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01:27By the middle of the 1930s, the Comintern united over 60 communist parties around the world.
01:36The Comintern had its own intelligence department.
01:40On orders from the Soviet leadership, communists began spying in their own countries.
01:48The Soviet spy apparatus in the 30s and 40s had an international flavor to it.
01:54So they would very carefully try to see if they couldn't get some people to do some things
01:58for them under the guise of you are cooperating with the worldwide communist movement.
02:04This is for a better future, for the world.
02:10Delegates from around the world regularly came to Moscow to attend Comintern congresses.
02:16Here they received their marching orders in the fight for global dominance.
02:21Fanatically devoted to communist ideals, many of them would become Soviet spies.
02:26Some would become assassins.
02:30Soviet intelligence, the NKVD, in the middle of the 1930s had two priorities.
02:36One is very difficult in the West for us to understand.
02:39And the first priority was to actually to kill...
02:43He was everything Stalin wasn't.
02:46A prodigious intellect, a charismatic organizer of the Russian October Revolution in 1917,
02:53the founder of the Red Army.
03:00Trotsky had loyal supporters around the world who called themselves Trotskyists.
03:06Many Russians believed Trotsky would succeed Lenin as the head of the new Red Empire.
03:12But Stalin had other plans.
03:15He knew how to work the levers of power through backroom intrigues, blackmail, and terror.
03:22Within five years of Lenin's death, Trotsky was stripped of all political offices,
03:27exiled, and branded a traitor, an enemy of the people.
03:35But Leon Trotsky didn't give up.
03:37From Mexico, he organized an international campaign to fight Stalinism.
03:45In 1936, Spain erupted in civil war.
04:05A Red Wing Nationalist General, Francisco Franco, led a coup against the Socialist Republican government.
04:12Adolf Hitler rushed to General Franco's aid, sending weapons and military advisors.
04:17The Socialists formed a left-wing coalition with Trotskyists and communists.
04:23Stalin supported the left with an eye to strengthen the communist movement in Europe.
04:28As well as heavy artillery, planes, and military advisors, he sent secret agents,
04:33experts in guerrilla warfare and terrorism.
04:39The NKVD succeeded in infiltrating the Socialist Republican government.
04:44This allowed them to launch their own secret war, taking the Spanish secret services under full control.
04:57The NKVD was to help the Republican government, defeat General Franco.
05:04But the desire to help the left against the right in the Spanish Civil War was quickly overtaken by Stalin's
05:12traditional obsessions.
05:14Stalin ordered the NKVD to make as its main opponent, not the nationalists, but the Trotskyists within the Republican movement.
05:28Communist volunteers from France, Britain, the United States, and Germany flocked to Spain.
05:35Together with Spanish Socialists, they formed international brigades.
05:40After a quick course in warfare taught by Soviet military experts, they were armed and ready to go into battle,
05:47unaware of the danger posed by NKVD agents.
05:55French agitator André Marti also came to Spain, ostensibly to represent Comintern, the international communist organization.
06:04But he was also an NKVD agent with a secret mission, to kill Trotsky's supporters.
06:11He personally signed the execution warrants for over 500 inter-Brigade members suspected of Trotskyism.
06:23American writer and journalist, Ernest Hemingway, then wrote about him.
06:28Marti is as crazy as a bed bug. He has a mania for shooting people.
06:34The NKVD also made use of the passports held by communist volunteers.
06:44On the way to Spain, the volunteers first had to go through a reception center in France.
06:50It was controlled by NKVD agents, who took passports from all the newcomers, to keep them safe, as they put
06:58it.
06:58In fact, they sent the most suitable passports to Moscow, to the secret service headquarters, with the pictures changed.
07:07Soviet agents would use these passports on their secret missions around the world.
07:14While thousands died for freedom and democracy on the battlefields of Spain, Stalin hatched another plot.
07:21He ordered the NKVD's spymaster in Spain, Alexander Orloff, to find a way to secure Spain's gold reserves and to
07:30bring them to Moscow,
07:30without leaving any written receipts of the transaction.
07:34Acting through leading Spanish communists, Orloff persuaded the Spanish Republican government to send the gold to Moscow for safekeeping.
07:48The golden nuggets, then valued at $500 million, were loaded onto a Soviet steamer and sent to Moscow.
07:58Years later, Franco's government repeatedly petitioned Soviet leaders to return the gold.
08:04Each time, the Russians refused, claiming that during the Civil War, the Spanish Socialist government spent all the money on
08:12weapons used to fight General Franco.
08:17Meanwhile, the war in Spain dragged on.
08:28People who had been defined by Joseph Stalin and by the intelligence leadership as enemies of the people.
