Kuznetsov Nikolai Ivanovich (July 27, 1911, village of Zyryanka, Yekaterinburg district, Perm province, now Talitsky district, Sverdlovsk region - March 9, 1944, near the city of Brody, Lviv region) - Soviet intelligence officer, partisan.

Nikolai was born into a peasant family. In 1926, he graduated from a seven-year school and entered the agronomic department of the Tyumen Agricultural College. In 1927, he continued his studies at the Talitsky Forestry College, where he began to independently study German, discovering extraordinary linguistic abilities, and mastered Esperanto, Polish, Komi, and Ukrainian. From 1930 he worked as a forest manager and led a political literacy circle. In 1932 he became a secret agent of state security, studied at the Ural Industrial Institute, continuing to improve his German (one of N. I. Kuznetsov’s German teachers was O. M. Veselkina).

In the spring of 1938, Kuznetsov moved to Moscow and joined the NKVD, carrying out assignments in European countries. In 1942, he was sent to the special forces detachment “Winners” under the command of Colonel Dmitry Medvedev, and showed extraordinary courage and ingenuity.

Kuznetsov, under the name of the German officer Paul Siebert, conducted intelligence activities in the occupied city of Rivne, led a reconnaissance group, constantly communicated with Wehrmacht officers, intelligence services, and senior officials of the occupation authorities, transmitting information to the partisan detachment. Kuznetsov managed to learn about the preparations for the German offensive on the Kursk Bulge, about the preparations for the assassination attempt on Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in Tehran.

By order of the command, he liquidated the chief judge of Ukraine Funk, the imperial adviser to the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine Gell and his secretary Winter, the vice-governor of Galicia Bauer, kidnapped the commander of the punitive troops in Ukraine, General Ilgen, and committed sabotage. However, he failed to carry out his main task - the physical destruction of the Reich Commissioner of Ukraine Erich Koch.

On September 30, 1943, Kuznetsov made a second attempt on the life of E. Koch’s permanent deputy and the head of the administration department of the Reichskommissariat, Paul Dargel (during the first attempt on September 20, he mistakenly killed E. Koch’s deputy for finance, Hans Gehl, instead of P. Dargel). As a result of the action, Dargel was seriously injured from an anti-tank grenade thrown by Kuznetsov and lost both legs. After this, P. Dargel was taken to Berlin by plane.

On March 9, 1944, Kuznetsov’s group was captured by UPA militants, who mistook the Soviet saboteurs for German deserters (they were wearing German uniforms). Fearing failure, Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade, and his companions (Belov and Kaminsky) were shot.

However, Ukrainian nationalists claim that Kuznetsov was captured by them and drowned in a well, and the version of Kuznetsov’s self-detonation with a grenade was officially disseminated by the Soviet authorities.

The grave of Nikolai Kuznetsov near the city of Brody was discovered thanks to the painstaking work of his comrade Nikolai Strutinsky, who achieved his reburial in Lviv on the Hill of Glory.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 5, 1944, Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for exceptional courage and bravery in carrying out command assignments. Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin.

Name: Nikolay Kuznetsov

Age: 32 years

Activity: intelligence officer, NKVD officer, saboteur, partisan

Family status: was married

Nikolai Kuznetsov: biography

There is hardly a person in the world who does not know the famous literary hero Stirlitz, created by the writer. The character from the black-and-white serial film “Seventeen Moments of Spring” gave the audience an example of courage and bravery, acting in the interests of the USSR on the territory of Nazi Germany. But few people know that while working on the book, the writer relied on real people who participated in the events of that troubled time from 1941 to 1945.

Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov is one of the prototypes of the famous Maxim Maksimovich Isaev. This man, who left his mark on the history of the Soviet Union, is often called a friend among strangers or the God of intelligence. Acting undercover, this hero personally eliminated eleven high-ranking officials of Nazi Germany. Of course, Nikolai Ivanovich helped his homeland win that difficult battle against the troops.

Childhood and youth

Nikanor Ivanovich (real name Kuznetsov, which was later changed to Nikolai) was born on July 27, 1911 in the village of Zyryanka, located in the Talitsky urban district of the Sverdlovsk region. Kuznetsov grew up in an ordinary peasant family of six people. In addition to Nikolai, two girls were raised in the house - Agafya and Lydia, as well as a boy Victor. Initially, the young man studied at a seven-year comprehensive school, and then continued his education and entered the agricultural technical school in Tyumen.

The young man pored over textbooks and tried to study well, and was also accepted into the Communist Youth League. However, Nikolai had to leave the educational institution, since the family lost its breadwinner - Ivan Kuznetsov, who died of tuberculosis. Having lost his father, the future Hero of the Soviet Union began to take care of his mother, brothers and sisters, fulfilling the duties of the head of the family.

But the hardships of life did not break the young man; he continued to gnaw on the granite of science, enrolling in the Talitsky Forestry College. Around the same time, Kuznetsov showed linguistic abilities, the guy began to study his native language, and German. Thanks to highly qualified teachers, Nikolai quickly mastered a foreign language.

It is noteworthy that he studied not only the official business style, but also picked up slang and profanity thanks to his communication with a forester of German origin, who was once a soldier in the Austrian-Hungarian army.

