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Sonya's Report: Fascinating Autobiography of One of Russia's Most Remarkable Secret Agents
Werner, Ruth ; Autobiographie
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
3 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Werner
23 books3 followersPseudonym von Ursula Maria Kuczynski; weitere Namen (nach Heirat): Ursula Hamburger, Ursula Beurton
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 31, 2013
Ruth Werner, Ursula Hamburger, Ursula Beurton - the many names of Maria Ursula Kuczynski - above all, an adventurer and dangerous fun-seeking woman. The life and story of the Kuczinsky family should be entitled "How to play on all fields and win".
One thing, which shines through this book is how amateurish and open all the European spies in Asia were in 1920ies-1930ies , and how easy it was to spy as an extraterritorial citizen of a major power with a heavy dose of presumption of innocence and a fear of foreigners working for you.
Another thing is how many of those who truly believed in the communist ideas and gave up everything, including their children, for the communist cause, were in their teens and early-twenties and how, as they aged and became wiser, they progressively grew embittered and disillusioned with the chowder they were fed by their spy-masters. The memoir could be also described - "A never-ending leap year: How I went from being an anarchist bookshop vendor to a globe-trotting respected .... social scientist"
The most amazing is of course that Maria Ursula and her brothers and sisters were always minding their own business first and the whole world next - they went from mildly-socialist capitalists, to mildly-capitalist communists, to mildly-socialist capitalists back, perhaps all they ever were was "egoists", but they have accomplished those amazing transformations as they were the largest and only landowners in the SOCIALIST Berlin.
This book, in conjunction with the rest of the Kuczinski family history is a huge cautionary tale for the youth - if you are naïve enough to blindly believe and vouch everything for an ideal someone else invented, you'd better prepare yourself for the times chicken come to roost and you get a punishment for someone else's ideas, while the masters and inventors sit idly by and profit.
Many people, even whole countries, paid the price of the actions of Ms. Werner, but never anyone who really mattered, never the ones she loved or liked for a long time.
One thing, which shines through this book is how amateurish and open all the European spies in Asia were in 1920ies-1930ies , and how easy it was to spy as an extraterritorial citizen of a major power with a heavy dose of presumption of innocence and a fear of foreigners working for you.
Another thing is how many of those who truly believed in the communist ideas and gave up everything, including their children, for the communist cause, were in their teens and early-twenties and how, as they aged and became wiser, they progressively grew embittered and disillusioned with the chowder they were fed by their spy-masters. The memoir could be also described - "A never-ending leap year: How I went from being an anarchist bookshop vendor to a globe-trotting respected .... social scientist"
The most amazing is of course that Maria Ursula and her brothers and sisters were always minding their own business first and the whole world next - they went from mildly-socialist capitalists, to mildly-capitalist communists, to mildly-socialist capitalists back, perhaps all they ever were was "egoists", but they have accomplished those amazing transformations as they were the largest and only landowners in the SOCIALIST Berlin.
This book, in conjunction with the rest of the Kuczinski family history is a huge cautionary tale for the youth - if you are naïve enough to blindly believe and vouch everything for an ideal someone else invented, you'd better prepare yourself for the times chicken come to roost and you get a punishment for someone else's ideas, while the masters and inventors sit idly by and profit.
Many people, even whole countries, paid the price of the actions of Ms. Werner, but never anyone who really mattered, never the ones she loved or liked for a long time.
October 31, 2013
Ruth Werner, Ursula Hamburger, Ursula Beurton - the many names of Maria Ursula Kuczynski - above all, an adventurer and dangerous fun-seeking woman. The life and story of the Kuczinsky family should be entitled "How to play on all fields and win".
One thing, which shines through this book is how amateurish and open all the European spies in Asia were in 1920ies-1930ies , and how easy it was to spy as an extraterritorial citizen of a major power with a heavy dose of presumption of innocence and a fear of foreigners working for you.
Another thing is how many of those who truly believed in the communist ideas and gave up everything, including their children, for the communist cause, were in their teens and early-twenties and how, as they aged and became wiser, they progressively grew embittered and disillusioned with the chowder they were fed by their spy-masters. The memoir could be also described - "A never-ending leap year: How I went from being an anarchist bookshop vendor to a globe-trotting respected .... social scientist"
The most amazing is of course that Maria Ursula and her brothers and sisters were always minding their own business first and the whole world next - they went from mildly-socialist capitalists, to mildly-capitalist communists, to mildly-socialist capitalists back, perhaps all they ever were was "egoists", but they have accomplished those amazing transformations as they were the largest and only landowners in the SOCIALIST Berlin.
This book, in conjunction with the rest of the Kuczinski family history is a huge cautionary tale for the youth - if you are naïve enough to blindly believe and vouch everything for an ideal someone else invented, you'd better prepare yourself for the times chicken come to roost and you get a punishment for someone else's ideas, while the masters and inventors sit idly by and profit.
Many people, even whole countries, paid the price of the actions of Ms. Werner, but never anyone who really mattered, never the ones she loved or liked for a long time.
One thing, which shines through this book is how amateurish and open all the European spies in Asia were in 1920ies-1930ies , and how easy it was to spy as an extraterritorial citizen of a major power with a heavy dose of presumption of innocence and a fear of foreigners working for you.
Another thing is how many of those who truly believed in the communist ideas and gave up everything, including their children, for the communist cause, were in their teens and early-twenties and how, as they aged and became wiser, they progressively grew embittered and disillusioned with the chowder they were fed by their spy-masters. The memoir could be also described - "A never-ending leap year: How I went from being an anarchist bookshop vendor to a globe-trotting respected .... social scientist"
The most amazing is of course that Maria Ursula and her brothers and sisters were always minding their own business first and the whole world next - they went from mildly-socialist capitalists, to mildly-capitalist communists, to mildly-socialist capitalists back, perhaps all they ever were was "egoists", but they have accomplished those amazing transformations as they were the largest and only landowners in the SOCIALIST Berlin.
This book, in conjunction with the rest of the Kuczinski family history is a huge cautionary tale for the youth - if you are naïve enough to blindly believe and vouch everything for an ideal someone else invented, you'd better prepare yourself for the times chicken come to roost and you get a punishment for someone else's ideas, while the masters and inventors sit idly by and profit.
Many people, even whole countries, paid the price of the actions of Ms. Werner, but never anyone who really mattered, never the ones she loved or liked for a long time.
April 1, 2022
Sehr nüchterne Beschreibung von Ruth Werners Weg als Spionin der UdSSR über verschiedene Stationen der Welt. Ist eher gemächlich dahinfließend, packt eine aber durch die Beschreibungen des Alltags.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews