Ruth Werner, Colorful Anddaringsovietspy, Dies at 93
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THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2000 OBITUARIES Ruth Werner, Colorful andDaringSovietSpy, Dies at 93 By DAVID BINDER and went to the Far East. In Febru Ruth Werner, a colorful and suc ary 1939 she met Len Beurton, an cessful Soviet spy whose exploits in English Communist who had fought cluded radioing invaluable atomic in Spain with the international bri bomb data to Moscow in the middle gades. For him, he once wrote, it was of World War II, died on July 7 in "love at first sight; she had a very Berlin. She was 93. good figure." In her 20 years as an intelligence In 1940, the G.R.U. authorized a operative in China, Poland, Switzer marriage of convenience by which land and England, she had a number Ms. Werner became British, but the of close calls. But she always man love came to be mutual — the mar aged to extricate herself from the riage lasted until his death three predicament — unlike Klaus Fuchs, years ago. the agent who fed her the British Ms. Werner had already begun atomic bomb secrets, who was im clandestine transmissions from a ra prisoned in Britain for nine and a dio set she had built in her rented half years, or Richard Sorge, the house near Oxford when, in 1941, she master spy who recruited her, who met Mr. Fuchs, who was working at was executed in Japan in 1941. the British atomic research facility Her espionage work was entwined nearby. with her romantic life, which includ The two spies would bicycle into ed an affair with one of her spy the countryside for their meetings, chiefs; later she married a British and Mr, Fuchs would hand over writ Communist to become a British citi ten materials that, Ms. Werner once zen and only later came to love him. told an interviewer, were "like hiero She told some but not all of her story glyphics." in a 1974 autobiography, still observ Norman Moss, author of "Klaus ing the iron rules of conspiracy by Fuchs: The Man Who Stole the never mentioning Mr. Fuchs, who Atomic Bomb" (1987), said that Vya- was still alive. cheslav Molotov, StaJin's chief aide, Ms. Werner was known by the code set up the Soviet atomic bomb name Sonja, which was given to her by Mr. Sorge in 1933. Ruth Werner project in 1942 as a result of the was her pen name. All of her identi information transmitted by Mr. ties had their roots in a prosperous Fuchs and Ms. Werner, and that the Jewish household in Berlin, where information saved the Soviet re she was bom Ursula Ruth Kuczyn- searchers a great deal of time. The ski, one of six children of Robert Soviets detonated their first atomic Rene and Berta Kuczynski. Her fa bomb in 1949. ther was a distinguished economist. Ms. Werner was also running other Ms. Werner was drawn early to the agents, including a Royal Air Force Communist movement and became officer, a specialist in submarine ra a member of the German Commu dar and even her brother and father. nist Party at 19. She was immediate She was once told that the chief of ly fired by the publishing house G.R.U. had said, "If we had five where she worked. Soon afterward Sonjas in England, the war would she met and married Rolf Hamburg Ruth Werner, a Soviet spy who passed important atomic bomb data to end sooner." er, an architect. Moscow in the middle of World War II, in Berlin in the early 1950's. In the early 1950's she and her She started writing for the party family — another son, Peter, had newspaper, Rote Fahne. In 1930, hav Ms. Werner joined the ring without sailor, with whom she became ro been born in 1943 — left England for ing been told by the party that she her husband's knowledge, stored mantically involved. East Berlin. Her only connection would be contacted in Shanghai, she weapons and hid a Chinese comrade "Our transmitter was the link be with the G.R.U. after that was in moved with her husband to China. who was on the run. Two years later, tween the partisans and the Soviet 1969, when she was invited to a cere They began a pleasant bourgeois when Mr. Sorge left Shanghai for Union," she wrote. She sent coded mony to receive her second Red Ban life, but she was waiting impatiently Moscow, he recommended her to the messages twice a week, and bought ner, the highest Soviet military deco'- for the promised contact. It took four G.R.U. and transported chemicals for explo ration. months and friendship with Agnes Though her marriage was deterio She turned to writing, producing Smedley, an American leftist jour sives for the Chinese Communist rating, she and her husband had had partisans. some short stories; a biography of nalist, who introduced her to Mr. a son, Michael, while in Shanghai. In 1935, Moscow, fearing the two Olga Benario, a German Communist Sorge. Mr. Sorge, then 35, had been who was gassed by the Nazis in 1942; the Shanghai agent of the Soviet When the G.R.U. asked her to go to spies were about to be exposed, or Moscow for training, she left the boy dered Ms. Werner and Ernst to flee and her autobiography. Army's intelligence service for a She is survived by her three chil year. The service was known by its with in-laws in Czechoslovakia. China. She accepted an assignment dren, five grandchildren and three Russian initials, G.R.U. In the G.R.U. school she learned in Poland, this time with her hus sisters. Mr. Sorge asked whether she was Morse code, Russian and how to band, although she was pregnant ready to face danger. She nodded and build radio transmitters and receiv with Ernst's child. Her daughter, agreed to make room available for ers. In February 1934 she was sent to Janina, was bom in April 1936. his clandestine meetings with Chi turbulent Manchuria, which had In late 1938 she was sent to Switz More obituaries nese Communists, the chief interest been seized from China by the Japa erland to set up a new spy ring, again appear on the next page. of Moscow. nese. Her boss was Ernst, a former with her husband, but he soon left her.