When specialists in the history of Soviet intelligence services or retired agents are asked to name the most highly professional illegal intelligence officer, almost everyone names Nikolai Kuznetsov. Without at all questioning their competence, let us ask the question: where does such unanimity come from?
Who is an illegal intelligence officer?
The recruited agent lives in a country familiar to him from childhood. His documents are genuine, he does not need to strain to remember certain moments of his biography. An abandoned illegal intelligence officer is another matter. He lives in a country foreign to him, whose language is rarely his native language; everyone around him recognizes him as a stranger. Therefore, an illegal immigrant always pretends to be a foreigner. A stranger can be forgiven a lot: he can speak with an accent, not know local customs, and get confused in geography. The intelligence officer sent to Germany pretends to be a Baltic German, the agent working in Brazil is, according to legend, a Hungarian, the intelligence officer living in New York is, according to documents, a Dane.
There is no greater danger for an illegal immigrant than meeting a “compatriot.” The slightest inaccuracy can be fatal. Suspicion will be aroused by pronunciation that does not correspond to the legend (as natives of Lvov and Kharkov speak the same Ukrainian language completely differently), an error in gesture (Germans, when ordering three glasses of beer, usually throw out their middle, index and thumb), ignorance of the national subculture (during the Ardennes operations 1944-1945 Americans split Skorzeny’s saboteurs with the question “Who is Tarzan?”).
It is simply impossible to predict all the subtleties of the legend: not a single reference book will write that Gretel, one of the many university laboratory assistants, is a local celebrity, and it is simply impossible not to know her. Therefore, every extra hour spent in the company of a “countryman” increases the risk of failure.
One among strangers
Nikolai Kuznetsov, communicating with the Germans, pretended to be a German. From October 1942 to the spring of 1944, almost 16 months, he was in Rivne, occupied by the Nazis, moving in the same circle, constantly expanding the number of contacts. Kuznetsov didn’t just pretend to be a German, he became one, he even forced himself to think in German. The SD and the Gestapo became interested in Siebert only after evidence emerged that the chief lieutenant was related to a series of terrorist attacks carried out in Rivne and Lvov. But Paul Siebert, as a German, never aroused suspicion among anyone. Fluency in the language, knowledge of German culture, customs, behavior - everything was impeccable.
And all this despite the fact that Kuznetsov has never been to Germany and has never even traveled outside the USSR. And he worked in occupied Rivne, where every German is visible, where the SD and the Gestapo are working to eliminate the underground, and almost everyone is under suspicion. No other intelligence officer was able to hold out in such conditions for so long, penetrate so deeply into the environment, or acquire such significant connections. That is why the “fighters of the invisible front” unanimously call Kuznetsov illegal intelligence officer No. 1.
Where did he come from?
Yes, really, where from? For most, the biography of the famous intelligence officer begins with his appearance in Medvedev’s detachment in October 1942. Until this moment, Kuznetsov’s life is not just white spots, but a continuous white field. But brilliant intelligence officers do not appear out of nowhere; they are nurtured and prepared for a long time. Kuznetsov’s path to the heights of professionalism was long and not always straightforward.
Nikolai Kuznetsov was born in the village of Zyryanka, Perm province in 1911 into a peasant family. There are no nobles or foreigners in his family tree. Where a boy born in the Perm outback got his talent as a linguist is a mystery. The winds of revolution brought Nina Avtokratova, who was educated in Switzerland, to the Talitsk seven-year school. Nikolai received his first lessons in German from her.
But this was not enough for the boy. His friends were the local pharmacist, the Austrian Krause, and the forester, a former prisoner of the German army, from whom Kuznetsov picked up profanity that is not found in any German language textbook. In the library of the Talitsky Forestry College, where he studied, Nikolai discovered the “Encyclopedia of Forestry” in German and translated it into Russian.
Blows of fate
In 1929, Kuznetsov was accused of concealing his “White Guard-kulak origin.” Now it is no longer possible to determine what kind of passions raged in the Talitsky technical school, what intrigues Kuznetsov was drawn into (his father was neither a kulak nor a White Guard), but Nikolai was expelled from the technical school and from the Komsomol. The future intelligence officer was left with incomplete secondary education for the rest of his life.
In 1930, Nikolai got a job in the land department. Reinstated in the Komsomol. Having discovered that the authorities were engaged in theft, he reported this to the authorities. The robbers were given 5-8 years and Kuznetsov 1 year - for the company, however, without serving time: the punishment consisted of supervision and withholding 15% of earnings (the Soviet regime was harsh, but fair). Kuznetsov was again expelled from the Komsomol.
Freelance OGPU agent
On duty, Nikolai traveled around the remote villages of Komi, along the way he mastered the local language, and made many acquaintances. In June 1932, detective Ovchinnikov drew attention to him, and Kuznetsov became a freelance agent of the OGPU.
Komi in the early 30s was a place of exile for kulaks. Ardent enemies of Soviet Power and those unjustly repressed fled to the taiga, formed gangs, shot postmen, taxi drivers, villagers - everyone who at least somewhat represented the authorities. Kuznetsov himself was also attacked. There were uprisings. The OGPU needed local agents. Forest manager Kuznetsov was responsible for creating an agent network and maintaining contact with it. Soon higher authorities paid attention to him. The talented security officer was taken to Sverdlovsk.
At Uralmash
Since 1935, Kuznetsov has been a workshop operator at the design bureau at Uralmash. Many foreign specialists, most of them Germans, worked at the plant. Not all foreigners working at the plant were friends of the USSR. Some of them demonstratively expressed their sympathies for Hitler.
