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 second in the series of documents translated.
This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 25 December 1941 on the discovery of two saboteur and espionage schools in the Belarussian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics. The letter also describes activities to liberate the groups of children involved, ranging in age from 7 to 15 years. The letter describes the types of activities the children were trained in, and how they came about to be captured.
TOP SECRET
TO THE DEPUTY PEOPLE’S COMMISSAR OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE USSR STATE SECURITY COMMISSAR 3 RANK
comrade AVAKUMOV
Moscow
The NKVD Special Department of the YuZF has discovered two schools of young agents, set up by German intelligence services in the city of Bobruysk and the village of Protopopivka, Kharkiv Oblast.
These schools, masquerading as orphanages, are home to children made homeless as a result of military operations.
In the area of the location of the 34 Cav Division in early December, the following were arrested:
– 9 year old Nikolay SMIRNOV,
– 13 year old Konstantin NESTERENKO and his 7 year old brother Sergey.
An interrogation of Nikolay Ivanovich SMIRNOV revealed that: after the bombing of the convoy that was evacuating him from Western Ukraine with his family, Nikolay SMIRNOV lost his family, and together with other evacuees, headed eastward, hoping to return to his former place of residence in Millerovo.
In Bobruysk, he was detained, and sent by the German commandant to the local orphanage. This orphanage was home to some 50 children, divided into two groups. There were up to 20 children in the younger group, aged from 7 to 10 years, including two girls. The older group had as many as 30 children, aged from 11 to 15 years.
The children were being trained to conduct reconnaissance operations. during their lessons, they were taught how to make a drawing of the locations of weapon emplacements, headquarters, guns, tanks, rifles, vehicles, and cavalrymen.
Moreover, the older group was taught how to handle weapons and grenades, and how to mine railway lines.
By way of visual aids, the fosterlings each had two illustrated pamphlets.
Nikolay SMIRNOV spoke about this as follows: “…In the younger group, we each had two pamphlets. One contained illustrations with labels. On the first page of a pamphlet, for example, was an image of a road, and near the road, a woodland and shrubs. …Lines indicated where there were guns, horses, field engines, infantry, headquarters… In each picture, there was a label: ‘…artillery can be found here…regimental headquarters can be spotted here…’ and so on.
“The second pamphlet had a description of the ways to conduct reconnaissance. The students from the older group, along with these pamphlets, had more, where individual pictures showed techniques for using a grenade, pistol, how to lay mines under a bridge, under railway lines, and so forth.”
War games were established as a procedure for testing comprehension. The children were divided into two groups and each had to carry out reconnaissance actions in the rear of the other, and then “go into battle.”
Of the foster children known to SMIRNOV from this “orphanage”, he identified 9 children, including the detainee NESTERENKO brothers.
Upon interrogation, the NESTEROV brothers fully confirmed SMIRNOV’s information, providing identical information about the school of scouts in Bobruysk.
Six more children have been detained in various 6th Army unit locations in recent days:
– Vasiliy Zakharovich GRIGORYEV, 11 years old;
– Andrey Vladimirovich NIKULIN, 15 years old, and others.
When queried, each of them confirmed their affiliation with the German intelligence service, speaking about their training in the “orphanage,” and the assignments they carried across the front line into Red Army units. Other than their surnames, they all had pseudonyms.
At the same time, it was established that the school of young agents in Bobruysk was not the only one. A similar school was also established by the Germans in Protopopovo [sic], Petrovskyi Rayon, Kharkiv Oblast. This was according to Vasiliy GRIGORYEV:
“…After the death of my father in 1940, I was sent to the orphanage in Protopopovo, the village in which I was born and lived.
“Early this past November, the Germans in Protopopovo gathered up 15 boys of my age. We were deposited in one of the school’s rooms. We were soon joined by 15 more boys, these from the town of Valvenkino. Lessons commenced; two German officers taught us how to go out on scouting missions, how to identify military units, and so on. We were taught for 7 days…”
It was established that the German officers training the children for reconnaissance operations warned them not to admit to anything if they were caught by Red Army soldiers, since the “Bolsheviks” would torture them, gouge out their eyes, slice off their ears, etc.
The children trained in the recon schools were effectively carrying out the assignments of the German officers, going out on reconnaissance missions, locating Red Army units, providing information on these units’ locations and arms.
During his interrogation, Nikolay CHERKASHIN stated: “…After we were trained in the school for young agents, those of us from Bobruysk were sent once again to Raihorodok. Based on the officer’s assignment, we went to Red Army-occupied territory on five occasions: Zelenyi Klyn, Sloboda, Popivka, Krasnyi Lyman, Yampil’, and Dronovka. Everything we observed, we reported in German headquarters.”
Identical testimony was provided by 13-year-old detainee Vladimir MARTYNOV: “Having come to the Red Army side on the left bank of the rural village of Donets, we returned the same day to German headquarters and reported that, in Zelenyi Klyn on Oboronnaya Ulitsa, we found the headquarters of some regiment, and near Shurovo, off toward Krasnyi Lyman, there were two anti-aircraft guns, and not far from Brusino there were weapons past the railroad bridge…”
All of the detained children confessed to the reconnaissance work they conducted and the training in the school for agents.
The interrogations of the children were conducted in the presence of a teacher, KOLODOCHKA, who offered positive findings regarding the mental development and bearing of each during the interrogations. As an example, we provide individual examples of her characterization:
“…Nikolay Ivanovich SMIRNOV, 8 years of age, is a mentally capable, precocious boy. He possesses a solid memory, and for the most part repeats precisely what took place in the past. SMIRNOV’s speech is logical and is articulated in sequence that is characteristic of older children. He has no peculiar obsessions. He knows his surroundings quite well…”
“…Konstantin NESTERENKO, year of birth 1928. He is unequalled in his knowledge of the topics he has been taught, has a poor overall education, and a peculiar obsession with the study of geography. As a result of this, he knows terrain well, is extremely well-versed in reading maps, and knows how to draw terrain contours on paper. Displays a passionate interest in traveling and the road. Also expressed a desire to acquire a large sum of money…”
We have directed the NKVD Special Departments to take measures to identify and detain all of the students of the scout schools identified by the investigation.
CHIEF OF NKVD SPECIAL DEPARTMENT OF YUZF
SENIOR MAJOR OF STATE SECURITY
25 December 1941
No. 2256
Voronezh
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