision makers and helped develop sources for his spy networks.
Matthews offers a wonderful description of Shanghai in the early 1930s, a city that consisted of bordellos, drugs, banking, trade – “the pleasurable city.” Shanghai was nicknamed the “whore of the orient” where gangsters and warlords mixed with bankers and journalists. With no residence permit for foreigners it was Asia’s espionage capitol. The city was used as a hiding place for members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to escape persecution from Chiang Kai-Shek’s Kuomintang. Sorge used his base in Shanghai to ingratiate himself with German military officers who trained the Kuomintang. Eventually Sorge’s best sources as he built his network were Nazis and military types. He assumed the role of a “debauched bourgeoisie expatriate,” a role he played well.
The author discusses many of the important figures in Sorge’s life and intelligence work. Agnes Smedley, an American socialist and journalist who had access to the CCP was recruited by Sorge and plays a prominent role in the creation of the Shanghai network. Max Christiane-Clausen became Sorge’s radio operator when he moved on to Tokyo was invaluable as was Hotsumi Ozaki who had excellent contacts in the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai and eventually joined Sorge in Tokyo, along with businessmen and officials in the Kuomintang. Yotoku Miyagi, a young artist from Okinawa developed into an excellent member of the Tokyo network. Later Eugen Ott, a senior member of the German embassy in Tokyo as a senior military attaché and eventually replaced Herbert Dirksen as German ambassador to Japan was an exceptional source.
For Stalin, Sorge was able to provide information on Japanese expansionism particularly his fear of an attack against Russia. Matthews follows developments within the Kwantung Army and Japanese civilians and how it impacted Sorge’s work. Stalin feared the anti-Comintern pact of Japan, Germany, and Italy and his paranoia would lead to the purges. In an important chapter, “Bloodbath in Moscow” Matthews lays out the impact of the show trials that led to the executions of Lev Kamenev and Grogiry Zinoviev, 1.6 million arrests, and 700,000 executions, the gutting of the Soviet officer corps, the intelligence community, and other officials. It is fascinating how Sorge navigating the atmosphere in Moscow in the late 1930s was able to survive. Later, Sorge concluded he was trapped in Tokyo as war became obvious and worked to meet Moscow’s needs which centered on the fear of a German-Japanese alliance which would surround the Soviet Union and making sure Hitler attacked anyone except Russia.
Matthews is correct when he argues that Hitler did not believe Japan would make a good ally because of his own racial proclivities seeing them as inferior. This became the impetus for the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact. In addition, fighting broke out on the Soviet-Mongolian border between Japanese and Russian forces called the Nomohan incident which would have a profound impact on the Second World War. Tokyo kept the fighting localized as it did not want to fight Russia and the ongoing war in China at the same time. The Kwantung armies influence would be strengthened as they pushed for expansion against their Asian neighbors and leave Russia alone. This would lead to trying to remove the British and American fleets as a threat as they engaged in trying to create a “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
Matthews does a good job describing the planning and machinations emanating from Berlin, Tokyo, and Moscow as the date of the Nazi invasion approached throughout the Spring 1941 culminating in the German onslaught on June 22, 1941 along with the reaction of the major principals involved. Stalin’s attitude during the entire period was one of distrust believing that what he was received was misinformation designed to weaken the Soviet Union. Information contrary to his beliefs like what he received from Sorge can be summed up in his comment that “you can send your ‘source’ from headquarters of German aviation to his fucking mother. This is not a source but a dezinformator – a dis-informer.” By June 1941, the powers that be in the Kremlin had turned a deaf ear to Sorge’s reports/warnings. Sorge grew depressed as more and more he was ignored.
Jonathan Steele in his The Guardian review of May 16, 2019 agrees with Matthews that “Sorge recognized that Hitler’s invasion of the USSR was a major blunder for the Nazis, and he came close to revealing his true loyalties by shouting in front of his German colleagues that the idiot had lost the war. He had greater success in signaling the inevitability of war between the US and Japan three months before it happened. He did not predict the assault on Pearl Harbor but his report on Japan’s decisive shift of focus to conquests in the south allowed Stalin not to move troops to Siberia but make them available to block the Germans from moving further east into Russia.”
Steele concludes that “in the Brezhnev and Andropov eras in the 1970s and 80s, Sorge became a Soviet hero with a flood of books about him, even though he had been totally abandoned in 1941 when he was arrested in Tokyo. He had hoped the Soviet authorities would press the Japanese to let him go back to Moscow, but the Kremlin betrayed the man who had done so much for it. No effort was made to save him.”
Overall Matthews’ book is a spy thriller that doubles as an enthralling history of revolutionary Germany in the 1920s, Tokyo during the country’s prewar militarization, and Moscow in the 1930s, where Stalin’s mass terror consumed, among others, seven of Sorge’s military intelligence bosses, and Sorge’s ability to accumulate and transmit important intelligence through a series of networks he and his cohorts created. Matthews provides many insights into Sorge’s work and his impact on events and if you are a general reader or a spy aficionado this book should prove very satisfying.
March 31, 2019
An absorbing, easy read packed with previously unknown information. Sorge (pronounced Zorgae, as the author told a recent talk) was a fanatical Communist, a hard drinking, womaniser who took crazy risks with the network that he had built up.
Matthews' research has found the records from the GRU files in Podolsk that show that Sorge was largely untrusted by his Moscow handlers, due to his connection with many purged Soviet officials and the inability of his service chiefs to tell Stalin anything other than reports affirming Stalin's own preconceived ideas. The narrative also explains that, despite Sorge's skill in cultivating sources, he was high-handed with those in his own network.
Matthews' research has found the records from the GRU files in Podolsk that show that Sorge was largely untrusted by his Moscow handlers, due to his connection with many purged Soviet officials and the inability of his service chiefs to tell Stalin anything other than reports affirming Stalin's own preconceived ideas. The narrative also explains that, despite Sorge's skill in cultivating sources, he was high-handed with those in his own network.
Read
March 26, 2022I don't think I'll feel comfortable giving this a rating, but reading this was an experience. Usually I don't really care to read things about WW2 or the Cold War, because that's just not my interest in history.
But finding out the things that happened are really wild. The way the espionage went on without basically anyone knowing was fucked up, as well as how the governments dealt with this.
But finding out the things that happened are really wild. The way the espionage went on without basically anyone knowing was fucked up, as well as how the governments dealt with this.
November 4, 2021
A superb and enthralling biography of a master spy, a leading example of what journalist Murray Sayle called 'Homo Undercoverus'. Arrogant, highly intelligent, intellectual, didactic, daring, immensely brave physically and morally, wounded three times in WW1 fighting for his fatherland against his motherland, a serial womaniser, a charmer, a skilled dissembler, Sorge was steadfast in his Communist faith - and was finally betrayed by the vicious and brutal Soviets he served so loyally. They didn't deserve him. He deserved better.
People sometimes ask what difference spies make. Well, Sorge reported the timing of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and the cancellation of Japanese plans to invade Siberia. That the paranoid Stalin and his henchmen disbelieved the intelligence he placed at their disposal could not be blamed on Sorge himself. He had extraordinary access to senior Nazi circles and those of their Japanese allies and what started as a two-year stint undercover in wartime Tokyo lasted an amazing 11 years. A thrilling read.
People sometimes ask what difference spies make. Well, Sorge reported the timing of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and the cancellation of Japanese plans to invade Siberia. That the paranoid Stalin and his henchmen disbelieved the intelligence he placed at their disposal could not be blamed on Sorge himself. He had extraordinary access to senior Nazi circles and those of their Japanese allies and what started as a two-year stint undercover in wartime Tokyo lasted an amazing 11 years. A thrilling read.
January 13, 2020
An excellent biography of the famous soviet spy - read quite a few of them from the (hagiographic but still entertaining ) Russian ones almost four decades ago to more recent western ones and this one is entertaining and well written with the special touch the author brings from his Russian side of the family (as his grandmother was a neighbor of one of Sorge's handlers in the Soviet intelligence for example);
highly recommended whether one is new to the life and deeds of the arguably greatest spy of all times or one has read bunch of books about him before
highly recommended whether one is new to the life and deeds of the arguably greatest spy of all times or one has read bunch of books about him before
April 18, 2021
Owen Matthews - O Espião perfeito
O livro de Owen Matthens conta-nos a história de vida de Richard Sorge (1895 – 1944), um homem, um espião, um espião por muitos considerado, e também pelo autor como desde logo se depreende do título do livro, como o espião perfeito. Sê-lo-á por isso e por muito mais um livro a ler, uma história a conhecer, um personagem a apreender, e uma lição de inteligência, determinação e da profunda dignidade como encarou o seu fim. Como disse, será porventura o exemplo do espião perfeito, pelo menos dos que a história teve conhecimento, ou dos que aos inimigos não conseguiram escapar. Richard Sorge é um orgulho para a nação que o viu nascer, um símbolo para a nação que o acolheu e seguramente uma memória de conforto dos que com ele privaram. Mas comecemos pelo livro.
O livro – Magnífico, creio que será a expressão a ser utilizada, tanto para a escrita simples e concisa do autor como também para a tradução para português de Miguel Mata e revisão de Joana Baudouin das “Edições 70” que me parece adequada e merecedora de elogios.
