Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

(suspenseful music)

(machine beeping)

(typewriter tapping)

- [Richard] A secret agent must be solitary and austere,

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

no affections, no ties, no sentimentalities.

- [Narrator] Said a man who should know,

Richard Sorge, Stalin's master spy in Tokyo.

Sorge himself didn't follow those rules at all.

He was an eccentric, loved women and alcohol,

and was known for his escapades.

Perhaps the most ingenious of all disguises,

he is considered one of the great masters of his trade.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] He was opposed to war

and believed that he could help to avoid it

by doing his work.

- [Interpreter] He really was one of those people

who is highly motivated by his ideology.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge is considered to be the master spy

of the 20th century, not just by the Soviet Union,

but by the USA as well.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] He must've been a fascinating person.

If I had been a woman in his time,

I might have hopelessly fallen for him too.

(speaks in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Richard Sorge, Stalin's James Bond.

(typewriter keys tapping)

- [Narrator] "The Betrayal of a Master Spy".

(speaking in foreign language)

(crowd cheering)

What would have happened if,

if Stauffenberg's plot had succeeded,

if Pearl Harbor hadn't taken place,

and if shortly before that, Richard Sorge,

a spy with conviction,

hadn't fallen into the clutches of the Japanese?

(dramatic music) (vehicles rumbling)

At that point in time, Hitler had conquered half of Europe,

the Japanese Empire was undertaking

a similar march across Asia,

their incursions leaving nothing but piles

of rubble in their wake.

Together, Nazi Germany and Japan want to wipe out the enemy

of all humankind, communism.

So they join forces against the Soviet Union.

(engines rattling) (stately music)

The self-proclaimed master race lines up

to stomp out communism once and for all.

(troops marching)

Operating out of Tokyo,

the committed communist, Sorge, completes his mission

and betrays the German Reich to the Soviet Union,

one dictator to another.

(machine beeping) (gentle music)

(typewriter keys tapping)

Shortly before his spy ring gets busted,

Sorge sends a message that proves decisive

for the further course of the Russian military campaign.

The seemingly invincible German armed forces

get their first scratches.

(explosion blasting)

By the time the tide turns in favor of the Soviets,

Sorge's era had already come to an end.

(speaking in foreign language)

(paper rustling)

(ominous music)

The man whose mission it was to avoid war is charged

with violating the law to protect the peace.

In a cynical double cross of betrayal,

Sorge is the one who is ultimately betrayed.

At the crucial moment, the later hero of the Soviet Union

is disowned by both friend and foe alike.

(gentle music)

The ultimate antihero,

he allows his life's work to be documented

while in Japanese custody.

It is both bitter and tragic

that world history is not the only thing

that could have been very different.

(typewriter tapping)

- [Richard] If I had lived under peaceful social conditions

and been surrounded by peaceful political developments,

I might've become a scientist.

In any case, certainly not a spy.

- [Narrator] Richard Sorge,

the spy that didn't want to be one,

was born in Baku in 1895.

(nostalgic music)

His mother was Russian, his father, German,

two peoples that would define Sorge's life.

Wilhelm Sorge works as an engineer for oil drilling machines

in Azerbaijan, part of the Czar's empire at the time.

The family occupies a villa on the Caspian Sea.

Richard Sorge is no child of the proletariat.

At the age of three, his family moves to Berlin.

In prison, he described his childhood like this.

- [Richard] Until the war broke out,

I enjoyed the relative security commonly found

among the prosperous German bourgeoisie.

(soft music)

- [Narrator] With the outbreak of the war,

the 18-year-old Sorge immediately registers himself

as a volunteer to fight for his fatherland.

(artillery blasting)

The young man's exuberance dissipates

when faced with the carnage on the battlefields of Flanders.

(explosions blasting)

He is wounded multiple times.

In the end, his left leg is shredded by shrapnel,

and he barely avoids an amputation.

Sorge is left with a lifelong limp,

an Iron Cross Second Class,

and the conviction that such a slaughter

must never be repeated.

- [Richard] This wild, bloody brawl shook me to my core.

How pointless are these endlessly repeating wars?

(explosion blasting)

- [Narrator] Convinced of the peacemaking power

of communism, the young man devotes himself

to the ideas of Marx and Engels.

(gentle music)

Sorge takes part in the Kiel Mutiny in 1918,

and is active as an anticapitalist agitator

amongst the miners in Aachen.

(crowd cheering)

In 1919, he receives his PhD in political science

and joins the German Communist Party.

(gentle music)

The new decade turns Berlin

into the most sinful metropolis in Europe.

