Ursula Kuczynski
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Ursula Kuczynski (15 May 1907 – 7 July 2000), also known as Ruth Werner, Ursula Beurton and Ursula Hamburger, was a German Communist activist who spied for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s, most famously as the handler of nuclear scientist
Klaus Fuchs Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs (29 December 1911 – 28 January 1988) was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly a ...
. She moved to East Germany in 1950 when Fuchs was unmasked, and published a series of books related to her espionage activities, including her bestselling autobiography, ''Sonjas Rapport''. Sources concerned with her espionage work in the 1930s/40s sometimes use the cover name originally suggested to her in Shanghai by her fellow intelligence operative and lover
Richard Sorge Richard Gustavovich Sorge (; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Russian journalist and GRU (Soviet Union), Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during World War II and worked undercover as a German journa ...
: "Sonja", "Sonja Schultz" or, after she moved to Britain, "Sonya".


Life


Early years

Ursula Maria Kuczynski was born in
Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Te ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
,
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
on 15 May 1907, the second of the six children of the economist and
demographer Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...
Robert René Kuczynski Robert René Kuczynski (1876–1947) was a left-wing German economist and demographer and is said to be one of the founders of modern vital statistics. Early life His father Wilhelm was a successful banker; his mother Lucy (née Brandeis) a pr ...
and his wife Berta Kuczynski ( Gradenwitz), a painter. The family was a secular Jewish one. Ursula had four younger sisters: Brigitte (born 1910), Barbara (born 1913), Sabine (born 1919) and Renate (born 1923), and an older brother,
Jürgen Jürgen or Jurgen is a popular masculine given name in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. Notable people named Jürgen include: A *Jürgen Ahrend (1930–2024), German organ builder *Jürgen Alzen (born 1962), German race car drive ...
(born 1904), who would later become a historian-economist with a controversial relationship of his own with the espionage community. The children were academically gifted, and the household was prosperous, employing a cook, a gardener, two household servants and a nanny, Olga Muth. Ursula grew up in a small villa on the
Schlachtensee Schlachtensee () is a lake in the south west of Berlin, in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough (in the quarters of Schlachtensee), on the edge of the Grunewald forest. The lake lends its name to the surrounding area and to the nearby '' Studentend ...
lake in the Zehlendorf borough in the southwest of
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. When she was eleven she landed a screen role in '' The House of Three Girls'' (1918), the cinema version of ''
Das Dreimäderlhaus ''Das Dreimäderlhaus'' (''House of the Three Girls''), adapted into English-language versions as ''Blossom Time'' and ''Lilac Time'', is a Viennese pastiche operetta with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Heinrich Berté (1857–1924), and ...
''. Ursula attended the ''
Lyzeum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Basic science and some introduction to ...
'' (secondary school) in Zehlendorf and then, between 1924 and 1926, undertook an apprenticeship as a book dealer. She had already, in 1924, joined the left-leaning Free Employees league (''
AfA-Bund The General Federation of Free Employees (, AfA-Bund) was an amalgamation of various socialist-oriented trade unions of technical and administrative employees in the Weimar Republic. It was one of the founding members of the Iron Front on 16 Decem ...
''), and 1924 was also the year in which she joined the Young Communists (
KJVD The Young Communist League of Germany (, abbreviated KJVD) was a political youth organization in Germany. History The KJVD was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth () of the Communist Party of Germany, A prior youth wing had been formed ...
) and Germany's Red Aid (''
Rote Hilfe The Rote Hilfe ("Red Aid") was the German affiliate of the International Red Aid. The Rote Hilfe was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany and existed between 1924 and 1936. Its purpose was to provide help to those Communists who had bee ...
''). In May 1926, the month of her nineteenth birthday, Ursula Kuczynski joined the
Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
(KPD).