08:36They were killed by so-called mobile groups who wandered around Europe, largely under false identities,
08:44searching out opportunities and techniques for killing people.
08:49Lausanne, Switzerland.
08:51On the 4th of September, 1937, three men entered a café and requested permission to join a man sitting alone
08:59at one of the tables.
09:02The man was Ignatius Reis, a disillusioned NKVD agent who had broken ties with the Secret Service and had become
09:09an outspoken critic of Stalin.
09:13After a while, all four men stood up and left.
09:16After a while, all four men stood up and left.
09:17In the street, they stepped into a car.
09:19The next day, the dead body of Ignatius Reis was found on a country road outside of Lausanne, riddled with
09:26boards.
09:32The Bolshevik Revolution made three million Russians flee the country.
09:38Among them were officers and soldiers of the Russian czar's army.
09:42They formed an opposition group called the White Movement.
09:46The Bolsheviks considered the White Movement dangerous to their regime and planned a series of terrorist acts against its leaders.
09:55General Yevgeny Miller became one of the targets.
10:01Paris, France, on the 22nd of September, 1937, two NKVD agents in French police uniforms approached General Yevgeny Miller in
10:12the street.
10:12They pushed him into a car and sped off.
10:17General Miller was drugged and brought to Moscow by ship.
10:21He was tortured and then executed without a trial.
10:27Ukrainian nationalists were also on the list of Stalin's enemies.
10:31They had never accepted the Soviet regime in the Ukraine.
10:35Their leader in exile, Colonel Yevgeny Konovalets, lived in Rotterdam, Holland.
10:45In the 20s, Konovalets had fought against Russian communists for an independent Ukraine.
10:51Known for his tireless hatred of communists, Konovalets continued his fight from Holland.
11:00Stalin gave a special mission to one of his best agents, Pavel Sudoplatov.
11:06Sudoplatov was to pose as a nephew of one of Konovalets' friends who died recently.
11:17Stalin listened to my report on Konovalets and said he likes chocolates, doesn't he?
11:23Well, let's give him some chocolates.
11:30NKVD experts made a special box of chocolates with a miniature but powerful time bomb set
11:36to explode a few minutes after delivery.
11:39The explosive was hidden under a layer of real chocolates.
11:45Sudoplatov arrived in Holland aboard a Soviet ship carrying two boxes of chocolates, one harmless, another charged.
11:53He made plans to meet Colonel Konovalets in Rotterdam at a small downtown restaurant.
12:01I greeted Konovalets and gave him both boxes as a present from Ukraine.
12:06He said in Ukrainian, thank you, my friend, and put both boxes into his pockets.
12:12We talked a little, then I excused myself and left.
12:16I was in a small shop nearby when I heard the explosion.
12:21I didn't go back to look.
12:23I couldn't do anything more anyway.
12:26The explosion tore Colonel Konovalets to pieces.
12:33In the late 1930s, Stalin continued his fierce fight against his enemies, both real and imagined.
12:41Inside the country, he launched mass repression against his own people.
12:45No suspects were spared, including his secret police.
12:50Abroad, his number one enemy, Leon Trotsky, was still alive.
12:56Europe, in general, has ceased to be the center of the world.
13:01It is foolish to hope that Europe, as it is, will again occupy the relation of forces.
13:10Still further, not in favor of Europe, but in favor of the United States and the colonial countries.
13:24Moscow, 1937, the Bolshoi Theater.
13:27Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD, presided over the 20th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the secret police.
13:38Glory to NKVD, glory to Konrad Yezhov, who teaches us to work in Konrad Stalin's way.
13:46Nikolai Yezhov was a sadist and a willing executioner for Joseph Stalin.
13:52By now, Stalin, growing increasingly paranoid, had launched an era of unprecedented repressions and terror, known as the Great Purges.
14:02Mass murder became institutionalized in the Soviet Union.
14:06Millions were arrested and executed as enemies of the people.
14:12Stalin's secret police were put in charge of the purges and loyally served their master.
14:18But no one was safe.
14:19Not even Stalin's most feared accomplices, the agents in the NKVD.
14:25What were the reasons for Stalin's purges in the intelligence service?
14:30First, Stalin did not trust anybody who had ever been abroad.
14:35In his opinion, they could have been re-recruited.
14:39Second, many agents were close to Trotskyism and other ideas opposing Stalin's policy.
14:45This was much worse than being suspected as a double agent.
14:53Even Stalin's loyal executioner, Nikolai Yezhov, was arrested.
14:58An executioner came straight to Yezhov's cell to kill him.
15:02An experienced master of martial arts, Yezhov kept running around the cell, dodging bullets.
15:08The gunman had to empty his pistol before he actually hit Yezhov.
15:13The new head of Stalin's secret police was Lavrenti Beria, Yezhov's equal as a sadist and murderer.