(playful ragtime music)

The prudish imperial age is over.

The roaring '20s usher in passion and vice,

and a new era in art and fashion.

No one has yet noticed that the humiliation of the lost war

is gnawing at the foundations of the decade.

The spirit of optimism hasn't captured everyone.

Inflation is eating away at everything,

including trust in democracy.

The lines of social division

are becoming ever more apparent.

(hooves clopping) (people chattering)

- [Richard] The World War

from 1914 to 1918 influenced my life from the ground up.

Even if other considerations had not played a role,

that war alone would have made me a communist.

(train whistle shrilling) (train clacking)

- [Narrator] While in Frankfurt,

Sorge comes into contact with senior officials

of the Communist International.

They invited him to collaborate with them

in their Moscow headquarters.

(gentle music) (train chugging)

Sorge does his job well.

He is accepted into the CPSU and dispatched

to other European countries.

He draws the attention

of the Soviet Military Intelligence Services.

General Yan Berzin, leader of the 4th Division,

recruits Sorge for his network of agents in China.

Before Sorge begins his journey,

he meets the young acting student, Katya Maximova.

It is one of many romances,

but for him the most significant one.

(gentle music)

(traffic rushing)

In Berlin, Sorge acquires two publishers

who offer to use their status as legal employers

to disguise him as a German journalist.

In China, Sorge's new area of operation as an agent,

two civil war parties are fighting

over control of the country.

The Russians and the Americans provide their minions

with assistance in an attempt to secure

their respective influence in the Middle Kingdom.

(soft music)

On January 10th, 1930, the German journalist,

Richard Sorge, arrives in Shanghai.

The city is known as the Paris of the East,

the New York of the West,

a metropolis with cosmopolitan character,

a synonym for sin, adventure, and wealth.

In 1930, Shanghai boasts the highest skyscrapers in Asia.

They belong to merchants and industrial companies.

It is no coincidence that China's Communist Party

is taking root here,

and announcing its fight against foreign imperialists.

(fireworks popping)

(people chattering)

Under the code name Ramsay,

Sorge begins to build a network of communist agents.

In this city of over a million people,

this jungle, flickering with chaotic rumors and secrets,

anyone looking for a conspiratorial place

in which people betray top secret information

and are in constant fear of being betrayed themselves,

would do well to turn up at the Peace Hotel.

It was here that Richard Sorge met the American journalist

and Comintern agent, Agnes Smedley,

a well-known expert on China.

(suspenseful music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] He builds up his contacts,

on the one hand, through Russian communists

who are already residing in China,

on the other hand through communists like Agnes Smedley,

who is closely linked to the Chinese communists

at that time, and who turns to Sorge,

and thus changes employers, so to speak.

She no longer works solely for the Chinese.

She now also works for the Soviet Union.

- [Narrator] Agnes Smedley introduces Sorge

to the Japanese newspaper correspondent

and expert on Japanese China policy, Ozaki Hotsumi.

(people chattering)

He is a convinced communist

and an opponent of Japanese delusions of grandeur in Asia.

(explosions blasting)

On September 31st, Japan attacks

and annexes the enormous Chinese province, Manchuria.

(explosions blasting)

The proclamation of the satellite state Manchukuo

and a bloodbath among the civilian population in Shanghai

are only the earliest signs of the Japanese

becoming drunk with power

and wanting to first subjugate their historical enemy,

China, and then the whole of the Far East.

- [Richard] I felt compelled to dive into the problem

of Japan as a whole,

and I decided to prepare myself generally,

as long as I was in China,

to thoroughly familiarize myself with Japanese history

and Japan's diplomatic traditions and practices.

(gentle music)

(hooves clopping)

- [Narrator] Sorge and Ozaki regularly met on Nanjing Road,

one of the largest shopping streets

in the world at the time.

Ozaki would unpack his knowledge

about Japanese intentions in China.

Sorge informs headquarters in Moscow.

They are impressed.

(soft music)

The effects of the global economic crisis are less stark

in Asia than in the West.

The hardships of the 1930s paved the way

for national socialism.

(crowd shouting)

The NSDAP takes power in the German Reich in 1933,

and the new Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler,

outlines the goals of his policies,

to conquer new living space in the East,

and to ruthlessly Germanize it.

(ominous music)

The next great catastrophe looms.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Stalin was very interested

in having spies in Japan,

because the Japanese military made it very clear

that the Soviet Union was enemy number one.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] People are alarmed in Moscow.

After so easily conquering Manchuria,

the Japanese military might start craving more.

And at this critical point in time,

Russian military intelligence doesn't have

any spy network in Japan.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] In Japan,

there was an extremely strong defense against spies.