Librarianship, marriage and politics

In 1926 and 1927, she attended a librarianship academy while working at a
lending library A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a librar ...
. She then took a job at
Ullstein Verlag The ''Ullstein Verlag'' was founded by Leopold Ullstein in 1877 at Berlin and is one of the largest publishing companies of Germany. It published newspapers like '' B.Z.'' and '' Berliner Morgenpost'' and books through its subsidiaries ''Ullstei ...
, a large Berlin publishing house. However, she lost this job in 1928 after participating in a May-Day Demonstration and/or on account of her Communist Party membership. Between December 1928 and August 1929 she worked in a New York book shop before returning to Berlin where she married Rudolf Hamburger, an architect and fellow member of the Communist Party. It was also at this time that she set up the Marxist Workers' Library (MAB) in Berlin. She headed up the MAB between August 1929 and June 1930.


Espionage


China

With her husband, Ursula relocated, in July 1930, to Shanghai, where a frenetic construction boom afforded ample opportunities for Hamburger's architectural work. She would remain based in China till 1935. It was here that the couple's son, the Shakespeare scholar Maik Hamburger, was born in February 1931. After they had been in Shanghai for a little more than four months she was introduced by the American journalist
Agnes Smedley Agnes Smedley (February 23, 1892 – May 6, 1950) was an American journalist, writer and activist who supported the Indian Independence Movement and the Chinese Communist Revolution. Raised in a poverty-stricken miner's family in Missouri and Col ...
, to another German expatriate,
Richard Sorge Richard Gustavovich Sorge (; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Russian journalist and GRU (Soviet Union), Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during World War II and worked undercover as a German journa ...
, an agent of the Fourth Department of the Red Army, responsible for
military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis List of intelligence gathering disciplines, approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist Commanding officer, commanders in decision making pr ...
, posing as a journalist.Ian Kershaw: ''Wendepunkte. Schlüsselentscheidungen im Zweiten Weltkrieg.'' DVA, München 2008, page 346. "Sonja" (the code name by which Kuczynski was known) operated a Russian spy ring under Sorge's direction. In Shanghai, she also met
Roger Hollis Sir Roger Henry Hollis (2 December 1905 – 26 October 1973) was a British intelligence officer who served with MI5 from 1938 to 1965. He was Director General of MI5 from 1956 to 1965. Some commentators, including the journalist Chapman Pinc ...
, who later became the director of
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
, and Manfred Stern, who had run a spy network in the United States and was now a military advisor to the
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
. In Fall 1931, Ursula sent her son
Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...
to live with her husband's parents (now relocated from Germany to Czechoslovakia) while she went to Moscow, where she undertook a seven-month training session before returning to China. There had been a concern that if baby Michael had accompanied her to Moscow he might inadvertently have blown her cover later by blurting out words in Russian. It was also during this period that she was trained in various practical aspects of spy-craft. This included radio operator skills that were much prized in the world of espionage: she learned to build and operate a radio receiver, becoming an exceptionally capable and accurate user of
Morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...
. For he next assignment, she was teamed up with Johann Patra, codenamed "Ernst". Between March and December 1934, they were based in
Shenyang Shenyang,; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly known as Fengtian formerly known by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a sub-provincial city in China and the list of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Liaonin ...
in
Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
which had been under Japanese military occupation since the Mukden Incident in 1931. In April 1935, one of their agents was arrested by the Japanese, and they were ordered to relocate to Peking. The following month, the Shanghai Municipal Police Special Branch arrested Yakov Grigoryevich Bronin, Sorge's successor in China. When his apartment was searched, evidence was found that his typewriter had been purchased by Ursula. As a result, her husband Rudolf was questioned by the Special Branch. The Fourth Department decided to redeploy Rudolf and Ursula to Poland. En route, she visited her family in England, where they had fled after the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
's rise to power. While stationed in Manchuria, Ursula and Patra had a romance that resulted in the birth of her daughter Janina in April 1936. Her husband Rudolf generously acknowledged "Nina" as though she were his own daughter.


