In December 1940, Hitler secretly drew up a top-secret raid plan, the Barbarossa Plan, ready to raid the Soviet Union in a blitzkrieg like "Redbeard". Why is it like "Red Beard"? That's because Barbarossa means "red beard," which is the nickname of frederick Emperor Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1941, as this top-secret plan entered the implementation phase, Hitler began to create rumors and illusions that he was going to march into Britain, while on the other hand driving 100 military vehicles every 24 hours and massaging 47 divisions on the German-Soviet border in just two weeks. On 21 June, project Barbarossa entered the raid phase, with Hitler committing a total of 190 divisions, 3,700 tanks, 4,900 aircraft, 47,000 artillery pieces, and 190 warships. The Soviet Union, which was suddenly on the verge of the enemy, woke up like a dream at this time, and after being severely damaged, began the Great Patriotic War.
Hitler's "Barbarossa Plan" can be said to have failed to fully achieve the desired goal, because although the Red Army lost more than 2.5 million people, the German army was defeated in the attack on Moscow, and the Soviet people gathered their national strength to start the defense of Moscow. In fact, as early as August 1940, Soviet spies had learned that Germany was going to sneak into the Soviet Union and transmitted the information back to Moscow. Unfortunately, this information did not attract the attention of the Soviet side, and if Moscow had paid attention to the information of the Soviet spy, perhaps the Red Army would not have lost so many people. Who is this spy? He was Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy known as the "King of Spies" of World War II.
Richard Sorge
Sorge, whose father was German and his mother was Russian, moved with his parents to Berlin, Germany, at the age of three. In 1914, when World War I broke out, Sorge, who had not yet graduated from high school, enlisted in the German Army and participated in World War I. In 1916, Sorge had extensive contact with left-wing Socialists while recuperating from his wounds in hospital. After graduating from university, he worked in education and journalism. In 1917, he became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party. In 1919, he joined the German Communist Party and was repeatedly persecuted for his political activities.
In 1924, Sorge came to the Soviet Union, where he worked in Soviet institutions and wrote many books on international relations. Entrusted by the Comintern, Sorge came to the headquarters of the Comintern in Moscow and prepared to set up the Spy Bureau, while secretly joining the Soviet nationality and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Sorge spent some time in Shanghai, China, and then was ordered to return to Moscow in 1933, where he accepted an important task sent by Belzin, director of the Fourth Bureau of Soviet Intelligence, to establish an intelligence network in Japan as a German journalist, to pay close attention to Japan's policy toward the Soviet Union after the September 18 Incident, and to study whether Japan had plans to attack the Soviet Union.
Sorge was chosen because he had previously obtained a German passport, joined the Nazi Party and the German Journalists' Association, and was a high-ranking spy with a dual identity, so there was no other candidate for this task besides Sorge. Sorge himself knew the importance of this trip to Japan, so on September 6, 1933, after arriving in Tokyo, Japan, he soon began his activities as a correspondent for the Frankfurt Times in Japan.
Sorge first lived at the Sano Hotel in Tokyo, but taking into account the crowds, he rented a single-family cottage near the German Embassy at 30 Nagasaki Street in Tokyo. After settling down, Sorge began to target Eugene Ott, the military attaché at the German embassy. Because Ott's job is to collect intelligence from the countries where he is stationed. Sorge went to visit Ott with a letter of introduction from one of Ott's former close friends and editors of the Daily Outlook, and Ott welcomed him warmly.
The Red Army during World War II
At that time, the military attaché's performance was mediocre, and he was worried about not being able to add an official to the knighthood. After Sorge's arrival, with keen observation and judgment, he wrote many insightful articles for the Frankfurt Times, which Ott added to his intelligence and sent them to Berlin, which was greatly appreciated by Shangfeng. After that, Ott worked hard until he was later promoted to major general.
At the end of 1933, the arrival of Dixon, the new German ambassador to Japan, paved the way for Sorge to the embassy. The ambassador had seen Sorge's talent in The Daily Outlook and was impressed by him. When he arrived, Dixon learned that the German Foreign Office's judgment on the political situation in Japan was not entirely based on the embassy's routine report, so he deliberately communicated with Sorge many times.