They never let the workers at the Soviet embassy

out of their sight.

The whole Russian colony was under constant surveillance.

We needed information and we needed it immediately.

The only way out was to fall back on foreign agents

that one didn't have to train.

But Stalin did not trust foreigners.

- [Narrator] Nevertheless, the foreigner, Sorge,

received orders to build a spy ring in Tokyo.

He is charged with scouting out

both Japan's military strength

and if they plan to attack the Soviet Union.

(traffic rushing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] At this time,

Japan is the main source of information.

You have to know what Japan wants,

because Japan is the defining power in East Asia.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] Before his departure,

Sorge convinces his lover, Katya Maximova, to marry him.

She would be better off as the wife

of an officer of the Red Army.

It is a decision that Katya will later regret.

(train rumbling)

In order to avoid the strictly controlled route

to the Far East, Richard Sorge travels

through the US on his way to Asia.

He meets up with members

of the American Comintern in New York.

Eight years later, the connection to Japanese communists

in the USA will, almost by accident,

tip off the Japanese secret police

to the existence of the spy ring.

(soft music)

On September 6th, 1933, Sorge arrives in Yokohama.

Japan has a long tradition of imitating Western countries.

Law, army, industrial goods, all copied,

especially from Germany,

and yet the transition into modern times

has not yet fully materialized,

and Japanese society is divided,

even in the highest centers of power.

The emperor, who himself rejects militarism,

is threatening to become a compliant tool

in the hands of a confident military,

one that is vehemently propagating war against Russia.

(ominous music)

Stalin needs spies who can deliver reliable reports

about the course being charted by Japan.

(train whistle shrilling)

The routes used by his messengers,

bringing secret files over Shanghai

or Hong Kong to Moscow is threatened

by the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Radio transmissions are thus becoming evermore important.

(machine beeping)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Things became difficult in 1940-'41,

when the colleagues in the Soviet embassy in Japan came

into direct contact with Sorge.

It was an inconceivable violation

of the basic principles of conspiracy,

because of course, they were under observation.

(shouting in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Sorge operates brazenly.

He builds a roughly 40 person spy ring directly

under the noses of the Japanese secret police

and infiltrates not only the inner circles

of Japanese politicians and soldiers,

but also the German elite.

(swords thwacking)

- [Richard] I thought that I would appear more reliable

in the eyes of the Japanese

if I won the trust of the embassy,

and that the embassy would serve as a bulwark

against any doubts about my person.

(typewriter tapping)

Richard Sorge begins to conquer the German embassy

and its surroundings.

Soon, he is a known figure in the German colony,

one that readily enjoys the back home flair

of the German establishment.

(gentle music)

Even today, the Imperial Hotel is an ideal place

for more discreet meetings.

(suspenseful music)

- [Interpreter] It is the bar of the Imperial Hotel,

in the immediate vicinity of the Imperial Palace,

and it was the central meeting place

for both the German community and others.

In the end, the information that Sorge

became so famous for procuring certainly came

from German sources, but especially from government sources.

It is actually an international meeting place.

The various media representatives

from around the globe meet there,

diplomats, business leaders, business representatives.

It was the kind of place

where you could gather relevant information,

engage in harmless conversation,

background talks.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Comrade Branko Vukelic is responsible

for transferring secret materials onto microfilm.

(gentle music)

As it came to light, after Sorge's unmasking,

that his network extended to the very highest levels

of the government, people began asking

how a European was able to dive so deeply

into the seemingly impermeable Japanese society.

(gentle music)

Sorge has made himself into an expert on his host country,

and he counts on Japanese accomplices.

(gentle music)

The artist, Miyagi Yotoku is recruited in the US,

and Ozaki Hotsumi, whom Sorge knows from Shanghai,

is immediately ready to cooperate.

In the following years,

Sorge and Ozaki meet at different locations,

seldom at Ozaki's home, out of caution,

often in changing places in Tokyo,

on street corners or in restaurants,

the two exchange news and discuss assignments together.

(footsteps tapping)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge's intellectual efforts

were adding to his prestige.

Ambassador Ott valued Sorge's analysis of Japan very highly.

He had even commissioned Sorge to write reports

that he was supposed to have authored himself.

Intellectually, Sorge was moving on a very high level,

Ozaki as well.

He came from a top university, belonged to the elite,

spoke good Chinese, was an expert in Chinese politics,

and could precisely assess developments.

What set their spy ring apart from others

was that they themselves

could submit political suggestions to Stalin.