Poland

In September 1935, they were both posted to Poland where, apart from at least one more lengthy visit to Moscow, they would remain till Autumn 1938. The couple lived mostly in the Polish capital
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
during this time and carried out espionage to assist underground Polish communists, apart when Ursula carried out a from a three-month mission in the
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...
. in 1936. In a ceremony in Moscow on 15 June 1937,
Mikhail Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (, ; 3 June 1946) was a Soviet politician and Russian Old Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1938 until his resignation in 1946. From ...
presented her with the
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...
for her espionage work in China. This was the time of the
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
and while she was in Moscow, many of her associates were imprisoned and executed.She was now a
major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
in the Red Army, despite never having worn a uniform.


Switzerland

Between Autumn 1938 and December 1940, as agent "Sonja Schultz", Ursula was based in Switzerland, where she was one of the
Red Three The Red Three () was the Switzerland section of the so-called Red Orchestra. It was established and maintained by Soviet Military Intelligence Staff Division 4. Name history, and activities The terms ''Red Three'', and ''Red Orchestra'' resp ...
network, with Sándor Radó. Her duties included working as a specialist radio operator, applying technical skills acquired during her Moscow visits earlier in the decade. The codes she used to send information to Moscow from her house in Caux, a three-hour walk up into the mountains above Montreux, have never been deciphered. In Switzerland, she collaborated with the
Lucy spy ring The Lucy spy ring () was an anti-Nazi World War II espionage operation headquartered in Switzerland and run by Rudolf Roessler, a German refugee. Its story was only published in 1966, and very little is clear about the ring, Roessler, or the effo ...
and was involved in recruiting agents to be infiltrated into Germany. She also ran her own ring, with agents that included
Alexander Foote Alexander Allan Foote (13 April 1905 – 1 August 1956) was a radio operator for a Soviet espionage ring in Switzerland during World War II. Foote was born in Liverpool and raised mostly in Yorkshire by his Scottish-born father and English mother. ...
and
Len Beurton Leon Charles Beurton (19 February 1914 – 29 October 1997) was an English Communist who worked as an agent for the Soviet intelligence services ( Main Intelligence Directorate / ''Гла́вное разве́дывательное управл ...
.


