Who is Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov. Nikolai Kuznetsov: a brilliant intelligence officer who died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists
Copper is an element of a side subgroup of the first group, the fourth period of the periodic system of chemical elements of D. I. Mendeleev, with atomic number 29. It is designated by the symbol Cu (lat. Cuprum).
Atomic number - 29
Atomic mass - 63.546
Density, kg/m³ - 8960
Melting point, ° С - 1083
Heat capacity, kJ / (kg ° С) - 0.385
Electronegativity - 1.9
Covalent radius, Å - 1.17
1st ionization potential, ev - 7.73
Copper is found in nature both in compounds and in native form. Of industrial importance are chalcopyrite CuFeS2, also known as copper pyrites, chalcocite Cu2S and bornite Cu5FeS4. Other copper minerals are found together with them: covelline CuS, cuprite Cu2O, azurite Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2, malachite Cu2CO3(OH)2. Sometimes copper is found in native form, the mass of individual accumulations can reach 400 tons. Copper sulfides are formed mainly in medium-temperature hydrothermal veins. Also, copper deposits are often found in sedimentary rocks - cuprous sandstones and shales. The most famous deposits of this type are Udokan in the Chita region, Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan, the copper belt of Central Africa and Mansfeld in Germany.
Most of the copper ore is mined by open pit mining. The copper content in the ore ranges from 0.4 to 1.0%. Physical properties of copper
Copper is a golden-pink ductile metal, quickly covered with an oxide film in air, which gives it a characteristic intense yellowish-red hue. Copper has a high thermal and electrical conductivity (ranks second in electrical conductivity after silver). It has two stable isotopes - 63Cu and 65Cu, and several radioactive isotopes. The longest-lived of these, 64Cu, has a half-life of 12.7 hours and two decays with different products.
The color of Copper is red, pink in fracture, greenish-blue when translucent in thin layers. The metal has a face-centered cubic lattice with a = 3.6074 Å; density 8.96 g/cm3 (20 °C). Atomic radius 1.28 Å; ionic radii Cu+ 0.98 Å; Cu2+ 0.80 Å; tmelt 1083 °C; tbp 2600 °С; specific heat capacity (at 20 °C) 385.48 J/(kg K), i.e. 0.092 cal/(g °C). The most important and widely used properties of Copper are: high thermal conductivity - at 20 °C 394.279 W/(m·K.), i.e. 0.941 cal/(cm·sec·°С); low electrical resistance - at 20 °C 1.68 10-8 ohm m. Thermal coefficient of linear expansion 17.0 10-6. The vapor pressure over Copper is negligible, a pressure of 133.322 N/m2 (ie 1 mm Hg) is only reached at 1628°C. Copper is diamagnetic; atomic magnetic susceptibility 5.27 10-6. Brinell Copper hardness 350 MN/m2 (i.e. 35 kgf/mm2); tensile strength 220 MN/m2 (i.e. 22 kgf/mm2); elongation 60%, modulus of elasticity 132 103 MN/m2 (i.e. 13.2 103 kgf/mm2). By work hardening, the tensile strength can be increased to 400-450 MN/m2, while the elongation is reduced to 2%, and the electrical conductivity is reduced by 1-3.
Copper(Latin cuprum), cu, a chemical element of group I of Mendeleev's periodic system; atomic number 29, atomic mass 63.546; soft, malleable red metal. Natural M. consists of a mixture of two stable isotopes - 63 cu (69.1%) and 65 cu (30.9%).
History reference. M. belongs to the number of metals known from ancient times. Early acquaintance of a person with M. was facilitated by the fact that it occurs in nature in a free state in the form of nuggets, which sometimes reach considerable sizes. Metal and its alloys played an important role in the development of material culture. Owing to the easy reducibility of oxides and carbonates, mineral was apparently the first metal that man learned to recover from oxygen compounds contained in ores. The Latin name M. comes from the name of the island of Cyprus, where the ancient Greeks mined copper ore. In ancient times, to process rock, it was heated on a fire and quickly cooled, and the rock cracked. Already under these conditions, recovery processes were possible. Subsequently, restoration was carried out in fires with a large amount of coal and with air blowing through pipes and bellows. Bonfires were surrounded by walls that gradually rose, which led to the creation of a shaft furnace. Later, reduction methods gave way to oxidative smelting of sulfide copper ores to produce intermediate products—matte (an alloy of sulfides), in which metal is concentrated, and slag (an alloy of oxides).
distribution in nature. The average content of M. in the earth's crust (clarke) is 4.7 10 -3% (by mass), in the lower part of the earth's crust, composed of basic rocks, it is more (1 10 -2%) than in the upper (2 10 -3%), where granites and other acidic igneous rocks predominate. M. migrates vigorously both in the hot waters of the depths and in the cold solutions of the biosphere; Hydrogen sulfide precipitates various mineral sulfides from natural waters, which are of great industrial importance. Sulfides, phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides predominate among the numerous mineral minerals; native mineral, carbonates, and oxides are also known.
M. is an important element of life; it participates in many physiological processes. The average content of M. in living matter is 2 × 10 -4%, organisms are known to be M. concentrators. In taiga and other landscapes of a humid climate, M. is relatively easily leached from acidic soils, here in places there is a deficiency of M. and associated diseases of plants and animals. (especially on sands and peatlands). In the steppes and deserts (with slightly alkaline solutions characteristic of them), M. is inactive; in areas of M. deposits, its excess is observed in soils and plants, which makes domestic animals sick.
There is very little M. in river water, 1 × 10 -7%. M. brought into the ocean with a runoff passes relatively quickly into sea silts. Therefore, clays and shales are somewhat enriched with mineral (5.7 × 10 -3%), while sea water is sharply undersaturated with mineral (3 × 10 -7%).
In the seas of past geological epochs, in places there was a significant accumulation of mineral deposits in silts, which led to the formation of deposits (for example, Mansfeld in the GDR). M. also migrates vigorously in the underground waters of the biosphere, and the accumulation of M.'s ores in sandstones is associated with these processes.