(speaking in foreign language)

(gentle music) (typewriter keys tapping)

- [Narrator] Sorge's political essays

establish his reputation in Germany as an expert on Asia,

and a serious journalist.

His inclusion in the NSDAP completes his perfect disguise.

(microfilm whirring)

(suspenseful music)

He had laid the foundation for his work.

The German officers and officials in Tokyo trust Sorge

and his expertise, first and foremost,

the military attache and later ambassador, Eugen Ott.

(typewriter keys tapping)

- [Richard] Without this knowledge,

I mean my thorough research,

no one working at the embassy would have been interested

in speaking with me about things

or asking my advice on confidential matters.

(people chattering)

Richard Sorge is always welcome at social events,

and gains a reputation as an eccentric,

hard drinking ladies' man.

Erwin Wickert was a broadcasting attache

in Tokyo at the time.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge was a very attractive man.

Once he was dancing very intensively

with my mother at a ball,

so much so that my father went over and said,

"Come on now, that's enough."

He always had the feeling that Sorge was a person

who had a very difficult time controlling himself.

(speaking in foreign language)

But sober, he must've been a pleasant guest

who obviously had quite an effect on women.

- [Richard] An eternal stranger who condemns himself

to never finding true peace.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] Sorge's own words and an expression

of his deep loneliness.

Under the weight of secrets that he can share with no one,

Sorge begins drinking, often without restraint.

(people chattering)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] When he was drunk,

Richard Sorge would curse incredibly

about the Nazis and Hitler.

And my father would rent a room for Richard Sorge

in the hotel in which my father also lived

so that he could sleep there

and didn't have to ride home on his motorcycle.

(speaking in foreign language)

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] Again and again, Sorge rides his motorcycle

in a drunken stupor, until he ends up against a wall

with a broken skull.

When he is released from the hospital,

the Otts take extra care of him.

The love affair between Sorge and Ott's wife,

Helma, seems almost inevitable.

(somber music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge was a university assistant in Aachen.

His professor there was married to a very young woman

who Sorge stole away from him.

She divorced her husband, married Sorge,

and went with him to Moscow.

But even after Sorge married the wife of his professor,

the two worked together amicably.

Strange, right?

He even slept with Ambassador Ott's wife.

It wasn't a nice story, but it is astounding

that Ott also continued working with Sorge.

(speaking in foreign language)

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] The marriage to Katya

did not prevent other adventures.

If the affair with the ambassador's wife

really took place remains disputed.

It could have cost Sorge his own neck

and his best information source, Eugen Ott, as well.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] The relationship between Sorge

and Ott is difficult to describe.

From the literature, we can gather

that they were very close acquaintances,

if not outright friends.

But nonetheless, not without mistrust,

but the mistrust was not so much related

to the personal relationship between Sorge

and the ambassador's wife,

but rather regarding the question of

if Sorge isn't a bit too thoughtless

when he has had too much to drink,

shares too much of the personal information

that he has with Ott.

(gentle music) (birds chirping)

- [Narrator] In May 1935, Sorge is called back to Moscow.

A number of his fellow spies have disappeared,

including his mentor, General Berzin.

His successors, Generals Uritsky and Artuzov

also failed to survive their appointments.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Operations against spies

with a foreign background began in 1936.

Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians, Finns,

representatives of practically all

of the Soviet member states were either harassed,

ordered back, stuck in camps, or shot.

You could say that Stalin destroyed his secret service.

In fact, he annihilated it.

- [Narrator] No one in Moscow feels safe

in the face of Stalin's whims,

especially not Richard Sorge, with his German passport.

He will never see Moscow again, nor his wife, Katya.

But Sorge remains true to Stalin to the end.

Is he turning a blind eye?

(traffic rushing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge was more of an ideological communist

than a party member,

and held the view that Stalin was still a lesser evil,

compared to the Nazis.

Given world events, he definitely thought

that the fall of Nazi Germany was the most important thing,

and that as long as the Soviet Union was standing together

with the US, France, and England against the Nazis,

he could contribute to bringing

about the quickest end to the war

by continuing to provide information to the Soviet Union.

- [Narrator] Sorge's signalman, Max Clausen,

first achieved exactly that

at the beginning of 1936 through radio transmission.

But the work is dangerous. (machine beeping)

The Japanese listening posts

can receive the illicit signals,

even if they can't locate them precisely.

Soon they are certain that a spy is operating out of Tokyo.

Risking their lives, agents from around the world

are sending secrets to Moscow.

Only some of these actually reach the apex of the Kremlin,

because whatever seemed unimportant

would simply be thrown out.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] On top of that,

Stalin didn't want any analysis, just pure raw information.