Kuznetsov moved among them, made acquaintances, exchanged records and books. The duty of the “Colonist” agent was to identify hidden agents among foreign specialists, suppress attempts to recruit Soviet employees, and find among the Germans persons ready to cooperate with Soviet intelligence.
Along the way, Nikolai improved his German, acquired the habits and behavior characteristic of the Germans. Kuznetsov mastered six dialects of the German language, learned to determine from the first phrases which places the interlocutor was born and immediately switched to the native German dialect, which simply delighted him. Learned Polish and Esperanto.
Kuznetsov was not spared from repression. In 1938, he was arrested and spent several months in prison, but his immediate supervisor managed to recapture his charge.
“We must take him to Moscow!”
In 1938, one of the NKVD staff introduced a particularly valuable agent to a major Leningrad party official, Zhuravlev, who arrived on an inspection in Komi: “Brave, resourceful, proactive. Fluent in German, Polish, Esperanto, and Komi. Extremely effective."
Zhuravlev talked with Kuznetsov for several minutes and immediately called the deputy of the GUGB NKVD Raikhman: “Leonid Fedorovich, there is a person here - a particularly gifted agent, he must be taken to Moscow.” At that moment, Reichman had an intelligence officer in his office who had recently arrived from Germany; Reichman handed him the phone: “Talk.” After several minutes of conversation in German, the intelligence officer asked: “Is this calling from Berlin?” Kuznetsov's fate was decided.
Illegal in home country
When the head of the secret political department of the GUGB NKVD Fedotov saw the documents of Kuznetsov who had arrived to him, he grabbed his head: two convictions! Expelled from the Komsomol twice! Yes, such a questionnaire is a direct road to prison, and not to the NKVD! But he also appreciated Kuznetsov’s exceptional abilities and designated him as a “highly classified special agent,” hiding his profile from personnel officers behind seven locks in his personal safe.
To protect Kuznetsov, they abandoned the procedure for assigning a title and issuing a certificate. The special agent was issued a Soviet passport in the name of Rudolf Wilhelmovich Schmidt, according to which the security officer lived in Moscow. This is how Soviet citizen Nikolai Kuznetsov was forced to hide in his native country.
Rudolf Schmidt
At the end of the 30s, German delegations of all kinds of colors became frequent in the USSR: trade, cultural, socio-political, etc. The NKVD understood that 3/4 of the composition of these delegations were intelligence officers. Even among the Lufthansa crews there were not beautiful flight attendants, but brave stewards with military bearing, changing every 2-3 flights. (This is how Luftwaffe navigators studied areas of future flights.)
In the circle of this motley public, the “longing for the Fatherland” Soviet German Schmidt moved, quietly finding out which of the Germans was breathing what, with whom he was establishing contacts, and whom he was recruiting. On his own initiative, Kuznetsov obtained the uniform of a senior lieutenant of the Red Army Air Force and began posing as a test engineer at a closed Moscow plant. An ideal target for recruitment! But often the German agent who fell for Schmidt himself became an object of recruitment and returned to Berlin as an NKVD agent.
Kuznetsov-Schmidt made friends with diplomats and became surrounded by the German naval attaché in the USSR. The friendship with frigate captain Norbert Baumbach ended with the opening of the latter's safe and photographing secret documents. Schmidt's frequent meetings with the German military attache Ernst Kestring allowed the security officers to install wiretapping in the diplomat's apartment.
Self-taught
At the same time, Kuznetsov, who supplied the most valuable information, remained an illegal immigrant. Fedotov nipped in the bud all proposals from management to send such a valuable employee to any courses, carefully hiding “Schmidt’s” profile from prying eyes. Kuznetsov never took any courses. The basics of intelligence and conspiracy, recruitment, psychology, photography, driving, German language and culture - in all areas Kuznetsov was 100% self-taught.
Kuznetsov was never a party member. Just the thought that Kuznetsov would have to tell his biography at the party bureau during the reception threw Fedotov into a cold sweat.
Scout Kuznetsov
With the beginning of the war, Kuznetsov was enrolled in the “Special Group under the NKVD of the USSR”, headed by Sudoplatov. Nikolai was sent to one of the camps for German prisoners of war near Moscow, where he served several weeks, getting into the skin of the German chief lieutenant Paul Siebert. In the summer of 1942, Kuznetsov was sent to Dmitry Medvedev’s detachment. In the capital of the Reichskommissariat, Rovno, in exactly 16 months, Kuznetsov destroyed 11 senior officials of the occupation administration.
But one should not perceive his work solely as terrorist. Kuznetsov's main task was to obtain intelligence data. He was one of the first to report the upcoming Nazi offensive on the Kursk Bulge and determined the exact location of Hitler’s Werewolf headquarters near Vinnitsa. One of the Abwehr officers, who owed Siebert a large sum of money, promised to pay him with Persian carpets, which Kuznetsov reported to the center. In Moscow, the information was taken more than seriously: this was the first news of the preparation by the German intelligence services of Operation Long Jump - the liquidation of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during the Tehran Conference.
Death and posthumous glory
Kuznetsov could not “hold on” forever. The SD and the Gestapo were already looking for a terrorist in the uniform of a German lieutenant. Before his death, the official of the Lvov air force headquarters who was shot by him managed to name the shooter’s surname: “Siebert.” A real hunt began for Kuznetsov. The scout and his two comrades left the city and began to make their way to the front line. March 9, 1944 Nikolai Kuznetsov, Ivan Belov and Yan Kaminsky in the village. Boratin ran into a UPA detachment and died in battle.
