History Daily - The Execution of Soviet Spy Richard Sorge

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

November 7, 1944. A spy who predicted the Nazi invasion of the USSR and Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is executed. This episode originally aired in 2024. Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more.History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

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ma'o'o'o'-a-canneroidtow-clipped and hallowmia. Uh-huh. This-valyin'n, now, 5'n't. It's April 1917 in the city of Minsk in the Russian Empire.

Twenty-one-year-old German corporal Ricard Zorga huddles in a trench as Russian artillery fire shakes the earth around him. Gripping a pencil tightly in his hands, he presses his back against the wall of the trench and tries to focus his attention on the letter he's writing to his family back home. It's two and a half years since the outbreak of World War I. When fighting began, Ricard

volunteered for the German army almost immediately. He saw action on the Western Front before being transferred to the east. And right now, Ricard's battalion is part of a vast offensive against the Russians who are putting up fierce resistance to the German advance. Ricard looks up from his letter as the telltale sound of a falling shell whistles through the sky above. He has just enough time to throw his arms in front of his face. The blast blows Ricard out of the trench. His mud and soil rained down on him. He tries to lift his head and instantly wishes he hadn't.

Pain floods through his body. His uniform is ripped to shreds and his legs are covered in blood. Ricard's vision begins to blur, and the last thing he sees before he blacks out is a stretcher-bearer, rushing to his aid. Ricard's Sorga will lose three fingers in this explosion, and the shrapnel damage to his legs will leave him with a permanent limp. But his wounds will change his life in more ways than one. Ricard will be sent to a field hospital in Germany, where he'll come under the care of a doctor who's also an ardent communist. And while Ricard recovers, he'll be converted to the socialist-caused. And over the next two decades, he'll go on to become one of the most successful Soviet spies in history

before his career as a secret agent comes to an end when he's captured and put to death on November 7, 1944. 5 and 6th, pernation, pickunoiterer, upstess, when his valetone hushion, sheinedtoole on, which, in, muon-mo, sauerrothed cana and hallowmia. From Noisorne, Kahnah loomitortil, now From Noisor in Airship, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily. History is made every day. On this podcast, every day, we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is November 7, 1944, the execution of Soviet spy, Ricard Sourga. It's April 1924 in Frankfurt, Germany, six years after. after the end of World War I. 28-year-old Ricard Sourga sits in a packed conference hall, scribbling down notes in shorthand. He glances up occasionally to look up at the speaker, addressing his enthusiastic audience. The man raises his voice as the speech comes to an end,

and the audience members around Ricard rise to cheer as the speaker proclaims, Long-lived the Communist Party. After Ricard was medically discharged from the German army, he studied philosophy and economics at Berlin University. He approached his studies from the left-wing perspective that had been instilled in him by the doctor who converted him to the socialist cause. After graduating, Ricard then embarked on a career as a freelance reporter, and it's in that capacity that he's here at the Communist Party of Germany's annual convention,

although as a member of the party himself, Ricard is by no means a neutral observer. After he's finished his last few notes on the speech, Ricard jumps to his feet and joins the applause. Then he returns to his hotel room and begins writing up what he's heard. When they're printed, Rickard's favorable reports soon catch the attention of some important guests at the conference. Seven years ago, radical socialists took power in Russia in the Bolshevik revolution. They replaced the old autocratic empire of the Tsars with the Soviet Union. And now they're looking to expand the socialist movement outside the borders of the USSR,

and they're seeking out allies like Rickard to help them do it. Soon after the convention concludes, the Soviet delegates reach out to Rickard with a proposal. They want him to move to Moscow and work for the Soviet Union's intelligence services, translating reports and analyzing the communist struggle in the German-speaking world. Ricard agrees, and for the next four years, he diligently applies himself to the work. Eventually, however, his superiors realize that Rickard's skills and passion for the socialist cause are wasted behind a desk in Moscow. So in 1929, Ricard is entrusted with more difficult and dangerous work.

