 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Nikolai Kuznetsov" spy – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Nikolai Kuznetsov | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Birth name | Nikanor[1] Ivanovich Kuznetsov |
| Born | (1911-07-27)27 July 1911 |
| Died | 9 March 1944(1944-03-09) (aged 32) |
| Allegiance |  Soviet Union |
| Branch | NKVD |
| Years of service | 1938–1944 |
| Rank | Senior Lieutenant |
| Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union |
Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov (Russian:Николай Иванович Кузнецов; 27 July 1911 – 9 March 1944) was aSovietintelligence agent andpartisan who operated inNazi-occupied Ukraine (Reichskommissariat Ukraine) duringWorld War II and who personally killed six high-ranking German officials. His file is still not fully disclosed and will be held until 2025 in theFSB archives. It was not until 1990 that Kuznetsov was officially recognized as aNKVD agent. He used severalpseudonyms during his intelligence operations: e.g.Rudolf Schmidt,Nikolai Vasilevitsh Grachov (Николай Васильевич Грачёв) andOberleutnantPaul Siebert. Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the titleHero of the Soviet Union.
Kuznetsov was born into a peasant family ofRussian ethnicity[2] in theYekaterinburgsky Uyezd of thePerm Governorate of theRussian Empire (present-daySverdlovsk Oblast,Russia). He studied forestry in a technical school and, after discovering his linguistic talents, learned theGerman,Esperanto,Polish,Ukrainian andMordvinic languages (particularlyErzya language). In 1926, at age 15, Kuznetsov enrolled at Tyumen Agricultural College but did not finish and was forced to return home because of the death of his father. During that time Kuznetsov joined the ranks of theKomsomol. At home he enrolled in the local forestry college but in 1929 Kuznetsov was accused of having counter-revolutionary origins and excluded from Komsomol and the college. After moving in 1930 toKudymkar (Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug) Kuznetsov was recruited by the local department of theOGPU. In 1932 he enrolled into Sverdlovsk Industrial Institute and continued to study German and other foreign languages.
In 1938 Kuznetsov moved to Moscow and joined theNKVD, his tasks included posing as aVolga German and collecting intelligence about German diplomats in Moscow.[3]
WhenGermany invaded the Soviet Union Kuznetsov, at his own request, was sent to joinSoviet partisan units in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine. In 1942, the same year he became a member of theCommunist Party, he fought as a member of the guerrilla group "Victors", led byDmitry Medvedev, in central and western Ukraine. Kuznetsov was in charge of several complex operations involving assassinations and kidnappings of high-rankingNazi officials in theRivne andLviv regions, such as successful operations against the German-appointed chief judge of Ukraine, the vice-governor ofGalicia, the adviser to theReichskommissar of Ukraine, three German generals and others. Kuznetsov was also the first intelligence agent to uncover German plans to launch a massivetank attack in theKursk region, and information about GermanV-2 rockets, as well as aboutOperation Long Jump,Hitler's alleged plan to assassinate the heads of the USSR, USA and Great Britain during theTehran Conference. Kuznetsov was operating inRivne (the capital ofReichskommissariat Ukraine) using the fake German identity ofOberleutnant Paul Siebert. It was Kuznetsov who obtained information about the location of Hitler's "Werwolf" headquarters, near the city ofVinnitsya.
According to a report submitted byJosef Witiska toHeinrich Müller (and cited by D. Medvedev in his memoir about Kuznetsov), "Paul Siebert" and his accomplices were detained and shot by theUkrainian Insurgent Army, which then informed SS-ObergruppenführerHans-Adolf Prützmann about the incident. According to official Soviet version, Kuznetsov was killed in a firefight with members of theUkrainian Insurgent Army near the city ofBrody on 9 March 1944. In another version by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Kuznetsov and his associates were detained in the village of Boratyn near Brody, dressed as German soldiers.[4] To avoid being discovered, Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade.[4]
Kuznetsov is currently buried inLviv,Ukraine.[5] Since 2003, several unsuccessful attempts have been made to rebury him inRussia.[5] A 2007 attempt was stopped by theRussian Foreign Ministry, which claimed that "such a move would open a kind of Pandora’s box and giveUkrainian nationalists a reason to launch a campaign to transfer other graves of Soviet soldiers buried in Ukraine."[5] A 2018 attempt was prevented by the Lviv authorities, who claimed that such a reburial could not be considered while Ukrainian prisoners were being held captive in Russia during an ongoingRussian military intervention in Ukraine.[5]
Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov has been posthumously awarded the honorary title ofHero of the Soviet Union.Minor planet2233 Kuznetsov, discovered in 1972 bySoviet astronomerLyudmila Zhuravlyova, is named after him.[6] Kuznetsovsk, a city inVolhynia, was named after the Soviet agent (renamed in 2016 toVarash conforming to alaw prohibiting names of Communist origin).[7]
Kuznetsov's story was allegedly an inspiration for the Polish TV seriesMore than Life at Stake and the Russian TV seriesSeventeen Moments of Spring, both of which narrated the exploits of agents who successfully infiltrated Nazi armed forces during World War II.
Kuznetzov's main target,Nazi Party officialErich Koch, survivedWorld War II and outlived his Soviet "nemesis", dying of old age in aPolish prison in 1986 at the age of 90.[citation needed]
According to theUkrainian Institute of National Remembrance Kuznetzov "carried out provocations against theUkrainian liberation movement, as a result of which the Nazi invaders executed hostages".[5]
ColonelDmitry Medvedev, who oversaw Kuznetsov's activities, repeatedly attributes him discovery of a planned Nazi operation against theTehran Conference of Allied leaders.[citation needed] However, this version is not accepted by historians due to apparent controversy. He also mentions occasional killing of other middle-ranked Nazi officers by Kuznetsov, of which the last victim, major Kanter ofFeldgendarmerie, shot at the checkpoint while Kuznetsov was trying to escape from Lviv, is mentioned in the SS report about Kuznetsov's death.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