N. Kuznetsov was buried on the Hill of Glory in Lvov. In 1984, a young city in the Rivne region was named after him. Monuments to Nikolai Kuznetsov were erected in Rovno, Lvov, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, and Chelyabinsk. He became the first foreign intelligence officer to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
And lastly, bitter
In June 1992, the authorities of the city of Lvov decided to dismantle the monument to the Soviet intelligence officer. On the day of dismantling, the square was crowded. Many of those who came to the “closing” of the monument did not hide their tears.
Through the efforts of Kuznetsov’s comrade-in-arms Nikolai Strutinsky and former fighters of Medvedev’s detachment, the Lviv monument was transported to the city of Talitsa, where Kuznetsov lived and studied, and installed in the central park of the city.
A brilliant intelligence officer, a polyglot, a conqueror of hearts and a great adventurer, he personally destroyed 11 Nazi generals, but was killed by UPA fighters.
Linguistic talent
A boy from the village of Zyryanka with four hundred inhabitants masters the German language perfectly thanks to highly qualified teachers. Later, Kolya Kuznetsov picked up profanity when meeting a forester - a German, a former soldier of the Austrian-Hungarian army. While independently studying Esperanto, he translated his favorite “Borodino” into it, and while studying at a technical school, he translated the German “Encyclopedia of Forest Science” into Russian, and at the same time he perfectly mastered Polish, Ukrainian and Komi. The Spaniards, who served in the forests near Rivne in Medvedev’s detachment, suddenly became worried and reported to the commander: “Fighter Grachev understands when we speak our native language.” And it was Kuznetsov who opened up an understanding of a previously unfamiliar language. He mastered six dialects of German and, meeting their officer somewhere at a table, instantly determined where he was from and switched to another dialect.
Pre-war years
After studying for a year at the Tyumen Agricultural College, Nikolai dropped out due to the death of his father and a year later continued his studies at the Talitsky Forestry College. Later he worked as an assistant tax collector for the installation of local forests, where he reported on his colleagues who were involved in registration. He was expelled from the Komsomol twice - on charges of “White Guard-kulak origin” during his studies and for informing on his colleagues, but with a sentence of one year of correctional labor. He was fired from Uralmashzavod for absenteeism. Kuznetsov’s biography was not replete with facts that presented him as a trustworthy citizen, but his constant penchant for adventurism, his curiosity and hyperactivity became ideal qualities for working as an intelligence officer. A young Siberian with a classic “Aryan” appearance, who spoke excellent German, was noticed by the local NKVD department and in 1939 sent to the capital to study.
Matters of the heart
According to one of the leaders of Soviet intelligence, Nikolai Ivanovich was the lover of most of the principal dancers of the Moscow ballet, moreover, “he shared some of them with German diplomats in the interests of business.” While still in Kudymkar, Kuznetsov married a local nurse, Elena Chugaeva, but, leaving the Perm region, he separated from his wife three months after the marriage, without ever filing a divorce. Love with socialite Ksana in the 1940s did not work out due to a wary attitude towards the Germans, because Nikolai was already part of the legend and introduced himself to the lady of his heart as Rudolf Schmidt. Despite the abundance of connections, this novel remained the most important in the hero’s story - already in the partisan detachment, Kuznetsov asked Medvedev: “Here is the address, if I die, be sure to tell the truth about me to Ksana.” And Medvedev, already a Hero of the Soviet Union, found this same Ksana after the war in the center of Moscow and carried out Kuznetsov’s will.
Kuznetsov and the UPA
Over the past ten years, a number of articles have appeared in Ukraine seeking to discredit the famous intelligence officer. The essence of the charges against him is the same - he fought not against the Germans, but against Ukrainian OUN rebels, members of the UPA and the like. Archival materials refute these claims. For example, the already mentioned submission for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with an attached petition to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed by the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKGB, Pavel Sudoplatov. The justification for the award speaks of Kuznetsov’s liquidation of eight high-ranking German military officials, the organization of an illegal station, and not a word about the fight against any Ukrainian independentists. Of course, the Medvedevites, including Kuznetsov, had to fight against detachments of Ukrainian nationalists, but only as allies of the Nazi occupation regime and its special services. The outstanding intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov died at the hands of the OUN.
Death
German patrols were aware of the search for Hautmann in the regions of Western Ukraine. In March 1944, UPA fighters broke into a house in the village of Boratin, which served as a refuge for Kuznetsov and his comrades, Ivan Belov and Yan Kaminsky. Belov was hit with a bayonet at the entrance. For some time, under guard, they waited for the rebel commander, centurion Chernogor. He identified the “German” as the perpetrator of high-profile terrorist attacks against Hitler’s bosses. And then Kuznetsov blew up a grenade in a room filled with UPA fighters. Kaminsky attempted to escape, but was caught by a bullet. The bodies were loaded onto the horse-drawn cart of Golubovich's neighbor Spiridon Gromyak, taken out of the village and, having dug up the snow, they laid the remains near the old stream, covering them with brushwood.
Posthumous fame
A week after the tragic clash, the Germans who entered the village found the remains of a soldier in a Wehrmacht uniform and reburied them. Local residents subsequently showed the reburial site to employees of the Lvov KGB M. Rubtsov and Dzyuba. Strutinsky achieved the reburial of the alleged remains of Kuznetsov in Lviv on the Hill of Glory on July 27, 1960. The memory of one of the heroes of the war, which shocked the whole world and brought liberation from the brown fascist plague that flooded Europe like a dirty stream, will remain in the milestones of history. Nikolai Kuznetsov was right when one day, discussing the affairs of the people’s avengers around a partisan fire, he said: “If after the war we talk about what we did and how we did it, they will hardly believe it. Yes, I probably wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t been a participant in these cases.”