Physical and chemical properties. The color of M. is red, pink in the break, greenish-blue when translucent in thin layers. The metal has a face-centered cubic lattice with the parameter a= 3.6074 å; density 8.96 g/cm 3(20 °C). Atomic radius 1.28 å; ionic radii cu + 0.98 å; cu 2+ 0.80 å; t sq. 1083 °С; t bale 2600 °С; specific heat capacity (at 20 °C) 385.48 j/(kg K) , i.e. 0.092 feces/(G ·°C). The most important and widely used properties of M.: high thermal conductivity - at 20 ° C 394.279 Tue/(m K) , i.e. 0.941 feces/(cm sec°С); low electrical resistance - at 20 ° C 1.68 10 -8 ohm m. Thermal coefficient of linear expansion 17.0 · 10 -6 . The vapor pressure over M. is negligible, the pressure is 133.322 n / m 2(i.e. 1 mmHg Art.) is achieved only at 1628 °C. M. is diamagnetic; atomic magnetic susceptibility 5.27 10 -6 . Hardness M. according to Brinell 350 MN/m 2(i.e. 35 kgf/mm 2); tensile strength 220 MN/m 2(i.e. 22 kgf/mm 2); relative elongation 60%, modulus of elasticity 132 10 3 MN/m 2(i.e. 13.2 10 3 kgf/mm 2). By working hardening, the tensile strength can be increased to 400-450 MN/m 2, while the elongation decreases to 2%, and the electrical conductivity decreases by 1-3%. Annealing of hardened metal should be carried out at 600–700 °C. Small impurities bi (thousandths of a%) and pb (hundredths of a%) make M. red-brittle, and an admixture of s causes brittleness in the cold.
According to its chemical properties, M. occupies an intermediate position between the elements of the first triad of group viii and the alkaline elements of group i of the Mendeleev system. M., like fe, Co, ni, is prone to complex formation, gives colored compounds, insoluble sulfides, etc. The similarity with alkali metals is insignificant. So, M. forms a number of monovalent compounds, however, the 2-valent state is more characteristic of it. Salts of monovalent M. are practically insoluble in water and are easily oxidized to compounds of 2-valent M.; salts of 2-valent M., on the contrary, are well soluble in water and are completely dissociated in dilute solutions. Hydrated ions cu 2+ are colored blue. There are also compounds in which M. is 3-valent. So, by the action of sodium peroxide on a solution of sodium cuprite na 2 cuo 2, oxide cu 2 o 3 was obtained - a red powder, which begins to give up oxygen already at 100 ° C. cu 2 o 3 is a strong oxidizing agent (for example, it releases chlorine from hydrochloric acid).
The chemical activity of M. is small. Compact metal at temperatures below 185 ° C does not interact with dry air and oxygen. In the presence of moisture and co 2 , a green film of basic carbonate forms on the surface of the mineral. When heated in air, surface oxidation occurs; below 375 °C, cuo is formed, and in the range of 375-1100 °C, with incomplete oxidation of mineral, a two-layer scale is formed, in the surface layer of which there is cuo, and in the inner layer - cu 2 o. Wet chlorine interacts with M. even at ordinary temperatures, forming cucl 2 chloride, which is highly soluble in water. M. easily combines with other halogens. M. has a special affinity for sulfur and selenium; so, it burns in sulfur fumes. M. does not react with hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon even at high temperatures. The solubility of hydrogen in solid M. is negligible and at 400 °C is 0.06 mg at 100 G M. Hydrogen and other combustible gases (co, ch 4), acting at high temperature on M. ingots containing cu 2 o, reduce it to metal with the formation of co 2 and water vapor. These products, being insoluble in M., stand out from it, causing the appearance of cracks, which sharply worsens the mechanical properties of M.
When nh 3 is passed over a red-hot M., cu 3 n is formed. Already at a heating temperature, M. is exposed to nitrogen oxides, namely no, n 2 o (with the formation of cu 2 o) and no 2 (with the formation of cuo). Carbides cu 2 c 2 and cuc 2 can be obtained by the action of acetylene on ammonia solutions of M salts. The normal electrode potential of M. for the reaction cu 2+ + 2e ® Cu is +0.337 in, and for the reaction cu2+ + e -> Сu is +0.52 in. Therefore, M. is displaced from its salts by more electronegative elements (iron is used in industry) and does not dissolve in non-oxidizing acids. M. dissolves in nitric acid with the formation of cu (no 3) 2 and nitrogen oxides, in a hot concentration of h 2 so 4 - with the formation of cuso 4 and so 2, in heated dilute h 2 so 4 - when blowing through a solution of air. All M. salts are poisonous.
M. in the bi- and monovalent state forms numerous very stable complex compounds. Examples of complex compounds of monovalent M.: (nh 4) 2 cubr 3; k 3 cu(cn) 4 - double salt complexes; [Сu (sc (nh 2)) 2 ]ci and others. Examples of complex compounds of 2-valent M.: cscuci 3, k 2 cucl 4 - type of double salts. Of great industrial importance are ammonia complex compounds M.: [Cu (nh 3) 4] so 4, [Cu (nh 3) 2] so 4.
Receipt. Copper ores are characterized by a low content of M. Therefore, before smelting, finely divided ore is subjected to mechanical enrichment; at the same time, valuable minerals are separated from the bulk of the waste rock; as a result, a number of commercial concentrates (for example, copper, zinc, pyrite) and final tailings are obtained.
In world practice, 80% of M. is extracted from concentrates by pyrometallurgical methods based on the melting of the entire mass of the material. In the process of smelting, due to the greater affinity of mineral for sulfur, and the components of gangue and iron for oxygen, mineral is concentrated in a sulfide melt (matte), and oxides form slag. The matte is separated from the slag by settling.
In most modern factories, melting is carried out in reverberatory or electric furnaces. In reverberatory furnaces, the working space is extended in a horizontal direction; hearth area 300 m 2 and more (30 m? 10 m), the heat necessary for melting is obtained by burning carbonaceous fuel (natural gas, fuel oil, pulverized coal) in the gas space above the bath surface. In electric furnaces, heat is obtained by passing an electric current through the molten slag (the current is supplied to the slag through graphite electrodes immersed in it).
However, both reflective and electric melting, based on external sources of heat, are imperfect processes. Sulfides, which make up the bulk of copper concentrates, have a high calorific value. Therefore, more and more smelting methods are being introduced that use the heat of combustion of sulfides (the oxidizer is heated air, oxygen-enriched air, or technical oxygen). Fine, pre-dried sulfide concentrates are blown with a jet of oxygen or air into a furnace heated to a high temperature. Particles burn in a suspended state (oxygen suspended melting). Sulfides can also be oxidized in the liquid state; these processes are intensively studied in the USSR and abroad (Japan, Australia, Canada) and become the main direction in the development of pyrometallurgy of sulfide copper ores.
