Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov

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Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov (Russian: Николай Иванович Кузнецов) (July 27, 1911–March 9, 1944) (pseudonym - Grachev) was a Soviet intelligence agent and partisan who operated in occupied Ukraine during World War II.

Born in a peasant family in Yekaterinburg region. He studied forestry in a technical school and after discovering his linguistic talents learned German, Esperanto, Polish and Ukrainian languages. In 1932 he enrolled into Sverdlovsk Industrial Institute and continued to learn German and other foreign languages there. In 1938 Kuznetsov moved to Moscow and joined the NKVD. When the Great Patriotic War started Kuznetsov at his own request was sent to join partisan units in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine. In 1942 he fought as a member of guerrilla group "Winners " led by Dmitry Medvedev in central and western Ukraine. He was in charge of several complex operations involving assassinations and kidnappings of high-ranking Nazi officials in Rivne and Lviv regions such as the successful operations against the German-appointed chief judge of Ukraine, vice-governor of Galicia, imperial adviser to reichskommissar of Ukraine, three German generals etc. Kuznetsov was also first intelligence agent to uncover German plans to launch a massive tank attack in the Kursk region, information about German V-2 rockets as well as about Hitler's plan to assassinate the heads of the USSR, USA and Great Britain during Tehran Conference. In the struggle against German aggressors Nikolai Kuznetsov showed extraordinary courage and ingenuity.

On March 8, 1944 he was killed in a firefight with members of Ukrainian Insurgent Army near the city of Lviv which have taken Kuznetsov for a German deserter, since he wore the Wehrmacht uniform.

Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov has been posthumously awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union.