Richard Sorge was a German journalist and Soviet intelligence officer active before and during World War II. Sorge visited Scandinavia and the U.S. at various times in his career, though he’s perhaps most known for his work in China and Japan. While there, Sorge established himself as an expert on Chinese agriculture, recruiting other journalists and trading secrets along the way. In “An Impeccable Spy,” Owen Matthews writes that Sorge became “the best-informed foreign observer of Japan in the world.” He also describes Sorge as “a bad man who became a great spy,” and someone who “chose the world of action, women, restaurants, fast motorcycles and unrelenting risk.” His ability to build agent networks from nothing was incredibly valuable to the Soviet Union, which may explain why his contacts in the military so often denied his requests to come home. In the end, Sorge and his agents were arrested by the Japanese in 1941. He was tortured, forced to confess, tried, and hanged in November 1944. It would be another 20 years before the Soviet Union publicly acknowledged his work.