Rich lumpy sulfide ores (2-3% cu) with a high sulfur content (35-42% s) in some cases are directly sent for smelting in shaft furnaces (furnaces with a vertically located working space). In one of the varieties of shaft smelting (copper-sulphur smelting), fine coke is added to the charge, which reduces so 2 to elemental sulfur in the upper horizons of the furnace. Copper is also concentrated in the matte in this process.
The liquid matte obtained during melting (mainly cu 2 s, fes) is poured into the converter - a cylindrical tank made of sheet steel, lined with magnesite bricks from the inside, equipped with a side row of tuyeres for blowing air and a device for turning around the axis. Compressed air is blown through the matte layer. The matte conversion proceeds in two stages. First, iron sulfide is oxidized, and quartz is added to the converter to bind the iron oxides; converter slag is formed. Then copper sulfide is oxidized to form metal metal and so 2 . This draft M. is poured into molds. Ingots (and sometimes directly molten crude metal) are sent for fire refining in order to extract valuable satellites (au, ag, se, fe, bi, and others) and remove harmful impurities. It is based on the greater affinity of impurity metals for oxygen than that of copper: fe, zn, co and partially ni and others pass into slag in the form of oxides, and sulfur (in the form of so 2) is removed with gases. After removing the slag, metal is “teased” to restore the cu 2 o dissolved in it by immersing the ends of raw birch or pine logs in liquid metal, after which it is cast into flat molds. For electrolytic refining, these ingots are suspended in a bath with a solution of cuso 4 acidified with h 2 so 4 . They serve as anodes. When a current is passed, the anodes dissolve, and pure M. is deposited on cathodes—thin copper sheets, also obtained by electrolysis in special matrix baths. Surface-active additives (carpenter's glue, thiourea, and others) are introduced into the electrolyte to isolate dense, smooth precipitates. The resulting cathodic mineral is washed with water and remelted. Noble metals, se, te and other valuable satellites of M. are concentrated in the anode sludge, from which they are extracted by special processing. Nickel concentrated in the electrolyte; by removing part of the solutions for evaporation and crystallization, it is possible to obtain ni in the form of nickel vitriol.
Along with pyrometallurgical methods, hydrometallurgical methods are also used to obtain minerals (mainly from poor oxidized and native ores). These methods are based on the selective dissolution of copper-containing minerals, usually in weak solutions of h 2 so 4 or ammonia. M.'s solution is either precipitated with iron or isolated by electrolysis with insoluble anodes. Very promising for mixed ores are combined hydroflotation methods, in which the oxygen compounds of minerals are dissolved in sulfuric acid solutions, and sulfides are isolated by flotation. Autoclave hydrometallurgical processes proceeding at elevated temperatures and pressures are also gaining ground.
Application. The great role of magnetism in technology is due to a number of its valuable properties, primarily its high electrical conductivity, plasticity, and thermal conductivity. Thanks to these properties, M. is the main material for wires; over 50% of the mined mineral is used in the electrical industry. All impurities reduce the electrical conductivity of metal, and therefore, in electrical engineering, high-grade metal containing at least 99.9% cu is used. High thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance make it possible to manufacture critical parts of heat exchangers, refrigerators, vacuum apparatuses, etc. from M. About 30-40% M. is used in the form of various alloys, among which the most important are brass(from 0 to 50% zn) and various types bronze; tin, aluminium, lead, beryllium, etc. In addition to the needs of heavy industry, communications, and transport, a certain amount of magnesium (mainly in the form of salts) is consumed for the preparation of mineral pigments, the control of pests and plant diseases, as microfertilizers, and catalysts oxidation processes, as well as in the leather and fur industry and in the production of rayon.
L. V. Vanyukov.
Copper as an art material is used with copper age(decorations, sculpture, utensils, dishes). Forged and cast items made of metal and alloys are decorated with embossing, engraving, and embossing. The ease of processing marble (due to its softness) allows craftsmen to achieve a variety of textures, thoroughness in working out details, and fine modeling of form. Products from M. are distinguished by the beauty of golden or reddish tones, as well as the property of gaining shine when polished. M. is often gilded, patinated, tinted, decorated with enamel. Since the 15th century, M. has also been used for the manufacture of printing plates.
Copper in the body. M. - necessary for plants and animals trace element. M.'s main biochemical function is participation in enzymatic reactions as an activator or as part of copper-containing enzymes. The amount of M. in plants ranges from 0.0001 to 0.05% (per dry matter) and depends on the type of plant and the content of M. in the soil. In plants M. is a part of enzymes oxidases and plastocyanin protein. In optimal concentrations, M. increases the cold resistance of plants, promotes their growth and development. Among animals, the richest in M. are some invertebrates (in mollusks and crustaceans in hemocyanin contains 0.15-0.26% M.). Acting with food, M. is absorbed in the intestine, binds to the blood serum protein - albumin, then is absorbed by the liver, from where it returns to the blood as part of the ceruloplasmin protein and is delivered to organs and tissues.
The content of M. in humans fluctuates (by 100 G dry weight) from 5 mg in the liver up to 0.7 mg in bones, in body fluids - from 100 mcg(per 100 ml) in the blood up to 10 mcg in the cerebrospinal fluid; total M. in the body of an adult is about 100 mg. M. is part of a number of enzymes (for example, tyrosinase, cytochrome oxidase), stimulates the hematopoietic function of the bone marrow. Small doses of M. affect the metabolism of carbohydrates (decrease in blood sugar), minerals (decrease in the amount of phosphorus in the blood), etc. An increase in the content of M. in the blood leads to the conversion of mineral iron compounds into organic ones, stimulates the use of iron accumulated in the liver during synthesis hemoglobin.
With a lack of M., cereal plants are affected by the so-called processing disease, fruit plants - by exanthema; in animals, the absorption and use of iron is reduced, which leads to anemia accompanied by diarrhea and emaciation. Copper microfertilizers and feeding of animals with M. salts are used. M. poisoning leads to anemia, liver disease, and Wilson's disease. In humans, poisoning rarely occurs due to the subtle mechanisms of absorption and excretion of M. However, in large doses, M. causes vomiting; when M. is absorbed, general poisoning can occur (diarrhea, weakening of breathing and cardiac activity, suffocation, coma).
I. F. Gribovskaya.
In medicine, M. sulfate is used as an antiseptic and astringent in the form of eye drops for conjunctivitis and eye pencils for the treatment of trachoma. M. sulfate solution is also used for skin burns with phosphorus. Sometimes sulfate M. is used as an emetic. M. nitrate is used as an eye ointment for trachoma and conjunctivitis.