England

Ursula's marriage to Rudolf Hamburger finally ended after he paid her a brief visit in Switzerland to say farewell before returning to China with Johann Patra. She obtained a divorce on the spurious grounds that Hamburger had committed adultery with one of her sisters, on 26 October 1939, and married Len Buerton on 23 February 1940,
Defender of the Fatherland Day Defender of the Fatherland Day ( ''Den' zashchitnika Otechestva''; ; ; ; ) is a holiday observed in Russia, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. It is celebrated on 23 February, except in Kazakhstan, where it is celebra ...
. One motive for this was to obtain a British passport to enable her to escape from Switzerland, which was now all but surrounded by fascist Germany and Italy. She applied for the passport on the day after the wedding. Betrayed by their nanny, Olga Muth, Ursula handed over her radio transmitter to Foote, and left Switzerland in December 1940. Buerton had to remain behind; as a former member of the
International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
, he was refused permission to transit Spain. Travelling via
Vichy France Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...
and Spain, Ursula and the children reached Portugal on Christmas Day. On 14 January 1941, they boarded the , which reached Liverpool on 4 February. Beurton did not join them in the UK until 30 July 1942, having obtained a fake British passport from
MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
in return for information about Radó's spy ring. Her second son was born in the late summer of 1943. They had settled in north
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
, but soon moved on to the first of a succession of nearby villages, settling initially in Glympton, and then in
Kidlington Kidlington is a village and civil parish in the Cherwell district of Oxfordshire, England. It is in-between the River Cherwell and Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and south-west of Bicester. It had a population of 13,600 at the 2021 Census. ...
. In May 1945, the Beurtons relocated again, to a larger house in the north Oxfordshire village of
Great Rollright __NOTOC__ Great Rollright is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Rollright, in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, and about north of Chipping Norton. The village has a Church of England primary school. ...
where they remained until 1950, becoming so integrated into the village community that both her parents, who were frequent visitors in Oxfordshire even after the war ended, and who both died in 1947, are buried in the
Great Rollright __NOTOC__ Great Rollright is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Rollright, in the West Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, and about north of Chipping Norton. The village has a Church of England primary school. ...
churchyard. In each Oxfordshire property in which she lived, Ursula installed a radio receiver and transmitter, which during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
was illegal. Living in Oxfordshire placed them conveniently close to her parents who had emigrated to London after
1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...
, and were then living with friends in Oxford because of the air raids in London. The Beurtons' Oxfordshire village homes were close to
Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace ( ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough. Originally called Blenheim Castle, it has been known as Blenheim Palace since the 19th century. One of England's larg ...
, where a large part of the
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
had been relocated at the start of the Second World War, and the UK's Atomic Research Centre at Harwell, which was established in 1947. From 1942, she worked as a courier for the USSR's "
Atomic spies Atomic spies or atom spies were people in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada who are known to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold W ...
",
Klaus Fuchs Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs (29 December 1911 – 28 January 1988) was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly a ...
and
Melita Norwood Melita Stedman Norwood (née Sirnis ; 25 March 1912 – 2 June 2005) was a British Civil service, civil servant, Communist Party of Great Britain member and KGB spy. Born to a British mother and Latvians, Latvian father, Norwood is most famou ...
. Ursula thus hastened the development of the Soviet atomic bomb, successfully tested in 1949. She was the
GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...
handler for an officer of the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
and
J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-born scientist who later moved to India and acquired Indian citizenship. He worked in the fields of physiology, genetics, evolutionary ...
, a British specialist in
submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
radar. She was also able to pass to her Soviet employers information from her brother, her father, and other exiled Germans in England. It was her brother
Jürgen Kuczynski Jürgen Kuczynski (; 17 September 1904 – 6 August 1997) was a German economist, journalist, and communist. He also provided intelligence to the Soviet Union during World War II. By 1936, Kuczynski had followed his father and other family into ...
, an internationally respected economist, who originally recruited Fuchs to spy for the Soviets, and supplied her with reports from the
United States Strategic Bombing Survey The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) was a written report created by a board of experts assembled to produce an impartial assessment of the effects of the Anglo-American strategic bombing of Nazi Germany during the European theatre ...
. Together with , she worked on infiltrating German Communist exiles into the US
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...
(OSS). By Autumn 1944, the Americans were at this time preparing "Operation Hammer" for parachuting UK-based German exiles into Germany. Ursula was able to ensure that a substantial number of the OSS agents parachuted into Germany were reliable communists, able and willing to make inside intelligence available not merely to the OSS, but also to Moscow. Many years later Ursula recalled that she was twice visited by
MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
representatives in 1947, and asked about her links with Soviet intelligence, which she refused to discuss. Her communist sympathies were no secret, but British suspicions were insufficiently supported by evidence to justify her arrest. Her visitors were unaware of or unconcerned by her periodic, and apparently casual, meetings with Fuchs in
Nethercote, Banbury Nethercote is a hamlet in the civil parish of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. It lies close to the border with West Northamptonshire. The hamlet sits south-east of junction 11 of the M40, south of the A422 and east of the M40. Predominantly ag ...
or on country cycle rides. At that time the British intelligence services seem to have been disinclined to follow up their concerns. Two years later detonation of the first Soviet atomic bomb refocused priorities within MI5, however. Fuchs was arrested towards the end of 1949; in January 1950 he was put on trial and confessed that he was a spy. The day before his trial started, fearing that she was about to be unmasked, Ursula left England. In March 1950, after two decades away from the city of her birth, she returned to Berlin. Meanwhile, Fuchs finally identified her as his Soviet contact in November 1950. The espionage-related aspects of her friendship with Melita Norwood only began to emerge in 1999.