Movie hero
Many believe that the famous film “The Exploit of a Scout” directed by Boris Barnet tells about the fate of Nikolai Kuznetsov. In fact, the idea for the film arose even before the hero began working under the name Rudolf Schmidt. The script of the film was modified many times, some facts were indeed a narration of the events of his service, for example, the episode with the kidnapping of Kühn was written from a similar kidnapping of General Ilgen by Kuznetsov. And yet, most of the film’s plots were based on the collective image of war heroes; the film reflected facts from the biographies of other intelligence officers. Subsequently, the Sverdlovsk Film Studio produced two feature films directly about Nikolai Kuznetsov: “Strong in Spirit” (in 1967) and “Special Forces Detachment” (in 1987), but they did not gain such popularity as “The Feat of a Scout” .
The legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov was born in 1911 into a family of ordinary peasants. The family was large - six children. They lived in the village of Zyryanka near the city...
The legendary Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov was born in 1911 into a family of ordinary peasants. The family was large - six children. They lived in the village of Zyryanka near the city of Perm. The scout's real name, given at baptism, is Nikanor.
After seven-year school, the boy first went to study at an agricultural technical school, but then changed his mind and went to gnaw on the granite of science at a forestry technical school. He previously knew German well, but now he decided to take it more seriously. It should be noted that the ability for languages was discovered from childhood. He made acquaintance with a certain German forester, and from him he was “infected” with a penchant for the German language. A little later, Nikolai began studying Esperanto, and achieved great success, even translating Mikhail Lermontov’s “Borodino” into it. Also in the library of the forestry technical school, Kuznetsov found a rare book “Encyclopedia of Forestry Science” and translated it from German for the first time.
Then the young polyglot very quickly and quickly mastered the Polish, Komi-Permyak and Ukrainian languages. Nikolai learned German so much that he knew six dialects. In 1930, Kuznetsov got a job in the land department. There, his colleagues committed a number of thefts, and since the financial liability was joint, Nikolai was sentenced to one year for the company. It should be noted that having discovered the fraud of his colleagues, the guy himself reported it to the police.
After serving the required year in a forced labor colony, Kuznetsov went to work in an industrial cooperative. He had to assist in forced collectivization, so the affected peasants more than once attacked the future intelligence officer. And the way Kuznetsov acted in crisis situations, and even his excellent knowledge of the local dialects of the Komi-Permyaks, made it possible to notice his abilities as state security officials. Soon he began to be involved in the work of the OGPU to destroy groups of bandits in forests.
In the spring of 1938, Nikolai Kuznetsov was already listed as an assistant to the People's Commissar from the NKVD M. Zhuravlev. And this Soviet chief called the NKVD department in Moscow and gave Kuznetsov a recommendation, indicating that he was a very talented and courageous employee. The head of counterintelligence L. Raikhman accepted this attention, although Nikolai had a criminal record. As a result, P. Fedotov accepted Nikolai Kuznetsov as a secret special agent under personal responsibility and was right.
Kuznetsov received new documents under a different name – Rudolf Schmidt. The first thing he needed to do was become part of the circle of foreign diplomats in Moscow. Nikolai Ivanovich quickly and easily made acquaintances among foreign figures, attended social events and successfully collected information for the NKVD. He also successfully completed his most important task - he recruited several foreigners, convincing them to work for the USSR. Nikolai Kuznetsov worked especially carefully with German agents. For this purpose, he was employed as a test engineer at an aircraft plant in Moscow, since a large number of German specialists worked there. There were also Western spies among them. There Kuznetsov also intercepted information from diplomats' mail.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Nikolai Ivanovich was assigned to the NKVD department, which specialized in reconnaissance and sabotage behind enemy lines. For a long time, Kuznetsov trained and prepared, studying the morals, characters and typical traits of the Germans in the camp among captured fascists. After this careful preparation, having received a document addressed to Paul Siebert, the scout was sent behind enemy lines. At first, he operated secretly in the city of Rovno, where the main headquarters of the Nazis in Ukraine was located. Every day he interacted with high officials among the fascists and the local ruling elite. All valuable information was broadcast to partisan formations located in this region.
One of the most important achievements of intelligence officer Kuznetsov was the capture of a German major, a courier who was carrying a secret map in his bag. After interrogating the captured major and looking at the map, Soviet troops received information that a shelter for Hitler himself had been built a few kilometers from Vinnitsa. Also in the fall of 1943, a secret agent was able to kidnap an important fascist general, who was sent to Rivne to organize reprisals against local partisans.
As Paul Siebert, Kuznetsov's last job was to destroy the major leader of the fascists in Ukraine, Oberführer Alfred Funk. After interrogating this German bigwig, Nikolai Kuznetsov received valuable information about the upcoming plan to eliminate the heads of the Big Three at a conference in Tehran. At the beginning of 1944, the Russian special agent was ordered to leave with the retreating Nazis to Lvov and continue to carry out sabotage. There he was given several assistants. In Lvov, Nikolai Kuznetsov organized the liquidation of several key figures in the Nazi camp.
