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Thank you. Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 365, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Part 1.

This week, I want to talk about one of the most famous cases of espionage, not just in Japanese

history, but arguably ever, a story that's often pointed to as somewhat foundational in

terms of the outcome of the Second World War, and thus the history of the 20th century.

I refer to, of course, the tale of Richard Sorge and his spy ring, probably the most famous spying

ever to operate in Japan. Richard Sorge was born in Baku in 1895, now the capital of Azerbaijan,

though at the time it was one of many of the colonial outposts of the sprawling Russian Empire.

You see, for the past 300 years, Russia had been expanding under the Romanov dynasty.

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