The book by English authors, based on numerous documents and statements of participants in the events, examines in a completely new way for the Russian reader both the figure of Richard Sorge and the work of the group he led in China and Japan on the eve of World War II. The book will be of interest not only to specialists - to historians, but also to a wide readership, primarily because of the extraordinary personality of Sorge and the existence of the most controversial legends about him to this day, and also because the authors were able to “close” many of the blind spots in the Sorge case.