O texto de Owen Matthews que curiosamente nos vai descrevendo al longo do livro algumas intercessões entre a história familiar do autor e alguns dos personagens que vão surgindo ao longo do texto, optou por nos fazer um retrato do homem e das suas circunstâncias, muito rico em factos, dados e interpretações pelos intervenientes ou mais distanciadas, tendo sempre o cuidado de fazer uma análises da qualidade e veracidade das suas fontes. Um trabalho de investigação e reflexão notável, que como o autor refere não se limitou a uma única fonte de informação, autobiografias ou documentos dos intervenientes, relatórios circunstanciados dos países envolvidos nas circunstâncias, ou naqueles que conhecendo-as recearam que estratégias lhes pudessem ser aplicadas a nível doméstico. De todos estes ângulos O Matthews foi procurar informação e pelo menos de uma delas, dos arquivos existentes na ex-URSS foi tal como refere o primeiro a consultá-los para efeitos históricos. Um livro soberbo, uma deliciosa fonte de informação e análise.
A história – Se o livro é magnífico, ele é claramente ultrapassado pela história cativante do personagem e pela forma como ela se inseriu no seu tempo e foi, apar de outros, um actor marcante dos tempos que cruzou. Sem Richard Sorge a nossa história recente não teria trilhado os mesmos destinos. Nascido em Baku em 1895 (Imperio Russo), filho de pai alemão e mãe russa, e executado em Tóquio 1944, Richard Sorge desde muito cedo sentiu um impulso, uma vocação romântica para ser de acordo com uma personalidade marcante um personagem igualmente marcante na história do seu tempo.
A Owen Matthews este aspecto fundamental não lhe escapa e consegue-nos contar de forma minuciosa a história de um homem que teve o privilégio de ter actuado em dois continentes, em quatro países, e ter cruzado como actor, e por vezes como actor principal em palcos tão distintos como 1ª Guerra mundial, Revolução de Outubro, Movimento Comunista Internacional, 2ª Guerra Mundial. Se a sua história foi um privilégio, conhecê-la faz-nos sonhar com os tempos conturbados e excitantes que vivenciou. Owen Matthews conta-nos a história do Homem, faz-nos adivinhar a evolução do seu pensamento e convicções desde a sua intervenção activa nas trincheiras na primeira guerra mundial, o seu contacto enquanto estudante com os movimentos sociais que desembocaram na revolução de outubro, na construção do primeiro estado comunista, nas profundas alterações da mentalidade e consciência social que estas alterações trouxeram. Já adulto, envolveu-se no movimento comunista internacional, o Comintern e mais tarde no seu departamento de informações IKKI. Viu-se indirectamente envolvido nas convulsões políticas da URSS entre as fações Estalinistas e Trotskianas, e enquanto membro do Comintern só não foi arrastado na água do banho que levou de cena revolucionários e intelectuais como Gregory Zinoviev e Nikolai Bukharin porque alguém como Jan Karlovich Berzin na altura director do Quarto Departamento do Exercito Vermelho o recrutou para as fileiras da espionagem soviética e por esta via lhe deu um caminho que o levou ao estrelato da espionagem e lhe permitiu escapar às várias purgas que o paranoico líder soviético de então promovia para assegurar a sua liderança.
Enquanto espião em Xangai e de forma bem mais marcante em Tóquio, o autor retrata-nos um homem que agindo maioritariamente às claras, soube pela sua inteligência e magnetismo cativar todos quanto o rodeavam, e assim sem o esforço de operar no escuro e sem necessidade de grande fingimento, pode, dentro da suas capacidades e graças a uma ardilosa teia de recolha de informações que magistralmente teceu, intervir no jogo político da geoestratégia. Não é excessiva a afirmação que a sua intervenção através do seu cúmplice Hotsumi Ozaki no “clube do pequeno-almoço” influenciou decisivamente a política japonesa, persuadiu o esforço de guerra japonês para sul, adiou as intensões territoriais do japão sobre a Rússia oriental, empurrou, ainda que indirectamente o Japão para uma confrontação com a América, e dessa forma permitiu à URSS combater a Alemanha numa única frente e assim sair vitoriosa e dar o desfecho que todos conhecemos. Richard Sorge foi em todos estes palcos um actor político activo, e o autor soube fazer um retrato do homem e da sua história adequadamente enquadradas. E por falar em homem.
O Homem – Não havendo uma ordem adequada de virtudes para o caracterizar, e sem qualquer valoração das suas múltiplas características, opto pela enunciação que me parece menos comprometedora. Richard Sorge, foi assim ao longo da sua vida: académico, alcoólico, amante, aventureiro, comunista, escritor, espião, intelectual, jornalista, organizador, revolucionário, e em tudo isto o foi de uma forma brilhante e com um desempenho apaixonado em tudo em que se comprometeu.
Richard Sorge, uma história a conhecer, “O espião perfeito” um livro que não deve deixar de ler.
O livro de Owen Matthens conta-nos a história de vida de Richard Sorge (1895 – 1944), um homem, um espião, um espião por muitos considerado, e também pelo autor como desde logo se depreende do título do livro, como o espião perfeito. Sê-lo-á por isso e por muito mais um livro a ler, uma história a conhecer, um personagem a apreender, e uma lição de inteligência, determinação e da profunda dignidade como encarou o seu fim. Como disse, será porventura o exemplo do espião perfeito, pelo menos dos que a história teve conhecimento, ou dos que aos inimigos não conseguiram escapar. Richard Sorge é um orgulho para a nação que o viu nascer, um símbolo para a nação que o acolheu e seguramente uma memória de conforto dos que com ele privaram. Mas comecemos pelo livro.
O livro – Magnífico, creio que será a expressão a ser utilizada, tanto para a escrita simples e concisa do autor como também para a tradução para português de Miguel Mata e revisão de Joana Baudouin das “Edições 70” que me parece adequada e merecedora de elogios.
O texto de Owen Matthews que curiosamente nos vai descrevendo al longo do livro algumas intercessões entre a história familiar do autor e alguns dos personagens que vão surgindo ao longo do texto, optou por nos fazer um retrato do homem e das suas circunstâncias, muito rico em factos, dados e interpretações pelos intervenientes ou mais distanciadas, tendo sempre o cuidado de fazer uma análises da qualidade e veracidade das suas fontes. Um trabalho de investigação e reflexão notável, que como o autor refere não se limitou a uma única fonte de informação, autobiografias ou documentos dos intervenientes, relatórios circunstanciados dos países envolvidos nas circunstâncias, ou naqueles que conhecendo-as recearam que estratégias lhes pudessem ser aplicadas a nível doméstico. De todos estes ângulos O Matthews foi procurar informação e pelo menos de uma delas, dos arquivos existentes na ex-URSS foi tal como refere o primeiro a consultá-los para efeitos históricos. Um livro soberbo, uma deliciosa fonte de informação e análise.
A história – Se o livro é magnífico, ele é claramente ultrapassado pela história cativante do personagem e pela forma como ela se inseriu no seu tempo e foi, apar de outros, um actor marcante dos tempos que cruzou. Sem Richard Sorge a nossa história recente não teria trilhado os mesmos destinos. Nascido em Baku em 1895 (Imperio Russo), filho de pai alemão e mãe russa, e executado em Tóquio 1944, Richard Sorge desde muito cedo sentiu um impulso, uma vocação romântica para ser de acordo com uma personalidade marcante um personagem igualmente marcante na história do seu tempo.
A Owen Matthews este aspecto fundamental não lhe escapa e consegue-nos contar de forma minuciosa a história de um homem que teve o privilégio de ter actuado em dois continentes, em quatro países, e ter cruzado como actor, e por vezes como actor principal em palcos tão distintos como 1ª Guerra mundial, Revolução de Outubro, Movimento Comunista Internacional, 2ª Guerra Mundial. Se a sua história foi um privilégio, conhecê-la faz-nos sonhar com os tempos conturbados e excitantes que vivenciou. Owen Matthews conta-nos a história do Homem, faz-nos adivinhar a evolução do seu pensamento e convicções desde a sua intervenção activa nas trincheiras na primeira guerra mundial, o seu contacto enquanto estudante com os movimentos sociais que desembocaram na revolução de outubro, na construção do primeiro estado comunista, nas profundas alterações da mentalidade e consciência social que estas alterações trouxeram. Já adulto, envolveu-se no movimento comunista internacional, o Comintern e mais tarde no seu departamento de informações IKKI. Viu-se indirectamente envolvido nas convulsões políticas da URSS entre as fações Estalinistas e Trotskianas, e enquanto membro do Comintern só não foi arrastado na água do banho que levou de cena revolucionários e intelectuais como Gregory Zinoviev e Nikolai Bukharin porque alguém como Jan Karlovich Berzin na altura director do Quarto Departamento do Exercito Vermelho o recrutou para as fileiras da espionagem soviética e por esta via lhe deu um caminho que o levou ao estrelato da espionagem e lhe permitiu escapar às várias purgas que o paranoico líder soviético de então promovia para assegurar a sua liderança.