15:21Stalin entrusted him with a mission he'd been cherishing for over 15 years,
15:26the assassination of Leon Trotsky.
15:32Trotsky had become, in Stalin's imagination, the devil incarnate, a true antichrist.
15:39Trotsky hoped that he was beyond Stalin's reach at a lonely, heavily guarded villa near Mexico City.
15:47NKVD chief Lavrenti Beria took one of his best agents, Pavel Sudoplatov, to meet Stalin.
15:57He came into Stalin's office.
15:59He asked, are you ready to perform the operation?
16:03I answered, I'm sorry, I cannot perform it personally,
16:07because I've never been to Mexico, and I don't speak Spanish.
16:11But I suggested he assign this mission to my deputy, Nam Etinggan,
16:15an experienced and highly qualified agent.
16:20Stalin said, take Etinggan, take whoever you want, and start.
16:29Naum Etinggan was an NKVD veteran of the Spanish Civil War
16:33and a wily recruiter for his agency.
16:37He had brought Mexico's foremost painter, David Siqueiros,
16:41one of the founders of the Mexican Communist Party, into his fold.
16:44In time, Etinggan developed two plans to kill Trotsky.
16:50On the night of the 23rd of May, 1940,
16:53Siqueiros and 20 hitmen armed with submachine guns
16:57burst into Trotsky's villa and sprayed his bedroom with bullets.
17:02But Trotsky and his wife managed to throw themselves under the bed.
17:06The police subsequently accounted 70 bullet holes in his bedroom wall,
17:11but not one of those bullets hit Trotsky.
17:18Naum Etinggan had a lover, Spanish Communist Caridad Mercader.
17:23Together with her son Ramon, the threesome launched a standby operation.
17:28Posing as a Trotskyist, Ramon Mercader seduced Trotsky's secretary.
17:33Soon, he was a frequent visitor to Trotsky's villa
17:36and a familiar face to his security guards.
17:40By the 20th of August, 1940, Ramon Mercader was ready.
17:45He drove to Trotsky's villa with his mother and Naum Etinggan.
17:49Inside the premises, Mercader played shy.
17:53He asked Trotsky to have a look at an article that he'd written on Trotskyism.
17:59Trotsky took him up to his study, started reading the article.
18:06While he was reading the article, Ramon Mercader took out from his pocket an ice pick,
18:14he lifted it up in his two hands, and he brought it down on the back of Trotsky's head.
18:19Trotsky left out a terrible scream.
18:25Trotsky's security men ran into the study and grabbed Ramon Mercader.
18:29When his mother and Naum Etinggan saw police cars arriving at the villa,
18:34they hastily beat a retreat.
18:36Leon Trotsky was taken to a nearby hospital.
18:40He suffered horribly through the night and died the next day.
18:48From an export company's office building in New York,
18:52Naum Etinggan had masterminded Trotsky's assassination.
18:56Soviet intelligence agents had also used this company,
19:00and many others like it, as a front for their communication centers abroad.
19:05From the early 1930s, when they began setting up their spy network on the American continent,
19:10Soviet intelligence agents were making themselves very comfortable in the United States.
19:22Soviet spies had been operating in North America long before the Second World War.
19:27They were searching for information related to American foreign policy,
19:32economic developments, and militaries.
19:45Soviet intelligence had a well-developed spy network at all levels of President Roosevelt's administration.
19:52Journalist Whitaker Chambers served as the main link between them and Moscow.
19:56His contacts included Alger Hiss at the Ministry of Agriculture,
20:01Gary White at the Ministry of Finance, and others.
20:04In the 1930s, over 50 officials, some at very senior levels, cooperated with Soviet intelligence.
20:14And if you happen to be working for the United States government at that time,
20:18and you were in the Communist Party at that time,
20:21and you had been recruited by one of the Soviet recruiters,
20:25the line would be,
20:27help us, help the world.
20:30The Soviets received a treasure trove of secret scientific, economic, and military information,
20:36not only on the United States,
20:38but also on Germany, Britain, and other countries.
20:42The secret information files and rolls of microfilm
20:46were passed to Soviet handlers through two key couriers,
20:50Whitaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley.
20:54American and British security in the mid-1930s
20:58was so absurdly weak that collecting British secrets
21:01and collecting American secrets has never been easier.
21:06For years, the Soviet spying operation gathered intelligence.
21:12Then, in 1939, a series of shocking events
21:16made many Americans cooperating with the NKVD
21:19completely change their views of the Soviet Union.
21:25On the 23rd of August,
21:27the Nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs,
21:29Joachim von Ribbentrop,
21:31flew to Moscow.
21:32His visit had been arranged in such haste
21:35that Soviet anti-aircraft units had not been notified.