Lit.: Smirnov V.I., Metallurgy of copper and nickel, Sverdlovsk - M., 1950; Avetisyan H. K., Blister copper metallurgy, M., 1954; Gazaryan L. M., Pyrometallurgy of copper, M., 1960; Metallurgist's reference book on non-ferrous metals, edited by N. N. Murach, 2nd ed., vol. 1, M., 1953, vol. 2, M., 1947; Levinson N. p., [Products from non-ferrous and ferrous metal], in the book: Russian decorative art, vol. 1-3, M., 1962-65; hadaway w. s., illustrations of metal work in brass and copper mostly south indian, madras, 1913; wainwright g. a., the occurrence of tin and copper near bybios, "journal of egyptian archeology", 1934, v. 20, pt 1, p. 29-32; bergs? e p., the gilding process and the metallurgy of copper and lead among the precolumbian indians, kbh., 1938; Frieden E., The role of copper compounds in nature, in the book: Horizons of Biochemistry, translated from English, M., 1964; his own. Biochemistry of copper, in the book: Molecules and cells, translated from English, in. 4, M., 1969; Biological role of copper, M., 1970.
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Andrey Lubensky, RIA Novosti Ukraine
The Life and Death of Intelligence Officer Kuznetsov: Elimination SpecialistA columnist for the Rossiya Segodnya news agency traveled across Western Ukraine, trying to understand whether the legendary intelligence officer of the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Kuznetsov, who died in these parts, is remembered here. The first part of the essay.Wednesday, July 27, marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov. We have already written about him, his exploits and what is happening in Ukraine with his memory and his monuments. Kuznetsov's name is included in the list for "decommunization": in accordance with the laws of Ukraine adopted on April 9, 2015, both monuments and the memory of the Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov must be deleted from the history of Ukraine.
But the circumstances of his life and death are full of mysteries. As well as the post-war history of the search for the truth about him.
Not shot, but blown up
Visiting the places where Nikolai Kuznetsov fought, died and was buried, we were surprised at how bizarre the fate of the scout was during his lifetime and what happened to the history of his exploits after death.
One of the mysteries is the place and circumstances of Kuznetsov's death. Immediately after the war, there was a version according to which a group of scouts, together with Kuznetsov, were captured alive and then shot by militants of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in a forest near the village of Belgorodka, Rivne region. Only 14 years after the war, it became known that the group died in the village of Boratin, Lviv region.
The version about the execution of Kuznetsov by UPA militants was spread after the war by the commander of the Pobediteli partisan detachment, Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Medvedev, who was based on a telegram discovered after the war in German archives, sent by the head of the security police for the Galician district Vitiska personally to SS Gruppenführer Muller. But the telegram was based on false information given to the Germans by the UPA militants.
The UPA detachments operating in the frontline worked closely with the German occupation forces, but in order to ensure greater loyalty of the "Bandera" the occupation administration held hostage the relatives of the field commanders and leaders of the UPA. In March 1944, close relatives of one of the leaders of the UPA, Lebed, were such hostages.
After the death of Kuznetsov and a group of scouts, the UPA fighters started a game with the German administration, offering them to exchange the allegedly living intelligence officer Kuznetsov-Siebert for Lebed's relatives. While the Germans were thinking, the UPA fighters allegedly shot him, and instead of him they offered genuine documents and, most importantly, Kuznetsov's report on the sabotage he carried out in the German rear in Western Ukraine. That's what they talked about.
The UPA militants, apparently, were afraid to indicate the true place of the death of the scout and his group, since during the German check it would immediately become clear that this was not the capture of the scout, who was searched throughout Western Ukraine, but Kuznetsov's self-explosion.
It is not so much the place that is important here, but the circumstances of the death of the scout. He was not shot, because he did not surrender to the UPA militants, but blew himself up with a grenade.
And after the war, the circumstances of Kuznetsov's death were investigated by his friend and colleague Colonel of the NKVD-KGB Nikolai Strutinsky.
Five minutes of anger and a lifetime
With Nikolai Strutinsky (April 1, 1920 - July 11, 2003), one of us happened to meet and take several interviews with him during his lifetime in 2001 in Cherkasy, where he then lived.
Strutinsky after the war for a long time figured out the circumstances of the death of Kuznetsov, and later, already at the time of Ukrainian independence, he did everything to preserve the monuments to Kuznetsov and his memory.
We think that Strutinsky's attachment to this, the last segment of Kuznetsov's life, is not accidental. Nikolai Strutinsky was at one time a member of Kuznetsov's group and participated with him in some operations. Shortly before the death of the scout and his group, Kuznetsov and Strutinsky quarreled.
Here is what Strutinsky himself said about this.
“Once, at the beginning of 1944, we were driving along Rovno,” says Nikolai Vladimirovich. “I was driving, Nikolai Kuznetsov was sitting next to me, Yan Kaminsky, a scout, was sitting behind. Not far from Vacek Burim’s safe house, Kuznetsov asked me to stop. ". He left, after a while he returned, extremely upset by something. Jan asked: "Where were you, Nikolai Vasilyevich?" (In the detachment, Kuznetsov was known under the name "Nikolai Vasilyevich Grachev" - ed.). ... "And Jan says:" I know: at Vacek Burim's. Kuznetsov came to me: "Why did you tell him?" The turnout is secret information. But I didn’t say anything to Jan. And Kuznetsov flared up, said a lot of insulting things to me. Our nerves were on edge then, I could not stand it, got out of the car, slammed the door - the glass broke, fragments of it fell down like that. I turned around and went. I walk down the street, I have two pistols - in a holster and in my pocket. I think for myself : stupid, I had to restrain myself, because I know that everyone is on my nerves. Sometimes at the very sight of a German Some officers had a desire to shoot everyone, and then shoot themselves. That was the state. I'm going. I hear - someone is catching up. I don't turn around. And Kuznetsov caught up, touched his shoulder: "Kolya, Kolechka, sorry, nerves."
I silently turned - and to the car. Sit down, let's go. But then I told him: we don’t work together anymore. And when Nikolai Kuznetsov left for Lvov, I didn't go with him."
This quarrel may have saved Strutinsky from death (after all, the entire Kuznetsov group died a few weeks later. But it seems to have left a deep mark on the soul of Nikolai Strutinsky.
Protocol truth about the death of intelligence officer Kuznetsov
Immediately after the war, Strutinsky worked in the Lviv regional department of the KGB. And this allowed him to restore the picture of the death of intelligence officer Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov went to the front line with Jan Kaminsky and Ivan Belov. However, according to witness Stepan Golubovich, only two people came to Boratin.
