Richard Sorge

The main interest is that The person who was Alex's deputy was probably the most famous spy of the Second World War.

He's called Richard Sorge, a Soviet citizen of German extraction who managed after being in Shanghai to inveigle himself into the German embassy in Tokyo and provided the most valuable intelligence to Stalin, particularly about Pearl Harbor and about Japanese plans in the war.

Typically for Stalin, of course, he thought the intelligence was far too good to be true.

And he told everyone to distrust it.

Stalin is to blame for the Red Army being caught by surprise on June 22, 1941.

He was warned by many sources, including a top Soviet spy in Japan named Richard Sorge.

He sent many details to Moscow about the Nazi invasion.

Other Soviet spies in Europe warned Stalin that Hitler was about to invade.

Joseph Stalin dismissed them.

His spy in Tokyo, Richard Sorge, warned of Germany's attack on Russia.

German divisions massed along the Soviet border, the Luftwaffe planes crossed Soviet airspace.

German diplomats evacuated their families from Moscow.

You can collect indications of big strategic movements, but if the politicians don't believe it or if the analysts are so locked in with their confirmation bias or locked in on their positions, then you can miss a pretty significant strategic move.

And I think back, I think about Richard Sorge was the famous Soviet illegal that had a job in the German embassy in Tokyo and was able to provide advanced indications and warning to Joseph Stalin that Hitler was planning on invading the Soviet Union.

And Stalin wouldn't hear it.

Right.

So it's kind of analogous to the German-European former dependence, still some dependence, on Russian hydrocarbons.

It's interesting that Richard Sorge, one of the great espionage heroes of the 1930s and 1940s in Tokyo, was featured.

And unfortunately, Stalin did not trust him because Sorge had contacts with the German military representatives in Tokyo.

And he was clearly writing back in several telegrams to Moscow that the Germans were ready to attack in 1941.

And then closer to the beginning of the war, when there were some who still were out there producing, reporting, saying that Germany is going to attack, some of them started to narrow the date down quite precisely.

Richard Zorge in Japan and a few, a few defect- a few illegals were operating sources in Germany, actually had pretty good insights into Germans' plans.

And they reported those to Moscow, and the Moscow government, particularly Stalin himself, didn't believe them.

And they believe...