Enquanto espião em Xangai e de forma bem mais marcante em Tóquio, o autor retrata-nos um homem que agindo maioritariamente às claras, soube pela sua inteligência e magnetismo cativar todos quanto o rodeavam, e assim sem o esforço de operar no escuro e sem necessidade de grande fingimento, pode, dentro da suas capacidades e graças a uma ardilosa teia de recolha de informações que magistralmente teceu, intervir no jogo político da geoestratégia. Não é excessiva a afirmação que a sua intervenção através do seu cúmplice Hotsumi Ozaki no “clube do pequeno-almoço” influenciou decisivamente a política japonesa, persuadiu o esforço de guerra japonês para sul, adiou as intensões territoriais do japão sobre a Rússia oriental, empurrou, ainda que indirectamente o Japão para uma confrontação com a América, e dessa forma permitiu à URSS combater a Alemanha numa única frente e assim sair vitoriosa e dar o desfecho que todos conhecemos. Richard Sorge foi em todos estes palcos um actor político activo, e o autor soube fazer um retrato do homem e da sua história adequadamente enquadradas. E por falar em homem.
O Homem – Não havendo uma ordem adequada de virtudes para o caracterizar, e sem qualquer valoração das suas múltiplas características, opto pela enunciação que me parece menos comprometedora. Richard Sorge, foi assim ao longo da sua vida: académico, alcoólico, amante, aventureiro, comunista, escritor, espião, intelectual, jornalista, organizador, revolucionário, e em tudo isto o foi de uma forma brilhante e com um desempenho apaixonado em tudo em que se comprometeu.
Richard Sorge, uma história a conhecer, “O espião perfeito” um livro que não deve deixar de ler.
March 4, 2020
While I'd come across Richard Sorge's name in one of the many things I've watched and read about (in-)famous spies, I knew very little about his actual exploits. Detailed and informative, this biography sure made for an intriguing read.
January 6, 2021
"The spy who changed the world" – Lance Morrow
Spies are flawed human beings. Some are antisocial, others are narcissistic, many are manipulative, still many more are greedy, and a few are downright psychopathic. But given the requirements of the trade, perhaps those characteristics are more often assets than liabilities.
In the case of Richard Sorge, perhaps the greatest spy you’ve never heard of, intelligence combined with confidence, loyalty, and daring were the flip side of an apparent womanizing, hard-drinking, louche wastrel. He was no wastrel (though he was an alcoholic and conducted multiple, often simultaneous affairs). Indeed, Sorge is widely regarded as one of the most successful spies of all time, but, as detailed in this book, he was also perhaps the most underutilized spy of his time. The irony is that had his Soviet masters taken him more seriously and deployed him more effectively, there’s little doubt that many more would have heard of him.
Sorge’s long career, posing as a German journalist in China and then Japan before and during the Second World War, makes fascinating reading, though at times I found keeping track of all the various people and organizations to be challenging. Still, it paid off to pay attention, for I learned quite a bit about Japan during the war that filled in some large gaps in my knowledge.
What was most impressive about Sorge, according to the author, is that he managed to assemble both an almost faultless cover and a highly effective spy ring. He wormed his way into the confidence of the German embassy in Japan, and at the same time cultivated Japanese assets who gave him inside information from the highest levels of Japan’s military and government. He could then further burnish his reputation both among the Germans (by passing on information about Japan) and the Japanese (by passing on information about the Germans), all the while passing on information about both countries to his Soviet masters.
Unfortunately, he was distrusted by the Soviets, for a variety of reasons, not the least being that he was half German. He also had connections to many who were exiled or killed during Stalin’s purges. Sorge himself no doubt would have suffered their fate had he not ignored a command to return from Japan to Russia. Staying put saved his life.
The chapters dealing with the Great Purge were some of the most interesting to me, although I had read quite a bit about this period previously. Still, it’s sobering to take in:
There are insights into power struggles within the Japanese military which I found at times surprising. I had always assumed (mistakenly) that the Japanese had adopted a uniformly aggressive stance toward the U.S. for quite some time before bombing Pearl Harbor. While it is true that plans to cripple the U.S. Pacific fleet were being laid early on in 1941, the decision to attack was, as has been frequently noted, prompted by the U.S. oil embargo and freezing of Japanese assets. The situation before the attack was more nuanced than I had realized, however.
But getting back to Sorge. The book tracks his career in great detail, with a large cast of informers, lovers, hapless diplomats, scheming politicians, and many more. Sorge maintained his façade of the drunken, womanizing, playboy to near perfection. At one point, German intelligence sent a certain Colonel Joseph Meisinger to Tokyo to investigate Sorge, whom they had begun to suspect. Sorge went on a charm offensive, taking Meisinger out to his favorite drinking haunts and blowing smoke up his… well, you know what. Meisinger reported back to Berlin that Sorge was harmless. Little did he know!
Aside from the tragedy that Stalin steadfastly refused to believe Sorge’s most critical intelligence, the final tragedy is that Sorge had decided to return to the USSR just a week before his arrest by the Japanese in October 1941. Nearly his entire spy ring was netted, and first one, then another, began to talk.
The ultimate irony was that later the Soviets made him a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union. It seems he was still useful to them. The Berlin Wall had recently been built, and the Soviet leadership felt that it would be a good example for the East German people to have a pro-Soviet “good German” to model themselves on.
The author’s final paragraph is well worth quoting as it puts Sorge’s life into neat perspective:
Spies are flawed human beings. Some are antisocial, others are narcissistic, many are manipulative, still many more are greedy, and a few are downright psychopathic. But given the requirements of the trade, perhaps those characteristics are more often assets than liabilities.
In the case of Richard Sorge, perhaps the greatest spy you’ve never heard of, intelligence combined with confidence, loyalty, and daring were the flip side of an apparent womanizing, hard-drinking, louche wastrel. He was no wastrel (though he was an alcoholic and conducted multiple, often simultaneous affairs). Indeed, Sorge is widely regarded as one of the most successful spies of all time, but, as detailed in this book, he was also perhaps the most underutilized spy of his time. The irony is that had his Soviet masters taken him more seriously and deployed him more effectively, there’s little doubt that many more would have heard of him.
Sorge’s long career, posing as a German journalist in China and then Japan before and during the Second World War, makes fascinating reading, though at times I found keeping track of all the various people and organizations to be challenging. Still, it paid off to pay attention, for I learned quite a bit about Japan during the war that filled in some large gaps in my knowledge.
What was most impressive about Sorge, according to the author, is that he managed to assemble both an almost faultless cover and a highly effective spy ring. He wormed his way into the confidence of the German embassy in Japan, and at the same time cultivated Japanese assets who gave him inside information from the highest levels of Japan’s military and government. He could then further burnish his reputation both among the Germans (by passing on information about Japan) and the Japanese (by passing on information about the Germans), all the while passing on information about both countries to his Soviet masters.
Unfortunately, he was distrusted by the Soviets, for a variety of reasons, not the least being that he was half German. He also had connections to many who were exiled or killed during Stalin’s purges. Sorge himself no doubt would have suffered their fate had he not ignored a command to return from Japan to Russia. Staying put saved his life.
The chapters dealing with the Great Purge were some of the most interesting to me, although I had read quite a bit about this period previously. Still, it’s sobering to take in:
"By the end of 1938, the Soviet secret police (NKVD) had arrested 1,548,366 citizens, many of them party members, on charges of counter-revolutionary activity and sabotage. Of those, 681,692 were shot. Stalin’s Great Purge would decimate the party and consume almost the entire Fourth Department apparat. [This was the foreign intelligence branch Sorge worked for.] Of the Comintern’s 492 staff, 133 were imprisoned or executed. Three of five Soviet marshals, 90 percent of all Red Army generals, 80 percent of Red Army colonels, and 30,000 officers of lesser rank were arrested."The hollowing out of the Army’s officer corps had devastating repercussions after the Germans invaded Russia. An interesting episode, which I hadn’t heard about before, involved the German effort to goad Stalin on in his decimation of the top Soviet brass.
"The NKVD, tasked with concocting information on a plot by Tukhachevsky [a Marshal] and the other Soviet generals against Stalin, contacted Reinhard Heydrich, the chief of German intelligence (Sicherheitsdienst, or SD) with a request for more information. Heydrich, seeing an excellent opportunity to dupe Stalin into executing his best generals, forged documents implicating Tukhachevsky and other Red Army commanders that he passed back to the Soviets….In his quest to destroy all his potential enemies and rivals in the Soviet General Staff, Stalin was reader to enlist the help of the Nazis – who were only too happy to help him destroy the best of the USSR’s officer corps.”Sorge’s most impressive achievement was realizing fairly well in advance that Germany intended to invade Russia. Alas, his information and appraisals went unheeded:
"The evidence, from Sorge’s point of view, was crystal clear. Massive preparations were under way to attack Russia. The only outstanding question was exactly when and where the blow would fall. But there was a problem. Centre [his control] in the person of Director Golikov, resolutely refused to believe not only Sorge but also the mounting pile of agent reports from around the world that screamed urgent warnings of the coming offense.”Director Golikov was a survivor, who managed to hold on to his post and his life after several predecessors had been shot:
“The clear lesson of Soviet military intelligence was to tell Stalin precisely what he wanted to hear. As a result, Golikov consistently distorted the information he received about the increasing likelihood of a German attack to conform to Stalin’s skepticism. The result was a fatally self-reinforcing circle of delusion between dictator and intelligence chief.”This is but one of many insights and incidents that kept me engrossed in this book. Elsewhere there is abundant information revealing how the Japanese military strategy shifted during the war. It seems that there was prolonged debate about if or when to invade Russia, ultimately deciding to adopt the position of "jukushishugi – waiting for the persimmon to ripen and fall into your lap.” In other words, once the Germans had pretty much beaten the Soviets, Japan would jump in to prevent the Nazis from claiming Siberia.
