Alexandre Rado – Wikipedia
For homonymous articles, see Rado.
Alexandre (1899-1981), ‘s sándor radó, known as well as Alexandre Radolphi , is a Hungarian Jewish communist revolutionary who has become the head of Soviet espionage in Switzerland during the Second World War. Its cell is known for providing the Soviet authorities with the exact date of the triggering of the operation Barbarossa , information that will not be exploited, and have provided the entire battle plan provided by the Nazis during their counter-offensive on Koursk based on the vain hope of the surprise effect, allowing the state- Soviet major to destroy German forces and put an end to all hope of victory in Russia.
Childhood and adolescence [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Alexandre Radó was born into a Jewish family in good bourgeoisie In Ujpest, an industrial suburbs of Budapest, in Hungary, where his father, Gabor Reich, was a businessman. After a childhood without history, he was mobilized in 1917 in the Austro-Hungarian army where he was paid in artillery. He also studied correspondence law at the University of Budapest.
Itinerant communist activist [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
When the Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapses, Radó joins in The ranks of the Hungarian Communist Party. In , the Communists of Bela Kun take power. He became the cartographer of the staff of the Soviet forces and then was appointed political commissioner of artillery. He takes part in this capacity in fighting against the Czechoslovak forces and the repression of anti-communist insurgents in Budapest.
The , the Hungarian communist regime collapses and Radó takes refuge in Austria. He resumed studies of geographer and cartography at the University of Vienna and wrote various articles in German language in the magazine communism published by Hungarian communist emigrants.
In , he created a news agency, Rosta-Wien, responsible for disseminating Soviet propaganda both in Austria to the left organs and in various communist organizations or friends in different countries, in connection with the Kominten networks. In 1922, he resumed his studies, this time in Germany, first in Jena and then in Leipzig. In Jena, he meets his future wife Helen Jansen (Lena), known for having brought sewn in her garment the message of Lenin at the Congress creating the Communist Party of Germany, after having crossed the front lines. In Leipzig, he took part in the communist uprising in Germany as a military manager for the region. The failure of the movement forces the Force to leave for the Soviet Union in 1924. He worked there for various Soviet pharmacies and notably for the Institute of World Economy of the Communist Academy.
Back in Germany in 1926, he created the agency “Pressgeography”, which established cards for different customers. His Map of the Soviet Union becomes the reference and earned it its international scientific reputation. He gives conferences to the Marxist worker school (Masch: Marxist workers’ school ) and teaches the history of the working class and imperialism, economics and geography. The Nazi power in power in 1933 pushes Radó and his wife Lena, to flee by Austria for France. He created “INPRESS” there an independent and anti -Nazi press agency. Arthur Koestler will be one of his employees [ first ] And make it a flattering portrait.
Master-spy in the service of the Soviet Union [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
In , during a visit to Moscow, whose pretext is the creation of a world Soviet global atlas, it is approached by the head of the Red Army intelligence, Semion Uritsky and his assistant, Artur Artzurov. He commits as a spy with the main task of informing the USSR about the forces of the axis.
He worked in 1937 and 1938 to gather information on Italian and German forces in the service of Franco. In 1939, for lack of being able to settle in Belgium where his communist past was known, he obtained a residence permit in Switzerland, helped by the head of the geographic service of the League of Nations. He moved to Geneva and again created a press agency specializing in cartography, “Geopress”.
It sets up an important information collection of information on German military intentions. This has from the month of From several radio issuers to receive Moscow orders and send many reports to it until its dismantling in . Certain information was of crucial interest: the network provides the exact date of the trigger for the invasion of Ukraine, the start of the operation Barbarossa , but Stalin does not believe it, although the spy Richard Sorge gives the same information. Other information like Hitler’s secret battle plan to Koursk has a direct effect on the fate of the battle, favorable to Soviet forces who knew everything about the “surprise” attack planned by the Germans. The dismantling of the “red orchestra” of Léopold Trepper at the end of 1942, gave critical importance to the Swiss spy network of Alexandre Radó.
While the main members of the network were arrested at the end of 1943 and early 1944, Radó managed to enter into hiding and escaped prosecution. THE He passed the French border with the help of the maquis of Haute Savoie and arrived shortly after in Paris. He contacted a Soviet military spy which organizes his repatriation with Léopold Trepper towards Moscow.