Back in the GDR

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
had changed. Ursula Beurton returned to
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
, in what had been the
Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
and was now becoming the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
, in October 1949. A systematic nation building process had been underway for several years before 1949, starting with the arrival from Moscow of 30 well prepared formerly exiled German communists in Berlin at the start of May 1945, led by
Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; ; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar republic, Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development ...
. The
Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
had been
merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
in April 1946 with the East German elements of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED / ''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands''). On her arrival in East Berlin, Beurton joined the SED. She also resigned from the
GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...
. After undertaking journalism and other writing work, she became an author. In 1950, she was appointed head of the Capitalist Countries Division in the Central Department of Foreign Information in the Government Information Office. She was later fired, reportedly because she forgot to lock a safe door. Between 1953 and 1956 she worked in the Chamber of Commerce for foreign trade.
Some published works
as ''Ursula Beurton'': * ''Immer unterwegs. Reportage aus Prag über die Tätigkeit unserer Ingenieure im Ausland.'' Verlag Die Wirtschaft: Berlin 1956 as ''Ruth Werner'': * ''Ein ungewöhnliches Mädchen.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1958 * ''Olga Benario. Die Geschichte eines tapferen Lebens.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1961 * ''Über hundert Berge.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1965 * ''Ein Sommertag.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1966 * ''In der Klinik.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1968 * ''Muhme Mehle.'' Neuauflage: Spotless: Berlin 2000 * ''Kleine Fische – Große Fische. Publizistik aus zwei Jahrzehnten.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1972 * ''Die gepanzerte Doris.'' Kinderbuchverlag: Berlin 1973 * ''Ein sommerwarmer Februar.'' Kinderbuchverlag: Berlin 1973 * ''Der Gong des Porzellanhändlers.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1976 * ''Vaters liebes gutes Bein.'' Kinderbuchverlag: Berlin 1977 * ''Gedanken auf dem Fahrrad.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1980 * ''Kurgespräche.'' Verlag Neues Leben: Berlin 1988 * ''Sonjas Rapport.'' (autobiografical) First "complete" German language edition, Verlag Neues Leben (Eulenspiegel Verlagsgruppe) 2006 (original "censored" edition 1977),


The writer

Her short (64 page) publication "Immer unterwegs. Reportage aus Prag über die Tätigkeit unserer Ingenieure im Ausland" was published under the name "Ursula Beurton" in Berlin in 1956. Between 1958 and 1988, she produced a succession of books under the name by which she subsequently came to be known, Ruth Werner. Most were story books for children or suitably expurgated memoirs of her time in espionage. Her autobiography appeared in East Germany under the title "Sonjas Rapport" (''Sonya's Report'') and became a bestseller. There was no mention of
Klaus Fuchs Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs (29 December 1911 – 28 January 1988) was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British, and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly a ...
, who was still alive in 1976 and, presumably for the same reason, no mention of Melita Norwood. An English language version appeared in 1991 and a Chinese translation in 1999. An uncensored German language version came out only in 2006, although many questions were still left unanswered. In 1982 Ruth Werner became a member of the East German affiliate of
PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide professional association, association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association ...
.


