The search continues for the unmarked grave of Ekaterina Maximova, the wife of famed Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge, in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia. Maximova, arrested on suspicion of espionage and exiled to the village of Bolshaya Murta, died under mysterious circumstances shortly after her arrival.

Researchers and local historians are trying to piece together the details of her life and death in exile. The Bolshemurtinsky Museum of Local Lore houses a dedicated stand about Maximova, including letters and documents related to her case.

Maximova’s connection to Richard Sorge brought her under suspicion during a time of intense paranoia and repression in the Soviet Union. Sorge, a celebrated figure in Soviet history for providing critical intelligence about Nazi Germany’s plans, was not recognized in the Soviet Union for a long time.

After meeting in the late 1920s where she gave him Russian lessons, they married, but shortly after Sorge left for a business trip to Japan, they only saw each other for two weeks, two years later, when he came to Moscow. In 1942, a year after Sorge’s arrest in Japan, Maximova was arrested by the NKVD on suspicion of espionage.

According to historians, Stalin and his entourage did not recognize Richard Sorge and considered him a double agent working for German intelligence. She was exiled to Bolshaya Murta in 1943.

Shortly after arriving in Bolshaya Murta, Maximova died in a local hospital. Conflicting accounts suggest she may have been poisoned. She had been working at a hospital in a village not far from Bolshaya Murta, she was sent to Krasnoyarsk to pick up a drug for anesthesia, and she returned feeling very unwell.

Despite her rehabilitation in 1964, some details of Maximova’s case remain classified by the FSB. Activists and researchers continue to search for her grave, hoping to honor her memory and uncover the full story of her tragic fate.

The Russian Zorge Society believes it is important to find her grave to acknowledge the origins of Sorge’s feat – his mother, wife, family, relatives, and so on. A memorial plaque has been placed on one of the old buildings of the Bolshaya Murta hospital.