Legendary Soviet Intelligence Officer Dies

Nikolay Strutinsky spent a lot of years trying to protect his friend's name

Nikolay Strutinsky, a legendary Soviet intelligence officer, a friend and a companion of Nikolay Kuznetsov, a person who directly participated in the liquidation of senior officials of the German occupation administration in Ukraine, died at the age of 84. It was Nikolay Strutinsky, who was taking Chief-Lieutenant Sibert under the disguise of a German military driver. They kidnapped chief chastener of Ukraine, Major-General Ilgen, Earl Gaan (who was carrying a map Hitler's headquarters Wolf's Lair), they conducted acts of retribution against senior officials of the occupation administration, attempted to kill the head of the occupied Ukraine, General Paul Dargel, as well as liquidated German Justice General in Ukraine, Alfred Funk and so on and so forth.

After the war, Nikolay Strutinsky spent a lot of years to protect the good name of Nikolay Kuznetsov - at first from party officials (they did not need too many heroes) and then from nationalists, who pronounced Kuznetsov a "saboteur" and a "terrorist."

Nikolay Strutinsky was born on April 1st, 1920 in the town of Tuchin, the Rovenskaya region. At the start of the war, the Strutinskys organized a group of partisans, which successfully conducted its activities in occupied Ukraine and then joined the famous special unit Pobeditely (Winners) of the Soviet KGB. Strutinsky met Kuznetsov when serving in the unit.

When WWII was over, the officer's life did not become quiet. His extensive work of searching for Nikolay Kuznetsov's grave and retrieving the historical justice about him had to face a very powerful contradiction on the part of KGB and party officials. Nikolay Strutinsky risked his life so many times, one of his assistants was killed, and the crime has not been solved still. Strutinsky was nominated for the title of the Soviet Union Hero three times, but the adequate document was never signed. History will arrange everything now. Nikolay Strutinsky won the struggle, although he had to stand up for his friend's name, when people tried to rewrite history again.

Nikolay Strutinsky spent the last years of his life in the city of Cherkassy, living in a two-room flat of a common apartment building. He wrote books there (Strutinsky was a member of the National Union of Journalists and of the Russian Union of Journalists), conducted an expensive military and patriotic work. There were some people in the new independent Ukraine, who disliked that work: someone attempted to assassinate him. The case has not been investigated, of course. Various associations have repeatedly addressed to the city administration to award the Citizen of Honor title to Strutinsky, but the promises did not come true.

Nikolay Strutinsky was indifferent to awards and honors. He was more concerned with certain attempts to change history, to pronounce occupants "liberators" and partisans – "terrorists." Shortly before he died, he handed over the manuscript of his latest book to me and said that nobody would be willing to publish it in the new Ukraine. The manuscript is currently stored at the office of the newspaper Tovarisch (Comrade) - Strutinsky was a member of the Ukrainian Social Party. Editors promised to publish the book in the newspaper. Nikolay Strutinsky was in good spirits until his dying day. He was buried on the Yanivsky graveyard in Lvov, Ukraine.