Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov

Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov (Николай Иванович Кузнецов) (July 27, 1911–March 9, 1944) was a semi-legendary Soviet intelligence agent and partisan who operated in Nazi-occupied Ukraine (Reichskommissariat Ukraine) during World War II who personally killed eleven German Generals and high-ranking officials. His file is still not fully disclosed and until 2025 is kept safe in the FSB archives. It was not until 1990 that Kuznetsov was officially recognized as the KGB agent as fully confidential with no access. He used several pseudonyms during his intelligence operations: e.g. Rudolf Schmidt, Nikolai Vasilevitsh Grachev (Николай Васильевич Грачёв) and Oberleutnant Paul Siebert.

Biography
He was born into a peasant family in the Yekaterinburg region. He studied forestry in a technical school and, after discovering his linguistic talents, learned German, Esperanto, Polish, Ukrainian and Mordvinic languages (particularly Erzya language). In 1926 at 15 he enrolled into the 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 Komsomol. At home he enrolled into the local forestry college, while in 1929 Kuznetsov was accused of his counter-revolutionary origin and excluded from Komsomol and the college. After moving in 1930 to Kudymkar (Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug) Kuznetsov was recruited by the local department of GPU. 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 the NKVD. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Kuznetsov, at his own request, was sent to join Soviet partisan units in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine. In 1942, he fought as a member of guerrilla group "Victors", led by Dmitry Medvedev, in central and western Ukraine. He was in charge of several complex operations involving assassinations and kidnappings of high-ranking Nazi officials in the Rivne and Lviv regions, such as successful operations against the German-appointed chief judge of Ukraine, the vice-governor of Galicia, the imperial adviser to the Reichskommissar of Ukraine, three German generals and others. Kuznetsov was also the first intelligence agent to uncover German plans to launch a massive tank attack in the Kursk region, information about German V-2 rockets, as well as about Operation Long Jump, Hitler's plan to assassinate the heads of the USSR, USA and Great Britain during the Tehran Conference. Kuznetsov was acting in Rivne (the capital of Reichskommissariat Ukraine) under the fake German identity of Oberleutnant Paul Siebert. It was Kuznetsov who obtained information about the location of Hitler's headquarters "Wehrwolf" near the city of Vinnitsya.

On March 9, 1944, he was killed in a firefight with members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army near the city of Brody.

Legacy
Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov has been posthumously awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A minor planet 2233 Kuznetsov discovered in 1972 by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova is named after him.

Films about Kuznetsov

 * Strong with Spirit («Сильные духом»)
 * Special Operations Squad («Отряд специального назначения»)
 * Genius of the intelligence («Гений разведки»)

Kuznetsov's victims
The main Kuznetzov's target Nazi Party official Erich Koch survived World War II and outlived his Soviet "nemesis". Remarkably unlike many other Koch's party colleagues, he managed to live into an old age, although officially was imprisoned in Poland since World War II.


 * September 20, 1943 Dr.Hans Gel
 * September 20, 1943 Winter
 * November 15, 1943 Major General Max IIgen
 * November 15, 1943 Hauptmann Paul Granau
 * November 16, 1943 Oberfuhrer Alfred Funk
 * February 9, 1944 Deputy Governor of Galicia District Otto Bauer and his assistant Heinrich Schneider

Unsuccessful attempts

 * April 20, 1943 - Erich Koch
 * Summer 1943 - Erich Koch
 * June 5, 1943 - Alfred Rosenberg
 * September 30, 1943 - Paul Dargel