Richard Sorge: arrest and trial

On September 29, 1943, the Tokyo District Court sentenced the legendary Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge to death.

According to the doctor of economic sciences, professor, head. laboratory of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. A. Prikhozhaev in the preface to the publication of “Prison Notes” by Richard Sorge, the Ramsay residency group, which he led, functioned in Tokyo from September 1933 to October 1941. This in the Land of the Rising Sun had not been possible before for any of the Soviet intelligence officers. In total, 35 people were arrested in the case of the Ramsay group, but only 17 were brought to trial. Richard Sorge himself was detained on October 18, 1941, by which time two members of the group were already under arrest: the artist Yotoku Miyagi, who was arrested on October 10, and a specialist in China, Hotsumi Ozaki, who was arrested on October 14, 1941.

How exactly Sorge was detained is described in detail in the book by Alexander Kulanov “Sorge. Inconvenient ”(released in the ZHZL series):

“Richard Sorge was not allowed to have breakfast. The arrest was led by Detective Ohashi, who arrived at the Toriizaka station that same morning at five o’clock. The police were already ready to take action, but in front of Sorge’s house there was a car with German diplomatic numbers – the head of the German news agency (Golyakov’s “Japanese correspondent for Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung”) Wilhelm Schulze (Schultz) at this early hour was recording the expert opinion of a more experienced colleagues about the resignation of Konoe’s cabinet. Yoshikawa Mitsusada, the representative of the Tokyo City Prosecutor’s Office, who oversaw the actions of the investigative team, decided not to risk it and wait until the car left. As soon as Schulze’s car disappeared around the corner, Detective Ohashi shouted loudly: “We came about a recent accident with your motorcycle!” Sorge opened the door, and the task force broke into the house. The journalist, as he was, in pajamas and slippers, despite his cries of protest, was dragged out of the house and pushed into the car, only to be dropped off at the police station a minute later. But even here the arrested did not stay – he was sent to the Sugamo prison.

Prosecutor Yoshikawa later said: “We were afraid that Sorge would shoot at us with a pistol. For several days we kept watch over his house. That morning he was visited by a representative of the German embassy. After this man left Sorge, we entered the house and arrested him.”

In the book of Alexander Kulanov, a list of Sorge’s things found during the search is given:

“…Three cameras, one camera with the necessary accessories, three photo lenses (one of which is telescopic), photo accessories, a black leather wallet with 1782 dollars, sixteen notebooks with details of relations with agents and financial calculations, a Nazi Party member card in the name of Sorge and a list party members living in Japan, the German Statistical Yearbook in two volumes (source of cipher tables), a seven-page report and diagram drawn up in English, and, finally, the most fatal two-page typewritten sketch, also in English, which is the final message, ready to ship to Moscow on October 15th.

The investigation into the Ramsay case was conducted first by officials of the Japanese secret police, and then by the prosecutor’s office. The inquiry lasted until May 1942. On May 17, 1942, a message from the Ministry of Justice about the discovery of the Sorge reconnaissance group was first published in Japanese newspapers:

“The prosecutor’s office of the Tokyo District Criminal Court has completed a vigorous investigation since October last year into the case of an international spy organization led by Richard Sorge, uncovered by the police. Its main participants are: Richard Sorge, special correspondent of the newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung in Japan, aged 47; assistant head of the Tokyo branch of the French news agency Gavas Branco de Vukelic, 38; artist Yotoku Miyagi, 40; unofficial adviser to the Tokyo branch of the board of Mantetsu – Hotsumi Ozaki, 42 years old; owner of a photocopy shop in Tokyo – Max Clausen, 44 years old.

The organization for which the group worked was called the Comintern.

On September 29, 1943, the sentences against Richard Sorge and Ozaki Hotsumi were announced: the death penalty. On this day, they saw each other for the first time after their arrest, calmly listened to the verdict and were taken out of the courtroom. The reasoning of the court decisions generally coincided and was based on the decision of the preliminary judicial investigation: Ozaki and Sorge committed crimes as agents of the Comintern, which aimed to “change the political system of Japan and abolish the system of private property by establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and creating a communist society.”

The remaining 12 people convicted as accomplices of the Sorge group were sentenced to various terms (up to 15 years) in prison. On January 20, 1944, the Supreme Court rejected Sorge’s cassation complaint under the formal pretext that this complaint was delivered to the Supreme Court one day later than the deadline. On April 5, 1944, Ozaki’s death sentence was upheld, although his appeal was filed on time. Sorge and Ozaki were executed on the morning of November 7, 1944, on the 27th anniversary of the October Revolution.

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo regnum.ru