21:38A few shots were actually fired at Ribbentrop's plane
21:42as if it were an enemy aircraft.
21:48Later that day, the unthinkable happened.
21:51Soviet Russia signed a non-aggression pact
21:54with its arch-rival Nazi Germany.
21:57Then they signed a friendship pact.
21:59The pact had several secret appendices
22:02with plans to divide a conquered Europe
22:05between Germany and the Soviet Union.
22:07The Soviet-Nazi pact sealed the fate of Europe.
22:15Within days, on the 1st of September,
22:18Germany invaded Poland from the west.
22:20Two weeks later,
22:21Stalin joined in the dismemberment of Poland from the east.
22:25The world was at war.
22:48By 1939, Whitaker Chambers had become disillusioned
22:52with communist ideals
22:54and had been avoiding his Soviet handlers for nearly a year.
22:58But he kept silent until September 2nd, 1939.
23:03The Soviet-Nazi pact so incensed Chambers
23:06that with no fear of the consequences,
23:08he revealed his spying activities
23:10to President Roosevelt's advisor,
23:13Adolf Burl, Jr.
23:16Burl immediately sent an urgent report
23:18on Soviet espionage to President Roosevelt
23:21titled, Underground Espionage Agent.
23:25Roosevelt ignored the report.
23:28He underestimated the potential
23:30of the Soviet intelligence in the U.S.
23:32and refused to believe that the Soviets
23:35had so thoroughly infiltrated his administration.
23:41The signing of the non-aggression pact
23:43and the friendship treaty with Germany
23:45marked one of the most dramatic moments
23:48in the history of Soviet intelligence.
23:50Within hours, it seemed Germany had turned
23:53from enemy number one
23:54into the closest friend and ally.
23:57Stalin ordered intelligence activities
23:59inside Hitler's Germany cut down.
24:02In Stalin's phraseology,
24:04to cut down meant to ban it almost completely.
24:12Stalin's behavior during the last months
24:15before Hitler's invasion still remains a mystery.
24:18Some historians claim that he trusted Hitler
24:22or he believed that Hitler would follow
24:24conventional military wisdom
24:25not to fight on two fronts at the same time.
24:28It meant that he wouldn't attack the Soviet Union
24:31before the end of the war with Great Britain.
24:38With Hitler tied up in a war against Britain,
24:41Stalin saw his opportunity.
24:45At a secret meeting with his closest aides,
24:48he declared that communism would need
24:50a global war to conquer the world.
24:54Stalin said that the Soviet Union
24:56should help Hitler to fight against Britain and France,
24:59to make the U.S. join the war to save Britain.
25:09According to Stalin, the Soviet Union would wait
25:12till the capitalists weakened each other
25:14and then deliver a crucial strike from the East
25:17to liberate Europe.
25:19Part of Stalin's plan was to strike at Nazi Germany
25:22when Hitler's army was heavily engaged in Western Europe.
25:26Perhaps Stalin's order to cut down spying activities
25:29in Nazi Germany was simply
25:31to help maintain his appearance of friendship.
25:34He did not want to alert Hitler to his intentions.
25:39Stalin refused to revise his plans
25:41even after receiving crucial intelligence
25:44about Hitler's preparations
25:45for an invasion of the Soviet Union.
25:53There were several sources warning us
25:55of a coming German invasion.
25:57We were receiving information
25:59from practically all over Europe
26:01and even from the United States.
26:03But the key information came from
26:06the Red Orchestra.
26:09The Red Orchestra was the largest
26:12intelligence network of the war.
26:14Under the leadership of Leopold Trepper,
26:17one of the brightest agents
26:18in Soviet military intelligence,
26:21the Red Orchestra had agents all over Europe.
26:24And they were getting very disturbing news.
26:31Just before the war,
26:32Leopold Trepper set up a company in Paris.
26:35It successfully traded in construction materials
26:38and remained in business
26:39even after the Nazis occupied Paris.
26:42The company was a front for Trepper's real job
26:45as a Soviet military spymaster.
26:48By the spring of 1940,
26:50Trepper controlled seven major intelligence networks
26:53with over 200 active agents
26:55based in France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany.
26:59Throughout the fall of 1940,
27:02the Battle for Britain raged on.
27:04In the first stage of Germany's Operation Sea Lion,
27:08which called for the eventual invasion of Britain,
27:11Luftwaffe bombers reigned terror on British cities,
27:15including the devastating non-stop bombing of London.
27:19The world waited for the invasion of the beleaguered isle.
27:24German paratroopers were still on invasion alert
27:27when Leopold Trepper sent an urgent coded message to Moscow.
27:31Hitler had canceled his plans for the invasion.