There are insights into power struggles within the Japanese military which I found at times surprising. I had always assumed (mistakenly) that the Japanese had adopted a uniformly aggressive stance toward the U.S. for quite some time before bombing Pearl Harbor. While it is true that plans to cripple the U.S. Pacific fleet were being laid early on in 1941, the decision to attack was, as has been frequently noted, prompted by the U.S. oil embargo and freezing of Japanese assets. The situation before the attack was more nuanced than I had realized, however.
But getting back to Sorge. The book tracks his career in great detail, with a large cast of informers, lovers, hapless diplomats, scheming politicians, and many more. Sorge maintained his façade of the drunken, womanizing, playboy to near perfection. At one point, German intelligence sent a certain Colonel Joseph Meisinger to Tokyo to investigate Sorge, whom they had begun to suspect. Sorge went on a charm offensive, taking Meisinger out to his favorite drinking haunts and blowing smoke up his… well, you know what. Meisinger reported back to Berlin that Sorge was harmless. Little did he know!
Aside from the tragedy that Stalin steadfastly refused to believe Sorge’s most critical intelligence, the final tragedy is that Sorge had decided to return to the USSR just a week before his arrest by the Japanese in October 1941. Nearly his entire spy ring was netted, and first one, then another, began to talk.
“Sorge realized it would be useless to pretend that he had not been collecting sensitive intelligence. But he also understood that his best chance of survival was to pretend to be working for the Reich – or more precisely, to admit to the work he had been doing for German military intelligence, the Abwehr, while concealing his ties to Moscow.”Then suddenly, on day six, Sorge broke. After requesting a short rest, he wrote a long, detailed confession. He was tried and sentenced to death eight months later. He had hopes that the Soviet government would intervene on his behalf, but despite his undeniable value, saving Sorge “did not rank high on their list of priorities.” He was hanged on November 7, 1944.
The ultimate irony was that later the Soviets made him a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union. It seems he was still useful to them. The Berlin Wall had recently been built, and the Soviet leadership felt that it would be a good example for the East German people to have a pro-Soviet “good German” to model themselves on.
The author’s final paragraph is well worth quoting as it puts Sorge’s life into neat perspective:
“The Soviet Union had official canonized Sorge as a hero. Yet all the statues and the books could never quite efface the USSR’s actual suspicion, indifference and ultimate betrayal of its greatest spy. No other Soviet agent served Moscow so well or for so long. The spy network Sorge created was unique in the history of modern espionage in its access to the inner circles of power in both Germany and Japan. Yet at the moment of greatest danger for his adopted country, the atmosphere of paranoia that Stalin had created meant that the intelligence gold that he dutifully cabled to Moscow was ignored. Sorge was a flawed individual, but an impeccable spy – brave, brilliant, and relentless. It was Sorge’s tragedy that his masters were venal cowards who placed their own careers before the vital interests of the country that he laid down his life to serve.”
April 7, 2021
Exhaustiva y a veces algo densa biografía del más famoso espía de la antigua URSS, Richard Sorge, desde muy joven fue atraído por la ideología comunista y hasta su detención fue uno de los mejores hombres al servicio de Stalin, su gran carisma, su adaptación a cualquier situación como un buen camaleón, su atractivo y su inteligencia fueron sus señas de identidad.
Para aprovechar todas estas virtudes fue destinado a Asia y así poder convertir a China y Japón al comunismo, aprovechando las malas situaciones económicas y políticas que atravesaban esos países.
Al situar la mayor parte de su actividad en ese continente resulta algo complicado seguir sus pasos y movimientos, reclutar agentes, formar grupos en distintas partes de los países donde desarrolla su tarea, a veces resulta algo desmedido y redundante.
La historia tiene fuentes muy fiables, memorias, recuerdos de personas que trabajaron muy cerca de él, amigos y sobre todo el interrogatorio a que fue sometido al ser capturado.
Para aprovechar todas estas virtudes fue destinado a Asia y así poder convertir a China y Japón al comunismo, aprovechando las malas situaciones económicas y políticas que atravesaban esos países.
Al situar la mayor parte de su actividad en ese continente resulta algo complicado seguir sus pasos y movimientos, reclutar agentes, formar grupos en distintas partes de los países donde desarrolla su tarea, a veces resulta algo desmedido y redundante.
La historia tiene fuentes muy fiables, memorias, recuerdos de personas que trabajaron muy cerca de él, amigos y sobre todo el interrogatorio a que fue sometido al ser capturado.
April 16, 2021
کتاب داستان ریچارد سورژ که به نحوی تبدیل به یکی از موفق ترین جاسوس های جهان میشه که هم زمان بنحوی از دو کشور جاسوسی می کرده( ژاپن و آلمان) به نفع اتحاد جماهیر شوروی و طنز تلخ ماجرا اینه که اطلاعات دقیقی که ارسال می کرد بعلت پارانوی شدید استالین و همفکراش به رسوخ جاسوس در سیستم خودشان و پرونده سازی برای حذف رقبای داخلی به گزارشات سورژ اهمیت لازم داده نمیشه و یا تحریف شده به دست مقامات بالا از جمله استالین می رسید و گزارش بنحوی تبدیل میشد که با نظر استالین همخوانی داشته باشد (برای ماها یجوری آشناست). کتاب یک بررسی کامل از نحوه ی جذب به حزب کمونیسم تا ورود به شبکه جاسوسی، شبکه سازی، نفوذ، جمع آوری و ارسال اطلاعات را بصورت یک زندگی نامه داستانی تعریف می کند.
پ.ن1: کتاب پر از اسامی هست که برای من که با اسامی زیاد مشکل دارم یجورایی کابوس بود ولی در نهایت افراد اصلی را دیگه می شناختم.
پ.ن2: ترجمه زهره قلی پور هم خوب بود هرچند یک سری ویرایش محدود نیاز داشت ولی در کل خوب بود و خواندن کتاب را ساده می کرد.
پ.ن1: کتاب پر از اسامی هست که برای من که با اسامی زیاد مشکل دارم یجورایی کابوس بود ولی در نهایت افراد اصلی را دیگه می شناختم.
پ.ن2: ترجمه زهره قلی پور هم خوب بود هرچند یک سری ویرایش محدود نیاز داشت ولی در کل خوب بود و خواندن کتاب را ساده می کرد.
November 6, 2020
Soviet spy Richard Sorge's exploits are among the most remarkable personal stories of the years leading up to and the early years of the Second World War - which says a lot. Having alleged to be the inspiration for James Bond, Sorge's spectacular career has attracted scholarly, but sadly less popular, attention for decades. What makes this latest biography by Matthews so intriguing is his mastery of recently declassified Russian archival sources that provide an intriguing glimpse into Sorge's tragic descent into what we today can only understand as profound depression by a desperately idealistic man.
A cynic can be justified imagining how of course it's easy to make a biography of a talented spy at the dawn of WWII a page-turner. But Matthews has an uncanny ability to move back and forth between broader historical developments and Sorge's personal anguish. We really get a sense for the desperation, frustration, and loneliness Sorge struggled with, even as he became the darling of Shanghai's expatriates and an esteemed bon vivant in pre-war Tokyo - not to mention at first a pariah and then Moscow's best kept secret. It makes you realize how, despite what we see in film, James Bond cannot help but be a very lonely individual.
Sorege's story begins placidly enough with his birth in what is today Azerbaijan to a German expatriate and his subsequent unremarkably Prussian upbringing back in Germany. Matthews intriguingly contrasts Sorge's recollections of his disillusionment with nationalism after getting wounded in WWI with the recollections of another protagonist of World War II on WWI hospitals - and here Matthews draws from "Mein Kampf". Ominously, Matthews presages Sorge's fate by referring to his primary source for these formative years: the Japanese prison notebooks. Thus, from the earliest chapters it is apparent that this won't end well for our hero. But we already see how the contours of historical developments are shaping a flesh in blood person.
The Russian sources are what make this latest biography a real treat. We read for instance of Sorge's desperate longing in his letters to Katya, his wife in Moscow who met her own tragic end. As these letters had to be sent courtesy of the forever bungling and hopelessly mismanaged 4th Department of Soviet military intelligence (the author repeatedly reminds us how about once every 10 months the directors of the unit are shot), Matthews presents a beguiling transition. During the height of the Stalinist purges, Sorge becomes a target like many other agents who took part in the USSR's early formation. Matthews details, using Russian archival sources, how Sorge declines his summons to Moscow as he had yet to establish a useful spy ring in Tokyo. This earns him the mistrust of the Red Army Intelligence unit he works for, and they ignored his desperate subsequent dispatches warning of German perfidy against Russia. Yet later, we see in the declassified letters to his wife, just how much Sorge tired of his foreign assignments and yearned to join her back in Moscow. So desperate was he to quit the spying business that he almost blew his cover by begging, in a drunken stupor, that his Japanese mistress come with him to Moscow so he could (presumably) continue the affair while he reunited with his Russian wife his Japanese mistress didn't even know existed. But by then his spy ring was too useful and the situation too critical for Soviet security. In a cruel twist, Sorge was now ordered to stay put. This book is full of riveting melodramas like these that makes it an engaging read for anyone with a passing interest in history and how it affects the lives of us as individuals.