The young man also independently studied Esperanto, the most common planned language, invented by the ophthalmologist Zamenhof. It was to it that he translated his favorite poem “Borodino”, composed by. Among other things, Nikolai Ivanovich mastered the Ukrainian, Komi and Polish languages.

Pre-war years

Unfortunately, there are black spots in the biography of Nikolai Ivanovich. In 1929, the young man was expelled from the Komsomol, as information surfaced that Kuznetsov was of White Guard-kulak origin. A year later, already in the spring, Nikolai found himself in Kudymkar, where he got a job as an assistant tax collector for the construction of local forests. Later, the polyglot was taken back to the technical school, but was not allowed to defend his diploma. Also, the hardworking young man was again accepted into the ranks of the Komsomol, but not for long.

While working at the enterprise, Kuznetsov complained to law enforcement officers about his colleagues in the shop who were stealing state property. Two dodgers were sentenced to imprisonment for 4–8 years, and Kuznetsov also fell into disgrace and was sentenced to a year of correctional labor. In addition, Nikolai Ivanovich worked at Mnogopromsoyuz, as well as in the Red Hammer promartel.

In 1934 he worked as a statistician at the Sverdles trust, and then as a draftsman at the Yekaterinburg plant. A year later, the guy got a job at Uralmashzavod, but was fired for repeated absenteeism. In 1938 he was arrested by the NKVD and spent several months in prison.

The Great Patriotic War

It is worth saying that Nikolai Ivanovich had an active civic position. He personally participated in the unification of private peasant farms into state collective farms. Kuznetsov traveled to villages and villages and repeatedly encountered local residents. In moments of danger, the young man behaved fearlessly and judiciously, for which he received the attention of operational state security agencies.

Also, thanks to his knowledge of the Komi language, Kuznetsov participated in the capture of forest bandit groups and showed himself as a professional agent. In 1938, People's Commissar Mikhail Ivanovich Zhuravlev gave a positive review of Kuznetsov and offered to take the talented polyglot into the central office. A criminal record and repeated controversial issues in the biography of Nikolai Ivanovich did not allow this to be done, however, due to the troubled political situation in the country, the authorities had to give up their principles.

Kuznetsov received the status of a highly classified special agent, as well as a passport in the name of Rudolf Wilhelmovich Schmidt. Since 1939, in the past, a simple worker carried out tasks assigned by government agencies and was introduced into the diplomatic life that was in full swing in Moscow.

When the Great Patriotic War began, the leadership of the USSR created a reconnaissance group under the command. Having joined the ranks of a special group under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Nikolai Kuznetsov reincarnated as the German lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert, who was initially listed in the German Air Force and then was listed in the infantry.

The Russian intelligence officer observed the life and customs of Germany, and also personally communicated with high-ranking officials of the Third Reich. The Germans did not notice the trick, because the Russian agent looked like a true Aryan. In addition, the Abwehr orientation indicated that Kuznetsov spoke at least six dialects of the German language. That is, the scout found out where his interlocutor was from, and, as if at the snap of a finger, switched to the desired dialect.

Having set up an ambush on February 7, 1943, Nikolai Ivanovich found out from Major Gahan, who was captured, about Adolf Hitler’s headquarters in northern Ukraine. Kuznetsov also received a secret card. Information about “Werewolf” was urgently transferred to the Moscow leadership.

The main task of Nikolai Kuznetsov was to eliminate Gauleiter Erich Koch. However, both attempts to destroy the honorary SS Obergruppenführer were doomed to fiasco. Nikolai Ivanovich planned to carry out the first attempt at a parade in honor of the Fuhrer’s birthday, and the second attempt was made during a personal reception with Koch. However, the first time Erich did not bother to show up for the parade, and the second time Siebert did not take such a risky step, because then there were many witnesses and guards present.

Nikolai Kuznetsov (left) with SS officers

Kuznetsov also made attempts to destroy Koch’s confidant, Paul Dargel. But this plan also failed miserably: Paul was wounded by a grenade, lost both legs, but survived. In the fall of 1943, Siebert carried out his last operation in Rovno: SA Oberführer Alfred Funk was shot in the courtroom.

Among other things, a native of Zyryanka declassified a German operation called “Long Jump”, the essence of which was to kill the main enemies of Adolf Hitler, the so-called “Big Three” -, and. Kuznetsov received reasonable information from Hans Ulrich von Ortel, who, after drinking strong drinks, could not keep his mouth shut.

Personal life

Contemporaries of Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov used to say that the Hero of the Soviet Union was a ladies' man and changed women like gloves. The first chosen one of the brave man was Elena Chugaeva, who worked as a nurse in Kudymkar. The lovers consolidated their relationship by marriage, but three months after the marriage, Nikolai Ivanovich left his wife, leaving for the Perm region. Kuznetsov did not have time to formalize the official divorce.

The scout can be positioned as a Don Juan; he had numerous love affairs with the capital's ballet primas, but among all the other young ladies it is worth noting a certain Oksana Obolenskaya. Nikolai Ivanovich courted this lady like a true gentleman and, in order not to go unnoticed, he composed a beautiful legend about himself and introduced himself as the German pilot Rudolf Schmidt, most likely based on the thoughts that women are greedy for foreigners.

