Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov
| Nikolai Kuznetsov | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Birth name | Nikanor Kuznetsov |
| Born |
July 27, 1911 Zyryanka village Perm Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | March 9, 1944 (aged 32) Near Brody, Reichskommissariat Ukraine |
| Allegiance |
 Soviet Union
|
| Service/branch | NKVD |
| Years of service | 1938-1944 |
| Awards |
 
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Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov (Russian: 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 six high-ranking German officials. His file is still not fully disclosed and will be held until 2025 in the FSB archives. It was not until 1990 that Kuznetsov was officially recognized as an NKVD agent. He used several pseudonyms during his intelligence operations: e.g. Rudolf Schmidt, Nikolai Vasilevitsh Grachev (Николай Васильевич Грачёв) and Oberleutnant Paul Siebert. Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Kuznetsov was born into a peasant family of Russian ethnicity in Perm Governorate (present-day Sverdlovsk Oblast). 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 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 the Komsomol. 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 to Kudymkar (Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug) Kuznetsov was recruited by the local department of the OGPU. In 1932 he enrolled into Sverdlovsk Industrial Institute and continued to study German and other foreign languages.
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