He's first sent to London to report on the communist movement there, but the British Secret Service quickly identifies him as a Soviet agent and deports him. Despite this failure, Ricard's experience in London wets his appetite for further adventures, and he requests another foreign assignment. He soon gets it, and his new mission is much closer to home. The Soviets are worried about a growing right-wing movement in Germany that's open. hostile to communists. They want Ricard to infiltrate this Nazi party and discover all he can about its leader, Adolf Hitler. But Ricard's experience in Britain has taught him that he needs better

cover if he's going to succeed in espionage. So when he returns to his home country, Ricard resigns his membership of the Communist Party of Germany and he breaks off all contact with his socialist friends. He pretends that his years in the Soviet Union have opened his eyes to the flaws of communism and that he's abandoned his old beliefs. Only when he thinks he's put a convincing distance between him and his communist past, does Ricard begin his infiltration of the Nazi Party. He starts attending their meetings and rallies before signing up as a party member. And to all appearances, Rickard is now just another ardent young Nazi in a country increasingly

full of them. He joins the movement at a critical time. In September 1929, the stock market crash on Wall Street, sparks a worldwide economic depression, and no country is more vulnerable to upheaval than Germany. As millions are driven into poverty, the Nazis find a willing audience for their promises of national renewal and their scapegoating of Jews and communists for the country's problems. Ricard faithfully reports all the disturbing things he sees and hears back to Moscow. But he doesn't remain in Germany to see Adolf Hitler seize power.

In 1930, his Soviet handlers decide that Ricard will be even more than, useful elsewhere. A civil war is raging in China between the nationalist government and communist insurgents. So Ricard is ordered to use his cover as a journalist to spy on the nationalists and report intelligence about its military strategy to the Soviets. By 1933, Ricard will have proved himself to be an expert spy. But his next mission will be his most dangerous yet. He will be sent to spy on the country that Soviet premier Joseph Stalin is most worried about. It's not America, or Britain, even Nazi Germany, but Imperial Japan.

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now only 7.50. It's May, 1938, in Tokyo, Japan, nine years after Ricard Sorga began spying for the Soviet Union. Now 43 years old, Ricard twists the throttle on his motorbike and speeds through an intersection, narrowly missing a pedestrian. His bike weaves down the street as Ricard grips a briefcase to his chest with one hand and steers the bike with the other.

But it's not just the awkward cargo he's carrying that's making the drive difficult. Ricard is also drunk. Over the last few years, Ricard has firmly established himself in Japan. He's been helped by his membership of the German Nazi Party. Since Adolf Hitler seized power in 1933, many of the diplomats at the German embassy in Tokyo have been replaced with Nazi appointees, and Rickard has worked hard at winning their trust. Over drinks and dinners, he's charmed his way into the confidence of the embassy staff, but all the while, he's been using his new friends to learn more about the military secrets of Japan and Germany and the deepening cooperation between the two nations. To make sure nothing is kept from him, Ricard has seduced the wife of a military attache, and he's also recruited several other reporters with communist sympathies to help him gather intelligence.

But the pressure of running aspiring is testing Ricard's nerves. He started drinking heavily to cope with his stress, and tonight, during a meeting with one of his contacts, he's had far too much. As Ricard turns a corner, the rear wheel of his motorbike slips, and before Rickard can do anything to stop it, he crashes the bike into a wave. wall at the side of the road, and he's knocked unconscious. A short while later, Ricard comes too in a hospital bed. Ricard looks around grogly, and he spots his clothes laid out neatly on a nearby chair. He then instantly snaps alert. His briefcase isn't anywhere to be seen. Ricard's heart

races. That briefcase contains secret documents about the Japanese military. If the police got their hands on them, it won't take them long to realize that Ricard is a spy. Trying to remain calm, Ricard calls a nurse and asks where the briefcase is. She tells him it was collected by a colleague only a few minutes ago. Fearfully, Ricard asks for the man's name, but when the nurse tells him, Ricard breathes a sigh of relief. The colleague is a fellow Soviet agent and part of the spy network. The briefcase is safe.

Ricard's undercover work means he's in constant danger of being unmasked by both the Japanese and the Germans. But he's not safe from his own side either. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin is a paranoid man. He's convinced that political opponents are seeking to undermine him, and while Rickard is still recovering from his injuries, Stalin begins a purge of anyone he thinks could threaten his position as leader of the USSR. He is especially suspicious of the Soviet intelligence agency,

and soon Rickard, like many other international agents, receives orders to return to Moscow. Rickard knows he'll be placed under arrest as soon as he arrives, so he claims he's not yet healthy enough to travel, and it's a good decision. Many spies are imprisoned or executed during Stalin's purge, but Ricard survives. And his work is about to become more important than ever. Just over a year after Ricard's accident, World War II breaks out. Drawing on intelligence from German and Japanese sources, Ricard reports back to Moscow

that the Soviet Union's eastern frontier is safe from Japanese attack, but he does predict that instead, Germany has plans to invade the USSR from the West. Stalin, though, refuses to believe the warnings. So when Adolf Hitler orders his troops into the Soviet Union in June 1941, Stalin's armies are unprepared. Ricard is frustrated that his intelligence was ignored. But he keeps working, and a few months later, in October 1941, he hears a new rumor that he believes could alter the course of the war.

