Fuchs in the UK and therefore Sonia (Ursula Kuczynski) provided next to nothing from the UK which impacted the Soviet weapons project, regardless of what Ben McIntyre says. Fuchs worked in Birmingham on theoretical work on isotope separation ie. a U235 based bomb but none of this was practically tested. All Sonia could have done was pass on the technical work on isotope separation which might suggest that the UK was taking the matter seriously. Fuchs did not know that plutonium existed until he reached the US. The Soviet bomb was Pu239 based. The Russians/Kurchatov realised this was the cheapest and most reliable route based on espionage from los Alamos, specifically from Fuchs and Ted Hall.
As Sonya was so besotted with Richard Sorge, keeping his photograph all through her life, it crosses my mind that he was the father of her first child, rather than Rudi Hamburger, her husband at the time. You conjecture the possibility that someone in authority reached out a hand to protect Sonya during her time at Great Rollright, Oxfordshire: have you considered Roger Hollis, one-time head of MI5? They knew each other in Shanghai in the 1930s. In his book "Spycatcher" Peter Wright names Hollis as a Russian asset. But never let it be said that I would disseminate malicious rumour. Jack, the Japan Alps Brit
Interesting. Look up Michael (who has now passed away). He seemed rather passive to have inherited the DNA of Sorge, but that could be environmental and the influence of Rudy for much of his early life.
Sonya survived because British intelligence detected her early on and turned her. The OSS was so leaky that the XX Committee didn't tell them about her. Her guardian was Roger Hollis, her near neighbour when she lived in the UK.
Just finished the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her resistance to Nazism is commendable, yet simultaneously, her service to a despot and an ideology equally as malevolent as those same Nazis is abhorrent
A great narrative capability! Hats off to his tremendous efforts and hard work with perseverance!! By the way, how can people from New Orleans speak with an accent that others easily understand???!! 😄
Agent Sonya operated in the days before shared databases or even spreadsheets. No one person had an overview of all the intelligence. Another example is the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe who was interview a dozen times by detectives before he was arrested.
I’m still waiting to hear from the author. Regarding incorrect information regarding my Grandparents written about within this book. Family was totally unaware that they would feature in this book.
Having read this sympathetic book to a traitor to someone who betrayed her saviours...she was a v.clumsy agent an obvious spy..even met her handler who arrived in military attaches russian car..handed openly large piles of documents in public..spòke german in public.. with contact..broadcast from her own house..she should have been caught easily..the reason she wasn't?? ROGER HOLLIS ..as with so many of the traitors ..Hollis was undoubtedly recruited in Shanghai like Sonya.. Highlights the ineptitude of counter intelligence
@@yogi1kenobiEXCELLENT observations! 🙌🏻 And also how she fell for the Nazi who lived in the main house when she was living in the cottage in Manchuria. He could’ve EASILY been playing her! That was extremely stupid of her to trust him.
Took a while to get going .Childhood history was too long her later years were skimmed over.i felt ben warmed to her I didn't I found her attitude to her children in particular unpleasant.She spied against a country that saved her life .
It seems that Macintyre tried to paint her motherhood in a positive light, but I just didn't buy it. I disliked this woman more and more as I read the book, both in her personal and professional lives.
This was an interesting book. In the end, I am sorry she wasn't convicted and jailed for many years. She had no right to live out a comfortable life. The irony is that Communism failed miserably, at least that is satisfying.
As I finished Macintyre's book, I found no admiration for Agent Sonja and rather thought that she was on an egotistical ride for most of her adult life, driven by a need to be admired by her father and to remain somehow attached to her first love, Sorge. She supported the brutal culture of the USSR intelligence organizations and government, and the only saving factor seems to be her opposition to Fascism. I found her wholly unlikeable.
