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p July 24, 1943

p Tomorrow marks eleven months behind enemy lines.

p On August 25, 1942, at 24.05, I was dropped by parachute to spare the Germans no mercy in revenge for the blood and tears shed by our mothers and brothers who groan under the yoke of German occupation.

p Eleven months I’ve been scrutinising the enemy with the aid of a German officer’s uniform. I’ve been preparing a fatal blow, having got into the very lair of the satrap-Erich Koch, the German tyrant in the Ukraine.

p My mission is vital and to carry it through I have to sacrifice my life, since getting away from the city centre after making my attempt at the enemy during the parade is completely out of the question. I love life, I’m still very young. But because my motherland, whom I love like my own mother, requires that I lay down my life in the name of freedom from German occupation, I shall do so. Let the whole world know the spirit and fire of a Russian patriot and Bolshevik. Let the nazi gangleaders remember that trying to conquer our people is like trying to put out the sun.

p German bastards like Hitler, Koch and company thought they could destroy our great Soviet nation. They had some dim-witted idea about drowning the Russian and other fraternal peoples of the U.S.S.R. in a sea of blood.

p They forgot or didn’t know history, these savages of the 20th century. They will understand all right on July 29, 1943, when after a whistle an anti-tank grenade will explode spilling their pagan German blood all over the asphalt. . . . Even if I die, my people will keep my memory eternal.

150

p “You may die, but in the song of the brave and the strong in heart, you will forever be a living example, a proud appeal for liberty and reason.”

p That comes from my favourite piece of Gorky, I wish our young people would read it more often. That’s where I got my strength for great deeds.

p Yours,
Kuznetsov 

To be read only after my death.
24/VII. 1943 Kuznetsov

p Nikolai Kuznetsov was born in 1911 in the village of Zyryanka near Chelyabinsk in the Urals. Not far from his native village was a German colony. The young Nikolai often used to come and chat with the German colonists in German. Before he finished school he spoke German quite fluently.

p Up to 1938, he lived in Komi-Perm territory, and later went to work at the Uralmash plant in Sverdlovsk.

When war came he was working in Moscow as an engineer at a motor works. In the first few days of war he made a request to be sent behind the lines on intelligence work. In May 1942, he began to get ready for action in the enemy’s rear under the guise of a German officer. He first went through a tough training course, learning about German arms and army procedure, sharpening up his shooting and studying explosives, and talking with captured German officers.

Nikolai Kuznetsov, Hero of the
Soviet Union

p On the night of August 25, 1942, Nikolai Kuznetsov and a tiny band of paratroopers landed behind enemy lines. Three days later, Kuznetsov met up with D. Medvedev, commander of a partisan detachment and a Hero of the Soviet Union. That marked the commencement of the activities of the famous scout.

p Kuznetsov several times successfully carried out daring missions and from October 1942 he spent most of his time in the town of Rovno, the residence of Erich Koch, Reichskommissar for the Ukraine.

p In the very heart of the nazi administration of the Ukraine, Kuznetsov carried out 151 exceptionally brave and daring missions. He was often instrumental in getting through to the Soviet Command extremely valuable political and military information. With his help, for example, the Soviet authorities managed to uncover a plot by the nazi intelligence to assassinate the heads of government of the anti-Hitler coalition during the Teheran Conference in 1943.

p Nikolai Kuznetsov was an exceedingly courageous and clever man. His exploits were truly legendary. Once, dressed as a nazi officer, he got into the building of a German court and shot dead the chief nazi judge in the Ukraine Alfred Funk. At the end of September 1943, he carried out a death sentence order passed by the partisans on Paul Dargel, Koch’s assistant for political affairs, and General Hermann Knut, another of Koch’s right-hand men.

p In November 1943, he and three comrades smuggled out of his private residence General Ilgen, commander of Germany’s special forces in the Ukraine.

p On January 18, 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov received new instructions and left for Lvov to assassinate the butcher of the Ukrainian peopleDeputy Governor of Galicia, Bauer. Mission completed, Kuznetsov and two partisans-Jan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov-made their way to the front. During the night of March 8, 1944, in the village of Boratin near Lvov, they were recognised by one of the Bendera gang. In the ensuing skirmish Nikolai Kuznetsov blew up himself and the onrushing foe with a hand grenade.

p On November 5, 1944, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The published letter was written on July 24, 1943, in the event of his death.