On November 5, a postage stamp dedicated to intelligence officer Richard Sorge was put into postal circulation in the On the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 series

Richard Sorge (1895–1944) was a journalist, a diplomat, a resident of Soviet military intelligence. His agent pseudonyms were Ramzai, Inson, and Zonter. Richard Sorge was a Hero of the Soviet Union (1964, posthumously).

Richard Sorge was born on September 22 (October 4), 1895, in the village of Sabunchi of the Baku Province of the Russian Empire. At the end of the 19th century, the Sorge family left Russia for Germany, where R. Sorge began his life as a soldier in the German Army and participated in the First World War. Afterwards, he entered the Faculty of Social Sciences at Kiel University. Then he received the degree of Doctor of State and Law.

In 1924, R. Sorge became a citizen of the USSR. In 1925, he joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. At the same time, he became an agent of the Red Army's intelligence service. Having worked in the residency for five years, he was sent to China under the auspices of the Comintern, where he was responsible for the arrangement of operational intelligence activities and establishment of a network of sources. From October of 1929, he worked for Soviet military intelligence, and from 1930 to 1932, he was on a special assignment in China. From May of 1933 to October of 1941, he headed an illegal residency in Japan.

In 1933, it was decided to send R. Sorge to Japan, where he arrived as a correspondent for famous German newspapers Börsen Courier and Frankfurter Zeitung. Two years later, "journalist" R. Sorge received an official permission from Soviet intelligence to work also for the Germans. As a result, he became a dual agent. While working in Japan, R. Sorge reported the approximate date of Germany's attack on the USSR. He warned Moscow that Japan would not declare war on the Soviet Union in 1941, and this contributed to the victory in the Great Patriotic War.

On October 18, 1941, R. Sorge was arrested by the Japanese police. The investigation of the case lingered for several years. He retained his faith in the victory of the USSR until the very end. The trial in Tokyo was closed. On September 29, 1943, Sorge was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on November 7, 1944.

The postage stamp provides a portrait of Richard Sorge.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and St. Petersburg.


Design Artist: S. Ulyanovsky.
Face value: 65 rubles.
Stamp size: 30×42 mm, sheet size: 110×110 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 6 (3×2) stamps.
Quantity: 42 thousand stamps (7 thousand sheets).

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