In this way, Sorge, with the help of the special care of Ott and Dixon, could openly enter and leave the German embassy, and Sorge became a senior adviser to German diplomats.
On February 26, 1936, the "February 26" mutiny occurred in Japan, which shook the government and the opposition. At that time, Dixon had no clue about the matter and could not report to Germany, but Sorge, as a journalist, quickly found out the ins and outs of the matter and dictated an article titled "Military Coup in Tokyo" to the Frankfurt Times. This article helped Dixon a lot and solved the urgent need.
Sorge later wrote in a written report: "For me, a German journalist who wants to go above the middle level, the study of Japan is of great importance, and it makes me considered in Germany to be the most thoroughly understood Japanese issues." The editorial board of the Frankfurt Times has repeatedly thanked me for improving their reputation with my articles. It was also because of my journalistic reputation that the German Foreign Office made me an official press commissioner. ”
Anti-aircraft guns deployed by the Soviets next to the theater during the Defense of Moscow
It was undoubtedly a good opportunity to gain access to japanese and German classified documents, but Sorge did not neglect his mission, and he urgently needed to build an intelligence group lurking in the heart of the enemy. In order to cooperate with his work, Moscow sent the first member to come to the joint, The Yotomiya Tree, who assumed the pseudonym Eiyoshi Mifang. His public identity is that of a painter, and his main task in the group is to maintain and expand contacts with the military community, while paying attention to collecting, analyzing, and studying the situation in Japan.
The third member of the intelligence group, Hidemito Ozaki, was a progressive journalist in Japan who had lived in Taiwan with his father for a long time and had been interested in China since childhood. In 1922, Hidemito Ozaki entered the Political Department of the Faculty of Law at Tokyo Imperial University, where he began to study and study Marxism and became a sincere communist. In 1926, Hidemiko Ozaki left campus to work for the Asahi Shimbun.
From November 1928 to February 1932, Hidemito Ozaki served as the Shanghai correspondent of the Asahi Shimbun. In more than three years in Shanghai, in addition to normal news reports, he also wrote a large number of news reports sympathetic to the Chinese people. Hideyoshi Ozaki developed a strong friendship with Sorge when he was in China. So when the Zorges and Tomiya asked Hideshi Ozaki for help, this old friend who was not a member of the Communist Party but was a loyal supporter of Marxism agreed. Hidemito Ozaki's main task was to obtain information about the plans of the Japanese government, the General Staff, and the Minister of War.
The fourth member of the intelligence group was Blanco Wooghelich, whose public identity was a special correspondent for the French newspaper Life and the Bulgarian newspaper Politico, and was also the representative of the French Havas news agency in Tokyo, Japan. Sorge was given the task of gathering and sorting out information from foreign correspondents in Tokyo on Japan-Soviet relations and the prospects of the Far East.
The intelligence group initially had a messenger named Bernhard, but this messenger was not only averagely skilled, but also often drunk and lustful, and after a short stay in Tokyo, he was returned to Moscow and replaced by a German named Max Clautzen. Max Clautzen was a skilled and skilled finger, having worked with Sorge while in Shanghai, and this time he joined with his wife, adding to the intelligence team.
Sorge
Sorge's main task was to gain the high trust of German diplomats and obtain all kinds of top-secret information through embassies. After successfully forming an intelligence group, Sorge named it "Ramzeyi", and he has since led the team on a series of thrilling espionage operations in Japan.
In 1938, the "Ramzei" intelligence group underwent a real combat test, and in May of that year, Major General Liushikov of the Soviet Far Eastern Military District crossed the Sino-Soviet border to join the Japanese army. The Japanese Kwantung Army sent him to Tokyo, hoping to get more important information from him. Liushikov was then a senior official in charge of Soviet military intelligence, with the secret code and a large number of secrets for soviet far eastern espionage. As soon as this man opened his mouth, the consequences were unimaginable, and Moscow urgently ordered Sorge to do everything possible to grasp the situation of Liushikov's confession.