Matthews' intimate, almost psychological portrait of Sorge fails only once. At a crucial, and life altering moment at the very end of the book, Matthews confesses that we can never know what went through Sorge's head. The ending is preordained, and we can hardly blame Matthews for realizing this is about as far we can get into what had to have gone through Sorge's mind. But the people that come along in the journey, the forces of great power politics, all converging on one very human individual, give a complex and delightfully messy portrait of a great man of history hardly anybody has heard of.
A cynic can be justified imagining how of course it's easy to make a biography of a talented spy at the dawn of WWII a page-turner. But Matthews has an uncanny ability to move back and forth between broader historical developments and Sorge's personal anguish. We really get a sense for the desperation, frustration, and loneliness Sorge struggled with, even as he became the darling of Shanghai's expatriates and an esteemed bon vivant in pre-war Tokyo - not to mention at first a pariah and then Moscow's best kept secret. It makes you realize how, despite what we see in film, James Bond cannot help but be a very lonely individual.
Sorege's story begins placidly enough with his birth in what is today Azerbaijan to a German expatriate and his subsequent unremarkably Prussian upbringing back in Germany. Matthews intriguingly contrasts Sorge's recollections of his disillusionment with nationalism after getting wounded in WWI with the recollections of another protagonist of World War II on WWI hospitals - and here Matthews draws from "Mein Kampf". Ominously, Matthews presages Sorge's fate by referring to his primary source for these formative years: the Japanese prison notebooks. Thus, from the earliest chapters it is apparent that this won't end well for our hero. But we already see how the contours of historical developments are shaping a flesh in blood person.
The Russian sources are what make this latest biography a real treat. We read for instance of Sorge's desperate longing in his letters to Katya, his wife in Moscow who met her own tragic end. As these letters had to be sent courtesy of the forever bungling and hopelessly mismanaged 4th Department of Soviet military intelligence (the author repeatedly reminds us how about once every 10 months the directors of the unit are shot), Matthews presents a beguiling transition. During the height of the Stalinist purges, Sorge becomes a target like many other agents who took part in the USSR's early formation. Matthews details, using Russian archival sources, how Sorge declines his summons to Moscow as he had yet to establish a useful spy ring in Tokyo. This earns him the mistrust of the Red Army Intelligence unit he works for, and they ignored his desperate subsequent dispatches warning of German perfidy against Russia. Yet later, we see in the declassified letters to his wife, just how much Sorge tired of his foreign assignments and yearned to join her back in Moscow. So desperate was he to quit the spying business that he almost blew his cover by begging, in a drunken stupor, that his Japanese mistress come with him to Moscow so he could (presumably) continue the affair while he reunited with his Russian wife his Japanese mistress didn't even know existed. But by then his spy ring was too useful and the situation too critical for Soviet security. In a cruel twist, Sorge was now ordered to stay put. This book is full of riveting melodramas like these that makes it an engaging read for anyone with a passing interest in history and how it affects the lives of us as individuals.
Matthews' intimate, almost psychological portrait of Sorge fails only once. At a crucial, and life altering moment at the very end of the book, Matthews confesses that we can never know what went through Sorge's head. The ending is preordained, and we can hardly blame Matthews for realizing this is about as far we can get into what had to have gone through Sorge's mind. But the people that come along in the journey, the forces of great power politics, all converging on one very human individual, give a complex and delightfully messy portrait of a great man of history hardly anybody has heard of.
June 27, 2023
This is a well-written book about Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy who Ian Fleming says was "the most formidable spy in history." Nevertheless I, and most people, have never heard of him.
Anyone who is interested in non-fiction espionage would want to read this book. (I never really understand why people read espionage fiction when they can just as well find great books that are just, if not more exciting because they present the real thing.) For this reader, Sorge was not a particularly likeable character. And yet I found myself rooting for him and very pained at what happened to him. He was a womanizer and yet he inspired great loyalty in at least two of his women: his Russian wife and his Japanese mistress. He was much loved. And he was greatly liked by men. He was charming. He was brilliant. He created a spy network that infiltrated the highest ranks of Japanese and German government.
As Ben Macintyre says, "A superb biography ... Detailed, wry, sympathetic and oddly moving." And that's what surprised me. It really was oddly moving.
Anyone who is interested in non-fiction espionage would want to read this book. (I never really understand why people read espionage fiction when they can just as well find great books that are just, if not more exciting because they present the real thing.) For this reader, Sorge was not a particularly likeable character. And yet I found myself rooting for him and very pained at what happened to him. He was a womanizer and yet he inspired great loyalty in at least two of his women: his Russian wife and his Japanese mistress. He was much loved. And he was greatly liked by men. He was charming. He was brilliant. He created a spy network that infiltrated the highest ranks of Japanese and German government.
As Ben Macintyre says, "A superb biography ... Detailed, wry, sympathetic and oddly moving." And that's what surprised me. It really was oddly moving.
November 3, 2021
*ریچارد سورژ یکی از بزرگترین جاسوسهای دولت شوروی و یکی از عوامل شکست آلمان در جنگ جهانی دوم بود. در شوروی از او به عنون قهرمان ملی یاد میشد و حتی مجسمههایش را در چند شهر ساخته بودند.
**در کل کتاب جالبی بود و روایت خوبی از زندگی این جاسوس بزرگ و سیستم حزب کمونیسم داشت.
***تنها نکته منفیش این بود که نویسنده بیش از حد روایت رو طولانی میکنه و از افراد متعددی اسم میبره (و چند صفحه در موردشون مینویسه) که در واقع نقش خاصی در داستان کلی زندگی ریچارد سورژ نداشتن و معلومه فقط واسه پرکردن کتاب آورده شدن
**در کل کتاب جالبی بود و روایت خوبی از زندگی این جاسوس بزرگ و سیستم حزب کمونیسم داشت.
***تنها نکته منفیش این بود که نویسنده بیش از حد روایت رو طولانی میکنه و از افراد متعددی اسم میبره (و چند صفحه در موردشون مینویسه) که در واقع نقش خاصی در داستان کلی زندگی ریچارد سورژ نداشتن و معلومه فقط واسه پرکردن کتاب آورده شدن
February 8, 2020
Excellent book, unique character, we’ll written. It is good to have the truth told lest Sorge be lost to history. I have great empathy for Matthews’s multilingual research. I share the same struggle in the case of Eric Krebs alias Jan Valtin.
February 17, 2020
Brilliantly narrated book - the author is tied with Robert Massie for best historical non fiction prose that I have read
The book zooms in and out easily between the day-to-day of Sorge's dramatic life and the world stage on which it unfolded.
Very entertaining read and gives a lot of insight into how espionage can work, into how international politics are structured, and into the people who lived their lives through the interwar period and moved the world into WWII
The book zooms in and out easily between the day-to-day of Sorge's dramatic life and the world stage on which it unfolded.
Very entertaining read and gives a lot of insight into how espionage can work, into how international politics are structured, and into the people who lived their lives through the interwar period and moved the world into WWII
January 1, 2021
An amazing story, and as close to a real-life James Bond as the world has seen. There has apparently been tens of books written about Sorge, but the author was the first to source documentation from the Russian consulate in his research, and it really helps build out the story. Sorge was a lot of things: devout, braggart, oafish, brave, and above all preternaturally skilled to work as a spy. Fascinating reading, if a bit dry in parts.
May 21, 2020
A really exceptional book researched in minuscule detail. I really enjoyed, in particular, the tiny family anecdotes the author occasionally added. Unfortunately, these were counterbalanced somewhat by completely unnecessary judgements of the era and its major figures. Not only do these add nothing to the narrative, I doubt the readership needed to be told that the NKVD wasn't Russia's equivalent of a pensioners' tea and biscuits afternoon.
I really enjoy this current trend for journalists writing history (see also Ben Macintyre's The Spy and the Traitor). Perhaps there's a little methodological nuance here and there that is lacking, but the writing is extremely entertaining. However, the treatment of readers as people who need to know - to be informed - of (the author's view of) how immoral these individuals are grates.
I really enjoy this current trend for journalists writing history (see also Ben Macintyre's The Spy and the Traitor). Perhaps there's a little methodological nuance here and there that is lacking, but the writing is extremely entertaining. However, the treatment of readers as people who need to know - to be informed - of (the author's view of) how immoral these individuals are grates.
May 27, 2021
According to many the best spy of all time; Richard Sorge, a German who spied for the Soviet Union in Japan, just before and during the second World War. Owen Matthews not only describes Sorge's life, but also pays close attention to the political events in Germany, the Sovet Union and Japan. Besides the political story, it is, of course, also a human tragedy, not feeling at home, what is emphasized by the soviet union's uncooperative attitude ; the country and ideology for which Sorge had finally sacrificed his life but who never acknowledged his great merit and at last refused to help him. Years after his death, recognition came and statues were erected for him. Great book.