"... at the end of February or at the beginning of March 1944, in addition to me and my wife, my mother Golubovich Mokrina Adamovna (died in 1950), son Dmitry, 14 years old, and daughter 5 years old (later died) were in the house. In the house the light wasn't on.
On the night of the same date, at about 12 o'clock in the morning, when my wife and I were still awake, a dog barked. The wife got up from her bunk and went out into the yard. Returning to the house, she reported that people were coming from the forest to the house.
After that, she began to watch through the window, and then informed me that the Germans were coming to the door. The strangers approached the house and started knocking. First at the door, then at the window. The wife asked what to do. I agreed to open the door for them.
When strangers in German uniforms entered the house, the wife switched on the light. My mother got up and sat down in a corner near the stove, and the strangers came up to me and asked if there were any Bolsheviks or members of the UPA in the village? One of them asked in German. I replied that there were none. Then they asked to close the windows.
After that they asked for food. The wife gave them bread and bacon and, it seems, milk. I then drew attention to how two Germans could go through the forest at night if they were afraid to go through it during the day ...
One of them was above average height, at the age of 30-35 years old, his face was white, his hair was blond, one might say, somewhat reddish, he shaved his beard, had a narrow mustache.
His appearance was typical of a German. I don't remember any other signs. He talked to me for the most part.
The second was shorter than him, somewhat thin, with a blackish face, black hair, and shaving his mustache and beard.
... Sitting at the table and taking off their caps, the unknown began to eat, keeping the machine guns with them. About half an hour later (and the dog was barking all the time), as unknown persons came to me, an armed member of the UPA entered the room with a rifle and a distinguishing sign on his hat "Trident", whose nickname, as I learned later, was Makhno.
Makhno, without greeting me, immediately went up to the table and offered his hand to the strangers without saying a word to them. They were also silent. Then he came up to me, sat down on the bunk and asked me what kind of people. I answered that I did not know, and after about five minutes other UPA members began to enter the apartment, which included about eight people, and maybe more.
One of the UPA participants gave the command to leave the house to civilians, that is, to us, the owners, but the second one shouted: no need, and no one was let out of the hut. Then again one of the UPA participants in German gave the command to the unknown "Hands up!".
A tall unknown man got up from the table and, holding a machine gun in his left hand, waved his right hand in front of his face and, as I remember, told them not to shoot.
The weapons of the UPA participants were directed at the unknown, one of whom continued to sit at the table. "Hands up!" the command was given three times, but the unknown hands never raised.
The tall German continued the conversation: as I understand it, he asked if it was the Ukrainian police. Some of them replied that they were the UPA, and the Germans replied that it was against the law...
... I saw that the UPA participants lowered their weapons, one of them approached the Germans and offered to hand over their machine guns, and then the tall German handed him over, and after him gave the second one. Tobacco began to be crushed on the table, UPA members and unknown people began to smoke. Thirty minutes have already passed since the unknown met with the UPA participants. Moreover, the tall unknown was the first to ask for a cigarette.
... A tall unknown, rolling a cigarette, began to light a cigarette from the lamp and put it out, but in the corner near the stove a second lamp burned faintly. I asked my wife to bring the lamp to the table.
At this time, I noticed that the tall unknown became noticeably nervous, which was noticed by the UPA participants, who began to ask him what was the matter ... The unknown, as I understood, was looking for a lighter.
But then I saw that all the UPA participants rushed from the unknown towards the exit doors, but since they opened into the room, they did not open it in a hurry, and right there I heard a strong explosion of a grenade and even saw a sheaf of flame from it. The second unknown before the grenade explosion lay down on the floor under the bunk.
After the explosion, I took my young daughter and stood near the stove, my wife jumped out of the hut along with the UPA members, who broke the door, removing it from its hinges.
An unknown person of short stature asked something of the second, who was lying wounded on the floor. He answered him that "I don't know", after which the unknown short stature, having knocked out the window frame, jumped out of the window of the house with a briefcase.
A grenade explosion wounded my wife lightly in the leg and mother lightly in the head.
With regard to the unknown short stature, who was running through the window, for about five minutes I heard strong firing from rifles in the direction in which he fled. What his fate is, I do not know.
After that, I ran away with the child to my neighbor, and in the morning, when I returned home, I saw the unknown person dead in the yard near the fence, lying face down in his underwear.
As was established during the interrogation of other witnesses, during the explosion of his own grenade, Kuznetsov's right hand was torn off and "heavy wounds were inflicted on the frontal part of the head, chest and abdomen, which is why he soon died."
So, the place, time (March 9, 1944) and the circumstances of the death of Nikolai Kuznetsov were established.
Later, having organized the exhumation of the intelligence officer's body, Strutinsky proved that it was Kuznetsov who died in Boratin that night.
But it turned out to be difficult to prove this for other reasons. Strutinsky, who took risks while searching for the place of death of the scout, had to take risks again, proving that the remains he found not far from this place really belong to Kuznetsov.
However, this is another, no less exciting story.
On July 27, 1911, in the Urals, in the village of Zyryanka, the one who was to become the most famous illegal immigrant of the period of the Great Patriotic War was born. NKVD counterintelligence officers called him Colonist, German diplomats in Moscow - Rudolf Schmidt, Wehrmacht and SD officers in occupied Rovno - Paul Siebert, saboteurs and partisans - Grachev. And only a few people in the leadership of the Soviet state security knew his real name - Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov.
This is how the deputy head of the Soviet counterintelligence (1941–1951), lieutenant general, describes his first meeting with him Leonid Raykhman, then, in 1938, senior lieutenant of state security, head of the 1st department of the 4th department of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR: “Several days passed, and a telephone trill was heard in my apartment: the Colonist called. At that time, I had an old friend visiting me, who had just returned from Germany, where he worked from illegal positions. I looked at him expressively, and said into the phone: “Now they will speak German with you ...” My friend talked for several minutes and, covering the microphone with his palm, said in surprise: “He 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 the next day, and he came to my house. When he just stepped on the threshold, I really gasped: a real Aryan! Above average height, slender, thin but strong, blond, straight nose, gray-blue eyes. A real German, but without such signs of aristocratic degeneration. And a wonderful bearing, like a regular military man, and this is a Ural forestryman!
