Ursula Ruth Kuczynski German citizen, Soviet spy Date of Birth: 15.05.1907 Country: Germany

Biography of Ursula Ruth Kuczynski

Ursula Ruth Kuczynski was born in 1907 in Schöneberg, Prussia, German Empire. She was the daughter of the renowned German economist Robert René Kuczynski. Ursula grew up as a passionate child and developed a strong interest in revolutionary movements at a young age, joining the Communist Party in her youth. After visiting the United States in the late 1920s, she returned to her homeland and got married. Along with her husband, she traveled to Shanghai, China, hoping to secure a position aligned with the Communist Party.

After a period of inactivity, Ursula finally received an assignment from the party. She was introduced to a "comrade" who she could fully trust, the legendary spy Richard Sorge. Sorge quickly began utilizing Ursula's apartment for covert meetings, storing manuscripts and weapons there. He later involved her in missions, such as visiting hospitals to gather information on the Chinese army.

In 1934, Ursula went to Moscow for further education and received her pseudonym "Sonya" during that time. By this point, she already had a son and decided to separate from her husband. Ursula then independently worked in China, with the goal of establishing connections between Chinese partisans in occupied Manchuria and the Soviet Union. After completing her mission in China, she was assigned to Poland.

In the late 1930s, Ursula returned to Moscow twice for further education and received the Order of the Red Banner from M.I. Kalinin. Her next assignment was in Switzerland in 1939, where she collaborated closely with the renowned spy Sandor Rado for about a year. Ursula encrypted Rado's reports, transmitted them over the airwaves at night, and decrypted the instructions received from the Center.

In 1941, Ursula, accompanied by her two children, made her way to England. Her task was to establish connections in political and military circles and create a network for gathering information on England's potential willingness to collaborate with the Nazis. In the same year, Ursula became the agent through whom Klaus Fuchs, a German communist who had fled to England, transmitted vital information on the development of atomic weapons to the Soviet Union.

In 1969, Ursula was awarded her second Order of the Red Banner, and from 1950 onwards, she and her children moved to East Germany. She no longer worked in Soviet intelligence but held a position in public service and later became a writer. Ursula Ruth Kuczynski passed away on July 7, 2000, at the respectable age of 93.