In the spring of 1944, the Nazis already realized that the Soviet intelligence officer was carrying out various acts of sabotage. Kuznetsov was identified and his description was sent to all patrols in Western Ukraine. Seeing this state of affairs, the scout and his two assistants decided to make their way into the forests and join the partisan movement, or, if possible, go behind the front line. In early March, having already approached the front line, special agents came across troops of Ukrainian rebels. A battle ensued, and in the firefight that broke out, all three Soviet intelligence officers were shot. Later, Soviet historians determined the approximate burial place of Nikolai Ivanovich and the hero was reburied in the city of Lvov, on the Hill of Glory.
Soviet writer Dmitry Medvedev in the late 1940s created books dedicated to the activities of Nikolai Kuznetsov. They were called “It Was Near Rovno” and “Strong in Spirit,” and after their release the entire Soviet Union learned about the heroic intelligence officer. During the events described, Dmitry Medvedev himself was the commander of the partisans with whom Kuznetsov worked, and therefore spoke about him first-hand.
In subsequent years, about fifteen novels and stories were created on the biography and exploits of Nikolai Kuznetsov. Now there are already about ten films about the legendary intelligence officer, including film adaptations of literary works. The most outstanding film is “The Exploit of a Scout” (directed by Boris Barnet, 1947).
In addition, several monuments were dedicated to Nikolai Kuznetsov in Soviet times and museums were opened in his name.
On July 27, 1911, in the Urals, in the village of Zyryanka, the one who was to become the most famous illegal immigrant of the Great Patriotic War was born. NKVD counterintelligence officers called him Colonist, German diplomats in Moscow - Rudolf Schmidt, Wehrmacht and SD officers in occupied Rivne - Paul Siebert, saboteurs and partisans - Grachev. And only a few people in the leadership of Soviet state security knew his real name - Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov.
This is how the deputy chief of Soviet counterintelligence (1941–1951), lieutenant general, describes his first meeting with him Leonid Raikhman, then, in 1938, senior lieutenant of state security, head of the 1st department of the 4th department of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR: “Several days passed, and a telephone trill was heard in my apartment: “Kolonist” was calling. At that time, my guest was an old friend who had just returned from Germany, where he worked from an illegal position. I looked at him expressively, and said into the phone: “Now they will speak to you in German...” My friend talked for several minutes and, covering the microphone with his palm, said in surprise: “He speaks like a native Berliner!” Later I learned that Kuznetsov was fluent in five or six dialects of the German language, in addition, he could speak, if necessary, in Russian with a German accent. I made an appointment with Kuznetsov the next day, and he came to my house. When he first stepped on the threshold, I actually gasped: a real Aryan! I am above average height, slender, thin but strong, blond, straight nose, blue-gray eyes. A real German, but without such signs of aristocratic degeneration. And excellent bearing, like a career military man, and this is a Ural forest worker!”
The village of Zyryanka is located in the Sverdlovsk region not far from Talitsa, located on the right bank of the picturesque Pyshma River. Starting from the 17th century, Cossacks, Pomor Old Believers, as well as immigrants from Germany settled here on the fertile lands along the border of the Urals and Siberia. Not far from Zyryanka there was a village called Moranin, inhabited by Germans. According to one of the legends, Nikolai Kuznetsov comes from the family of a German colonist - hence his knowledge of the language, as well as the code name Colonist subsequently received. Although I know for sure that this is not so, because these villages - Zyryanka, Balair, the Pioneer state farm, the Kuznetsovsky state farm - are the birthplace of my grandmother. My mother’s brother is buried here in Balair Yuri Oprokidnev. As a child, before school, I was constantly here in the summer, fishing with my grandfather in the same pond as little Nika, as Nikolai Kuznetsov was called in childhood. By the way, Boris Yeltsin was born 30 km to the south, and I will not deny that at first our family felt warm feelings for our fellow countryman.
Nika's mother Anna Bazhenova came from a family of Old Believers. His father served for seven years in a grenadier regiment in Moscow. The design of their house also speaks in favor of Old Believer origin. Although only sketches of the building have been preserved, they show that there are no windows on the wall that faces the street. And this is a distinctive feature of the hut of the “schismatics”. Therefore, it is most likely that Nika’s father Ivan Kuznetsov also from the Old Believers, and Pomors.
Here is what academician Dmitry Likhachev wrote about the Pomors: “They amazed me with their intelligence, special folk culture, culture of the folk language, special handwriting literacy (Old Believers), etiquette for receiving guests, etiquette for food, work culture, delicacy, etc., etc. Not I find words to describe my delight in front of them. It turned out worse for the peasants of the former Oryol and Tula provinces: they were downtrodden and illiterate due to serfdom and poverty. And the Pomors had a sense of self-esteem.”
The materials of 1863 note the strong physique of the Pomors, stately and pleasant appearance, BROWN hair, and firm gait. They are free in their movements, dexterous, quick-witted, fearless, neat and dapper. In the collection for reading in the family and school “Russia”, the Pomors appear as real Russian people, tall, broad-shouldered, of iron health, undaunted, accustomed to BARELY LOOKING DEATH IN THE FACE.
In 1922–1924, Nika studied at a five-year school in the village of Balair, two kilometers from Zyryanka. In any weather - in the autumn thaw, in rain and slush, blizzard and cold - he walked for knowledge, always collected, smart, good-natured, inquisitive. In the fall of 1924, Nika’s father took her to Talitsa, where in those years there was the only seven-year school in the area. There his phenomenal linguistic abilities were revealed. Nika learned German very quickly and this made him stand out among other students. German taught Nina Avtokratova, who was educated in Switzerland. Having learned that the labor teacher was a former German prisoner of war, Nikolai did not miss the opportunity to talk with him, practice the language, and feel the melody of the Lower Prussian dialect. However, this seemed to him not enough. More than once he found an excuse to visit the pharmacy to talk with another “German” - an Austrian pharmacist named Krause - this time in the Bavarian dialect.
In 1926, Nikolai entered the agronomic department of the Tyumen Agricultural College, located in a beautiful building, which until 1919 housed the Alexander Real School. My great-grandfather is in it Procopius Oprokidnev studied with the future People's Commissar of Foreign Trade of the USSR Leonid Krasin. Both of them graduated from college with gold medals, and their names were on the honor board. During the Great Patriotic War, on the second floor of this building in room 15 there was the body of Vladimir Lenin, evacuated from Moscow.
A year later, due to the death of his father, Nikolai transferred closer to home - to the Talitsky Forestry College. Shortly before his graduation, he was expelled on suspicion of kulak origin. After working as a forest manager in Kudymkar (Komi-Permyak National District) and taking part in collectivization, Nikolai, who by this time already spoke the Komi-Permyak language fluently, came to the attention of the security officers. In 1932, he moved to Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg), entered the correspondence department of the Ural Industrial Institute (having presented a certificate of graduation from the technical school) and at the same time worked at the Uralmashplant, participating in the operational development of foreign specialists under the code name Colonist.
At the institute, Nikolai Ivanovich continues to improve his German language: now his teacher has become Olga Veselkina, former maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, relative of Mikhail Lermontov and Pyotr Stolypin.
A former librarian at the institute said that Kuznetsov constantly took technical literature on mechanical engineering, mainly in foreign languages. And then she accidentally got to defend her thesis, which was held in German! True, she was quickly removed from the audience, as were subsequently all documents indicating Kuznetsov’s studies at the institute.
Methodologist for local history work at the Talitsk regional library Tatiana Klimova provides evidence that in Sverdlovsk “Nikolai Ivanovich occupied a separate room in the so-called house of security officers at the address: Lenin Avenue, building 52. Only people from the authorities live there now.” Here a meeting took place that determined his future fate. In January 1938 he met Mikhail Zhuravlev, appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and begins to work as his assistant. A few months later, Zhuravlev recommended Colonist to Leonid Raikhman. We have already described Reichman’s first meeting with Colonist above.
“We, counterintelligence officers,” continues Leonid Fedorovich, “from an ordinary operational worker to the head of our department, Pyotr Vasilyevich Fedotov, dealt with real, and not fictitious, German spies and, as professionals, understood perfectly well that they worked in the Soviet Union as against a real enemy in a future and already imminent war. Therefore, we urgently needed people who could actively resist German agents, primarily in Moscow.”
Moscow Aviation Plant No. 22 named after Gorbunov, from which now only the Gorbushka club in Fili remains, traces its lineage back to 1923. It all started with the unfinished buildings of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works, lost in the forest. In 1923, they were granted a 30-year concession by the German company Junkers, which was the only one in the world to master the technology of all-metal aircraft. Until 1925, the plant produced the first Ju.20 (50 aircraft) and Ju.21 (100 aircraft). However, on March 1, 1927, the concession agreement on the part of the USSR was terminated. In 1933, plant No. 22 was named after plant director Sergei Gorbunov, who died in a plane crash. According to the legend developed for the Colonist, he becomes a test engineer at this plant, having received a passport in the name of an ethnic German Rudolf Schmidt.
The building of the Tyumen Agricultural Academy, where Nikolai Kuznetsov studied
"My comrade Viktor Nikolaevich Ilyin, a major counterintelligence worker,” recalls Reichman, “was also very pleased with him. Thanks to Ilyin, Kuznetsov quickly acquired connections in the theater, in particular, ballet, Moscow. This was important because many diplomats, including established German intelligence officers, were quite drawn to actresses, especially ballerinas. At one time, the issue of appointing Kuznetsov as one of the administrators... of the Bolshoi Theater was even seriously discussed.”
Rudolf Schmidt actively gets acquainted with foreign diplomats, attends social events, and meets friends and lovers of diplomats. With his participation, in the apartment of the German naval attaché, frigate captain Norbert Wilhelm von Baumbach, a safe was opened and secret documents were copied. Schmidt takes a direct part in intercepting diplomatic mail and is part of the entourage of the German military attache in Moscow Ernst Köstring, having wiretapped his apartment.
However, Nikolai Kuznetsov’s finest hour struck with the beginning of the war. With such knowledge of the German language - and by that time he had also mastered Ukrainian and Polish - and his Aryan appearance, he becomes a super agent. In the winter of 1941, he was placed in a camp for German prisoners of war in Krasnogorsk, where he learned the rules, life and morals of the German army. In the summer of 1942, under the name Nikolai Grachev he was sent to the special forces detachment “Winners” from the OMSBON - special forces of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, whose chief was Pavel Sudoplatov.
With employees of the design department of Uralmash. Sverdlovsk, 1930s
On August 24, 1942, late in the evening, a twin-engine Li-2 took off from an airfield near Moscow and headed for Western Ukraine. And on September 18, along Deutsche Strasse - the main street of occupied Rivne, turned by the Germans into the capital of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, an infantry lieutenant with the Iron Cross of the 1st class and the “Golden Insignia for Wounds” on his chest, the ribbon of the Iron Cross of the 2nd, walked leisurely at a measured pace class, pulled through the second loop of the order, with his cap jauntily tilted to one side. A gold ring with a monogram on the signet glittered on the ring finger of his left hand. He greeted senior ranks clearly, but with dignity, slightly casually saluting in response to the soldiers. The self-confident, calm owner of the occupied Ukrainian city, the very living personification of the hitherto victorious Wehrmacht, Lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert. He's Pooh. He is Nikolai Vasilyevich Grachev. He is also Rudolf Wilhelmovich Schmidt. He is also the Colonist - this is how he describes the first appearance of Nikolai Kuznetsov in Rivne Theodor Gladkov.
Paul Siebert received the task at the slightest opportunity to eliminate the Gauleiter of East Prussia and the Reich Commissioner of Ukraine Erich Koch. He meets his adjutant and in the summer of 1943, through him, he seeks an audience with Koch. There is a good reason - Siebert's fiancée Volksdeutsche Fraulein Dovger is facing being sent to work in Germany. After the war, Valentina Dovger recalled that, preparing for the visit, Nikolai Ivanovich was absolutely calm. In the morning I got ready, as always, methodically and carefully. He put the pistol in his jacket pocket. However, during the audience, his every movement was controlled by guards and dogs, and it was useless to shoot. It turned out that Siebert was from East Prussia - a fellow countryman of Koch. He so endeared himself to a high-ranking Nazi, a personal friend of the Fuhrer, that he told him about the upcoming German offensive near Kursk in the summer of 1943. The information immediately went to the Center.
The very fact of this conversation is so amazing that there are many myths around it. It is alleged, for example, that Koch was an agent of influence of Joseph Stalin, and this meeting was pre-arranged. Then it turns out that Kuznetsov did not at all need an amazing command of German in order to gain the confidence of the Gauleiter. This is confirmed by the fact that Stalin reacted rather leniently to Koch, handed over to him by the British in 1949, and gave him to Poland, where he lived to be 90 years old. Although in fact Stalin has nothing to do with it. It’s just that the Poles, after Stalin’s death, made a deal with Koch, since he alone knew the location of the Amber Room, since he was responsible for its evacuation from Königsberg in 1944. Now this room is most likely somewhere in the States, because the Poles need to pay something back to their new owners.
Stalin, rather, owes his life to Kuznetsov. It was Kuznetsov who, in the fall of 1943, conveyed the first information about the impending assassination attempt on Joseph Stalin, Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill (Operation Long Jump) during the Tehran Conference. He was in touch with Maya Mikota, who, on instructions from the Center, became a Gestapo agent (pseudonym “17”) and introduced Kuznetsov to Ulrich von Ortel, who at the age of 28 was an SS Sturmbannführer and a representative of SD foreign intelligence in Rovno. In one of the conversations, von Ortel said that he was given the great honor of participating in “a grandiose business that will shake up the whole world,” and promised to bring Maya a Persian carpet... On the evening of November 20, 1943, Maya informed Kuznetsov that von Ortel committed suicide in his office on Deutschestrasse. Although in the book “Tehran, 1943. At the Big Three conference and on the sidelines,” Stalin’s personal translator Valentin Berezhkov indicates that von Ortel was present in Tehran as Otto Skorzeny's deputy. However, as a result of the timely actions of the group Gevork Vartanyan The “light cavalry” managed to eliminate the Tehran Abwehr station, after which the Germans did not dare to send the main group led by Skorzeny to certain failure. So there was no Long Jump.
In the autumn of 1943, several assassination attempts were organized on the life of Paul Dargel, Erich Koch's permanent deputy. On September 20, Kuznetsov mistakenly killed Erich 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. Dargel was seriously injured and lost both legs. After this, it was decided to organize the kidnapping of the commander of the “eastern battalions” (punitive) formation, Major General Max von Ilgen. Ilgen was captured along with Paul Granau, Erich Koch's driver, and shot at one of the farms near Rivne. On November 16, 1943, Kuznetsov shot and killed the head of the legal department of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, SA Oberführer Alfred Funk. In Lvov in January 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov destroyed the chief of the government of Galicia, Otto Bauer, and the head of the government chancellery of the General Government, Dr. Heinrich Schneider.
On March 9, 1944, making their way to the front line, Kuznetsov’s group came across Ukrainian nationalists UPA. During the ensuing shootout, his comrades Kaminsky and Belov were killed, and Nikolai Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade. After the Germans fled in Lvov, a telegram with the following content was discovered, sent on April 2, 1944 to Berlin:
Top secret
National importance
Lvov, April 2, 1944
TELEGRAM-LIGHTNING
To the Main Office of Reich Security to present the "SS" to Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of Police Heinrich Müller
At the next meeting on April 1, 1944, the Ukrainian delegate reported that one of the units of the UPA “Chernogora” on March 2, 1944 detained three Soviet-Russian spies in the forest near Belogorodka in the Verba region (Volyn). Judging by the documents of these three detained agents, we are talking about a group reporting directly to the NKVD GB. The UPA verified the identities of the three arrested as follows:
1. The leader of the group, Paul Siebert, nicknamed Pooh, had false documents as a senior lieutenant in the German army, was allegedly born in Königsberg, and his photo was on the ID. He was dressed in the uniform of a German senior lieutenant.
2. Pole Jan Kaminsky.
Z. Strelok Ivan Vlasovets, nicknamed Belov, Pooh's driver.
All arrested Soviet-Russian agents had false German documents, rich auxiliary material - maps, German and Polish newspapers, among them “Gazeta Lvovska” and a report on their intelligence activities on the territory of the Soviet-Russian front. Judging by this report, compiled personally by Pooh, he and his accomplices committed terrorist acts in the Lvov area. After completing the assignment in Rovno, Pooh headed to Lvov and got an apartment from a Pole. Then Pooh managed to sneak into a meeting where there was a meeting of the highest government officials in Galicia under the leadership of Governor Dr. Wechter.