27:35Something was afoot.
27:37Soon after, three German divisions
27:39stationed at the Atlantic coast
27:41were transferred to the Polish town of Poznan,
27:44close to the Soviet border.
27:49On the 18th of December, 1940,
27:52Hitler signed Directive No. 21,
27:55Operation Barbarossa,
27:57his plan to invade the Soviet Union.
28:00Less than two weeks later,
28:02Stalin received information about Barbarossa
28:04from his agents in Europe.
28:06Soon after, the intelligence was confirmed
28:08by Stalin's key spy in Japan,
28:11Rihad Sorge.
28:15Sorge was among the most clever
28:17and fearless spies of World War II.
28:19The information he sent back to Russia
28:22was priceless and instrumental
28:24in changing the outcome of the war.
28:28Richard Sorge was born in Russia
28:30of German father, Russian mother.
28:34He was a kid, went to Germany,
28:35served in the German army in World War I.
28:38About 1920, he gets enamored with the Communist Party,
28:41building the new Russia,
28:43building the new world.
28:44He begins to work
28:45for Russian military intelligence.
28:49In 1933, Sorge went to Germany
28:52on a secret mission.
28:53He joined the Nazi party
28:55and started working
28:56for one of the major German daily newspapers,
28:59the Frankfurter Zeitung.
29:01Shortly thereafter,
29:02he was sent to Japan
29:03as the paper's Asian correspondent.
29:07In Tokyo, representing a German newspaper
29:11and letting out very pro-Nazi views
29:15and feelings to whomever he meets,
29:18he gets along beautifully
29:20with the Japanese,
29:21who are fascists.
29:23He's a hero to them.
29:25He's a German,
29:26and he is Nazism personified
29:30in his political views.
29:31So a lot of Japanese politicians
29:34and even some military
29:36share their views with him,
29:38which Sorge immediately sends back to Russia.
29:42In Tokyo, Richard Sorge
29:44became a frequent and welcome visitor
29:46at the German embassy.
29:48In 1939,
29:49the German ambassador to Japan,
29:52General Agin Otto,
29:53appointed Sorge
29:54the official press attache of the embassy.
29:57The two men became close friends.
30:00By that time,
30:01Sorge had a well-functioning operation.
30:04His agents infiltrated
30:05the highest echelons
30:07of military and political power in Japan.
30:11Miles away in Siberia,
30:13a secret Soviet radio station
30:15regularly received transmissions
30:17containing top-secret information
30:19about military preparations,
30:21both in Japan and Germany,
30:23signed by Sorge's codename,
30:26Ramzai.
30:29One of his cables contained key excerpts
30:32from the top-secret Operation Barbarossa.
30:35It read,
30:36the armed forces of Wehrmacht
30:38must be ready to destroy Soviet Russia
30:41in a blitzkrieg campaign
30:42before the end of the war
30:44against Great Britain.
30:50Barbarossa was a top-secret plan.
30:52Only eight people knew about it in Germany.
30:56A few weeks later,
30:58the plan was on Stalin's table.
31:00But Stalin did not believe
31:02his own intelligence.
31:05He could not acknowledge
31:06that his intelligence service
31:08was so brilliant
31:09that it managed to get this information
31:11so quickly.
31:19When Stalin learned Sorge was the source,
31:22his only remark was,
31:23it's a provocation.
31:25He's a double agent.
31:27Sorge's fate was sealed.
31:29He was ominously summoned to Moscow.
31:32But Drichard Sorge did not obey.
31:35He decided not to return.
31:40Meanwhile, Stalin's agents
31:41in other countries
31:42were warning of a coming invasion.
31:47Geneva, Switzerland.
31:49Hungarian scientist Shondo Rado
31:52had established
31:53a highly successful cartographic company.
31:56His reputation was so good
31:58that he actually received orders
31:59for large-scale maps
32:01of different European regions
32:03from the German military.
32:05Unknown to them,
32:06Shondo Rado was also a spy,
32:09the head of one of the largest
32:10Soviet intelligence networks
32:12in Switzerland and Germany.
32:14He operated under the code name Dora.
32:20Two weeks before Hitler's invasion
32:23of the Soviet Union,
32:24Rado sent a secret message
32:26of extreme importance to Moscow.
32:29To director,
32:31all the German motorized divisions
32:33stationed earlier along the Swiss border
32:36are now transferred to the southeast.
32:38At present,
32:39Germany keeps 150 divisions
32:41on the eastern border.
32:43The preparations
32:44are much more intense
32:46than in April and May,
32:48signed Dora.
32:49A few days before the invasion,
32:52Shondo Rado
32:52sent another message
32:54from Switzerland.
32:57Ursula Kuczynski,
32:59codenamed Sonia,
33:00was one of the top female spies
33:02working for Rado.