He said, "Give me the information

and I'll draw my own conclusions."

(speaking in foreign language)

(typewriter tapping)

- [Narrator] Sorge's article, "Revolt in Tokyo",

about the failed military coup in 1936,

is one of the most read internationally.

(suspenseful music) (typewriter tapping)

His brilliant analysis of the events

finally open all of the doors of the embassy to him.

He even gets his own office there.

Shortly after the coup, the military attache, Ott,

asks Dr. Sorge for help.

- [Richard] I had to swear to him that I would tell no one.

I did that, and helped him to encrypt the telegram

in his apartment.

Ott had asked me for help, and not a member of the embassy,

because the matter required the utmost secrecy.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] My father actually described Ott

as a rather reserved ambassador.

And even when he knew Sorge very well,

my father always assumed

that he was obviously not very affable.

(speaking in foreign language)

And also, he didn't know where Sorge

was getting his information.

(bell ringing)

- [Narrator] Sorge not only finds out the secret code

of the communication traffic with Berlin,

but also the details

of top-secret German-Japanese negotiations.

When the Anti-Comintern Pact

between Germany and Japan is signed in November of '36,

Stalin is very well-informed.

The pact is aimed against the Soviet Union.

(ominous music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] From the nearly 700 reports

that Sorge had sent, more than half were actually presented

to the leadership, including Stalin.

(speaking in foreign language)

These reports were assessed as especially valuable.

That speaks to the fact that Sorge was an exceptional spy.

I believe it is a unique case

in the history of the secret services.

(speaking in foreign language)

(typewriter tapping)

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] The Japanese continue

with their raid in northern China,

but the Chinese fight back

and the Japanese continually ask

for more help from the China expert, Ozaki Hotsumi.

The Japanese Prime Minister Konoe,

takes on Ozaki as a governmental advisor.

Sorge's spy ring has penetrated the center

of Japanese power.

(car rushing)

(foreboding music)

It is a critical moment for the Russians,

as their own man, General Lyushkov,

defects to the Japanese out of fear of Stalin.

(hooves clopping)

They're about to extend the border of the state

of Manchukuo to the north.

Near Nomonhan, they face off against the Red Army,

about which they now hold valuable information

in their hands.

(camera clicking) (gentle music)

Sorge receives the urgent order from Moscow

to make copies of the documents

that the deserter has handed over.

What does the enemy know about the Red Army?

(suspenseful music)

Sorge's report proves invaluable.

The Russians change their troop formations

and gain the upper hand against a confused Japanese force.

(hooves pounding)

Shocked by the loss of more than 8,000 men,

the empire must reconsider its goal

of expanding into the Soviet Union.

(dramatic music) (vehicles rattling)

From secret documents,

it emerges that Berlin is trying to make use

of the rethinking process.

The German diplomats in Tokyo are instructed

to prepare the way for a military alliance with Japan.

(machine beeping)

(speaking in foreign language)

Hitler is planning a war against England and France,

and wants to obligate Japan

to attack the British colonies in the Far East.

But Japan is caught up in its war against China,

and doesn't want to become involved.

Germany responds with anger and signs a non-aggression pact

with the Soviet Union.

For the Japanese, this smells like betrayal.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Japan had always hoped that Germany

would take Japan's side in a war against the Soviet Union,

as a matter of principle.

But with the non-aggression pact,

that was not possible.

In the end, the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936

had lost its meaning,

because the potential enemy was no longer the Soviet Union,

at least if international agreements were

to be taken seriously.

Thus, it also represented an opportunity

for Japan to sign a neutrality pact

with the Soviet Union in 1941,

and the war took a different course

than had originally been planned,

at least by the strategists.

(seagulls squawking)

- [Narrator] In order to stop Japan's advance in Asia,

the US cancels its trade agreement with Japan,

thereby substantially shutting off the oil tap

for the Japanese in the West.

War breaks out in Europe,

as the German armed forces march into Poland

and begin an unprecedented war of conquest.

(typewriter tapping)

It only stands to reason that Japan

will now form an alliance with the victorious Germans.

(dramatic music)

Ribbentrop sends Special Envoy Stahmer to Tokyo

for talks with foreign minister Matsuoka.

During the negotiations,

Sorge maintains close relations with Stahmer.

He has recently become the press attache.

appointed by Ambassador Ott,

seen here in a celebratory mood.

(men shouting in foreign language)

(typewriter typing)

Long before the signing of the Tripartite Pact,

Stalin learns that Japan has joined the Rome-Berlin Axis.