The village of Zyryanka is located in the Sverdlovsk region near Talitsa, located on the right bank of the picturesque Pyshma River. Since the 17th century, here, on the fertile lands along the border of the Urals and Siberia, Cossacks, Pomor Old Believers, as well as immigrants from Germany settled. Not far from Zyryanka was Moranin farm, inhabited by the Germans. According to one of the legends, it is from the family of a German colonist that Nikolai Kuznetsov comes from - hence the knowledge of the language, as well as the subsequently received code name Colonist. Although I know for sure that this is not so, because these villages - Zyryanka, Balair, the Pioneer state farm, the Kuznetsovsky state farm - are the birthplace of my grandmother. Here, in Balair, my mother's brother is buried Yuri Oprokidnev. When I was a child, before school, I was constantly here in the summer, fishing with my grandfather in the same pond as little Nika, as Nikolai Kuznetsov was called in childhood. By the way, Boris Yeltsin was born 30 km to the south, and I will not deny that at first our family had warm feelings for a fellow countryman.
Nicky's mother Anna Bazhenova came from a family of Old Believers. His father served seven years in a grenadier regiment in Moscow. The design of their house also speaks in favor of the Old Believer origin. Although only sketches of the building have been preserved, they show that there are no windows on the wall that faces the street. And this is a distinctive feature of the hut of the "schismatics". Therefore, it is most likely that Nika's father Ivan Kuznetsov also from the Old Believers, and Pomors.
Here is what Academician Dmitry Likhachev wrote about the Pomors: “They struck me with their intelligence, special folk culture, culture of the folk language, special handwritten literacy (Old Believers), etiquette of receiving guests, food etiquette, culture of work, delicacy, etc., etc. Not find words to describe my admiration for them. It turned out worse with the peasants of the former Orel and Tula provinces: there downtrodden and illiteracy from serfdom, need. And the Pomors had a sense of their own dignity.
In the materials of 1863, the strong physique of the Pomors, stateliness and pleasant appearance, BROWN hair, and a firm tread are noted. They are cheeky in their movements, dexterous, quick-witted, fearless, neat and dapper. In the collection for reading in the family and school "Russia", the Pomors appear as real Russian people, tall, broad-shouldered, of iron health, fearless, accustomed to BOLDLY LOOK IN THE FACE OF DEATH.
In 1922-1924, Nika studied at a five-year school in the village of Balair, two kilometers from Zyryanka. In any weather - in the autumn thaw, in rain and sleet, snowstorm and cold - he walked for knowledge, always collected, smart, good-natured, inquisitive. In the autumn of 1924, my father took Nika to Talitsa, where in those years there was the only seven-year school in the region. It was there that his phenomenal linguistic abilities were discovered. Nika quickly mastered the German language and this stood out sharply from other students. German taught Nina Avtokratova who was educated in Switzerland. Having learned that the labor teacher was a former German prisoner of war, Nikolai did not miss the opportunity to talk with him, practice his language, and feel the melody of the Lower Prussian dialect. However, this seemed to him not enough. More than once he found an excuse to visit a pharmacy in order to talk with another "German" - an Austrian pharmacist named Krause - already in the Bavarian dialect.
In 1926, Nikolai entered the agronomic department of the Tyumen Agricultural College, located in a beautiful building, which until 1919 housed the Alexander Real School. It's my great-grandfather Procopius Opokidnev studied together with the future People's Commissar for Foreign Trade of the USSR Leonid Krasin. Both of them graduated from college with gold medals, and their names were on the honor roll. During the Great Patriotic War, on the second floor of this building in room 15, there was the body of Vladimir Lenin, evacuated from Moscow.
A year later, in connection with the death of his father, Nikolai moved closer to home - to the Talitsky forest technical school. Shortly before his graduation, he was expelled on suspicion of a kulak origin. Having worked as a forest manager in Kudymkar (Komi-Permyatsky national district) and having participated in collectivization, Nikolai, who by this time was already fluent in the Komi-Permyak language, falls into the field of view of the Chekists. In 1932, he moved to Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), entered the correspondence department of the Ural Industrial Institute (having submitted a certificate of graduation from a technical school) and at the same time worked at Uralmashzavod, participating in the operational development of foreign specialists under the code name Colonist.
At the institute, Nikolai Ivanovich continues to improve in German: now his teacher has become Olga Veselkina, former maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, relative of Mikhail Lermontov and Pyotr Stolypin.
A former librarian of the institute said that Kuznetsov constantly took technical literature on mechanical engineering, mainly in foreign languages. And then she accidentally got to the defense of the diploma, which was held in German! True, she was quickly removed from the audience, as subsequently all documents testifying to Kuznetsov's studies at the institute were seized.
Methodologist for local history work of the Talitsky District Library Tatyana Klimova cites evidence that in Sverdlovsk "Nikolai Ivanovich occupied a separate room in the so-called house of the Chekists at the address: Lenin Avenue, house 52. Even now only people from the organs live there." Here the meeting took place, which determined his future fate. In January 1938 he met Mikhail Zhuravlev appointed to the post of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Komi ASSR, and begins to work as his assistant. A few months later, Zhuravlev recommended Kolonist to Leonid Raikhman. We have already told about the first meeting of Reichman with the Colonist above.
“We, counterintelligence officers,” Leonid Fedorovich continues, “from an ordinary operative to the head of our department, Pyotr Vasilyevich Fedotov, dealt with real, and not fictitious German spies, and, as professionals, we perfectly understood that they worked in the Soviet Union as against a real enemy in a future and already close war. Therefore, we urgently needed people capable of actively resisting German agents, primarily in Moscow.
The Moscow Aviation Plant No. 22 named after Gorbunov, from which only the Gorbushka club on Fili now remains, traces its pedigree since 1923. It all started with the unfinished buildings of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works, lost in the forest. In 1923, they were granted a 30-year concession by the German company Junkers, which was the only one in the world to master the technology of all-metal aircraft. Until 1925, the plant produced the first Ju.20 (50 aircraft) and Ju.21 (100 aircraft). However, on March 1, 1927, the concession agreement was terminated by the USSR. In 1933, plant number 22 was named after the director of the plant, Sergei Gorbunov, who died in a plane crash. According to the legend developed for the Colonist, he becomes a test engineer of this plant, having received a passport in the name of an ethnic German Rudolf Schmidt.
The building of the Tyumen Agricultural Academy, where Nikolai Kuznetsov studied
"My comrade Viktor Nikolaevich Ilyin, a major counterintelligence worker, - recalls Reichman, - was also very pleased with him. Thanks to Ilyin, Kuznetsov quickly "overgrown" with connections in theatrical, in particular, ballet Moscow. This was important as many diplomats, including established German intelligence officers, gravitated towards actresses, especially ballerinas. At one time, the question of appointing Kuznetsov as one of the administrators of the ... Bolshoi Theater was even seriously discussed.