When Sorge received the order, he immediately went to the German embassy to inquire about the news. Fortunately, the German side believed that Lyushkov's confession was also important to Berlin, so it was recommended that the German government send a special investigation team to Japan to personally interrogate Lyushkov. In order to show friendship between Germany and Japan, the Japanese side agreed that Berlin should send a special investigation team to participate in the interrogation. The interrogation report, which was hundreds of pages long, was seen by Sorge as soon as it was delivered to the German embassy.
Without further ado, he quickly sent back a coded telegram to Moscow: "The bear has been dissected, and the veterinarian has mastered the location of his nerve veins and organs." Moscow immediately understood that Lyushkov had handed over to the Japanese the strength, organization, and location of the Soviet army in the Far East and the password for the Soviet Far East spy communications, so it immediately adjusted the deployment of troops, replaced the Soviet Far East spy network code, and plugged this extraordinarily large loophole in time.
After the success of the first battle, the "Ramzei" intelligence group led by Sorge began to maximize its intelligence power. Sorge himself did his best to obtain all kinds of intelligence using various German connections; Hidemito Ozaki also succeeded in becoming one of the mainstream of Japanese politics, and the Japanese government invited him to be an adviser on China and could freely enter and leave important political places; the reporter Max Krautzen, in order to facilitate his work, often changed the methods of sending news and the location of contacts, and repeatedly risked arrest and escaped.
Stalin
After summarizing various intelligences, Sorge never believed in unilateral information, and he added his own judgment and analysis to every piece of intelligence sent to the outside world, and gave a detailed description of the development of the situation in Japan and Germany, and the possible countermeasures and steps, so that the intelligence shot by the "Ramzei" intelligence group was all finished.
For example, the "Third Reich" and Japan's behind-the-scenes diplomacy learned from the German diplomat's special messenger Schmidt; the secret information collected from Heinkel Airlines staff Harker about the various stages of the preparation of the Anti-Comintern Treaty; the "Japan-Germany Military Alliance Agreement" sought from the Berlin special representatives Stamar and Herif; the secret intelligence obtained from German Colonel Nietmar about Japan's military plans for China and Southeast Asia.
The "Ramzey" intelligence group led by Sorge was like a sharp knife inserted in the heart of the enemy, sending out countless pieces of intelligence, the most outstanding of which was the exact date of the German attack on the Soviet Union. On September 1, 1939, with the German occupation of Poland and the outbreak of World War II, Hitler's lightning tactics worked, and the British and French armies were caught off guard and forced to organize the famous "Dunkirk Evacuation".
Was Hitler's next target, Britain or the Soviet Union? This issue was the focus of the world's attention at the time. Stalin also specifically ordered that Hitler's true intentions and the Japanese army's battle plans be ascertained as soon as possible.
After receiving the order, Sorge began to find ways to collect relevant information from various sources. On August 18, 1940, while chatting with people at the German Embassy, he heard a shocking news from the other side: "The Fuehrer has drawn up plans to attack Russia at the battle conference!" Although this information could not be confirmed by any paper information, Sorge knew that the matter was not trivial, and he immediately arranged for the "Ramzei" group to send the first alarm to Moscow, reminding Moscow that Hitler was actively preparing to launch a war against the Soviet Union.
The Soviets fought fiercely with the Germans under the city of Moscow
Regrettably, this information did not attract the attention of the Soviet side, and Sorge had to go to find out more accurate information. On the evening of 30 December, Moscow received a second detailed intelligence from the "Ramzei" group: "Hitler has concentrated 80 elite divisions in the Soviet border area. The Germans formulated the 'Barbarossa Plan', which was scheduled to launch an offensive along the Kharkov-Moscow-Leningrad line, planning to occupy the Soviet Union in 6 weeks to 2 months! This valuable information forced the Soviet Union to be more vigilant and finally began to prepare for military deployment.
