Monument to Richard Sorge

The monument to Richard Sorge is made in the form of an oblong, curved shape of a bronze plaque resembling a radar installation, in the center of which a relief image of the middle part of Sorge’s face with cut through eyes is given. His focused and studying gaze seems to pierce the man.

The monument is designed so that the eyes look at you, in whatever direction you stand. In this generalized-conventional image, the sculptor tried to create a symbol of the Soviet intelligence officer.

The photo of the monument was illustrated with an article about Tsigal in the Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia.

Sorge soon obtained information about the deployment of a large number of German troops on Germany´s eastern borders. This was a clear signal of a planned attack on the Soviet Union. The date of the offensive was also known – 22 June 1941. Sorge immediately informed the centre about the time of the attack, the number of German divisions, the fact that the offensive would be launched along the whole of the front and that the major targets would be Moscow and Leningrad. However, Stalin doubted the accuracy of this information, because of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact signed between Germany and the USSR on 23 August 1939. This “friendship” agreement was so detailed and comprehensive that Soviet leaders did not believe that Germany could break the agreement, so they disregarded Sorge´s information. As a result, Soviet troops incurred major losses during the first days of the war. Sorge said that despite Germany´s offensive on the USSR, Japan had guaranteed not to attack the Soviet Union in the Far East after 15 September 1941. The agent´s information that Japan was not planning to go to war against the USSR provided grounds for redeploying Soviet troops from Siberia and the Far East to the central areas.

Sorge and another active member of the network, Hotsumi Ozaki, were executed on the anniversary of the October Revolution on 7 November 1944. After the execution, Sorge was buried in Tokyo´s prison cemetery.

The then first secretary of the Azerbaijani Communist Party, Heydar Aliyev, played a special role in immortalizing Richard Sorge in his native Baku. It was on Aliyev´s initiative that in 1981 a park named after the agent was opened and an unusual monument to him, created by V. Chigal, was erected. The Azerbaijani people still honour the memory of legendary hero Richard Sorge – a central street in Baku and school No 90 in Yeni Ramana have also been named after him..

Source: Visions of Azerbaijan