THE HIDDEN FRONT OF THE BATTLE OF KURSK: A FEAT OF HEROISM BY A SOVIET INTELLIGENCE OFFICER

His false identity for use behind enemy lines portrayed him as a special officer for mobilizing resources on occupied Soviet territory for the Nazi Wehrmacht. This allowed him to turn up wherever he liked in Rovno without answering to any German authority in the city. 

On August 26, Kuznetsov and 10 other Soviet officers jumped by parachute into a forest outside Rovno which sheltered the base camp of the 'Victors' unit of Dmitri Medvedev. Kuznetsov's first foray into Rovno was on October 19. 

At the time, Rovno was the German capital of occupied Ukraine. Kuznetsov entered the city as a Nazi Ober-Lieutenant, two times Iron Cross winner. He was fluent in German, well coached and gifted with strong will, quick mind and exceptional courage, qualities that were essential for his mission. 

The mission was, among other things, to execute the Nazi Reichskommissar of Ukraine, personal friend of Adolph Hitler Erich Koch. Kuznetsov sought out a meeting with him, but could not kill him because of heavy guard around. 

Boris Cherny was commander of reconnaissance within the 'Victors' guerilla unit: 

"Kuznetsov later remembered how he, a Soviet intelligence officer, was sitting in front of Erich Koch. He had a handgun with special bullets in it in his trousers pocket. But even dipping a hand into the pocket was unimaginable, let alone pulling out and cocking a pistol and taking aim. There were armed guards and Alsatian dogs in the room. Killing Koch appeared mission impossible. They really knew how to go about protecting their bosses..."   

In a book of memoirs long after the war, a senior commander in the 'Victors' unit Alexander Lukin related the conversation between Nikolai Kuznetsov and Erich Koch: 

" -- Where did you get your wound, Siebert ? 

-- Near Kursk, Herr Reichskommissar. Pending full recovery, I have to serve Faterland in the rear. I am looking forward to a chance to return to the battlefront. 

-- Your wound is going to be avenged quite soon. The Fuhrer is preparing to uncork a surprise on the Bolsheviks in the area where you got hurt. 

Kuznetsov made effort not to jump up from his chair. Could that be real? 

That was real indeed. Reichskommissar of Ukraine and Gauleiter of East Prussia Erich Koch had disclosed a closely guarded strategic secret to an obscure Ober-Lieutenant in a casual conversation with him ! 

Herr Koch could never know that the transcript of his conversation with a service visitor named Paul Siebert was radioed to Moscow the same night. 

The conversation took place in the early spring of 1943. Kuznetsov's superiors in Lubyanka Square took serious notice of Koch's remark about Kursk. 

In May, we got more intelligence with bearing on Hitler's plans on Kursk. Our man on the Zdolbunov rail junction south of Rovno, railworker Avraami Ivanov reported mass movement of German troops, ammunition and ordnance to southcentral Russia. 

Other watchers discovered that the Germans were redeploying forces from around Leningrad to the Kursk area by way of Zdolbunov. Later on, even more striking facts cropped up. 

One night, fighters Krasnogolovets, Klimenko and Popkov approached a level crossing on the rail line to plant a mine. Hiding in a deep ditch, they primed their weapon and attached a length of Bickford fuse to it. 

All that remained was 'to attach a tailcoat to the button', as the proverb puts it, and place the bomb directly beneath a rail. 

Suddenly, the Germans switched on a powerful electric lamp on a mast near the crossing. Everything within 100 metres became flooded with light. Getting out of the ditch spelt suicide. 

Cursing their bad luck, the three mine-planters crawled away. 

-- Wait till next night, I'll do away with you, you God-damned lamp, -- Klimenko growled. 

Dmitri Krasnogolovets paid a visit to an acquaintance nearby, a rail watchman in a plank cabin near the crossing. He hoped he could find out something of interest to him. 

The man in the cabin happened to be in a talkative mood and he reported sighting 15 eastward trains with tanks that day. 

-- Not usual tanks, -- he shared his impressions, -- but strangely yellow ones... 
 
Those 'strangely yellow' tanks caught the attention of Nikolai Kuznetsov and his superiors, in both the 'Victors' unit and Moscow. Round-the-clock surveillance of the Rovno rail line suggested a far-going conclusion. 

The Nazis were beefing up their forces near Kursk with Rommal tanks from North Africa. In haste, they didn't even bother to repaint them dirt-green, as was the pattern on their Eastern Front. 

Everything confirmed Kuznetsov's report about a planned German offensive in the Kursk area. 

We reported all this to Moscow and sharply stepped up our intelligence gathering operations. 

Years later, scrutinizing war memoirs by Generals Tippelskirch and Zeitler, I was quite happy to discover admissions that the Soviets had obtained advance knowledge of the German 'Citadel' plan through their intelligence gatherers like Nikolai Kuznetsov." 

We have a letter from Nikolai Kuznetsov, written minutes before a dangerous mission to Rovno and placed into an envelope with the inscription 'to be opened after my death' on it. "At 5 minutes past midnight on August 25 1942, I parachuted into an area behind enemy lines on a mission to avenge the blood and tears of our mothers and brothers who suffer under occupation by the Nazis. For eleven months now, posing as a German officer, I have been observing and sizing up the enemy. On one occasion, I even entered the Rovno den of the Hitler henchman Erich Koch. Now I'm proceeding to action. I'm quite young. I love life. But if my Motherland, which I love like my natural mother, tells me to sacrifice my life for its cause, I will do this. May the Nazis have a bitter taste of what can be done by a true Russian patriot. They can never put out the Sun, and they can never conquer the Russian people. I may die, but the memory of a true patriot lasts forever in the hearts and minds of my people... " 

For his achievement and valour, Kuznetsov was awarded the Order of Lenin. Posthumously, he was also made Hero of the Soviet Union. 

"If asked whom I regard the strongest and the most attractive personality in the anti-Nazi camp, I would name Nikolai Kuznetsov without a moment's hesitation." These are words of the great French physicist, philanthropist and resistance hero Frederic Joliot-Curie.