Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the first of the documents translated; the rest will be translated and published on this site over the coming weeks.
This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 1 December 1941 on the initial detention of a group of young Soviet children who had been kidnapped by the Germans in the height of World War Two, brought into Germany into special “saboteur/sabotage schools,” and trained in a number of ways to wreak havoc on the Red Army back home, as well as conduct espionage for the Germans.
TOP SECRET
TO THE DEP. CHIEF OF THE USSR NKVD SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS DIRECTORATE
SENIOR MAJOR OF STATE SECURITY Comrade TUTUSHKIN
SPECIAL MESSAGE
On the detention of juvenile spies
On 15 November 1941, NKVD Special Department 34 Cav Division detained 3 boys aged 8-10 years, who identify themselves as Sergey KUKATOV, Konstantin KUKATOV, and Nikolay SMIRNOV.
By way of explanation of the situation surrounding their presence on the front line, SMIRNOV stated that in the city of Bobruysk, the Germans gathered up some 50 children, ranging in age from 8 to 12 years, who either did not have or had lost their parents, and were training them on reconnaissance operations.
After the month-long training, 10 of the children, including the KUKATOVs and SMIRNOV, were transferred by German agents over the Severnyy Donets river near the village of Kamenka in Kharkiv Oblast into our territory.
Of the children brought over, 5 received the assignment to study Red Army unit locations, identify the location of the headquarters, and pinpoint firing positions in the area of the city of Izyum. The other 5 received the same assignment, in the location of the 34 Cavalry Division.
The KUKATOV brothers thus far have not provided any statements, but were exposed by SMIRNOV, who referred to them by their real name NESTERENKO, Yury and Konstantin, and provided details of their espionage activities.
Based on this information, the NKVD Special Department of the 6th Army directed the its subordinate NKVD Special Departments from the divisions, since the possibility has not been ruled out of a mass deployment of juvenile agents by the Germans.
As a result of the work performed to detain and examine this category of individuals, NKVD Special Department of the 393rd SD, in the combat operation area in the village of Drobysheve, detained a 12-year-old youth Vladimir Rudolfovich MARTYNOV, native and inhabitant of the village of Liman, who on 17 November was sent over by an enemy agent, along with another youth, Nikolay CHERKASHIN and a third by the name of Grigory.
They all received the assignment to study the location of Red Army units and headquarters.
During an interrogation on 27 November, detainee Nikolay Tikhonovich CHERKASHIN, born in 1929, testified that on 2 October, by mutual consent with MARTYNOV, out of curiosity, crossed the front line near the village of Raihorodok, where they were captured and delivered to German headquarters, where they met MARTYNOV’s father, Rudolf MARTYNOV, who had previously fled to the Germans and was now serving as a guard. The elder MARTYNOV had been left by the Germans with espionage missions as early as 1918.
After receiving treats and promised rewards, CHERKASHIN and MARTYNOV were sent to our side with spying assignments.
Before their capture, CHERKASHIN and MARTYNOV had made 9 trips for their Gestapo assignment.
CHERKASHIN testifies that there are always three youths at enemy headquarters: Ivan LAZAREV (14 years old), Viktor IVANOV (13 years old), and Zhenya RYBCHENKO (15 years old) who, starting off from the city of Zhytomyr, each made up to 100 trips to our troops’ positions.
Moreover, there are 4 girls working as agents at German headquarters: Tamara PETROVSKAYA (19 years old), Nina RUDAYEVA (17 years old), Manya POROKHOVSKAYA (16 years old), and Frosya BABUSHKINA (15 years old).
Based on the substance of the information presented, we focused on the NKVD Special Departments of the Armies, which were requested to subject to a thorough screening of the youngsters who turned up in the location of our units, and of those identified as agents, carefully question them about the assignments they were tasked with, their links, and procedures for returning to the enemy’s location.
CHIEF OF NKVD SPECIAL DEPARTMENT YUZF
SENIOR MAJOR OF STATE SECURITY
No. 1142/6
1 December 1941
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