They take the plane that brought Maurice Thorez back to Paris. At the stopover in Cairo, he suddenly fears to be killed when he arrived in Moscow like many of his comrades. He escapes from his group and tries to be enrolled as a political refugee in the British Legation which refuses. He then tries to commit suicide. He only gets injured and is ultimately repatriated hand-military in Moscow in . He was actually sentenced without trial in December 1946 to 10 years in prison for espionage.
End of life in Hungary [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
He was finally released in 1954, after the death of Stalin, and returned to Hungary. Rehabilitated, in 1956 he became a head of the Hungarian cartographic service there and then in 1958 holder of the cartography chair at Karl Marx University in Budapest.
He published his Memoirs in 1971 but the first uncon censored edition only appeared in 2006. He died the in Budapest.
Head of the Soviet Intelligence Network in Switzerland, crucial during the war [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Geneva and Switzerland [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Even if the Soviet SR had left the choice between Brussels and Geneva to Radó and this city had been finally chosen because it was the only one to accept its installation, a neutral country offered a network of intelligence of numerous possibilities. First of all, repression was less fierce than in countries occupied by the Nazis. Then the refugees there were numerous who could provide contacts everywhere and especially in Germany. Finally, the main belligerents held legations there allowing many cross contacts. Geneva is thus a “Spy nest” Throughout the war and beyond during the Cold War.
Swiss tolerance nevertheless had limits. The fear of a German invasion was permanent from 1938, which did not include the authorities to compare too much with the requirements of neutrality. The Radó network is finally dismantled. But he previously provided the USSR a gigantic mass of military information which will be an element of the German defeat in the East.
The team of transmissions [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Switzerland is everywhere surrounded by countries subject to the axis forces. Classic communications are practically arrested: information took the path of Soviet Russia by mail based on the diplomatic suitcase. Only secret radio connections allow you to communicate directly with the USSR. Having a network of powerful radio operators is the only solution. The Soviet SR had particularly complex encryption keys and very difficult to unravel. The counterpart was a burden of encryption of particularly heavy messages. It is necessary to bring together both operators and figures.
The USSR had from the pre-war period of a transmitter installed in Caux, above Montreux (Vaud). Ursula Kuczynski (alias “Sonia”), an excellent wirelessness, is sent by the GRU to restore communication. “Sonia” recruited in 1939 Alexander Foote, code name “Jim”, a Briton, former international brigades and member of the British Communist Party, which is sent to him by “Le Center” (Familiar name given to the management of the SR de l ‘Red Army). “Jim” will operate from Lausanne to her arrest the .
It is Pierre Nicole, leader of the Swiss Socialist Party but who signed up alongside Stalin and the Soviets before the war, that the center sends to Radó, who finds the supplier and soon the operator of the first Geneva transmitter . Edmond Hamel, Édouard code, holds an electronic and electronic product shop there. It will build the issuers and ensure maintenance. His wife, Code Olga, will soon also become a operator. Pierre Wenger, president of the Radium Institute, and friend of Pierre Nicole made it possible to bypass the laws prohibiting the supply of electronic spare parts that can be used for the construction of transmitters.
THE , the position establishes the link with Moscow. He will emit to , date of arrest of the Geneva network.
In The Basel Communists present to Radó the young Margrit Bolli (22), who after training, will issue from a new transmitter also established in Geneva, from . It will also be operational until .
These three positions are only a small part of the network of 180 transmitters set up by the USSR in Europe. However, they will provide the Red Army with some of the most important military information in the war.
The Alexandre Radó team and its sources [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Alexandre Radó, alias Albert, Code Dora, has Otto Pünter’s assistant, Pakbo code, which set up a fairly supplied intelligence network for the Soviets, based essentially on contacts with diplomats, Swiss authorities, Swiss or foreign journalists, German refugees who have kept links with Germany and the deserters of the German army. Louis Suss, alias Salter, press secretary at the French Embassy in Bern and George Blun, alias Long, corresponding to Berlin of several French newspapers for years, are abundant and regular sources. They themselves have sources as well to the German Chancellery and with Swiss secret services which themselves have a source (Viking) which will never be revealed, and provides crucial information when Switzerland is threatened. Paul Marquis de Neyrac, Nègre Code, former French consul and very introduced in German industrial circles, is another important source. The Chinese attaché in Bern, Hsien Chu PAO, Pablo Code, is one of the informants.
