Richard Sorge: Stalin's Spy

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

A neat article on one of the most important spies during the Second World War. He was considered Stalins most important spies during the war. Getting a lot of information from a German colonel named Eugene Ott, he managed to obtain information regarding the German invasion of the Soviet Union and gain an accurate date of the invasion. And yet despite the convincing evidence that Soviet intelligence had collected that strengthened Sorge's warning, Stalin dismissed the information as coming from "a **** who has set himself up with some little factories and brothels in Japan." But when the invasion actually happened, the soviets began listening more to his information. Unfortunately he was arrested by the Japanese in October 1941, and was imprisoned for three years. The soviets refused to take him back when the Japanese offered a prisoner swap for some of their own soldiers who were POWs in the Soviet Union. On November 7, 1944 he was hanged in Sugamo Prison.

 

this is amazing, to say the least....I have not read much at all on the Ostfront....did the Russians not detect the build up of German forces??

 

I think that they did, its just that Stalin refused to believe anything kind of intelligence report that came onto his desk. Stalin's behavior might have to do with that he strongly believed that they were still allies with Germany, but there could be a lot of reasons to that. There were definitely sources that were telling the Soviet high command that there was an imminent German invasion. A day before the invasion there was a German deserter named Alfred Listkow, who was a secret communist, who swan across the Bug River and surrendered himself to Soviet soldiers. He told them about the oncoming German invasion the next day and soon his statement was on its way to Stalin. On the same day there was another warning from a Soviet informant, Gerhard Kegel, who was in the German embassy that also gave information that the invasion would occur within 24-48 hours. Those are just a few examples, and yet Stalin chose to not listen to these kinds of reports.

 

The Allied had been planning also operations against Stalin, and if you think about Churchill´s view on communists in the WW1 period, no wonder Stalin just mostly said that the Allied are trying to cause friction between the two. Especially if it was Churchill giving warnings. Then again Stalin believed it would not be until 1942 that the war would begin.

 

had to be one of the biggest ''blunders''? of all time by Stalin......no wonder he went into a depressed state.....

 

One should not believe the Indian tales about the master spy Sorge :most of what Sorge was telling and most of what the Soviet Intelligence was telling ,was meaningless :the fact is that the Soviets were in the dark,til a few days before 22 june .Not that the opposite would have changed anything,given the catastrophic situation of the Red Army on the morning of 22 june 1941.

Specifically about Sorge : why should a Soviet spy,working in Japan ,have any information about a German attack on the other side of the world ?

 

He did have German sources within the German embassy, like I mentioned Eugene Ott was working as the German ambassador to Japan and would show him messages coming from Germany. Also Richard Sorge was allowed to work outside the embassy and had access to confidential files.

 

I have read several books about why Stalin did not believe that Hitler would attack. I think he was more believing he could cope with it. 1.He had so many men facing the Germans they could not get through
2. If the Germans attacked his own troops would push the Germans to Germany ( the strategy of defending your country by keeping the war on the enemy´s side ) 3. The communists in Germany would revolt and cause the Germans a loss of the homefront.

One interesting theory is that Stalin noticed that the sheep fur price had not gone up which means Hitler did not buy the fur to make winter clothing. Well, that was possibly Stalin´s thought...

Interesting is that how fast Stalin turned his coat and as a communist started talking about Mother Russia and Church and priests were in business again. Clever work.