33:04During this period in Switzerland,
33:06I trained three radio operators
33:08for Shondo Rado.
33:10I don't remember which of them.
33:12Maybe it was my husband
33:13who transmitted to Moscow
33:15the message from Rado.
33:17It was a coded message,
33:19and this radio operator
33:21did not know the content.
33:23The message informed Moscow
33:25that the war would begin
33:27on June 22nd
33:29with the repositioning
33:30of German troops.
33:32The answer that came back read,
33:34your source is not reliable.
33:36Now, Rado was desperate.
33:40Stalin rejected any information
33:43that didn't correspond
33:44to his plan
33:45as either a lie,
33:46a mistake,
33:47or a provocation.
33:50The new head of the NKVD,
33:52Pavel Fietin,
33:53decided to double-check
33:54the accuracy
33:55of these alarming reports.
33:57He sent a charming woman,
33:59an experienced agent
34:00named Zoya Rybkina,
34:02to a reception
34:03at the German embassy
34:04in Moscow.
34:08I came to the embassy.
34:12German ambassador,
34:14Count for Schulenburg,
34:15invited me for a tango.
34:18Schulenburg looked depressed.
34:20I asked,
34:21are you in a bad mood, Count?
34:23He answered,
34:25oh no,
34:26who could possibly be
34:27in a bad mood
34:27in such company as you?
34:29I looked at the walls.
34:31There were lighter spots
34:33on the wallpaper
34:34from where pictures
34:35had been removed.
34:37Then,
34:38through a half-open door
34:39to one of the rooms,
34:40I saw several packed suitcases.
34:43I asked him again,
34:45are you leaving, Count?
34:49By now,
34:50German embassies
34:50from Moscow to Tokyo
34:52were buzzing with activity.
34:54From Japan,
34:55Zorge reported to Moscow.
34:57The German ambassador
34:59in Tokyo,
35:00General Otto,
35:01got a confirmation
35:02from von Ribbentrop
35:03that Germany would invade
35:05in the second part of June.
35:07There is no doubt
35:08that this information
35:09is true.
35:10Signed, Ramsey.
35:12A few days later,
35:13Zorge sent another cable.
35:15The message was brief.
35:16The war will start
35:18on June 22nd, 1941.
35:23Moscow replied,
35:25we doubt the authenticity
35:26of your information.
35:29Now,
35:30Zorge was desperate,
35:32even insistent.
35:33The fate of millions
35:34hung in the balance.
35:35He sent yet another cable
35:37to Stalin.
35:38It carried his most
35:39chilling message.
35:40I repeat,
35:42nine armies
35:43incorporating
35:43150 divisions
35:45will invade
35:46the Soviet Union,
35:47crossing the border
35:48on June 22nd.
35:52Stalin was deaf
35:53to all pleas,
35:55blind to the reports
35:56that lay before him.
35:59On the 22nd of June,
36:011941,
36:02Hitler's armies struck.
36:03It was a devastating attack.
36:19On the very first day,
36:21the German Blitzkrieg
36:23destroyed practically
36:24all the Russian tanks,
36:25artillery pieces,
36:26and aircraft
36:27stationed near the border.
36:32Most Soviet planes
36:34never made it
36:35and off their runways.
36:38Over the next four months,
36:39the Germans slaughtered
36:40nearly all of the Red Army,
36:43three and a half million men.
36:47Another one and a half million
36:48soldiers were taken prisoner.
36:54Only then did Stalin
36:56turn to his spy masters
36:57for help,
36:58and he had one
36:59very crucial question
37:01for them.
37:05By the end of October 1941,
37:07Hitler's army
37:07was closing in
37:08on Moscow.
37:10Stalin's defenses
37:11were further weakened
37:12by fear of a Japanese
37:13strike in Siberia.
37:15Army divisions
37:16badly needed
37:17to defend Moscow
37:18were tied down
37:19in the Far East
37:20to face a possible
37:21Japanese attack.
37:24The Japanese were still
37:26contemplating where to strike next,
37:28at the Soviets in Siberia
37:30or at the British
37:31and Americans
37:32in Southeast Asia.
37:34The key Soviet spy in Japan,
37:37Richard Sorge,
37:38had many agents and friends
37:40close to the Japanese government.
37:42For months,
37:43he'd been trying
37:43to convince them
37:44that the Japanese
37:45would be much better off
37:46getting hold
37:47of the precious resources
37:48of tin, rubber,
37:49and oil
37:50in Southeast Asia
37:51rather than face
37:52a difficult winter campaign
37:54in Siberia.
37:57In time,
37:58Sorge learned
37:59that Japan
38:00had abandoned
38:01all plans
38:02to attack
38:02the Soviet Union.