Rudolf Schmidt actively gets acquainted with foreign diplomats, attends social events, goes out to friends and mistresses of diplomats. With his participation in the apartment of the naval attache of Germany, frigate captain Norbert Wilhelm von Baumbach, a safe was opened and secret documents were retaken. Schmidt is directly involved in the interception of diplomatic mail, enters the circle of the German military attache in Moscow, Ernst Köstring, by bugging his apartment.
However, the finest hour of Nikolai Kuznetsov struck with the outbreak of war. With such knowledge of the German language - and by that time he had also mastered Ukrainian and Polish - and his Aryan appearance, he becomes a super agent. In the winter of 1941, he was placed in a camp for German prisoners of war in Krasnogorsk, where he mastered the order, life and customs of the German army. In the summer of 1942 under the name Nikolai Grachev he was sent to the special forces detachment "Winners" from the OMSBON - special forces of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, the head of which was Pavel Sudoplatov.
With employees of the design department of Uralmash. Sverdlovsk, 1930s
On August 24, 1942, a twin-engine Li-2 took off from an airfield near Moscow late in the evening and headed for Western Ukraine. And on September 18, along Deutschestrasse, the main street of occupied Rivne, turned by the Germans into the capital of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, an infantry chief lieutenant with an Iron Cross of the 1st class and a "Golden Badge of Distinction for Wounds" on his chest, a ribbon of the Iron Cross of the 2nd class, pulled into the second loop of the order, in a famously shifted side cap. On the ring finger of his left hand gleamed a gold ring with a monogram on the signet. He greeted the seniors in rank, clearly, but with dignity, a little casually saluting the soldiers in response. The self-confident, calm owner of the occupied Ukrainian city, the very living personification of the hitherto victorious Wehrmacht, Lieutenant Paul Wilhelm Siebert. He is Pooh. He is Nikolai Vasilyevich Grachev. He is Rudolf Wilhelmovich Schmidt. He is also a Colonist - this is how Nikolai Kuznetsov describes the first appearance in Rivne Theodor Gladkov.
Paul Siebert was given the task of liquidating the Gauleiter of East Prussia and the Reichskommissar of Ukraine Erich Koch at the slightest opportunity. He met his adjutant and in the summer of 1943, through him, sought an audience with Koch. The reason is solid - the bride of Siebert Volksdeutsche Fraulein Dovger is threatened with being sent to work in Germany. After the war, Valentina Dovger recalled that, preparing for the visit, Nikolai Ivanovich was absolutely calm. In the morning I got ready, as always, methodically and carefully. He put the pistol in his coat pocket. However, during the audience, his every movement was controlled by guards and dogs, and it was useless to shoot. At the same time, it turned out that Siebert was from East Prussia - a fellow countryman of Koch. He so endeared himself to a high-ranking Nazi, a personal friend of the Fuhrer, that he told him about the upcoming German offensive near Kursk in the summer of 1943. Information immediately went to the Center.
The very fact of this conversation is so amazing that there are many myths around it. It is alleged, for example, that Koch was an agent of influence of Joseph Stalin, and this meeting was prearranged. Then it turns out that Kuznetsov did not need at all an amazing command of German in order to gain confidence in the Gauleiter. In confirmation, the fact is given that Stalin reacted rather mildly to Koch, transferred to him in 1949 by the British, and gave him to Poland, where he lived to be 90 years old. Although, in fact, Stalin has nothing to do with it. It’s just that the Poles, after Stalin’s death, made a deal with Koch, since he alone knew the location of the Amber Room, since he was responsible for its evacuation from Königsberg in 1944. Now this room is most likely somewhere in the States, because the Poles need to pay something to the new owners.
Stalin rather owes his life to Kuznetsov. It was Kuznetsov who, in the fall of 1943, transmitted the first information about the impending assassination attempt on Joseph Stalin, Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during the Tehran Conference (Operation Long Jump). He was in touch with Maya Mikota, who, on the instructions of the Center, became an agent of the Gestapo (pseudonym “17”) and introduced Kuznetsov to Ulrich von Ortel, who at the age of 28 was an SS Sturmbannfuehrer and a representative of foreign intelligence of the SD in Rovno. In one of the conversations, von Ortel said that he had been given the great honor to participate in “a grandiose affair that would shake up the whole world,” and promised to bring a Persian carpet to Maya ... On the evening of November 20, 1943, Maya informed Kuznetsov that von Ortel had committed suicide in his office on Deutschestrasse. Although in the book "Tehran, 1943. At the conference of the Big Three and on the sidelines" Stalin's personal translator Valentin Berezhkov indicates that von Ortel was present in Tehran as Otto Skorzeny's deputy. However, as a result of timely actions of the group Gevork Vartanyan The "Light Cavalry" managed to eliminate the Tehran residency of the Abwehr, after which the Germans did not dare to send the main group led by Skorzeny to certain failure. So no "Long Jump" happened.
In the autumn of 1943, several assassination attempts were organized on Paul Dargel, Erich Koch's permanent deputy. On September 20, Kuznetsov mistakenly killed Erich Koch's deputy for finance Hans Gehl and his secretary Winter instead of Dargel. On September 30, he attempted to kill Dargel with an anti-tank grenade. Dargel was seriously injured and lost both legs. After that, it was decided to organize the abduction of the commander of the "eastern battalions" (punishers), Major General Max von Ilgen. Ilgen was captured along with Paul Granau - the driver of Erich Koch - and shot on one of the farms near Rovno. On November 16, 1943, Kuznetsov shot and killed the head of the legal department of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, Oberführer SA Alfred Funk. In Lvov, in January 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov killed the chief of the government of Galicia, Otto Bauer, and the head of the office of the government of the General Government, Dr. Heinrich Schneider.
On March 9, 1944, making their way to the front line, Kuznetsov's group stumbled upon the Ukrainian nationalists of the UPA. During the ensuing skirmish, his comrades Kaminsky and Belov were killed, and Nikolai Kuznetsov blew himself up with a grenade. After the flight of the Germans in Lvov, a telegram was found with the following content, sent on April 2, 1944 to Berlin:
Top secret
State importance
Lvov, April 2, 1944
TELEGRAM-LIGHTNING
To the Main Directorate of Imperial Security to present the "SS" to Gruppenführer and Police Lieutenant General Heinrich Müller
At the next meeting on April 1, 1944, the Ukrainian delegate reported that on March 2, 1944, one of the units of the Chernogora UPA had detained three Soviet-Russian spies in the forest near Belogorodka in the Verba (Volyn) region. Judging by the documents of these three detained agents, we are talking about a group reporting directly to the NKVD GB. The UPA verified the identity of the three arrested as follows:
1. The head of the group, Paul Siebert, nicknamed Pooh, had fake documents as a senior lieutenant of the German army, was born allegedly in Königsberg, his photo was on the certificate. He was dressed in the uniform of a German senior lieutenant.
2. Pole Jan Kaminsky.
Z. Shooter Ivan Vlasovets, nicknamed Belov, driver Pooh.
All arrested Soviet-Russian agents had fake German documents, rich supporting material - maps, German and Polish newspapers, among them the Lvovska Newspaper and a report on their intelligence activities on the territory of the Soviet-Russian front. Judging by this report, compiled personally by Pooh, he and his accomplices committed terrorist acts in the Lvov region. After completing the assignment in Rovno, Pooh went to Lvov and got an apartment from a Pole. Then Pooh managed to get into the meeting, where there was a meeting of the highest representatives of power in Galicia under the leadership of the governor Dr. Wachter.
Pooh intended to shoot Governor Dr. Waechter under these circumstances. But because of the strict preventive measures of the Gestapo, this plan failed, and instead of the governor, the lieutenant governor, Dr. Bauer, and the latter's secretary, Dr. Schneider, were killed. Both of these German statesmen were shot dead not far from their private apartment. After the act, Pooh and his accomplices hid in the Zolochev area. During this period of time, Pooh had a clash with the Gestapo when the latter tried to check his car. On this occasion, he also shot a senior Gestapo official. There is a detailed description of what happened. With a different control of his car, Pooh shot dead one German officer and his adjutant, and after that he abandoned the car and was forced to flee into the forest. In the forests, he had to fight with UPA units in order to get to Rovno and further on the other side of the Soviet-Russian front with the intention of personally submitting his reports to one of the leaders of the Soviet-Russian army, who would send them further to the Center, to Moscow. As for the Soviet-Russian agent Pukh and his accomplices detained by the UPA units, we are undoubtedly talking about the Soviet-Russian terrorist Paul Siebert, who in Rovno kidnapped, among others, General Ilgen, in the Galicia district shot Lieutenant Colonel Peters of Aviation, one senior aviation corporal, vice -Governor, Head of Department Dr. Bauer and Presidial Chief Dr. Schneider, as well as Major Kanter of the field gendarmerie, whom we carefully searched for. By morning, a message was received from the Prützmann combat group that Paul Siebert and both of his accomplices had been found shot in Volhynia. The OUN representative promised that all materials in copies or even originals would be handed over to the security police, if instead the security police agreed to release Mrs. Lebed with the child and her relatives. It is to be expected that if the promise of release is kept, the OUN-Bander group will send me much more informational material.
Signed: Chief of the Security Police and SD for the Galician District, Dr. Vitiska, "SS" Obersturmbannführer and Senior Advisor to the Directorate
Meeting of the Colonist with the Secretary of the Embassy of Slovakia G.-L. Krno, a German intelligence agent. 1940 Operative photography with a hidden camera
In addition to the “Pobediteli” detachment, commanded by Dmitry Medvedev and in which Nikolai Kuznetsov was based, the Olympus detachment of Viktor Karasev operated in Rivne and Volhynia, whose intelligence assistant was the legendary “Major Whirlwind” - Alexei Botyan, who turned 100 this year years. I recently asked Alexei Nikolaevich if he met Nikolai Kuznetsov and what he knew about his death.
Aleksey Nikolaevich, together with you, Dmitry Medvedev's detachment "Winners" operated in the Rovno region, and in its composition, under the guise of a German officer, the legendary intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov. Have you ever met him?
Yes, I had to. It was at the end of 1943, about 30 km west of Rovno. The Germans found out the location of Medvedev's detachment and were preparing a punitive operation against him. We found out about this, and Karasyov decided to help Medvedev. We came there and settled down 5-6 km from Medvedev. And it was customary for us: as soon as we change the place, we will definitely arrange a bath. We had a special man for this case. Because people are dirty - there is no place to wash clothes. Sometimes they took it off and kept it over a fire so as not to get lice. I have never had lice. Well, it means that we invited Medvedev to the bathhouse, and Kuznetsov just came to him from the city. He came in a German uniform, they met him somewhere, changed clothes so that no one in the detachment knew about him. We invited them to the bath together. Then they organized a table, I got local moonshine. They asked Kuznetsov questions, especially me. He also spoke German impeccably, had German documents in the name of Paul Siebert, the quartermaster of the German units. Outwardly, he looked like a German - such a blond. He went to any German institution and reported that he was fulfilling the task of the German command. So he had a very good cover. I also thought: “I wish I did!”. Bandera killed him. Mirkovsky Yevgeny Ivanovich, also a Hero of the Soviet Union, an intelligent and honest man, also acted in the same places. Later we became friends in Moscow, I often visited his house on Frunzenskaya. His reconnaissance and sabotage group "Walkers" in June 1943 in Zhytomyr blew up the buildings of the central telegraph office, printing house and gebitskommissariat. The gebitskommissar himself was seriously wounded, and his deputy was killed. So Mirkovsky blamed Medvedev himself for the death of Kuznetsov for not giving him good security - there were only three of them, they fell into a Bandera ambush and died. Mirkovsky told me: "All the blame for the death of Kuznetsov lies with Medvedev." But Kuznetsov had to be protected - no one else did it.
In Ukraine, they sometimes say that Kuznetsov, they say, is a legend, a product of propaganda ...
What a legend - I saw it myself. We were in the bath together!
Did you meet during the war with the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD - the legendary Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov?
The first time was in 1942. He arrived at the station, said goodbye to us, gave instructions. He told Karasev: “Take care of people!”. And I stood nearby. Then, in 1944, Sudoplatov handed me the officer's shoulder straps of a senior lieutenant of state security. Well, we met after the war. And with him, and with Eitingon, who made me a Czech. It was Khrushchev who planted them later, the scoundrel. What smart people they were! How much they did for the country - after all, all the partisan detachments were under them. Both Beria and Stalin - whatever you say, but they mobilized the country, defended it, did not allow it to be destroyed, and how many enemies there were: both inside and outside.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 5, 1944, Nikolai Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for exceptional courage and bravery in carrying out command assignments. The submission was signed by the head of the 4th Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR Pavel Sudoplatov.
Andrey VEDYAEV
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