Pooh intended to shoot Governor Dr. Waechter under these circumstances. But due to the strict precautionary measures of the Gestapo, this plan failed, and instead of the governor, the lieutenant governor, Dr. Bauer, and the latter’s secretary, Dr. Schneider, were killed. Both of these German statesmen were shot dead near their private apartment. After the committed act, Pooh and his accomplices fled to the Zolochev area. During this period of time, Pooh had a clash with the Gestapo when the latter tried to check his car. On this occasion, he also shot and killed a senior Gestapo official. There is a detailed description of what happened. During another control of his car, Pooh shot one German officer and his adjutant, and after that he abandoned the car and was forced to flee into the forest. In the forests, he had to fight with UPA units in order to get to Rovno and further on the other side of the Soviet-Russian front with the intention of personally handing over his reports to one of the leaders of the Soviet-Russian army, who would send them further to the Center, to Moscow. As for the Soviet-Russian agent Pooh and his accomplices detained by the UPA units, we are undoubtedly talking about the Soviet-Russian terrorist Paul Siebert, who in Rovno kidnapped, among others, General Ilgen, in the Galician district shot aviation lieutenant colonel Peters, one senior aviation corporal, vice - the governor, the head of the department, Dr. Bauer and the presidial chief, Dr. Schneider, as well as the field gendarmerie major Kanter, whom we carefully searched for. By morning, a message was received from Prützmann’s combat group that Paul Siebert and his two accomplices had been found shot in Volhynia. The OUN representative promised that all materials in copies or even originals would be handed over to the security police if, in return, the security police agreed to release Ms. Lebed with the child and her relatives. It should be expected that if the promise of release is fulfilled, the OUN-Bandera group will send me a much larger amount of information material.
Signed: Head of the Security Police and SD for the Galician District, Dr. Vitiska, “SS” Obersturmbannführer and Senior Directorate Advisor
Meeting of the Colonist with the secretary of the Slovak Embassy G.-L. Krno, a German intelligence agent. 1940 Operational photography with a hidden camera
In addition to the “Winners” detachment, commanded by Dmitry Medvedev and in which Nikolai Kuznetsov was based, the “Olympus” detachment of Viktor Karasev operated in the Rivne region and Volyn, whose intelligence assistant was the legendary “Major Whirlwind” - Alexey Botyan, who turned 100 this year years. I recently asked Alexey Nikolaevich if he had met Nikolai Kuznetsov and what he knew about his death.
Alexey Nikolaevich, together with you in the Rivne region, Dmitry Medvedev’s “Winners” detachment operated, and in its composition, under the guise of a German officer, was the legendary intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov. Have you ever met him?
Yes, I had to. This was at the end of 1943, about 30 km west of Rivne. The Germans found out the location of Medvedev’s detachment and were preparing a punitive operation against it. We found out about this, and Karasev decided to help Medvedev. We arrived there and settled down 5–6 km from Medvedev. And it was our custom: as soon as we change place, we definitely arrange a bathhouse. We had a special guy for this case. Because people are dirty - there is nowhere to wash their clothes. Sometimes they took it off and kept it over the fire so as not to get lice. I've never had lice. Well, that means we invited Medvedev to the bathhouse, and Kuznetsov just came to him from the city. He arrived in a German uniform, they met him somewhere and changed his clothes so that no one in the detachment knew about him. We invited them to the bathhouse together. Then they organized a table, I got local moonshine. They asked Kuznetsov questions, especially me. He had an impeccable command of the German language and had German documents in the name of Paul Siebert, the quartermaster of the German units. Outwardly, he looked like a German - so blond. He entered any German institution and reported that he was carrying out an assignment from the German command. So he had very good cover. I also thought: “I wish I could do that!” Bandera's men killed him. Evgeniy Ivanovich Mirkovsky, also a Hero of the Soviet Union, an intelligent and honest man, also operated in the same places. We later became friends in Moscow, I often visited his house on Frunzenskaya. His reconnaissance and sabotage group “Walkers” in June 1943 in Zhitomir blew up the buildings of the central telegraph, printing house and Gebietskommissariat. The Gebietskommissar himself was seriously wounded, and his deputy was killed. So Mirkovsky blamed Medvedev himself for the death of Kuznetsov because he did not give him good security - there were only three of them, they fell into a Bandera ambush and died. Mirkovsky told me: “All the blame for Kuznetsov’s death lies with Medvedev.” But Kuznetsov had to be protected - no one else did it.
In Ukraine they sometimes say that Kuznetsov is a legend, a product of propaganda...
What a legend - I saw it myself. We were in the bathhouse together!
During the war, did you meet with the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD - the legendary Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov?
The first time was in 1942. He arrived at the station, said goodbye to us, and gave instructions. He told Karasev: “Take care of people!” And I stood nearby. Then, in 1944, Sudoplatov handed me the officer's shoulder straps of a senior lieutenant of state security. Well, we met after the war. And with him, and with Eitingon, who made me a Czech. It was Khrushchev who later imprisoned them, the scoundrel. What smart people they were! How much they did for the country - after all, all the partisan detachments were under them. Both Beria and Stalin - whatever you say, they mobilized the country, defended it, did not allow it to be destroyed, and there were so many enemies: both inside and outside.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 5, 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for exceptional courage and bravery in carrying out command tasks. The submission was signed by the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR Pavel Sudoplatov.
Andrey VEDYAEV
