The atrocities of the fascists on Soviet soil during the occupation could not but cause indignation.
That is why a directive was developed in the USSR ordering the start of a partisan movement in the enemy rear. The essence of such work was in the words: "Let the earth burn under the feet of the fascists." According to historians, the relevant documents were created on June 29 and July 18, 1941.
In particular, in paragraph 5 of the directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the party and Soviet organizations of the front-line regions of June 29, 1941 said:
“In the areas occupied by the enemy, create partisan detachments and sabotage groups to fight parts of the enemy army, to incite a partisan war everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to warehouses, etc. In the occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every step, disrupt all their activities.
To manage all this activity in advance, under the responsibility of the first secretaries of the regional and district committees, create from the best people reliable underground cells and safe houses in every city, district center, workers' settlement, railway station, in state and collective farms."
Already in the very first days of the war, by order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, a Special Group was created under the NKVD, which was entrusted with organizing reconnaissance and sabotage work and partisan warfare in the rear of the Nazi troops.
On the territory of Ukraine, a sacred underground battle was launched against the Nazis under the leadership of General Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov. His fighters from the sabotage and reconnaissance detachments took part in various risky actions of retaliation and fair punishment. Thanks to this work, over a hundred high-ranking fascists were eliminated.
The detachment of our special forces, which was introduced to the enemies, was named "Winners". And I must say that for the invaders, life in Ukraine then, without exaggeration, turned into a real nightmare.
There is an extraordinary personality among these fighters of the invisible front. This is the legendary scout Nikolai Kuznetsov. Fate has chosen a special role for Nikolai Ivanovich. General P. A. Sudoplatov said about this better than others:
“Nikolai Kuznetsov is a scalpel in the hands of an experienced surgeon to remove fascist growths. And this “surgeon” is the 4th department”.
But first things first.
Perm gem
There is in the Urals, 225 kilometers from Yekaterinburg, the village of Zyryanka, on the right bank of the Balair River (this is the left tributary of the Pyshma River). Previously, this settlement was part of the Kamyshlovsky district of the Perm province. And now it is the Talitsky urban district of the Sverdlovsk region. It was there that almost 110 years ago, on July 27, 1911, our hero, Nikolai Kuznetsov, was born.
His school years were productive. Nikolai received an excellent memory from his parents, memorized many poems and absorbed everything like a sponge. He avoided harsh words, expressed himself in a bookish manner, thought clearly. The reasons for this were the customs of his family: his parents were Old Believers. And also books, which he swallowed by the hundreds. Most of all, the future intelligence officer loved the novels of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and Jack London.
He graduated from high school in the nearby town of Talitsa. It was there that his remarkable linguistic talent manifested itself.
In the local library, Nikolai came across works of foreign classics. They were confiscated from the owner of the distillery there. These books were in expensive leather covers, and therefore they were put on public display. Nikolai wanted to read these stories in the original language. To do this, he needed to become a polyglot.
He independently learned English and French, with a self-study guide. But he mastered German with living native speakers. Firstly, there were many German prisoners of war in Talitsa who settled there with the end of the First World War. And secondly, his schoolteacher grew up in German Switzerland. As a result, Nikolai mastered six dialects of German at once. Plus Polish and Esperanto. Kuznetsov studied not only the languages themselves, but also the national psychology of peoples, as well as their unique behavioral characteristics.
The second basic talent of Nikolai Kuznetsov from his youth was the skill of reincarnation, which he mastered while still in school theater. Classmates noted his ability to instantly transform, hypnotic charm, passion, determination, secrecy and readiness for self-sacrifice. In addition, Nikolay was a prize-winner in ski and shooting competitions.
“The character of Kuznetsov in a strange way combined a disposition to people, the ability to make acquaintances easily, but without obsession, with a certain inner secrecy, even isolation”. Link
First secret missions
In addition to foreign languages, interest in local languages also grew in Nikolay. When he graduated from the Forestry College of the city of Talitsa, he began to work as a forester of the land administration of the city of Kudymkar, in the Komi-Permyak national district. There he began to study the Permian Komi language.
There Nikolai married (in 1930) a nurse, Elena Chugaeva. But life with her did not work out, and soon the family broke up. Then in his life there was an attack by "black lumberjacks", from whom he had to shoot back. During the interrogation with the local security officers, knowledge of the Komi-Permian language came in handy. This language made him a secret employee. He received the first code name Kulik.
Four years later, Kuznetsov moved to Sverdlovsk. He is studying at the Ural Industrial Institute in the evening. And at the same time he works in the design bureau at Uralmash. There he carried out a secret mission to study the connections of German factory specialists with the Abwehr (German military intelligence). For which he received the pseudonyms Scientist and Colonist.
Since January 1936, Nikolai leaves the factory. Now he is only a special agent who is sent on business trips around the Union. In other words, he is a route agent. He gets into trouble, for a mistake he is put in the cellars of the internal prison of the Sverdlovsk NKVD Directorate. There, at the age of 26, he will almost lose his hair. Miraculously, his friends pull him out of the dungeons.
After that, Kuznetsov ends up in Moscow. Not so long ago, the details of this move were declassified. TK Gladkov in his book "The Legend of Soviet Intelligence - N. Kuznetsov" reports the following. Here is an entire passage.
Lieutenant General Leonid Fedorovich Raikhman got a call from the Urals in mid-1938:
- Leonid Fedorovich, - Zhuravlev said after the usual greetings, - here I have in mind one person, still young, our unofficial employee. A very gifted person. I am convinced that it should be used in the Center, we simply have nothing to do with it.
- Who is he? I asked.
- Specialist in forestry. Honest, intelligent, strong-willed, energetic, proactive. And with astounding linguistic ability. He is fluent in German, knows Esperanto and Polish. For several months he learned the Permian Komi language so much that in Kudymkar they took it for their own …
The offer interested me. I understood that Zhuravlev would not recommend anyone without good reason. And in our country in recent years, many experienced, not fake, but real counterintelligence and intelligence officers have died. Some lines and objects were simply bare or were serviced by random people.
“Send it,” I said to Mikhail Ivanovich. - Let him call me at home.
A couple of days later, a phone call rang in the apartment of General Leonid Fedorovich Raikhman on Gorky Street. Nikolay Kuznetsov called.
It must happen that at that very time I was visiting an old friend and colleague who had just returned from a long business trip to Germany, where he worked from an illegal position. I looked at him expressively, and said into the phone:
- Comrade Kuznetsov, now they will speak German with you.
My friend talked with Kuznetsov for a few minutes on general topics, then returned the receiver to me and, covering the microphone with his palm, said in surprise:
- 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 for tomorrow, and he came to my house. When he just stepped on the threshold, I just gasped: Aryan! Purebred Aryan. Above average height, slender, thin, but strong, blond, straight nose, blue-gray eyes. A real German, but without such signs of aristocratic degeneration. And an excellent bearing, like a professional soldier, and this is the Ural forestry! Link
In Moscow then they did not think for a long time. And they immediately took Kuznetsov to the capital …
In the next part, we will talk about where Kuznetsov served in the Great Patriotic War and how he first transferred the coordinates of Hitler's secret residence in Ukraine "Werewolf" to the Center.