(machine beeping)

The alliance intends to direct itself against England

and to deter the Americans from entering the war.

(dramatic music)

The nerve wracking work of spying takes its toll.

Signalman Clausen suffers a heart attack

and is no longer fully in the game.

Important reports are left unsent.

Sorge asks once again, after 11 years, to be called back.

(pen scratching)

- [Interpreter] There are a lot of examples

where these people, when they have worked

for the other side for years, for example,

I'm thinking about the members of the Cambridge Five,

who became severe alcoholics

because they simply couldn't deal with the pressure.

The uncertainty and the pressure, and always having to think

about what you talk about with whom,

and having to hide things, even from those closest to you.

Many people can't deal with that pressure over time.

- [Narrator] Sorge's requests comes at a bad time,

because the spy ring is entering a decisive phase

at the end of 1940.

On December 18th, Hitler signs the Commissar Order,

in preparation for Operation Barbarossa,

the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

(troops marching)

A mere 10 days later, Sorge can radio a warning to Moscow.

(radio beeping)

- [Richard] Germans are gathering at the eastern border,

including Romania, 80 divisions.

"Germany is in a position to occupy areas

of the USSR along the lines of Kharkov,

Moscow, and Leningrad." Ramsay.

(microfilm whirring) (ominous music)

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, Ribbentrop

had changed his strategic priorities.

He is no longer looking for Japan's support against England,

but rather to have the Japanese take control

of the Soviet Union in the Far East.

(microfilm whirring)

A directive from Moscow arrives in Tokyo.

Agents are to deliver a detailed report

on the positions of the Japanese troops,

from the number and position of the divisions,

down to the names of the commanders.

No problem for Sorge's Japanese spies.

(typewriter tapping)

On March 3rd, 1941, Foreign Minister Matsuoka travels

to Berlin, Rome, and Moscow.

(airplane buzzing)

He surprises the Germans

by signing a neutrality agreement with the Soviets.

Stalin evidently firmly believes in the pact with Hitler,

and that Japan will ultimately attack to the south.

At the beginning of May 1941, Sorge elicits more information

for Moscow from a special envoy.

German generals are making very low estimates

of the Red Army's combat strength.

They believe they can eliminate the Red Army

within a matter of weeks. (radio beeping)

Stalin views Hitler's word as beyond question.

His mistrust is directed far more at his spies in Tokyo.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Precisely because Sorge was sending

that kind of precarious and important information to Moscow,

Stalin began to suspect that Sorge might be a double agent.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] From the way that Sorge was,

I can hardly imagine that he was a double agent.

I mean, when he was drunk,

he spoke belligerently about Hitler and the Nazis.

He rejected them completely.

Given that, I can't imagine it.

But I don't know for certain.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] Doubts about Sorge's loyalty

are also springing up in Berlin,

vague references to his past

in the KPD raise alarming questions.

Is Sorge a spy, a double agent, or even a triple agent?

Colonel Meisinger is sent to Tokyo as a police attache

to investigate.

(tense music)

Does Sorge sense the threat?

The newcomer feels very much like a foreigner in Tokyo.

Sorge offers himself as a drinking buddy.

Meisinger is thankful and becomes dazzled

by Sorge's excellent reputation at the embassy

and his personal charm.

The surveillance of Sorge is withdrawn.

(footsteps tapping) (typewriter tapping)

And in the embassy,

no one doubts his absolute trustworthiness.

He freely comes and goes,

and has or manages to gain access

to Hitler's biggest secrets.

(radio beeping)

"Berlin informs Ott that the German attack will begin

in second half of June.

Attack will take place along the front,

main thrust against Moscow and Leningrad." Ramsay.

Moscow received Sorge's dramatic warning on June 20th.

(radio beeping)

"The war is about to begin."

- [Interpreter] The information was only as good

as it was useful, and the Soviet intelligence agencies

were very, very weak in this sense,

because they performed almost no analysis.

Instead, the information was simply reported,

directly to the top.

- [Narrator] Stalin receives corroborating reports

from other spies, but he does not believe

that Hitler will open a war on two fronts

and disregards all of the warnings.

(vehicles rattling)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Stalin had written a comment

on a telegram with a green pen,

which was presented to Harnack

and Schulze-Boysen on June 21st, 1941.

"The hell with that.

It's English disinformation."

(speaking in foreign language)

He believed that it was targeted disinformation

from British intelligence,

aimed at propelling Germany and the Soviet Union into war.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Yes, in this case,

Stalin actually called Sorge an asshole.

