Sasha Fillipov

Sasha Filippov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович (Са́ша) Фили́ппов; 26 June 1925 – 23 December 1942) was a spy for the Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Sasha Filippov was born in 1925 in Stalingrad (modern-day Volgograd), Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. At the time of the Battle of Stalingrad, Filippov lived in the Stalingrad suburb of Dar-Gora with his father, mother, and a younger brother who was born in 1932. Physically, Sasha was frail and short statured.

When the initial Wehrmacht assault on Stalingrad resulted in battalions of the German 6th Army quickly overrunning suburbs of the city, many Russian families were caught unaware and found themselves unable to flee in time. One such family was the Filippovs.

While his family stayed indoors, Filippov went out and began speaking with the German soldiers. He found out where the headquarters for the German staff was located and proceeded to offer his services as a cobbler to the officers of the invading forces. He was informed that his services would be useful and soon he was a regular sight behind the German lines, repairing and polishing shoes and boots for the officers and soldiers. Unbeknownst to the Germans, however, he had also gone to Red Army headquarters to offer his services as a spy.

Designated by the Red Army as the information source code named 'schoolboy', Filippov would remove documents from the desks of German officers, report German conversations and enemy troop movements, and describe what German military activity he could see to Russian officers, all while mending footwear for the German Army. From this information, more precise attacks could be made on troop concentrations and the Wehrmacht headquarters located in the Dar Gora area was even shelled one night by Russian artillery, thanks to Filippov providing the exact firing coordinates.

Filippov's parents never knew the details of his work as a spy at the time. They knew only that their son was working for the Red Army in some fashion, though not exactly how.

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