August 3, 2019
Over de Russische superspion Richard Sorge zijn al talloze boeken verschenen, maar de toegang tot voorheen gesloten archieven maakt dit verhaal heel bijzonder. Naast de activiteiten van Sorge en zijn spionnenring wordt uitvoerig ingegaan op politieke ontwikkelingen, vooral tussen Rusland, Duitsland en Japan. Een fascinerend boek.
December 3, 2019
It is a wonder that Richard Sorge survived working as a Soviet spy, both in Germany and Japan, as long as he did. The book makes the case that one would have to be mad in the way that he was to have done so.
June 30, 2021
Su mayor virtud es que se lee prácticamente como la mejor novela de espías. El contexto, la irrupción y los prolegómenos de la segunda guerra mundial en Asis, seguramente menos conocidos, aumentan el interés en el personaje y la historia tratada.
June 29, 2021
"Благодаря Ви за любезността" - с тези думи на 7 ноември 1944 година учтивият затворник се сбогува със своите палачи в японския затвор "Сугамо". Шестнайсет минути по-късно безжизненото му тяло е свалено от въжето. Топ-шпионинът Рихард Зорге е мъртъв. Смъртната му присъда е изпълнена точно на 27-мата годишнина от Октомврийската революция. Обесен е човекът, който от Токио праща важна информация на Сталин и по този начин изиграва решаваща роля в полза на Съюзническите сили.
Поне такава е легендата. Защото благодарение на сигурната информация на Зорге, че Япония няма да нападне СССР, Сталин изтегля войските си от Сибир и успява по този начин да се противопостави на настъпващата към Москва няколкомилионна германска армия. Това ще се превърне в препъни-камък за Хитлер и мечтите му за световно владичество. От този момент нататък той ще започне да губи войната.
Рихард Зорге многократно предупреждава Сталин, че Германия ще наруши действащия пакт за ненападение между Берлин и Москва и ще атакува СССР, но диктаторът не се вслушва в думите му. Все още не е съвсем ясно кои от радиограмите на шпионина са достигнали до Сталин и в каква степен са повлияли върху решенията му. Но спокойно можем да кажем, че Рихард Зорге е един от най-способните шпиони, съществували някога. Нестандартен, чаровен и влюбен в прелестите на живота, Зорге е неустоим за жените, а дори най-закоравелите мъже не успяват да разберат как са му издали тайната информация, от която той се интересува.
При това той става шпионин по-скоро случайно и без особено въодушевление. Малко преди смъртта си Зорге пише: "Никога не бих избрал професията на таен агент. Исках да съм учен."
Рихард Зорге става шпионин, за да допринесе за края на войната, сам вече преживял ада на окопите. Той е роден през 1895 година в Баку, баща му е германец, а майка му - рускиня. Той израства в Берлин, а на 18 се записва доброволец в Първата световна война. Балонът на патриотизма обаче бързо се пука. Многократно осколки от гранати се забиват в тялото му, а през 1917 година един шрапнел разкъсва и двата му крака. Лекарите едва успяват да го спасят.
След този ден Зорге ще куца до края на живота си, а войната ще го отврати. За да помогне на света и на хората, колкото и патетично да звучи, той става шпионин. Убеден е, че само победата на комунизма ще предотврати смъртта на милиони хора - така Зорге прегръща идеите на Маркс и Енгелс. Става съветски агент и работи последователно във Великобритания, скандинавските страни и Китай, преди през 1933 година да се премести в Япония.
Насред Токио, обхванатата от параноя и подозрителност японска столица, Зорге прави невъзможното: създава шпионска мрежа от над 40 души и под носа на японската тайна полиция информира Москва за тайните не само на Германия, но и на японското правителство. Нещо повече - Зорге печели доверието на германския военен аташе в Токио Ойген От, а и нежната благосклонност на неговата съпруга Хелма. Двамата започват страстна любовна авантюра, която може да струва не само работата, но и живота на шпионина. Както, впрочем, и многото му други любовни афери, пиянски изстъпления и всякакви рисковани ситуации, в които Зорге е влизал без сянка на страх или безпокойство.
Началото на края на Рихард Зорге започва в момента, когато разбира за нахлуването на хитлеристките войски в СССР през 1941 година. Той се напива до безсъзнание, крещи от балкона на хотела си на събралите се висши германски офицери, че войната е загубена, през следващите дни ругае Хитлер на висок глас, пребива на улицата един полицай и като цяло се държи така, сякаш няма търпение да дочака ареста си. Когато разбира, че многото му предупреждения към Сталин за атаката на Германия не са били чути, той заявява, че е Господ и че ако има някой, който може да унищожи Хитлер, то това е само и единствено той.
Москва се отрича от него. След арестуването му Токио се опитва на няколко пъти да го замени за друг затворник, но от съветската столица отговарят винаги по един и същ начин: "Името Рихард Зорге ни е непознато". Двайсет години след екзекуцията му Рихард Зорге е реабилитиран като един от най-важните шпиони на СССР.
Поне такава е легендата. Защото благодарение на сигурната информация на Зорге, че Япония няма да нападне СССР, Сталин изтегля войските си от Сибир и успява по този начин да се противопостави на настъпващата към Москва няколкомилионна германска армия. Това ще се превърне в препъни-камък за Хитлер и мечтите му за световно владичество. От този момент нататък той ще започне да губи войната.
Рихард Зорге многократно предупреждава Сталин, че Германия ще наруши действащия пакт за ненападение между Берлин и Москва и ще атакува СССР, но диктаторът не се вслушва в думите му. Все още не е съвсем ясно кои от радиограмите на шпионина са достигнали до Сталин и в каква степен са повлияли върху решенията му. Но спокойно можем да кажем, че Рихард Зорге е един от най-способните шпиони, съществували някога. Нестандартен, чаровен и влюбен в прелестите на живота, Зорге е неустоим за жените, а дори най-закоравелите мъже не успяват да разберат как са му издали тайната информация, от която той се интересува.
При това той става шпионин по-скоро случайно и без особено въодушевление. Малко преди смъртта си Зорге пише: "Никога не бих избрал професията на таен агент. Исках да съм учен."
Рихард Зорге става шпионин, за да допринесе за края на войната, сам вече преживял ада на окопите. Той е роден през 1895 година в Баку, баща му е германец, а майка му - рускиня. Той израства в Берлин, а на 18 се записва доброволец в Първата световна война. Балонът на патриотизма обаче бързо се пука. Многократно осколки от гранати се забиват в тялото му, а през 1917 година един шрапнел разкъсва и двата му крака. Лекарите едва успяват да го спасят.
След този ден Зорге ще куца до края на живота си, а войната ще го отврати. За да помогне на света и на хората, колкото и патетично да звучи, той става шпионин. Убеден е, че само победата на комунизма ще предотврати смъртта на милиони хора - така Зорге прегръща идеите на Маркс и Енгелс. Става съветски агент и работи последователно във Великобритания, скандинавските страни и Китай, преди през 1933 година да се премести в Япония.
Насред Токио, обхванатата от параноя и подозрителност японска столица, Зорге прави невъзможното: създава шпионска мрежа от над 40 души и под носа на японската тайна полиция информира Москва за тайните не само на Германия, но и на японското правителство. Нещо повече - Зорге печели доверието на германския военен аташе в Токио Ойген От, а и нежната благосклонност на неговата съпруга Хелма. Двамата започват страстна любовна авантюра, която може да струва не само работата, но и живота на шпионина. Както, впрочем, и многото му други любовни афери, пиянски изстъпления и всякакви рисковани ситуации, в които Зорге е влизал без сянка на страх или безпокойство.
Началото на края на Рихард Зорге започва в момента, когато разбира за нахлуването на хитлеристките войски в СССР през 1941 година. Той се напива до безсъзнание, крещи от балкона на хотела си на събралите се висши германски офицери, че войната е загубена, през следващите дни ругае Хитлер на висок глас, пребива на улицата един полицай и като цяло се държи така, сякаш няма търпение да дочака ареста си. Когато разбира, че многото му предупреждения към Сталин за атаката на Германия не са били чути, той заявява, че е Господ и че ако има някой, който може да унищожи Хитлер, то това е само и единствено той.
Москва се отрича от него. След арестуването му Токио се опитва на няколко пъти да го замени за друг затворник, но от съветската столица отговарят винаги по един и същ начин: "Името Рихард Зорге ни е непознато". Двайсет години след екзекуцията му Рихард Зорге е реабилитиран като един от най-важните шпиони на СССР.
April 7, 2020
An Impeccable Spy, by Owen Matthews; Bloomsbury Publishing: New York; $30.00 hardback
Richard Sorge is a name few Americans know. Yet he had more influence on the outcome of World War II than perhaps any spy in the history of that grand conflict. Why his remarkable, successful career is virtually a mystery to America is only one reason modern readers will value this work. Owen Matthews, Oxford educated British historian, author, and journalist for numerous first rank newspapers, offers a thoroughly researched, incredibly surprising story of the Soviet spy, Richard Sorge. Matthews places Sorge understandably in the context of his age, and clarifies many historical mysteries in so doing. His use of newly declassified documents is a hallmark of this achievement.
