Chapter 319 The Man Who Saved Moscow

"Since knowing the enemy's deployment is the key to winning a war, the use of intelligence personnel has become a common means in modern warfare." - Dwight David Eisenhower

If a list of spies who changed the fate of a country, the course of war, and even the direction of human history is compiled, then Richard Sorge, who is known as the "Red Spy King", is definitely at the top of the list.

Sorge, who participated in World War I as a German soldier, had fought on both the eastern and western fronts. Both France in the west and Russia in the east had fought with Sorge's troops.

Sorge, who fought bravely and fearlessly, was awarded the Second Class Iron Cross and was promoted to a sergeant. However, the experience of being injured in a battle and being taken off the front line to the University Hospital of Königsberg became a turning point in Sorge's life.

The battle was fierce on the front line, but the rear was full of singing and dancing. This made Sorge, who had always believed in justice and loyalty, doubt his faith for the first time.

"Although we fought hard on the battlefield, none of my comrades and I understood the real purpose and intention of the war, let alone the profound significance of this war named "justice."

In the long night of extreme confusion, Sorge accidentally came into contact with communism for the first time.

In that era of extreme darkness, when faith collapsed and he was at a loss, Sorge happily believed that communism was a ray of light that broke through the darkness and would guide him to the most correct direction for the future.

After the war, Sorge completed all relevant courses in the Department of Economics of the University of Berlin and the Doctor of State Law and Society of the University of Kiel and graduated successfully. Shortly thereafter, he joined the newly established German Communist Party.

In 1924, Sorge, who had determined his faith in his heart, brought his wife to the red holy land of communism in his heart for the first time-Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union.

After completing all the spy training and teaching in the Soviet Union, Sorge set off a few years later to China, where communism had just sprouted, to carry out the next stage of work.

During the five years of working in China, Sorge's footprints were all over the country. Because of his German doctorate, he made extensive friends with celebrities and powerful warlords from all walks of life in China at that time. Even the then Chairman Chiang was deeply impressed by Sorge's elegant way of dealing with people. He invited Sorge to his private residence in the suburbs to talk about national affairs and international situations in the East and the West. Sorge, who was widely respected in the upper class, became Chairman Chiang's "guest of honor and close friend".

In 1931, after systematically organizing all the intelligence he had collected in recent years, Sorge came to a very critical and correct conclusion-"The next target of the Japanese army's action is still China, not the Soviet Union."

This intelligence sent back to Moscow by Sorge played a very critical role in the subsequent strategic layout of the Soviet Union. It allowed the Soviet high-level officials who knew little about the high-level strategy of the Japanese army to systematically understand the future strategic direction and intentions of the Japanese army for the first time, and the military strategic deployment and political and diplomatic response attitudes were naturally more comfortable.

While reporting to Moscow the detailed intelligence of the Japanese army at all levels and in all aspects, Sorge also informed our party, which was in trouble at the time, of the movements of the Kuomintang army.

The intelligence of the Kuomintang he provided to our party was so detailed that even the latest purchased weapon models and arrival dates and equipped troops were all available. When the Kuomintang army equipped with new weapons purchased overseas had not yet completed training and formed effective combat effectiveness, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army had already obtained all the detailed data and relevant intelligence of the opponent's weapons that they would face in the future.

In the second half of 1932, Sorge was recalled to Moscow, ending his five-year trip to China ahead of schedule.

In his diary, Sorge, who was sentimental about all his experiences in China, once wrote such a passage.

"If it weren't for the noble cause and belief, I really want to stay in China forever. There is no doubt that I have fallen deeply in love with this country now."

After the "September 18th Incident", due to the need for strategic decision-making, Sorge, who was the most knowledgeable about Japan among Soviet intelligence personnel, was immediately ordered to be sent to Japan to collect any Japanese strategic intentions for the Soviet Union and China and high-level decisions including the Japanese emperor.

With the cover of his German doctoral identity, Sorge, who had a very good relationship with the German ambassador to Japan, Ott, was able to come and go freely in the Japanese high-level. So much so that even Japanese high-level officials and celebrities in Tokyo had to look at the schedule to line up if they wanted to invite the elegant Sorge. It was a very face-saving thing to be able to invite German doctor Sorge to attend the banquet in Tokyo, Japan at that time.

In 1937, after learning that Japan had captured Nanjing, Sorge returned to China for a short time. In extreme indignation, he witnessed the cruel atrocities of the Japanese army in Nanjing.

Sorge, who worked part-time as a reporter for the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, recorded all these scenes in his camera and sent them back to Germany and the Soviet Union as evidence, leaving behind ironclad evidence for the future revelation of the Japanese army's brutal and unacknowledged atrocities.

By 1938, Sorge, who was already in the upper echelons of Japan, had obtained extremely important first-hand intelligence before Japan's war preparations were completed, and then sent it back to Moscow.

The Soviet Red Army, knowing that the Japanese Kwantung Army was actively preparing for the invasion to the north, greatly strengthened its vigilance. With Sorge's accurate intelligence, it completed all combat readiness work before the Japanese Kwantung Army.

In the last month before the outbreak of the Battle of Nomonhan, Sorge, who was running around, had obtained all the key intelligence about the Kwantung Army's troop deployment, weapons and equipment, war materials, and even the road where the baggage transport line would take, and sent it back to Moscow in time.

Zhukov, the Red Army god of war, who held the intelligence provided by Sorge, beat the Japanese Kwantung Army without any suspense, cured the Japanese arrogance and disobedience, and completely dispelled the idea of ​​the Japanese army to go north to cooperate with Germany to invade the Soviet Union.

When Germany launched Operation Barbarossa to invade the Soviet Union, Sorge's intelligence career also ushered in the most glorious peak of rewriting history.

The Tokyo Conference of the Japanese Supreme Command held on August 23, 1941, made a national policy decision that "it is not appropriate to declare war on the Soviet Union or launch any military action this year", and was personally approved by Emperor Hirohito.

Sorge, who successfully obtained this extremely important intelligence, did not dare to neglect it and sent it back to Moscow overnight using the telegraph machine of the German Embassy in Japan.

Stalin, who trusted Sorge's choice, finally made a decision to urgently transfer 11 elite divisions totaling 250,000 people originally deployed in Siberia to prevent the Japanese Kwantung Army from moving north to the Moscow front line to support the battle using the railway transportation network.

And finally, with the addition of this fully equipped new force, the arrogant Marshal Bock and the German Central Army Group were successfully blocked at the gates of Moscow, and the German blitzkrieg offensive, which had never been defeated before, was completely crushed for the first time. It is not an exaggeration to say that Sorge saved Moscow in winter.