(explosions blasting)

- [Narrator] At the crack of dawn on June 22nd, 1941,

over three million German soldiers crossed the border

into the Soviet Union. (explosion blasting)

Operation Barbarossa has begun.

The soldiers of the Red Army

are virtually thrown out of their beds.

(guns booming)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] June 22nd affected Sorge deeply.

According To all the stories,

prison records, and the memories of agents Clausen

and Miyagi, Sorge ran himself ragged on June 22nd.

He binge drank the entire day.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] His bitterness over not being taken seriously

in Moscow is accompanied

by increasing delusions of grandeur.

- [Richard] If anyone annihilates Hitler, then it's me,

Richard Sorge.

- [Narrator] He evidently claimed, in a drunken state,

according to comments later gathered

from a German girlfriend.

And yet, what would have happened

if Stalin had believed his spy?

(tanks rattling)

The Soviet Union now had to worry

that Japan would open a second front in the Far East

in order to make use of the German victory in the West.

(radio beeping)

"Sorge report on the behavior of the Japanese government

regarding the German war against the Soviet Union.

(ominous music) (typewriter tapping)

Ott is attempting to push Japan into war

against the Soviet Union.

According to military sources,

possible within one or two months."

(typewriter tapping)

Stalin's appreciation for Sorge has grown since June 22nd,

but now Sorge feels like he is failing.

Japan's true intentions are unclear,

and an attack on Siberia can neither be ruled out

nor predicted with certainty.

The German armed forces are advancing into Russia,

bringing the Red Army into distress.

They need reinforcements from the Far East,

but that would turn Siberia into a sitting duck.

(people chattering)

And then the master spy pulled off perhaps his biggest coup.

After a secret meeting,

which the emperor also attended,

some salvific details seep out through Ozaki,

and Sorge immediately conveys them to Moscow.

(radio beeping)

"Japan will not attack the Soviet Union in the East."

(branches cracking) (tank rumbling)

Stalin immediately shifts 34 well rested divisions

from the Far East to the West,

and is able to stop the German armed forces

as they rush ahead to Moscow.

Sorge considers his mission in Japan to be over.

(men shouting in foreign language)

He wants to leave the country, but where will he go?

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge had thought

about returning to Moscow,

but a person as clever as him could certainly not assume

that Moscow would be safe for him.

(speaking in foreign language)

He had surely considered the possibility

that he would be arrested and killed in Moscow.

Even in Japan, he would most likely be arrested.

He could have also returned to Nazi Germany,

but there would have been a high risk

of being arrested by the Gestapo.

(speaking in foreign language)

Exile in the US would have also been a possibility,

but as a communist, immigrating to the US

would have meant having to renounce his entire life.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] As Ozaki provides Sorge

with further details of secret talks

between the Japanese and the Americans,

neither one knows that the edges

of their spy network have begun to fray

and that they themselves are now

in the cross hairs of Japanese shadows.

(ominous music)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] There was absolutely

no clearly worked out plan for what to do

if Sorge were to be arrested.

That helps to explain why the entire ring

was relatively quickly discovered

and arrested in 1941.

(soft music) (birds chirping)

- [Narrator] Ozaki views the talks between Japan

and the US as destined to fail,

because Japan will hold on to its policy of expansion.

Sorge composes a dispatch

in which he prophesies the imminent war

between Japan and the US.

The message no longer reaches Moscow.

(traffic rushing)

It was likely an unimportant, low-level spy,

a Japanese communist that had returned from the US

who revealed Miyagi's name in order to save his own skin.

As a result, the whole ring was busted.

On October 15th, 1941 Ozaki Hotsumi is arrested.

(traffic rushing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Clausen, Vukelic,

and Sorge meet on October 17th.

They are unable to reach Ozaki.

(microfilm whirring)

Richard Sorge has been plagued

by premonitions for quite some time.

He felt abandoned by Moscow,

and knew that they were all playing with fire

and could not remain undiscovered forever.

(people chattering)

(footsteps tapping)

We don't know when he came home that night,

but on the following morning,

he was arrested by investigating magistrate Yoshikawa.

(speaking in foreign language)

(paper rustling)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Shortly before his arrest,

he believed he had accomplished his mission in Tokyo.

He had reported the most important things,

the German attack on the Soviet Union,

and that the Japanese would not attack the Soviet Union.

And he had asked to be recalled,

because the last decade, in which he had been a spy,

was so stressful that he simply needed peace and quiet.

(gentle music) (typewriter tapping)

- [Narrator] This dangerous document,

the request to be recalled after fulfilling his mission,

remains laying on Sorge's desk.

Sorge is transferred to the remand prison, Sugamo.

