Richard Sorge was “the most formidable secret agent in history.” This is how Ian Fleming described him, who knew a thing or two about espionage not only because he created the character of James Bond but also because he was one of the heads of British intelligence during World War II. If anyone suspects that this judgment is a bit exaggerated and overestimates Richard Sorge’s exploits, they will surely change their mind after reading “The Perfect Spy” by Owen Matthews (Settecolori, 586 pages, 28 euros). Although it is a thorough biography, the book has nothing to envy to a spy story, and in some aspects Sorge’s life seems to have inspired the character of 007. Both have a military background but with very different consequences and results. Very young, Sorge voluntarily enlisted in the German army during World War I. He was seriously wounded and awarded the Iron Cross but would limp for the rest of his life. And during his convalescence, he became a convinced communist.
Perhaps he already knew he had a natural talent. Born in Baku to a German father and a Russian mother, he could move skillfully across the entire international scene better than many other spies. And he immediately understood that to succeed, he had to completely hide his ideological convictions. Infiltrating among the Nazis, he obtained valuable information that he transmitted to Moscow. He was so unsuspected that as a journalist he collaborated with some of the most important German newspapers. But what made him credible was also his lifestyle, totally at odds with that of a supposed secret agent. Richard Sorge was considered a womanizer. And also a heavy drinker. Almost everyone thought so, and unfortunately Stalin too. When Sorge, who had created a spy network in Tokyo a few years earlier, reported that Hitler was preparing to attack the Soviet Union, Stalin replied that he did not trust a bar and brothel frequenter and ignored that this information had been obtained directly from sources within the Japanese government and the German embassy in Tokyo.
Yet shortly after, it was Sorge himself who saved Stalin by reporting to Moscow that Japan would not attack the Soviet Union, which allowed many divisions of the Red Army to be moved from Siberia to the eastern front, definitively halting the German advance. Unfortunately, this was the last feat of the greatest spy of all time. One of his agents, arrested and tortured by the Japanese police, named all the members of the spy network. In October 1941, Sorge was arrested and sentenced to death. But the sentence was carried out only three years later. During this period, Japan, still formally not at war with the Soviet Union, proposed to Moscow three times a prisoner exchange to free Sorge. But Stalin refused and perhaps did not mind getting rid of a witness to his own obtuseness. For twenty years in Moscow, Sorge and his valuable work as a secret agent were not even remembered, and only in 1964 was he awarded the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union.” To memory, as happens with almost all heroes.