38:04This was the news
38:05Stalin had been waiting for.
38:07Having correctly predicted
38:08the German invasion,
38:10Sorge had the ear
38:11of Moscow.
38:13Months earlier,
38:14Sorge bought
38:15a fishing boat.
38:16Together with his radio operator,
38:18they installed
38:18a radio transmitter
38:20and began regular boat trips
38:21into the open sea
38:22to transmit radio messages.
38:25On a day
38:26when his operator
38:26was ill,
38:27Sorge took the boat
38:28out himself
38:29and transmitted
38:30critical news.
38:34Probably the most
38:35important information
38:36he sends back
38:37to Moscow
38:38is that he is able
38:40to tell Stalin
38:41that the Japanese
38:43have no intention
38:44of invading Siberia
38:46to support the Germans.
38:48Hence,
38:48Stalin is able
38:49to take many
38:50of the divisions
38:51that he had
38:51in Siberia
38:52to counter the Japanese,
38:54push them
38:57to his western front.
38:59At the last minute,
39:00saved Moscow,
39:02saved the Russian capital.
39:06On November 7th, 1941,
39:09on the 24th anniversary
39:10of the Bolshevik revolution,
39:12the fresh Russian troops
39:14from Siberia
39:15paraded through Moscow.
39:16Straight from the parade,
39:18they marched
39:18to the front line,
39:20a mere 40 kilometers
39:21from Red Square.
39:37outside Moscow,
39:39the German advance
39:40ground to a halt.
39:41It was their first defeat
39:43in the Second World.
39:47Richard Sorge's greatest triumph
39:49was also his last.
39:51After eight years undercover,
39:53he was unmasked
39:54and imprisoned
39:55by Japanese military intelligence.
39:59Sorge was one
40:00of a handful
40:00of dedicated,
40:02imaginative,
40:02and fearless
40:03Soviet intelligence agents
40:05who made a substantial contribution
40:07to the Russian war effort.
40:08Early in 1942,
40:10the Soviets managed
40:11to place one
40:12of their top men
40:13in a key German position
40:15in an operation
40:16codenamed Monastery.
40:18Alexander Dinyanov
40:20was an experienced
40:21NKVD agent.
40:23In February of 1942,
40:25he crossed the front line
40:26and convinced the Germans
40:28that he was loyal
40:29to their cause.
40:30The Germans sent him
40:32to be trained
40:32in their own
40:33military intelligence school.
40:35After completing the course,
40:37Dinyanov was given
40:38the codename Max
40:39and sent back to Moscow
40:41to coordinate Nazi spying
40:43in espionage.
40:46Dinyanov was to meet
40:48terrorists sent by Germans
40:50to Russia
40:50and to help them
40:52organize sabotage missions.
40:53As a result
40:54of his activities,
40:55some of the terrorists
40:57were arrested
40:58by the NKVD
40:59and executed.
41:00In Moscow alone,
41:02Dinyanov helped the NKVD
41:05to neutralize
41:06over 50 German agents.
41:09The NKVD placed Dinyanov
41:11in General Rokosovsky,
41:13headquarters as a communications officer.
41:16Dinyanov regularly supplied
41:18the Germans with misinformation,
41:20sprinkled with just enough
41:21true intelligence
41:22to keep them from
41:23discovering the truth,
41:25even if at times
41:26it meant sacrificing Russian blood.
41:29For example,
41:30in early November 1942,
41:32Max sent a cable
41:33to his German masters
41:35which read,
41:35the Red Army
41:37will deliver strikes
41:38in the northern Caucasus
41:39and at Rzhev
41:40on November 15th.
41:42This information
41:43was correct.
41:44Although the best
41:45Soviet general,
41:47Georgi Zhukov,
41:48was in charge
41:48of the preparations
41:49for the advance,
41:50the Germans,
41:51warned by Dinyanov,
41:53successfully repelled
41:58the offensive.
42:00Zhukov himself
42:01never knew
42:02of the plot
42:02behind his failed advance
42:04at Verzevin.
42:06The Soviet assault there
42:08was in fact a fate
42:09designed by Stalin
42:10and his close advisors
42:11to draw German troops
42:13from Stalingrad,
42:14a vital strategic supply center.
42:16The siege of Stalingrad
42:18had been going on
42:19for six months,
42:21a vicious fight
42:22for every inch of soil,
42:24for every house.
42:26After the faint at Rzhev,
42:28the main Soviet force
42:29launched a massive offensive
42:31against the German army.
42:34The Germans suffered
42:35their second devastating
42:37defeat of the war.
42:40300,000 men
42:42were taken prisoner.
42:43Thousands more died.
