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 third in the series of documents translated. This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 3 September 1943 on the arrest of three saboteurs trained to carry out a sabotage mission on a railway line in Kursk Oblast. The message, ultimately destined for the eyes of Lavrentiy Beria, provided some details of the missions and information regarding follow-on missions to perform similar acts as far east as Kalinin Oblast (now Tver Oblast).
USSR NKVD
NKVD DIRECTORATE OF KURSK OBLAST
Top Secret
3 September 1943 No. 965 Kursk
Disseminate:
Com. L.P. Beria
HEAD OF UNKVD KO
COLONEL OF STATE SECURITY (TROFIMOV)
SPECIAL MESSAGE
Overnight from 31 August to 1 September 1943 on the territory of Oboyanskiy and adjacent areas of Kursk Oblast, a group of saboteur-parachutists were deployed from an enemy aircraft; the group was made up of adolescents aged 13-15 years old.
Three saboteurs from this group: Pavel Stepanovich GUROV, 15 years old, Valentin Aleksandrovich RUMYANTSEV, 13 years old, and Vladimir Aleksandrovich SIDORENKO, 15 years old, made their confessions. A search for the remaining youths continues.
According to the initial statements of the saboteurs, they underwent training for one month in Germany, and studied for another month in Smolensk. They parachuted in from the airfield in Orsha.
The saboteurs received an assignment to sabotage the railway line, and more specifically: each of the saboteurs has three lumps of coal of various sizes, in which an explosive device has been fitted. The saboteurs were tasked with dropping these lumps of coal into the tenders of steam locomotives and into coal sheds.
After having performed the act, the youths were to make their way to the front line to cross it into enemy territory; for this purpose, each of them was provided with a pocket-sized pass, sewn into their clothing.
According to the statements of the detainees, the enemy has prepared to deploy a number of other groups, 10 persons in each, very soon. Supposedly, a group had already been dropped into Kalinin Oblast.
In order to eliminate the parachute group of saboteurs, a group of intelligence officers from the UNKVD Anti-Banditry Department has been dispatched to Oboyan.
The detained parachutists are being delivered to the UNKVD and after their arrival, more detailed information will be reported.
CHIEF OF THE UNKVD BB DEPARTMENT OF THE KURSK OBLAST
COLONEL OF STATE SECURITY (YEZHOV)
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