Ricard gets his hands on confidential communications between the Japanese government and the German ambassador in Tokyo. These messages reveal that the Japanese are going to launch a preemptive strike against the United States and Britain in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Ricard reports what he's learned to Moscow, emphasizing the reliability of his sources. But again, Stalin doesn't trust the intelligence, and he decides not to pass on the warnings to America or Britain. But while Rickard's urgent communications may be ignored in Moscow, they do catch the attention of the Japanese counterintelligence service. Although they can't read the coded messages, the intercepted transmissions are a clear sign that foreign spies are active in Tokyo.

The Japanese set to work, flushing them out. Several agents in the Soviet spying are arrested, and soon suspicion falls on the one figure who connects them all, Rickard Sorga. The Japanese will put Ricard under immediate, surveillance. And a few days later, on October 18, 1941, he will be arrested in a morning raid on his home. Ricard always knew the likely price he would pay should his espionage be discovered, but he will have to endure more than three years of torture and interrogation, before he

will face his final punishment. 5th and 6th-teren, in the next-annes, alcoe anteroah huimata, when his valiton who's in frontiotted tortillaan, which is,

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on November 7th, 1944, at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, three years after Ricard Zorga was arrested for espionage. A Japanese prison guard steps forward and ties 49-year-old Rickard's wrists. Next, the guard bends down and lashes

Rickard's ankles. Then the guard places a black hood over Rickard's head and tightens a noose around his neck. After Rickard was arrested, his Japanese interrogators initially suspected he was a double agent working on behalf of their allies, the Germans. But when they questioned Rickhart under torture, he broke down and confessed. He told them that he was a Soviet spy and that he'd been passing intelligence to Moscow for more than a decade. Under duress, Ricard struck a deal. He told his torturers everything, but only after they promised to spare the wives of the agents in his spiring.

When his case finally came to trial, Ricard was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to death by hanging. But since Japan was still not officially at war with the USSR, Ricard's conviction presented the Japanese government with a dilemma. Executing Ricard and his fellow spies might provoke the Soviets to declare war first. So rather than execute them, the imperial government offered to swap the spies for Japanese captists currently held in Soviet prisons. But Joseph Stalin ordered his diplomats to deny all knowledge of Rickard in his spying and to claim that Rickard's

confession was a fantasy made up by a madman. That rejection by the man Rickard had served so loyally sealed the spies' fate. After the prison guard checks that the bindings holding Ricard are secure, he steps to back out of the room. And the seconds that follow, Ricard fills the silence by loudly declaring his allegiance to the Red Army and the Communist Party. But the guard ignores Ricard, and instead he watches the steely face of the prison governor, waiting for a signal. When the governor gives a small nod, the prison guard pulls a lever that opens a trapdoor beneath Ricard's feet. Twenty years after Ricard Sorgas' death, the Soviet Union will finally admit that he did work for them as an undercover agent. He'll be named a hero of the Soviet Union.

and lauded as one of the most defective spies in history, even if Stalin failed to act on the valuable intelligence that Rickhart provided. Had he done so, the invasion of the USSR and the Japanese attacks in the Pacific may have had very different outcomes. Instead, the war ground on. Stalin abandoned his best spy to the hangman's noose, and Rickhart's Sorga was executed for espionage on November 7, 1944. Next on History Daily, November 10, 1871,

A young journalist locates a missing explorer in Tanzania, famously greeting him with the phrase, Dr. Livingston, I presume? From Noisor and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham. Audio editing by Mohamed Shazzy, sound design by Matthew Filler,

music by Thrum. This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves, edited by Dorian Marina, managing producer Emily Burr. Executive producers are William Simpson for Airship Pascal Hughes for Noisor. 5th and 6th-kerrocksen in vituropes,

alcoed anteroomata when his valiton who's in fronton't on, which is, more thaneroyt paneroet and hallowmia.

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