42:45Stalingrad marked
42:46the end
42:47of Hitler's blitzkrieg.
42:49It was also
42:49a decisive turning point
42:50of the war.
42:53Double agent
42:54Alexander Dinyanov
42:55was the only man
42:56who was decorated
42:57for the same operation
42:58by both sides.
43:00The Germans honored him
43:01with the military cross
43:02with swords,
43:03the Russians
43:04with the red star.
43:08Another Russian agent,
43:10Nikolai Kuznetsov,
43:11mingled freely
43:12among the Nazis
43:13in the occupied territory.
43:18Nikolai Kuznetsov
43:20was a unique man.
43:21Just imagine
43:22that as a young man
43:23from a village in Siberia,
43:25he learned the German language
43:26almost by himself.
43:28You know,
43:29judging by a dialect,
43:31Germans can tell
43:31what area this person
43:32comes from.
43:34Kuznetsov spoke
43:35seven or eight
43:36German dialects.
43:39Kuznetsov was based
43:41in a partisan group
43:42at the Ukrainian town
43:43of Vinitsa.
43:44From there,
43:45he made raids
43:46into German-occupied territories,
43:47posing as a German officer
43:49named Paul Siebert.
43:52This was a carefully protected zone
43:54visited by Hitler himself.
43:58One day,
43:59Kuznetsov reported to Moscow
44:00that a well-known German spymaster,
44:03Otto Skorzeny,
44:04was training a squad
44:05of terrorists in Vinitsa
44:07for a special secret mission.
44:10Kuznetsov became friends
44:11with one of Skorzeny's officers.
44:18The officer dated a girl
44:20who was one of Kuznetsov's agents.
44:23One day,
44:24the officer told the girl
44:25that he would be leaving soon
44:27and promised to bring her
44:29a Persian rug as a present.
44:32The girl did not take it seriously,
44:34but being a good agent,
44:36she reported the conversation
44:38to Kuznetsov.
44:39He informed Moscow
44:41and that was the missing link.
44:47Soviet intelligence officers
44:48looked to Persia or Iran for clues.
44:51They came to the conclusion
44:53that an assassination attempt
44:54would be made in Tehran
44:56where the three Allied leaders,
44:58Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill,
45:00were to meet
45:00to discuss a vital issue,
45:02the opening of the Second European Front.
45:08The Soviets sent additional army units
45:11and a strong anti-terrorist NKVD group
45:13to prevent the attempt.
45:18When President Roosevelt arrived,
45:20on December 2nd, 1943,
45:23at 6 o'clock a.m.,
45:25the NKVD team liquidated
45:27a German terrorist squad in Tehran.
45:32If Stalin had listened to his own agents,
45:35a Russian victory might have come sooner
45:37and with far less loss of life.
45:40But he never admitted to any errors of judgment.
45:45In 1944, he addressed party members
45:48celebrating the 27th anniversary
45:50of the Bolshevik revolution.
45:54History shows that aggressive nations
45:57which are ready to attack
45:58usually are more prepared for a new war
46:01than peace-loving nations.
46:03There is no doubt that in the future,
46:05peace-loving nations
46:06can still be caught unprepared.
46:11Even as Stalin offered this explanation,
46:13he was looking to eliminate
46:15the few people who knew
46:16the real price the country had to pay
46:19for his mistrusting
46:20his own intelligence service.
46:23Alexander Orlov fled to the U.S.,
46:26terrified of Stalin's purges.
46:28He lived the rest of his life
46:29in fear of the NKVD's revenge.
46:34Leopold Trepper,
46:35the head of the Red Orchestra
46:36who brought the news
46:37of the impending Nazi invasion,
46:39was arrested and spent 10 years
46:41in a Soviet prison.
46:44Shandorado, the Hungarian scientist
46:46who'd confirmed the exact date
46:49of Hitler's invasion,
46:50was also arrested.
46:51He spent eight years in prison.
46:55Richard Sorge,
46:56the man who warned
46:58of the German invasion
46:59and whose intelligence coup
47:00brought Russian troops
47:01from the east to save Moscow,
47:04should have been a national hero.
47:06But Stalin refused an offer
47:09to exchange him
47:10for a Japanese agent
47:11being held in Moscow.
47:17On the very day
47:18Stalin made his speech,
47:20Sorge was executed
47:22by the Japanese.
47:34The National Geek
47:34Nintendo
47:34The National Geek
48:05In the years before and during the Second World War, Soviet intelligence was probably the finest in the world. Bold,
48:12dedicated, and resourceful. Its agents were driven mostly by idealism, not by Stalinist terror. In one of the bitter ironies
48:22of Soviet history, many Russian intelligence agents were to learn that they served a tyrant as dangerous to them as
48:30any foreign enemy ever was.
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