For Ambassador Ott, it is a case of Japanese spy hysteria.

(machine tapping)

"Members of the embassy and public authorities agree

that the suspicion lodged against Sorge is farfetched.

There is suspicion that it is actually a case

of political revenge or intrigue." Ott.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] When Sorge and Ozaki were arrested,

the German government protested

or rather the German embassy in Japan,

asking how a trustworthy national socialist

like Sorge could be arrested.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Japan could not afford

to insult its Axis partner, especially not now,

when the conflict with the US appeared to be unavoidable.

(ominous music)

"In spite of continuing efforts,

the foreign ministry has thus far not presented any evidence

of guilt against Sorge and Clausen." Ott.

One week after his arrest,

Richard Sorge admits to being a communist spy.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Meisinger and Ott

were coming under serious fire.

They believed until the end that Sorge was their friend.

(tank crashing)

- [Narrator] On December 5th, 1941,

the Red Army begins a counter offensive near Moscow.

The tables are turning.

(hooves pounding)

(airplane buzzing)

As he sat in jail, Sorge might've asked himself

what would have happened if I had completed my task

of raising awareness about the Japanese-American crisis?

Japan uses the oil embargo as a reason to attack

the US, drawing them into the war.

Sorge's prophecy came true on December 7th.

(explosions blasting)

(machine tapping)

Ribbentrop requested Sorge's extradition.

The Japanese refuse.

The war has turned, and Sorge could serve

as a valuable bargaining chip in negotiations with Moscow.

After five months of interrogation,

the police officer, Ohashi,

presents his final report to the state prosecutor.

Sorge addresses him with personal remarks and thanks him.

- [Richard] For the thorough and extremely friendly review

of my case, I will never forget how friendly you were to me

in the most difficult time of my eventful life.

- [Narrator] Ohashi's report recommends the death penalty.

(somber music)

Richard Sorge is declared guilty and sentenced to death.

He believes that Stalin will arrange for his rescue.

If he had known about his wife, Katya's, life of suffering,

he would not have given himself over to this illusion.

Stalin's henchmen had arrested her,

accused her of being a spy for the German secret services,

sentenced her to banishment in Siberia, where she soon died.

Her crime was being the wife of Richard Sorge.

(airplanes buzzing)

When the Japanese actually were ready

to engage in a spy swap,

Moscow claimed the name Richard Sorge is unknown to us.

(drums beating) (troops marching)

Sorge went from being the betrayer to the betrayed.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] His contribution was invaluable.

No other person had delivered so much information to us

about Japan in this intense period.

Sorge revealed Japan's situation and problems from A to Z.

Fundamental. He was our most valuable worker.

(speaking in foreign language)

When he could no longer deliver,

he was treated like a used up resource.

He wasn't interesting anymore.

Anyway, it was known that he had talked openly

with the investigators.

That's why the Soviet government didn't put any effort

into saving Sorge.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Ozaki is also sentenced to death and executed.

Max Clausen receives life imprisonment.

He is freed in 1945.

Branko Vukelic receives a life sentence

and dies in prison in 1944.

Miyagi dies in 1943, during the trial.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Sorge made it clear in his notes

that he was as much against Hitler as he was against Stalin.

And that as a communist, he assumed that the ideals

of socialism and communism, not Stalin as a person,

would be fulfilled in the end.

After he had set these thoughts down on paper,

he was, I think, ready for death.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] It remains unclear what the course

of the war would have been without the Tokyo warnings.

It also remains unclear if, and to what extent,

Sorge became a double agent in the hope of gaining access

to even more meaningful Nazi sources.

Because he had witnessed hell in the trenches,

Sorge, a man who actually never even wanted to be a spy,

became Stalin's James Bond.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] One of Stalin's greatest mistakes

was that he ignored Sorge's information

about the German invasion

and was therefore not prepared.

Sorge was dangerous to him for that reason.

He could have brought this mistake to light.

Thus, for Stalin,

it would have been extremely dangerous

to bring Sorge back to Moscow.

On the contrary, it was advantageous

that the Japanese kept Sorge prisoner and executed him.

That's why Stalin didn't take an interest

in exchanging spies.

When Sorge was executed on November 7th, 1944,

Stalin was perhaps more pleased than anyone.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] On November 7th, 1944, disowned by everyone,

Sorge goes to his execution.

(footsteps tapping)

- Long live International Communism.

Banzai.

- [Narrator] His last words defiantly repeat

his unbroken faith.

(radio beeping) (typewriter tapping)

November 5th, 1964, Richard Sorge honored

as a hero of the Soviet Union.

(inspiring music)