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Birthday anniversary of the Soviet intelligence agent and partisan Nikolai Kuznetsov (1911–1944)
Nikolai Kuznetsov was born on July 14 (27), 1911, in the village of Zyryanka (now the Talitsky district, Sverdlovsk Region) into a peasant family.
In 1926, he graduated from a seven-year school in Zyryanka and enrolled on the agronomic faculty of Tyumen Agricultural College (now the Northern Trans-Ural State Agricultural University). During the study, he showed outstanding talent in learning foreign languages. After a year in College and joining the ranks of the Komsomol, he was forced to return home because of the death of his father from tuberculosis.
In 1934, Nikolai Kuznetsov moved to Sverdlovsk and began to work in the Design Department of Uralmash (a heavy machine production facility). At the same time, he attended the evening courses of the Industrial Institute (Ural Federal University) and German classes. He often talked with German specialists, getting conversational practice and grasping the German mentality.
In the spring of 1938, Nikolai Kuznetsov visited the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialists Republic. He served in the office of Mikhail Zhuravlev, the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs in Komi Republic. The People's Commissar proposed to the head of the Counterintelligence Department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the USSR Lev Raikhman employing Nikolai Kuznetsov as an extraordinarily gifted agent to the office of the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs. Kuznetsov received an exceptional status of a highly classified special agent in the state security agencies.
After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the High Command formed a "Special Group under the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR" (July 5, 1941). It was aimed at arranging intelligence service and sabotage work in the rear of the German army. The new department was headed by Pavel Sudoplatov, the Senior Officer of State Security. In January 1942, the group was subordinated to the 4th Department of the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs, which employed Nikolai Kuznetsov. He received a biography of the German officer, Ober-Lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert. At first, the officer was "appointed" to the Luftwaffe but later entered the Infantry. In the winter of 1942, Nikolai Kuznetsov moved to a camp for German prisoners of war in Krasnogorsk, where he studied the order, life and traditions of the German army. Then, under the name Petrov, he trained in parachute jumping. Considering the results of tests, it was decided to use him at enemy territory with the "T" (terror) purposes.
In the summer of 1942, Nikolai Kuznetsov (under the name of Nikolai Grachev) entered the special-purpose partisan unit "Victors" under the command of Colonel Dmitry Medvedev, which resided near occupied Rovno. In October 1942, Nikolai Kuznetsov (under the name of German officer Paul Siebert) with documents of an employee of the secret German police launched intelligence activities in Rovno. He constantly communicated with the Wehrmacht officers, special services, top officials of the occupation authorities and sent information to the partisan detachment.
On February 7, 1943, Nikolai Kuznetsov made an ambush and captured Major Gahan. In early June, he managed to get important information about the preparation of the German offensive on the Kursk Bulge.
Nikolai Kuznetsov personally eliminated 11 generals and high officials of the occupation administration of Nazi Germany. From the spring of 1943, he tried to kill Erich Koch, the Reichskommissar of Ukraine, several times. Both attempts, in April and June 1943, failed. In May 1943, a Rovno resident, Lidia Lisovskaya, began to assist him in sabotage operations. Later her cousin Maria Mikota was also involved in the work.
On the night of March 8-9, 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov died as a hero in an unequal battle with a group of Ukrainian nationalists in the village of Boratin (now Brodovsky district of Lvov Region). On November 5, 1944, the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR rewarded him with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.
In 1961, marking the 50th anniversary of Nikolai Kuznetsov, Tyumen authorities installed a memorial plaque on the building of the former Agricultural College, where he studied. In 1967, a bust of Nikolai Kuznetsov was installed near the Agricultural University. Many books, films, performances, as well as dozens of museums, are devoted to the memory of the legendary intelligence officer.
Nikolai Kuznetsov left to successors an example of devotion to the Fatherland, noble scorn of death for the sake of freedom and happiness of compatriots.
Lit.: Брюханова Л. И. Разведчик Николай Кузнецов: документальная повесть. Свердловск, 1976; В помощь краеведу: материалы к календарю знаменательных и памятных дат Тюменской области на 2014 год / Тюменская областная научная библиотека имени Д. И. Менделеева; сост. Н. В. Колобова. Тюмень, 2013; Гладков Т. К. Кузнецов. Легенда советской разведки. М., 2004; Зензин Н. В. Мы помним всех, далеких нам и близких: рассказы о войне и земляках-разведчиках. Тюмень, 2016; Кузнецов В. И. ...И стал разведчиком: детство и юность Николая Кузнецова. Свердловск, 1983; Петрушин А. А. Время партизан // Тюмень без секретов, или Как пройти на улицу Павлика Морозова. Тюмень, 2011. С. 233–275
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
The article is prepared by the Tyumen Branch of the Presidential Library