Sorge, like many Germans of his generation, survived as a wounded veteran of the Great War to End All Wars, World War I. Son of a successful oil man, whose travels took him throughout the Russian Caucasus, he returned after combat a bitter, angry young man. His dreams of a successful future, for he was well educated, seemed virtually non existent. His world had been betrayed by the great imperial war. In time he was drawn to admiration of the recently successful Socialist Revolution in Soviet Russia. Shortly thereafter, he came to the attention of a Soviet recruiter. Then Sorge became a spy.
Sorge's personality lent itself to such a profession. An unlimited extrovert, he traveled the world making friends of business associates, writers, officials and women. Few believed he could be other than he claimed, a well heeled, broadly conversant, and agreeable German journalist and fixer. What he really was, was a conscious spy for the Soviet Union of Marshall Joseph Stalin.
We follow as Sorge's political education matches his ability to help Communism. Sent by the Communist International to agitate around the world, he eventually went with a Soviet delegation of clandestine spies to Shanghai. There he influenced budding communist organizations, disrupted Kuomintang nationalists, and helped his cause of revolution spread. We observe how he managed to avoid the endless doctrinaire conflicts in early Communist planning, thereby setting himself up as a completely undetected spy in the cosmopolitan cities of 1930's Asia. His greatest success came in Tokyo, where he appeared a good German of the New World Order, while cultivating Japanese officials and betraying their secrets to Stalin. His achievements in alerting Moscow to Hitler's plans brought his skills to the fore in the run up to the German invasion of the Soviet Union. His greatest secret mission was to alert Stalin that the Japanese would attack south into Indochina, Java,and the Philippines, not Soviet eastern Siberia. Thus Stalin moved his armies westward, to stop the Nazi drive on Moscow, hold the line, and wear down the Wehrmacht with millions of fresh Siberian troops.
Woven throughout are tales of Sorge's many affairs, his benighted marriages, his schemes and associates, both wise and foolish. We discover he was a thoughtful, educated man whose abilities were driven by a passionate belief in the socialist dream.How he fulfilled his life's work, ending in a strange denouement, is what makes this book worthwhile. Well written and insightful, using recently declassified records, we discover the spy who fought in Asia for a Soviet master, and helped deal Hitler a catastrophic defeat.
Richard Sorge is a name few Americans know. Yet he had more influence on the outcome of World War II than perhaps any spy in the history of that grand conflict. Why his remarkable, successful career is virtually a mystery to America is only one reason modern readers will value this work. Owen Matthews, Oxford educated British historian, author, and journalist for numerous first rank newspapers, offers a thoroughly researched, incredibly surprising story of the Soviet spy, Richard Sorge. Matthews places Sorge understandably in the context of his age, and clarifies many historical mysteries in so doing. His use of newly declassified documents is a hallmark of this achievement.
Sorge, like many Germans of his generation, survived as a wounded veteran of the Great War to End All Wars, World War I. Son of a successful oil man, whose travels took him throughout the Russian Caucasus, he returned after combat a bitter, angry young man. His dreams of a successful future, for he was well educated, seemed virtually non existent. His world had been betrayed by the great imperial war. In time he was drawn to admiration of the recently successful Socialist Revolution in Soviet Russia. Shortly thereafter, he came to the attention of a Soviet recruiter. Then Sorge became a spy.
Sorge's personality lent itself to such a profession. An unlimited extrovert, he traveled the world making friends of business associates, writers, officials and women. Few believed he could be other than he claimed, a well heeled, broadly conversant, and agreeable German journalist and fixer. What he really was, was a conscious spy for the Soviet Union of Marshall Joseph Stalin.
We follow as Sorge's political education matches his ability to help Communism. Sent by the Communist International to agitate around the world, he eventually went with a Soviet delegation of clandestine spies to Shanghai. There he influenced budding communist organizations, disrupted Kuomintang nationalists, and helped his cause of revolution spread. We observe how he managed to avoid the endless doctrinaire conflicts in early Communist planning, thereby setting himself up as a completely undetected spy in the cosmopolitan cities of 1930's Asia. His greatest success came in Tokyo, where he appeared a good German of the New World Order, while cultivating Japanese officials and betraying their secrets to Stalin. His achievements in alerting Moscow to Hitler's plans brought his skills to the fore in the run up to the German invasion of the Soviet Union. His greatest secret mission was to alert Stalin that the Japanese would attack south into Indochina, Java,and the Philippines, not Soviet eastern Siberia. Thus Stalin moved his armies westward, to stop the Nazi drive on Moscow, hold the line, and wear down the Wehrmacht with millions of fresh Siberian troops.
Woven throughout are tales of Sorge's many affairs, his benighted marriages, his schemes and associates, both wise and foolish. We discover he was a thoughtful, educated man whose abilities were driven by a passionate belief in the socialist dream.How he fulfilled his life's work, ending in a strange denouement, is what makes this book worthwhile. Well written and insightful, using recently declassified records, we discover the spy who fought in Asia for a Soviet master, and helped deal Hitler a catastrophic defeat.
December 20, 2021
Într-o dimineaţă geroasă din noiembrie 1941, Natalia Alekseievna Kravcenko și sora ei vitregă, Lina, au îngropat picturile tatălui lor în grădina casei de la ţară. Satul de artiști Nikolina Gora, situat la 40 de kilometri vest de Kremlin, ajunsese pe linia frontului în Bătălia pentru Moscova. În urmă cu câteva zile, coloanele de fum care se ridicau din satul vecin anunţau sosirea avangardei Wehrmachtului, care lua poziţie pentru atacul final asupra capitalei. Casa lor era așezată pe malul înalt și împădurit al râului Moscova, iar medicii Armatei Roșii o rechiziţionaseră pentru a o transforma în spital de campanie pentru bătălia ce avea să urmeze. Celor două surori li se spusese să părăsească imediat casa, iar ele aruncaseră în grabă picturile tatălui lor și argintăria de dinainte de Revoluţie într-un cufăr mare, pe care l-au îngropat într-o scobitură din malul care cobora abrupt spre râu. Nu-și făceau prea multe speranţe că mâna de soldaţi sovietici care săpau de zor tranșee la marginea satului putea ţine piept mult timp iminentului atac german. Natalia se aștepta ca acea noapte să fie ultima pe care avea să o mai petreacă vreodată în frumoasa casă de la țară construită de tatăl ei.
Chiar înainte de ivirea zorilor, Natalia s-a trezit într-un zgomot asurzitor. Și-a luat repede un cojoc și pâslarii și s-a dus la poartă să vadă ce se întâmplă. Întinși pe marginea drumului, chirciţi de frig sub mantalele lor, sute de soldaţi sovietici furau câteva ore de somn în nămeţii ce se înălțau de o parte și de alta a șoselei. Tumultul era rezultatul sforăiturilor lor.
– Siberieni! i-a spus un ofiţer, care tocmai coborâse din trenul sosit din Extremul Orient sovietic.
Veniseră întăriri pentru apărarea Moscovei.
În următoarele zile, băieţii din Siberia au murit cu sutele pe terenurile mlăștinoase dintre satele Nikolina Gora și Aksinino, alături de sute de mii de alţi soldaţi sovietici, căzuți pe frontul de 600 de kilometri din jurul Moscovei. Imensa masă de desen, special făcută pentru tatăl Nataliei, a fost transformată în masă de operaţie. Dar nemţii n-au răzbit mai departe. Natalia Alekseievna s-a întors la casa lor de la țară; și locuiește și acum acolo. La fel a făcut și nepoata ei, care este acum soţia mea. Cartea aceasta a fost parţial scrisă acolo. Picturile au revenit pe pereţi, la locul lor. Chiar și groapa săpată de fete se vede încă, atunci când tufișurile rămân fără frunze, toamna. Vechiul cufăr de oţel ruginește în spatele casei.
Talazurile celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial s-au îndepărtat de Moscova în acea lună, în mare parte datorită întăririlor venite din Siberia.
Acestea poate că n-ar fi ajuns acolo fără strădaniile unui spion comunist german care activa la celălalt capăt al lumii – un agent care aflase cele mai bine păstrate secrete ale Înaltului Comandament Japonez și German, dar, cu toate acestea, era privit cu neîncredere de șefii săi de la Moscova. Bineînţeles, victoria are mulţi părinţi, mai ales o victorie atât de din plin stropită cu sânge și de o importanță atât de mare, precum cea sovietică din cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial. Dar munca extraordinară a lui Richard Sorge a avut un impact crucial în salvarea Uniunii Sovietice de la
dezastru, în 1941, și a făcut posibilă victoria finală a lui Stalin din 1945.
Chiar înainte de ivirea zorilor, Natalia s-a trezit într-un zgomot asurzitor. Și-a luat repede un cojoc și pâslarii și s-a dus la poartă să vadă ce se întâmplă. Întinși pe marginea drumului, chirciţi de frig sub mantalele lor, sute de soldaţi sovietici furau câteva ore de somn în nămeţii ce se înălțau de o parte și de alta a șoselei. Tumultul era rezultatul sforăiturilor lor.
– Siberieni! i-a spus un ofiţer, care tocmai coborâse din trenul sosit din Extremul Orient sovietic.
Veniseră întăriri pentru apărarea Moscovei.