The most important source of the network will be Lucy , code name of a German refugee, Rudolf Roessler. Born the In Kaufbeuren, he became a journalist after 1918 and directed Bünhenvolksbund editions before taking over this popular German theater in the German theater where he will come up against the Manigances of Otto Katz and Willi Münzenberg who seek to attract German intellectual circles towards Moscow. When he took power by Hitler, he settled in Switzerland where he founded Nova Vita , which publishes the great classics and has a specialty to hold a huge cartoque of German armies and industry. He is in contact with the Office Ha, an information pharmacy from the Swiss SR. It becomes an accepted source of the Radó network after convincing the center by an exact and extremely precise description of the units and movements of the German army in Russia.
Three crucial information [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The first feat of the network will be to provide the exact date of the trigger for the German offensive against Stalin. As early as 1939, information was transmitted from Japanese to indicate that the Hitler’s plan was to hit the Soviet Union immediately after conquered the Western European. THE A message signaled by the source Poisson that the date of the invasion is fixed at . A little later a new message corrects: it will be the . This is the same information provided by Richard Sorge, from Japan. Stalin does not believe it.
Relying on the source Lucy , the network alerts the offensive to the south provided by Hitler. Stalin believes in an attack on Moscow. Once again it does not exploit the information and the German troops sink into the oil reserves of the Caspian.
This double failure convinces the Soviet SR of the importance of the information collected by the Radó network. Throughout the Battle of Stalingrad the staff was informed on the day of the German positions and intentions.
The decisive information will concern the counter-offensive envisaged by Hitler on the salient of Koursk. It must be secret and based on surprise. The whole system is communicated in advance in the Soviet staff which is preparing an appropriate tactical and strategic response. The German general staff realizes that the Soviet troops have been enormously strengthened; Hitler is good and gives the order to attack. The case will be a total fiasco that breaks the German army and signs the start of retirement.
Lucy’s “German” source of the “German” source [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
No one ever knew what was the very high level German source who fueled Roessler, while the source Viking will be identified as General Hans Oster [ 2 ] . According to some theories [ 3 ] , [ 4 ] , it would be Churchill, fueled by Ultra, who would have decided to provide the Soviets information on the German strategy via an apparently German source: the GRU, particularly suspicious, would then be required to take this information for real. These theories also make Foote an infiltrated agent of the Intelligence Service .
The end of the network [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
The three transmitters are located in Switzerland by the German services who have a listening station on the Salève. Chance gets involved when a German second role agent becomes the lover of Margrit Bolli and guess his activities. The German pressure on the Swiss authorities to close the “red” transmitters is very strong, especially since means are sent on the spot by the German SR to precisely locate the places of issue. Inspector Knecht, whose pipe will inspire Simenon who will conduct the Swiss police for the network.
Hamel station is heard for the first time the . The Bolli station on 12. FOOTE station on the 27th. The houses from which the emissions leave are located within ten days. THE The first two sites are visited and the operators arrested. The encryption code may be quickly understood with the elements found on site, allowing to decode the saved messages. Foote is arrested shortly after . The network is dismantled. Unpathed members are in hiding. The members of the network convicted in Switzerland will be quickly released at the end of the war.
After the destruction of the network and its escape from Switzerland, Radó and Alexander Fote meet in Paris; They are ordered to return to Moscow immediately. They left aboard a Russian military plane on January 6, 1945, taking an indirect route (because of the current war) via Egypt. Their plane supplies in Cairo, where Radó, fearing the purges of Stalin against the Jews, tries to defection, but in vain. He will be interned until Stalin’s death.
- Under the pseudonym “Dora” (Memoirs: Dora means , in Hungarian; Under the pseudonym Dora in Russian), Julliard, 1972, 412 p. Translated from the Hungarian by Elisabeth Kovacs
- Werther never lived (“Werther never existed”), article by the Der Spiegel of 10/7/72 ( [first] )
: document used as a source for writing this article.
- Arthur Koestler, Hieroglyphs , Robert Laffont, “Bouquins”, chap. XXVIII, (“Homage to a spy”)
- J-g of Beus, The invisible informant , Berlin 39-40, France Empire editions
- Anthony Read et David Fisher, Operation Lucy , Hodder and Stoughton, London
- Jozef Garlinsky, Intercept , Dent – London
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