But on the eve of the war, Oksana did not want to get involved with a man who allegedly had a German surname. Therefore, Obolenskaya chose her compatriot over Kuznetsov. But Nikolai Ivanovich was unable to stop his beloved and show his true self. According to rumors, the intelligence officer asked Colonel Dmitry Medvedev to reveal the truth to Obolenskaya in the event of Kuznetsov’s death.

Death and memory

Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov and his comrades Yan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov fell at the hands of their comrades. The fact is that the scouts had to make a stop on the territory of Ukraine when they followed the retreating German troops. According to one version, Kuznetsov died while participating in a shootout with the UPA; according to another, he was blown up by a grenade. The hero died on March 9, 1944.

The supposed burial place of Nikolai Ivanovich was found in the Kutyki tract. Strutinsky (Kuznetsov’s comrade, participating in the search operation) ensured that the scout’s remains were interred on the Hill of Glory.

Monuments to Kuznetsov in the cities of Lviv and Rivne suffered at the hands of vandals - members of the Ukrainian nationalist underground. Later, one of the monuments was transported to Talitsa. In 2015, the monument located in the village of Povcha was destroyed.

Also, a museum in his home village of Zyryanka was named in honor of Nikolai Ivanovich.

Awards

• 1944 – title of Hero of the Soviet Union
• 1943 and 1944 – Order of Lenin
• 1944 – medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”, 1st degree
• 1999 – medal “Defender of the Fatherland”
• 2004 – medal “60 years of liberation of Ukraine from fascist invaders”

In the rather long gallery of heroes of the Soviet era, one of the most prominent places is occupied by the personality of the truly legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov. Many informative books, articles and essays have already been written about this man, who fearlessly destroyed Nazi leaders in broad daylight, and several feature films have been made. Today, there are practically no significant blank spots left in his biography as a secret agent. True, the real circumstances of the death of the one who acted in the German rear under the guise of Wehrmacht officer Paul Siebert are still shrouded in fog and sometimes cause very heated debate.

Not shot, but blown up

Visiting the places where Nikolai Kuznetsov fought, died and was buried, we were amazed at how bizarre the fate of the intelligence officer was during his life and what happened to the history of his exploits after his death.

One of the mysteries is the place and circumstances of Kuznetsov’s death. Immediately after the war, there was a version according to which a group of scouts, together with Kuznetsov, were captured alive and then shot by militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in a forest near the village of Belgorodki, Rivne region. Only 14 years after the war it became known that the group died in the village of Boratin, Lviv region.

The version about the execution of Kuznetsov by UPA militants was spread after the war by the commander of the partisan detachment “Winners”, Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Medvedev, who was based on a telegram discovered after the war in the German archives, sent by the head of the security police for the Galician district, Vytiska, personally to SS Gruppenführer Müller. But the telegram was based on false information given to the Germans by UPA militants.

The UPA detachments operating in the frontline zone collaborated closely with the German occupation forces, but in order to ensure greater loyalty of the “Banderaites,” the occupation administration held relatives of field commanders and UPA leaders hostage. In March 1944, these hostages were close relatives of one of the leaders of the UPA, Lebed.

After the death of Kuznetsov and a group of scouts, the UPA fighters started a game with the German administration, inviting them to exchange the supposedly living intelligence officer Kuznetsov-Siebert for Lebed’s relatives. While the Germans were thinking, UPA fighters allegedly shot him, and in return they offered him genuine documents and, most importantly, Kuznetsov’s report on the sabotage he carried out in the German rear in Western Ukraine. That's what we agreed on.

The UPA militants, apparently, were afraid to indicate the true place of death of the intelligence officer and his group, since during a German check it would have immediately become clear that this was not the capture of the intelligence officer who was being searched throughout Western Ukraine, but the self-detonation of Kuznetsov.

What is important here is not so much the location as the circumstances of the scout’s death. He was not shot because he did not surrender to the UPA militants, but blew himself up with a grenade.

And after the war, his friend and colleague NKVD-KGB Colonel Nikolai Strutinsky investigated the circumstances of Kuznetsov’s death.

Five minutes of anger and a lifetime

One of us had the opportunity to meet Nikolai Strutinsky (April 1, 1920 - July 11, 2003) and interview him several times during his lifetime in 2001 in Cherkassy, ​​where he then lived.

After the war, Strutinsky spent a long time figuring out the circumstances of Kuznetsov’s death, and later, during the time of Ukrainian independence, he did everything to preserve the monuments to Kuznetsov and his memory.

We think that Strutinsky’s attachment to this particular, last period of Kuznetsov’s life is not accidental. Nikolai Strutinsky was at one time a member of Kuznetsov’s group and participated with him in some operations. Shortly before the death of the scout and his group, Kuznetsov and Strutinsky quarreled.
This is what Strutinsky himself said about this.

“Once, at the beginning of 1944, we were driving along Rovno,” says Nikolai Vladimirovich. “I was driving, Nikolai Kuznetsov was sitting next to me, and intelligence officer Yan Kaminsky was behind me. Not far from Vacek Burim’s safe house, Kuznetsov asked to stop. He said: “I’m coming now.” ". He left, returned after a while, extremely upset about something. Ian asked: “Where have you been, Nikolai Vasilyevich?” (Kuznetsov was known in the detachment under the name “Nikolai Vasilyevich Grachev” - ed.). Kuznetsov replies: “Yes, so ... "And Jan says: “I know: Vacek Burim has it.” Then Kuznetsov came to me: “Why did you tell him?” Appearance is secret information. But I didn’t tell Jan anything. And Kuznetsov flared up and said a lot of insulting things to me. Our nerves were at their limit then, I couldn’t stand it, I got out of the car, slammed the door - the glass broke, fragments started falling out of it. I turned around and walked away. I’m walking down the street, I have two pistols - in a holster and in my pocket. I think to myself : stupid, I had to restrain myself, because I know that everyone is on edge. Sometimes, when I saw the German officers, I had a desire to shoot everyone, and then shoot myself. This was the situation. I'm coming. I hear someone catching up. I don't turn around. And Kuznetsov caught up and touched him on the shoulder: “Kolya, Kolya, sorry, nerves.”
I silently turned and walked towards the car. We sat down and let's go. But I told him then: we don’t work together anymore. And when Nikolai Kuznetsov left for Lvov, I didn’t go with him.”

This quarrel may have saved Strutinsky from death (after all, the entire Kuznetsov group died a few weeks later. But it seems to have left a deep mark on the soul of Nikolai Strutinsky.

The protocol truth about the death of intelligence officer Kuznetsov

Immediately after the war, Strutinsky worked in the Lvov regional department of the KGB. And this allowed him to reconstruct the picture of the death of intelligence officer Kuznetsov.

Kuznetsov went to the front line with Jan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov. However, according to witness Stepan Golubovich, only two came to Boratin.

"... at the end of February or at the beginning of March 1944, in the house there were, in addition to me and my wife, my mother - Golubovich Mokrina Adamovna (died in 1950), son Dmitry, 14 years old, and daughter 5 years old (later died). In the house the light was not on.

On the night of the same date, at about 12 o'clock at night, when my wife and I were still awake, a dog barked. The wife got up from the bed and went out into the yard. Returning to the house, she reported that people were coming from the forest towards the house.

After that, she began to watch through the window, and then told me that the Germans were approaching the door. Unknown people approached the house and began knocking. First through the door, then through the window. The wife asked what to do. I agreed to open the doors for them.

When unknown people in German uniforms entered the house, the wife turned on the light. Mother got up and sat down in the corner near the stove, and unknown people came up to me and asked if there were any Bolsheviks or UPA members in the village? One of them asked in German. I replied that there were neither one nor the other. Then they asked to close the windows.

After that they asked for food. The wife gave them bread and lard and, it seems, milk. I then noticed how two Germans could walk through the forest at night if they were afraid to go through it during the day...

One of them was above average height, aged 30-35 years, white face, light brown hair, one might say somewhat reddish, shaves his beard, and had a narrow mustache.

His appearance was typical of a German. I don’t remember any other signs. He did most of the talking to me.

The second was shorter than him, somewhat thin in build, blackish face, black hair, shaving his mustache and beard.

... After sitting down at the table and taking off their caps, the unknown men began to eat, keeping the machine guns with them. About half an hour later (and the dog was barking all the time), when unknown people came to me, an armed UPA member entered the room with a rifle and a distinctive sign on his hat “Trident”, whose nickname, as I learned later, was Makhno.
Makhno, without greeting me, immediately went up to the table and shook hands with the strangers, without saying a word to them. They were also silent. Then he came up to me, sat down on the bed and asked me what kind of people they were. I answered that I didn’t know, and after about five minutes other UPA members began to enter the apartment; about eight of them entered, and maybe more.

One of the UPA participants gave the command to civilians, that is, to us, the owners, to leave the house, but the second one shouted: no need, and no one was allowed out of the hut. Then again one of the UPA participants gave the command in German to the unknown people “Hands up!”

A tall unknown man rose from the table and, holding a machine gun in his left hand, waved his right hand in front of his face and, as I remember, told them not to shoot.

The weapons of the UPA participants were aimed at unknown people, one of whom continued to sit at the table. "Hands up!" The command was given three times, but the unknown hands were never raised.

The tall German continued the conversation: as I understood, he asked if it was the Ukrainian police. Some of them answered that they were the UPA, and the Germans replied that this was not according to the law...

... I saw that the UPA participants lowered their weapons, one of them approached the Germans and offered to give up their machine guns, and then the tall German gave it up, and after him gave up the second one. Tobacco began to crumble on the table, UPA members and unknown people began to smoke. Thirty minutes had already passed since the unknown people met with the UPA participants. Moreover, the tall unknown man was the first to ask for a cigarette.

... A tall unknown man, rolling up a cigarette, began to light a cigarette from the lamp and put it out, but in the corner near the stove a second lamp was burning faintly. I asked my wife to bring the lamp to the table.

At this time, I noticed that the tall unknown man became noticeably nervous, which was noticed by the UPA members, who began to ask him what was going on... The unknown man, as I understood it, was looking for a lighter.

But then I saw that all the UPA participants rushed away from the unknown towards the exit doors, but since they opened into the room, they did not open it in a hurry, and then I heard a strong explosion of a grenade and even saw a sheaf of flame from it. The second unknown person lay down on the floor under the bed before the grenade exploded.
After the explosion, I took my young daughter and stood near the stove; my wife jumped out of the hut along with the UPA members, who broke the door, removing it from its hinges.

The unknown man of short stature asked something to the second man, who was lying wounded on the floor. He replied that “I don’t know,” after which a short unknown man, knocking out a window frame, jumped out of the window of the house with a briefcase.

The grenade explosion injured my wife lightly in the leg and my mother lightly in the head.

Regarding the unknown short man running through the window, I heard heavy rifle fire for about five minutes in the direction where he was running. I don’t know what his fate is.

After that, I ran away with the child to my neighbor, and in the morning, when I returned home, I saw the unknown man dead in the yard near the fence, lying face down in his underwear.”

As it was established during interrogations of other witnesses, Kuznetsov’s right hand was torn off during the explosion of his own grenade and he was “severely wounded in the area of ​​the frontal part of the head, chest and abdomen, which is why he soon died.”

Thus, the place, time (March 9, 1944) and circumstances of the death of Nikolai Kuznetsov were established.

Later, having organized the exhumation of the intelligence officer’s body, Strutinsky proved that it was Kuznetsov who died in Boratin that night.

But proving this turned out to be difficult due to other circumstances. Strutinsky, who took risks while searching for the place where the scout died, had to take risks again, proving that the remains he found near this place really belonged to Kuznetsov.

Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:	Zyryanka village, Ekaterinburg district, Perm province
Date of death:
A place of death:	Brody district, Lviv region
Nickname:	Rudolf Schmidt, Nikolai Grachev, Paul Siebert
Nickname:	Pooh, Colonist
	Partisan detachment "Winners"
Battles/wars:	The Great Patriotic War

Pre-war years

War years

After death

Nikolai (Nikanor) Ivanovich Kuznetsov(July 14 (27), 1911, village of Zyryanka, Yekaterinburg district, Perm province, now Talitsky district, Sverdlovsk region - March 9, 1944, near the city of Brody, Lvov region) - Soviet intelligence officer, partisan. He liquidated 11 generals and high-ranking officials of the occupation administration of Nazi Germany.

Biography

Pre-war years

Nikanor Kuznetsov was born into a peasant family, in a family of 6 people. He had older sisters Agafya and Lydia, and a younger brother Victor.

In 1926, he graduated from a seven-year school and entered the agronomic department of the Tyumen Agricultural College. After studying for a year and becoming a Komsomol member during this time, due to the death of his father from tuberculosis, he was forced to return to his native village. In 1927, he continued his studies at the Talitsky Forestry College, where he began to independently study German, discovering extraordinary linguistic abilities, and mastered Esperanto, Polish, Komi, and Ukrainian. In 1929, on charges of “White Guard-kulak origin,” he was expelled from the Komsomol and from the technical school.

In the spring of 1930, he ended up in Kudymkar and was hired by the Komi-Permyak District Land Administration for the position of assistant tax collector for the arrangement of local forests. Here he was reinstated in the Komsomol. Later I returned to technical school, but they were not allowed to defend my diploma - they limited themselves to a piece of paper about the courses taken.

While working as a taxi driver, I discovered that my colleagues were engaged in registration and reported them to the police. The court sentenced the robbers to 4-8 years in prison, and Kuznetsov to a year of correctional labor with 15% of his salary withheld (and was also expelled from the Komsomol again).

After the forest management party, Kuznetsov worked for some time in the Komi-Permyak “Mnogopromsoyuz” (Union of Multi-Industry Cooperatives) as a market analyst and secretary of the price bureau, then, for about six months, in the “Red Hammer” promartel. Participated in collectivization and was attacked by peasants. According to Theodor Gladkov, it was his fearless behavior in moments of danger (as well as his fluency in the Komi-Permyak language) that attracted the attention of state security operatives. Since that time, Kuznetsov has also been participating in the actions of the OGPU district to eliminate bandit groups in the forests (operational pseudonyms “Kulik” and “Scientist”).

In 1931, he officially changed his name from Nikanor to Nikolai. In addition, while working in Kudymkar, Kuznetsov met a local girl, Elena Chugaeva (from the village of Kuva, worked as a nurse in the surgical department of the district hospital), whom after some time he officially married. They lived together for a short time, and when they left Kudymkar, the divorce was never officially formalized.

In the summer of 1932, Kuznetsov took a vacation, came to Sverdlovsk (where his entire family moved permanently) and successfully passed the entrance exams for the correspondence department of the industrial institute. While studying at the Ural Industrial Institute, he continued to improve his German (one of Kuznetsov’s German teachers was Olga Vesyolkina).

Since 1934 he has been working in Sverdlovsk as a statistician at the Sverdles trust. Then, for a short time, he worked as a draftsman at the Verkh-Isetsky plant, and from May 1935 he moved to Uralmashzavod as a workshop worker in the design bureau, where he led the operational development of foreign specialists (at that time he had the pseudonym “Colonist”). In February 1936 he was fired from the factory “as a truant.”

In 1938 he was arrested by the Sverdlovsk NKVD and spent several months in prison.

In the spring of 1938, he was on the territory of the Komi ASSR, was in the apparatus of the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the Komi ASSR, Mikhail Ivanovich Zhuravlev, and helped as a specialist in forestry. A little later, Zhuravlev called the head of the counterintelligence department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR Leonid Raikhman in Moscow and invited him to take Kuznetsov to the central apparatus of the NKVD as a particularly gifted agent (Kuznetsov mastered six dialects of German).

Kuznetsov’s personal data (criminal record, expulsion from the Komsomol) did not qualify him for admission to the central office. However, the difficult political situation in the world and the need to obtain operational information about this situation forced the head of the secret political department, Pavel Vasilyevich Fedotov, to take responsibility and hire Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov received a special status in the state security agencies: a highly classified special agent with a salary at the rate of a personnel detective of the central apparatus.

Kuznetsov is given a Soviet-style passport in the name of the German Rudolf Wilhelmovich Schmidt. Since 1938, he carried out a special task to introduce himself into the diplomatic environment of Moscow - he actively met foreign diplomats, attended social events, and met friends and mistresses of diplomats. He entered into deals with the diplomats themselves to purchase various valuable goods. Thus, in particular, the adviser to the diplomatic mission of Slovakia in the USSR, Geiza-Ladislav Krno, was recruited.

To work with German agents, Kuznetsov was given the profession of test engineer at Moscow Aviation Plant No. 22. With his participation, in the apartment of the German naval attaché in the USSR, frigate captain Norbert Wilhelm Baumbach, a safe was opened and secret documents were copied. Kuznetsov also took a direct part in intercepting diplomatic mail when diplomatic couriers stayed in hotels (in particular, at the Metropol), and became surrounded by the German military attaché in the USSR Ernst Koestring, which allowed the special services to wiretap the diplomat’s apartment.

War years

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, on July 5, 1941, to organize reconnaissance and sabotage work behind the front line, in the rear of the German army, a “Special Group under the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR” was formed, headed by Senior Major Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov. In January 1942, this group was transformed into the 4th Directorate of the NKVD, and Nikolai Kuznetsov was enrolled in it.

The intelligence officer was given the biography of a German officer, Lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert. At first he was assigned to the Luftwaffe, but later he was “transferred” to the infantry. In the winter of 1942 he was transferred to a camp for German prisoners of war in Krasnogorsk, where he learned about the procedures, life and morals of the German army. Then, under the name Petrov, he trains in parachute jumping. Based on the results of all the tests, it was decided to use Kuznetsov behind enemy lines along the “T” (terror) line.

In the summer of 1942, under the name Nikolai Grachev, he was sent to the special forces detachment “Winners” under the command of Colonel Dmitry Medvedev, who settled near the occupied city of Rivne. The Reichskommissariat of Ukraine was located in this city.

Since October 1942 Kuznetsov under the name of a German officer Paul Siebert With the documents of an employee of the German secret police, he conducted intelligence activities in Rivne, constantly communicated with officers of the Wehrmacht, intelligence services, and senior officials of the occupation authorities, transmitting information to the partisan detachment.

Since the spring of 1943, he tried several times to carry out his main task - the physical destruction of the Reich Commissioner of Ukraine Erich Koch. The first two attempts, on April 20, 1943 during a military parade in honor of Hitler’s birthday, and in the summer of 1943 during a personal audience with Koch on the occasion of a possible marriage to a Volksdeutsche girl, did not work out at all - in the first case, Koch did not come to the parade, but in the second there were too many witnesses and security. The assassination attempt on June 5, 1943, on the Reich Minister for Occupied Territories, Alfred Rosenberg, also failed - it was impossible to get close to him.

Since the fall of 1943, several attempts were organized on the life of the permanent deputy E. Koch and the head of the administration department of the Reichskommissariat Paul Dargel:

• On September 20, Kuznetsov mistakenly killed E. Koch’s deputy for finance, Hans Gehl and his secretary Winter, instead of Dargel;
• On September 30, he tried to kill Dargel with an anti-tank grenade. However, Dargel was seriously wounded and lost both legs (Kuznetsov himself was wounded in the arm by a grenade fragment), but survived. After this, Dargel was taken to Berlin by plane.

After this, it was decided to organize the abduction (with subsequent transfer to Moscow) of the commander of the Ostengruppen formation, General Max Ilgen, who arrived in Rovno in the summer. The latter's task was to develop a plan to eliminate partisan formations. The kidnapping was organized in November 1943, but it was not possible to take him to Moscow - the partisan detachment moved away from the city to an inaccessible distance; Ilgen was shot on one of the farms near Rivne.

On November 16, 1943, Kuznetsov carried out his last liquidation in Rovno - the supreme judge of occupied Ukraine, Chief Fuhrer Alfred Funk, was killed.

In January 1944, the commander of the “Winners” detachment, Medvedev, orders Kuznetsov to follow the retreating German troops, with the first stop in Lvov. Scouts Ivan Belov and Yan Kaminsky, who had numerous relatives and many acquaintances in Lvov, left with Kuznetsov. In Lviv, Kuznetsov commits a number of terrorist attacks - in particular, the Vice-Governor of Galicia Otto Bauer and the head of the governor's office, Dr. Heinrich Schneider, were liquidated.

In addition, during his work in Ukraine, Kuznetsov managed to obtain some information about the preparation of the German offensive on the Kursk Bulge.

Death

In the spring of 1944, many German patrols in the cities of Western Ukraine had orientation notes describing the chief lieutenant. Kuznetsov decides to leave the city, join a partisan detachment, or go beyond the front line.

On March 9, 1944, as they approached the front line, Kuznetsov’s group came across UPA fighters dressed in the uniform of Soviet Army soldiers. This happened in the village of Boryatino, Brodovsky district. During the shootout, Nikolai Kuznetsov and his companions were killed. The version of Kuznetsov’s self-detonation with a grenade was later officially disseminated by Soviet propaganda.

The possible burial of Kuznetsov’s group was discovered on September 17, 1959 in the Kutyki tract thanks to the search work of his comrade Nikolai Strutinsky. Strutinsky achieved the reburial of the alleged remains of Kuznetsov in Lviv on the Hill of Glory on July 27, 1960.

Forensic identification and reconstruction of Kuznetsov’s appearance from the skull was carried out by Gerasimov’s employees (Surnina, Uspensky, Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences).

After death

In 1990-1991, a number of protests by members of the Ukrainian military underground against perpetuating the memory of Kuznetsov appeared in the Lviv media due to the fact that the occupying German authorities responded to Kuznetsov’s terrorist acts in Rivne with massive repressions against local residents. For the murder of Bauer, 2,000 residents of Rivne were executed; for the death of Gel, all prisoners of the Rivne prison were shot.

Monuments to Kuznetsov in Lviv and Rivne were dismantled in 1992. In November 1992, with the assistance of Strutinsky, the Lviv monument was taken to Talitsa.

Vandals have repeatedly tried to desecrate the grave of Nikolai Kuznetsov. By 2007, activists of the initiative group in Yekaterinburg had carried out all the preparatory work necessary to move Kuznetsov’s remains to the Urals.

Awards

• By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 5, 1944, Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for exceptional courage and bravery in carrying out command assignments. Also, by this decree, employees of the special forces of the USSR MCGB who operated behind enemy lines were awarded the Gold Star of the Hero. Among them is the commander of the “Winners” Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev.
• Awarded two Orders of Lenin (December 25, 1943, ...).

Memory

• About the exploits of N. I. Kuznetsov:
• books written:
• “It was near Rovno” (1948) by D. N. Medvedev (in the book Kuznetsov is shown as an underground hero, a brave partisan, but his relationship with the NKVD is not mentioned).
• "The Man Who Knew No Fear" Branko Kitanovic
• Feature films shot:
• “The Feat of a Scout” (a collective image of a scout operating on the territory of Ukraine is presented, the name and position of the main character is Major Fedotov)
• “Strong in spirit” in 2 episodes
• serial "Special Forces Unit"
• Documentary films shot:
• "Intelligence Genius" in 2 episodes
• the play “I’m moving on to action” was staged (on the stage of the Sverdlovsk Drama Theater)
• Monuments to Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov were erected in the Urals and Ukraine:
• Monument in Rivne (bronze, granite, 1961, sculptors V.P. Vinaykin, I.P. Shapoval, architect V.G. Gnezdilov) (demolished).
• Monument in Lviv opposite Lvovenergo (demolished).
• The monument in Yekaterinburg was opened in 1985. It is a 16-meter bronze obelisk in the form of a scout figure, ready to rush into battle, with a banner flying above it.

• Monument in Tyumen near the building of the Agricultural University, the former Agricultural Technical School. Delivered in 1967.
• Dozens of museums were created (in 1992 the museums of Kuznetsov’s glory in Rivne and Lvov were liquidated), 17 schools and over 100 pioneer squads bore his name. Another six hundred schools had stands dedicated to the memory of the hero.
• The Talitsky Forestry College, where Kuznetsov studied, was named after him in 1980.
• In 1984, a young city in the Rivne region of Ukraine, Kuznetsovsk, was named after Kuznetsov.
• In Moscow, at house 20, building 1, on Staraya Basmannaya Street, where Kuznetsov lived until 1942, a memorial plaque was installed.
• In May 2005, a memorial plaque was installed in Yekaterinburg on the wall of the house where Kuznetsov lived from 1936 to 1937 (Lenin Avenue 52/1).
• Posthumously awarded the title of honorary resident of Kudymkar (since 1977). Also in Kudymkar a school is named after him.
• Posthumously awarded the title of honorary resident of Yekaterinburg (since February 1978)
• A minor planet is named after Kuznetsov.

Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov - Soviet intelligence officer, partisan ("Ober-Lieutenant Siebert").

Kolya Kuznetsov was born July 27, 1911 1911 in a peasant family. In 1926 he graduated from a seven-year school, where he became interested in the Esperanto language. In 1927 he began to independently study the German language, discovering extraordinary linguistic abilities.

We will destroy fascism, we will save the fatherland. Russia will forever remember us, happy children will sing songs about us, and mothers with gratitude and blessing will tell their children about how in 1942 we gave our lives for the happiness of our beloved fatherland. We will be honored by the liberated peoples of Europe.

Spring 1938 Nikolay Kuznetsov moved to Moscow and joined the NKVD. In September 1941, he wrote: “With short exceptions, I spent the last three years abroad, traveled to all the countries of Europe, and especially studied Germany.” In the spring of 1942, Kuznetsov, under the name of the German officer Paul Siebert, conducted intelligence activities in the German-occupied city of Rivne, transmitting information to the partisan detachment. He managed to learn about the preparations by the Nazis for an offensive on the Kursk Bulge. He killed the imperial adviser General Gehl, kidnapped the commander of the punitive forces in Ukraine, General von Ilgen, and committed sabotage. Killed in battle. Posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Old-timers in Tallinn still remember these notices, which were posted in the twenties near the workers' club and in other prominent places in the city. The advertisements called, asked, demanded: “Esperanto is an indispensable means of communication for the working class of all countries in its struggle against the bourgeoisie. The easiest of languages. Available for learning by a person of any nationality who can read and write in their own language. Do not miss the opportunity to study in two month! Hurry! Registration will be made at the club for only one day!..." The seventh graders were the first to respond. This is how one of the then seventh-graders from Talitsk, L.N., talks about it today. Ostroumov. - It was 1925. We lived in the feeling of the inevitability of revolution throughout the world. And our teachers at school said that the international language Esperanto would become the “Latin” of the victorious proletariat. So we sought to master this “Latin”...

No, our land will never be under the slave bondage of the fascists. There are no shortage of patriots in Rus'. We will go to our death, but we will destroy the dragon.

Kuznetsov Nikolai Ivanovich (scout)

Among the circle members was seventh-grader Nikolai Kuznetsov, the future legendary intelligence officer... While studying Esperanto, Nikolai learned for the first time that languages ​​can be invented and that there is a whole science about languages, which is called linguistics. Maybe then he had the idea of ​​​​becoming a linguist. As his combat friends in the partisan detachment recall, Nikolai Kuznetsov repeatedly shared with them his dream of devoting himself to this profession after the war.

After graduating from seven-year school, N. Kuznetsov I haven't given up Esperanto. In the fall of 1926, he entered the first year of the Tyumen Agricultural College. And immediately after the start of classes he came to the red corner, where the Esperantist circle met in those years. The circle was quite large. It consisted of 40 people. It was led by experienced Esperantist Georgiy Nikolaevich Besednykh. “Kolya Kuznetsov had a good command of Esperanto,” Besednykh wrote in his memoirs, “and I invited him to be my assistant in the circle. He turned out to be a very charming boy. He took part in all our events. He recited beautifully, played the harmonica, amused everyone with jokes, was extremely resourceful."

With a short exception, I have spent the last three years abroad, traveling around all the countries of Europe, especially studying Germany.

Kuznetsov Nikolai Ivanovich (scout)

One day, during a festive procession, a huge banner appeared over the heads of the demonstrators with the slogan in Esperanto: “Vivu la 9 jaro de Granda Oktobra Revolucio!” It was our Nikolai who, secretly even from his Esperantist friends, made this poster and proposed to unfurl it on the square in front of the podium. (Viktor Klochkov, Ural magazine).

More about Nikolai Kuznetsov:

A significant contribution to our reconnaissance and sabotage operations behind enemy lines was made by the partisan unit under the command of Colonel Medvedev. He was the first to get in touch with Otto Skorzeny, the head of special operations of Hitler's security service. Medvedev and Nikolai Kuznetsov established that German sabotage groups were training their people in the foothills of the Carpathians with the aim of preparing and attacking the American and Soviet embassies in Tehran, where the first Big Three conference was to be held in 1943. A group of Skorzeny’s militants underwent training near Vinnitsa, where Medvedev’s partisan detachment operated. It was here, on territory captured by the Nazis, that Hitler located a branch of his Headquarters.

Our young employee Nikolai Kuznetsov, under the guise of a Wehrmacht senior lieutenant, established friendly relations with a German intelligence officer, Oster, who was busy searching for people with experience in fighting Russian partisans. He needed these people for an operation against the Soviet high command. Having owed Kuznetsov, Oster offered to pay him with Iranian carpets, which he was going to bring to Vinnitsa from a business trip to Tehran. This message, immediately transmitted to Moscow, coincided with information from other sources and helped us prevent actions in Tehran against the Big Three.

The war for the liberation of our Motherland from fascist evil spirits requires sacrifices. Inevitably we have to shed a lot of our blood so that our beloved homeland blooms and develops and so that our people live freely. To defeat the enemy, our people do not spare the most precious thing - their lives. Casualties are inevitable. I want to tell you frankly that there is very little chance that I will return alive. Almost one hundred percent for the fact that you have to make self-sacrifice. And I completely calmly and consciously go for this, because I deeply understand that I am giving my life for a holy, just cause, for the present and prosperous future of our Motherland.

Kuznetsov Nikolai Ivanovich (scout)

Nikolai Kuznetsov (code name "Pooh") personally eliminated several governors of the German administration in Galicia. These acts of retaliation against the organizers of terror against the Soviet people were carried out by him with unparalleled courage in broad daylight on the streets of Rivne and Lvov. Dressed in a German military uniform, Kuznetsov boldly approached the enemy, announced the death sentence and shot point-blank. Each carefully prepared action of this kind was insured by a combat support group. One day he was received by Hitler's assistant Gauleiter Erich Koch, head of the administration of Poland and Galicia. Nikolai Kuznetsov should have killed him. But when Koch told Kuznetsov to return to his unit as soon as possible because a major offensive was about to begin near Kursk in the next ten days, Kuznetsov decided not to kill Koch in order to be able to immediately return to Medvedev and transmit an urgent radio message to Moscow.

On instructions from Headquarters, Nikolai Kuznetsov’s information about the Germans’ preparation for a strategic offensive operation was double-checked and confirmed by the intelligence officers Aleksakhin and Vorobyov, who we sent to occupied Orel.”