În următoarele zile, băieţii din Siberia au murit cu sutele pe terenurile mlăștinoase dintre satele Nikolina Gora și Aksinino, alături de sute de mii de alţi soldaţi sovietici, căzuți pe frontul de 600 de kilometri din jurul Moscovei. Imensa masă de desen, special făcută pentru tatăl Nataliei, a fost transformată în masă de operaţie. Dar nemţii n-au răzbit mai departe. Natalia Alekseievna s-a întors la casa lor de la țară; și locuiește și acum acolo. La fel a făcut și nepoata ei, care este acum soţia mea. Cartea aceasta a fost parţial scrisă acolo. Picturile au revenit pe pereţi, la locul lor. Chiar și groapa săpată de fete se vede încă, atunci când tufișurile rămân fără frunze, toamna. Vechiul cufăr de oţel ruginește în spatele casei.
Talazurile celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial s-au îndepărtat de Moscova în acea lună, în mare parte datorită întăririlor venite din Siberia.
Acestea poate că n-ar fi ajuns acolo fără strădaniile unui spion comunist german care activa la celălalt capăt al lumii – un agent care aflase cele mai bine păstrate secrete ale Înaltului Comandament Japonez și German, dar, cu toate acestea, era privit cu neîncredere de șefii săi de la Moscova. Bineînţeles, victoria are mulţi părinţi, mai ales o victorie atât de din plin stropită cu sânge și de o importanță atât de mare, precum cea sovietică din cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial. Dar munca extraordinară a lui Richard Sorge a avut un impact crucial în salvarea Uniunii Sovietice de la
dezastru, în 1941, și a făcut posibilă victoria finală a lui Stalin din 1945.
October 5, 2021
A biographical history of the USSR's most successful covert agent, An Impeccable Spy by Owen Matthews follows the life of Richard Sorge, a German by name but a Russian communist by conviction who set up spy rings for the Soviets in China and Japan during the age of Stalin and leading up to World War II. Blessed with a death-defying daring, a seductive savoir-faire, and a perfect cover, Sorge was a formidable asset in the Soviets' war against fascism - or he would have been, did not the very traits that made him so singular cause the communist regime, and Stalin, himself, to distrust him.
Based on newly-declassified records, Matthews's history is as meticulously researched as it is readable. The focus is always on Sorge's character, and the chapters are drawn together through a narrative that, after we have gotten to know Sorge, begins to obscurely hint at the book's ending. Rather than spoil anything, this foreshadowing maintains a suspense that parallels Sorge's daring character. And yet, though it can be read as a character study of a Soviet James Bond (alcohol, motorcycle rides, and romantic liaisons punctuate the book's elaboration on how Sorge established his spy rings), An Impeccable Spy consistently maintains a peripheral view of the main events of the twentieth century of which we have read and/or heard of in school.
Foremost among such events was, perhaps, Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's plan to break the Molotov-Ribbentrop nonaggression pact and invade Russia. While the conventional story is that, despite the similarities between their ideologies (which Sorge discovers, finding as he does how easy it is for a communist to pose as a fascist), Hitler betrayed and took Stalin by surprise, Matthews shows that not only had Sorge sent intelligence of Operation Barbarossa to Moscow, but Stalin had prepared for such a possible attack. However, for reasons established by Matthews, Stalin - who had by that time begun his party purge, from which Sorge was spared by distance - had begun to distrust Sorge. Thus, Matthews draws on a theme common to both his nonfictional and fictional works: the incompetence of the suspicious self-cannibalism of communist bureaucracy.
I read An Impeccable Spy as part of my goal to better understand Matthews's other work, especially his historical fiction. However, a few hours into the audiobook (excellently narrated by Mike Grady), An Impeccable Spy became one of my favorites of Matthews's contributions to the scholarship on 20th-century Russia. As with his other works, I plan to recommend friends and students read An Impeccable Spy for an entertaining and well-documented look at the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.
Based on newly-declassified records, Matthews's history is as meticulously researched as it is readable. The focus is always on Sorge's character, and the chapters are drawn together through a narrative that, after we have gotten to know Sorge, begins to obscurely hint at the book's ending. Rather than spoil anything, this foreshadowing maintains a suspense that parallels Sorge's daring character. And yet, though it can be read as a character study of a Soviet James Bond (alcohol, motorcycle rides, and romantic liaisons punctuate the book's elaboration on how Sorge established his spy rings), An Impeccable Spy consistently maintains a peripheral view of the main events of the twentieth century of which we have read and/or heard of in school.
Foremost among such events was, perhaps, Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's plan to break the Molotov-Ribbentrop nonaggression pact and invade Russia. While the conventional story is that, despite the similarities between their ideologies (which Sorge discovers, finding as he does how easy it is for a communist to pose as a fascist), Hitler betrayed and took Stalin by surprise, Matthews shows that not only had Sorge sent intelligence of Operation Barbarossa to Moscow, but Stalin had prepared for such a possible attack. However, for reasons established by Matthews, Stalin - who had by that time begun his party purge, from which Sorge was spared by distance - had begun to distrust Sorge. Thus, Matthews draws on a theme common to both his nonfictional and fictional works: the incompetence of the suspicious self-cannibalism of communist bureaucracy.
I read An Impeccable Spy as part of my goal to better understand Matthews's other work, especially his historical fiction. However, a few hours into the audiobook (excellently narrated by Mike Grady), An Impeccable Spy became one of my favorites of Matthews's contributions to the scholarship on 20th-century Russia. As with his other works, I plan to recommend friends and students read An Impeccable Spy for an entertaining and well-documented look at the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.
November 12, 2021
Si hay un genero en el que los británicos son maestros es en la literatura de espías. De hecho ellos son la literatura de espías. Hay algo profundamente británico en la figura del intelectual de clase alta educado en Oxford que, de joven, y con la fogosidad y testosterona a tope, se mete en los servicios secretos de Su Majestad para, ya en la madurez, dedicarse a la literatura. De hecho varios de los grandes como pueden ser Graham Greene, Le Carré o Ian Fleming trabajaron directa o indirectamente para los servicios de inteligencia británicos.
Sin embargo, con el final de la guerra fría, la novela de espías perdió gran parte de su razón de ser: el gran enemigo de occidente en la actualidad, esto es, el islamismo, carecía de la sofisticación y atractivo de los soviéticos. Además vivimos en un tiempo en el que las grandes hazañas del espionaje y del sabotaje son realizadas desde la comodidad de un silla de oficina, a cargo de piratas informáticos con acné juvenil y una hamburguesa de McDonald's en la mano. Nada queda del glamour de un James Bond.
En ese sentido, la literatura de espías que florece hoy en día es profundamente nostáligica. Ya que se nutre de los gigantes del pasado. Son mucho más exitosos los ensayos histórico / biográficos de estos grandes espías, género en el que destaca especialmete Ben Macintrye. Es en esta corriente de "ensayo sobre espías" donde se encuadra esta magnífica biografía de Richard Sorge.
Richard Sorge fue, en muchos aspectos, el espía prototípico: el patrón sobre el que se basaron los espías típicos de las películas. Brillante, despiadado, encantador, mujeriego, manipulador y un prodigioso alcohólico. Evidentemente la gran diferencia con James Bond es que siempre trabajó para los soviéticos. Y que nunca se manchó las manos de sangre.
A pesar de que Owen Mathews no puede evitar la irritante (y extendida) costumbre entre los historiadores británicos de dejar que sus prejuicios, rabiosamente anticomunistas, se viertan el producto final, el autor hace un trabajo magnífico. El ensayo se lee como si fuese una novela y la narrativa esta perfectamente hilvanada. Uno de los mejores ejemplos de ensayo de espías que se puede encontrar.
Sin embargo, con el final de la guerra fría, la novela de espías perdió gran parte de su razón de ser: el gran enemigo de occidente en la actualidad, esto es, el islamismo, carecía de la sofisticación y atractivo de los soviéticos. Además vivimos en un tiempo en el que las grandes hazañas del espionaje y del sabotaje son realizadas desde la comodidad de un silla de oficina, a cargo de piratas informáticos con acné juvenil y una hamburguesa de McDonald's en la mano. Nada queda del glamour de un James Bond.
En ese sentido, la literatura de espías que florece hoy en día es profundamente nostáligica. Ya que se nutre de los gigantes del pasado. Son mucho más exitosos los ensayos histórico / biográficos de estos grandes espías, género en el que destaca especialmete Ben Macintrye. Es en esta corriente de "ensayo sobre espías" donde se encuadra esta magnífica biografía de Richard Sorge.
Richard Sorge fue, en muchos aspectos, el espía prototípico: el patrón sobre el que se basaron los espías típicos de las películas. Brillante, despiadado, encantador, mujeriego, manipulador y un prodigioso alcohólico. Evidentemente la gran diferencia con James Bond es que siempre trabajó para los soviéticos. Y que nunca se manchó las manos de sangre.
A pesar de que Owen Mathews no puede evitar la irritante (y extendida) costumbre entre los historiadores británicos de dejar que sus prejuicios, rabiosamente anticomunistas, se viertan el producto final, el autor hace un trabajo magnífico. El ensayo se lee como si fuese una novela y la narrativa esta perfectamente hilvanada. Uno de los mejores ejemplos de ensayo de espías que se puede encontrar.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews