Episode Details

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In 1941, a German journalist in Tokyo held the fate of the Soviet Union in his hands.Richard Sorge had spent eight years building the most successful espionage network of World War II—stealing Nazi secrets from inside the German Embassy, warning Stalin about Operation Barbarossa, and ultimately providing the intelligence that allowed the Red Army to save Moscow from the Wehrmacht.But Stalin dismissed him as a drunk running "brothels in Japan." And when Sorge was finally caught, the country he had sacrificed everything for denied he ever existed.This is the story of the most effective spy in history—and how his own masters left him to die.

📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate links):

An Impeccable Spy by Owen Matthews - https://amzn.to/3NCj3Sx

Stalin's Spy by Robert Whymant - https://www.biblio.com/book/stalins-spy-richard-sorge-tokyo-espionage/d/823759232A

Century of Spies by Jeffrey T. Richelson - https://amzn.to/4bPve8u