On the 29th of August 1949, the USSR set off their first atomic bomb, just four years after the Americans. The speed with which they achieved this surprised the world. What nobody knew was that it was the result of espionage. At the centre of the operation was a very unusual female spy, Elizabeth Zaroubin, in a story worthy of the best spy novels ever written.

Cold War Secrets: Stealing the Atomic Bomb

Biography of Richard Sorge resembles an unsolved puzzle, in which there are still many dark spots. Why is there still a certain conspiracy of silence around the case of the most famous Soviet intelligence officer? And the special services of several countries continue to keep secret the most important documents about its activities? Why, after the war, Sorge - a resident of a hostile state - was revered by the Japanese as a hero, and Stalin did not trust him, considering him a double agent? Until recently, we could not have answered these questions - it was believed that the interrogation protocols of Sorge were burned in a prison in Tokyo during the fire of 1945. But now everything has changed - there were copies. And the Japanese have declassified them. Now we will finally find out who this legendary man really was, who managed to turn the course of world history. What role in the fate of Sorge played his first wife - an agent of the Soviet intelligence? How did he, a specialist in the Scandinavian countries, become a Soviet resident in China and Japan? Is it true that thanks to the work of Sorge the Germans could not take Moscow? Why did he, the only "spy" in the history of all the intelligence services of the world, have a monument in Tokyo with the words: "Here lies the hero, who gave his life in the fight against war, for world peace"? And what is the secret of Sorge's unique international popularity today?