Die Wende

As the existence of the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
came to an end in the late 1980s, Ruth Werner was one of the few to defend it. On 10 November 1989, immediately after The Wall was breached, she addressed tens of thousands of people at a meeting in the Berlin Lustgarten (pleasure park) on the subject of her faith in
Socialism with a human face Socialism with a human face (, ) was a slogan referring to the reformist and democratic socialist programme of Alexander Dubček and his colleagues, agreed at the Presidium of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in April 1968, after he became ...
. She seems never to have regretted or seen the need to apologize for her espionage. In 1956, when
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
made public the darker face of Communist Russia under
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
,Khrushchev, Nikita S
“The Secret Speech–On the Cult of Personality”
''Fordham University Modern History Sourcebook''. Accessed 3 July 2017.
she was invited to comment. She was reluctant to join the criticism of the Soviet wartime leader: She died in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
on 7 July 2000. Interviewed that year, a few months before her death, she was asked about the consequences of "
Die Wende The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...
", the changes which had led to German reunification (which many of her persuasion still saw as a peaceful annexation of East Germany by West Germany):


Evaluation

Since 1989, more information has become available concerning at least some of her espionage achievements, and appreciation of Ursula's exceptional abilities has grown. In the opinion of one historian who has studied her career, she was "one of the top spies ever produced by the Soviet Union and her penetration of Britain's secrets and MI5 possibly went far deeper than was thought at the time she was operational". An unidentified GRU chief is reported to have observed during the war, "If we had five Sonyas in England, the war would end sooner". She could be more reticent about her contribution: "I was simply working as a messenger" ''("Ich arbeitete ja bloß als Kurier".)'' What is incontrovertible is that Ursula engaged in an exceptionally high-risk trade on behalf of Stalin's Intelligence machine without being shot by the enemy or sent to the
Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
by her own side. Her first husband, Rudolf Hamburger, who also worked for Soviet intelligence, fell foul of the Soviet regime in 1943 and was deported to the Gulag. He was released in 1952 but remained officially "banned" and was sent to Ukraine, only being permitted to return to East Germany in 1955. This type of experience was far from unusual among Soviet spies. Alexander Radó, with whom she had worked closely in the hills above Geneva, also spent long years in the Gulag. Richard Sorge, who recruited her to work for Moscow in the first place, was caught and hanged by the Japanese. As far as her story has come into the public domain, Ursula suffered nothing more harrowing than a couple of pointed but ultimately inconclusive meetings with
British Intelligence The Government of the United Kingdom maintains several intelligence agencies that deal with secret intelligence. These agencies are responsible for collecting, analysing and exploiting foreign and domestic intelligence, providing military intell ...
agents in 1947. She was able to escape to East Germany before her espionage activities became the subject of any trial or other retributive process. Simple survival represented a considerable achievement under the circumstances of her two decades in espionage, and seems to justify the media epithets she attracted to the effect that she was "Stalin's best female spy" ("''Stalins beste Spionin''").


Awards and honours

* 1937
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...
* 1969
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...
* 1978
National Prize of the German Democratic Republic The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) () was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement. With scientific achievem ...
* 1978
Order of Karl Marx The Order of Karl Marx () was the most important order in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The award of the order also included a prize of 20,000 East German marks. The order was founded on May 5, 1953 on the occasion of Karl Marx's 135th ...
* 1982
Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
* 1986
Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" The Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" () was a state commemorative medal of the Soviet Union established on April 12, 1985, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to denote th ...
* 1987
Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
Gold clasp * 1990
Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...
(awarded posthumously)


Notes


References

* * * *


External links

* Lipman, Mariabr>Review of ''Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy'' by Ben Macintyre
in ''Foreign Affairs'', vol. 99, no. 6 (November / December 2020), p. 183. * Marton, Kath

in ''The New York Times'', 15 September 2020
''Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy''
by Ben Macintyre as a ''
Book of the Week ''Book of the Week'' is a long-running BBC Radio 4 series, first broadcast in 1998. It features daily readings from an abridged version of a selected book read over five or occasionally ten weekday episodes. Each episode is approximately 15 min ...
'',
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
.
The Spy who stole the Atom Bomb, 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuczynski, Ursula 1907 births 2000 deaths Writers from Berlin 20th-century German Jews Communist Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians Red Orchestra (espionage) Soviet spies German spies for the Soviet Union Jewish Chinese history German expatriates in China World War II spies for the Soviet Union Women in World War II East German writers East German women Women spies