By the end of May 1941, Sorge had received even more astonishing news: Lieutenant Colonel Scholl, deputy military attaché of the German Embassy in Japan, had been promoted to military attaché of the German Embassy in Thailand, and before leaving, he revealed to Sorge that Germany was ready to attack the Soviet Union on June 20, perhaps by two or three days, by means of an undeclared war, and that it was expected to annihilate the Soviet resistance within two months and force the Soviet government to submit. At the same time, it was planned to march into Siberia before the arrival of winter and meet the Japanese army.
The "Ramzeyi" intelligence group did not dare to delay in the slightest, and quickly sent a secret telegram to the Soviet Union: "Hitler plans to attack the Soviet Union at the end of June this year. However, this information still did not attract enough attention from the Soviet military, and Sorge, who could not receive a call back, was impatient. On the night of May 30, he was informed that two days earlier Hitler had personally received the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Hiroshi Oshima, and formally informed Japan that Germany would launch a full-scale offensive against the Soviet Union by means of a surprise attack on June 22. As a result, another urgent secret telegram from the "Ramzei" intelligence group immediately sent out: "100,000 fire emergencies!" The war would break out on June 22, 1941. ”
Day by day, on June 13, the headquarters finally called back, but the content of the callback was full of doubts about the intelligence of the German raid on the Soviet Union. Angry, Sorge immediately re-dictated the telegram: "Repeat again, the 9 German armies of 150 divisions will attack on 22 June. Nine days later, the Soviet-German war finally began with a crushing defeat for the Soviet army, and nearly a million Soviet Red Army soldiers were killed by the butcher's knife of german fascists.
After this disaster, the Soviet government was convinced of the "Ramzei" intelligence group. In order to avoid being attacked by the enemy, Moscow once again urgently ordered that the "Ramzei" intelligence group should find out Japan's attitude toward the Soviet Union and its recent military plans as soon as possible. Due to the frequent warnings to the Soviet army in the early stages, the "Ramzei" intelligence group has been included in the key reconnaissance range of the Japanese army. Counterintelligence agencies throughout Tokyo have been engaged in search operations, cars with radio direction findings patrolled everywhere, and plainclothes agents roamed every corner.
German soldiers approached moscow
After receiving the Soviet secret order, Sorge had no second option and could only take the risk. Happily, Hidemito Ozaki used his status as a political celebrity to obtain accurate information from the Japanese prime minister's personal advisory group and relayed it to Sorge: First, the Imperial Council had finally decided on a southward strategy; second, if the U.S.-Japan negotiations failed to reach an agreement in late October, Japan would declare war on the United States; third, the Otsu plan and the "Gwanta" exercise would be postponed, and the navy was ready to march south.
On September 15, during a rigorous japanese search, the "Ram zei" intelligence group headed by Zorge sent a final secret telegram: "Before this winter, the Japanese will not attack the Soviet Union for the time being, and will fight against the United States." However, the army remained in Manchuria, and if the Soviets were defeated, they might march into Siberia next spring. This incalculable and precious intelligence made the Soviet Union immediately change its strategic deployment, and Stalin learned that Japan had no intention of invading the Soviet Union in the near future, so he transferred more than half of the Soviet troops in the Far East to the European battlefield on the western front to stop the German army that was driving eastward.
A piece of intelligence can save a country, but it can also bring disaster. Just when the Soviet Union was urgently mobilizing troops, the Japanese counter-espionage agency found a suspicious point in Sorge's Japanese girlfriend, Hanako Ishii, and then found Sorge and them. The "Ramzei" intelligence group has finally ended its glorious mission.
Military parade on Moscow's Red Square
On November 7, 1944, on the day when thousands of Soviet people flocked to Red Square to commemorate the victory of the October Revolution, Sorge, a spy prodigy who had saved the country from danger and a great hero of the Soviet people, walked to the gallows.
At a critical moment in World War II, Sorge's intelligence changed the deployment of the Red Army, in a sense, it was Sorge who reversed the course of the entire World War II. In addition, Sorge also came to Shanghai in January 1930, set up his own intelligence group, in less than three years, Sorge sent a total of 597 urgent telegrams to Moscow, of which 335 were directly reported to the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army or the Chinese Soviet Government, providing a lot of help for the Chinese proletarian revolution, and can be called a veritable "Red Spy King".