In December 1929, Komsomol member Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov fell victim to slander by individuals who resented his honesty and selfless devotion to the Motherland. He was accused of concealing his social origins upon enrolling in college — allegedly being the son of a kulak (a farmer having excessive wealth) and a bandit.
Neither the secretary of the college’s Komsomol cell nor the Talitsa District Komsomol Committee recognized the accusation for what it was: a malicious fabrication disguised as class vigilance in the campaign against the kulaks. On December 18, 1929, Kuznetsov was expelled both from the Komsomol and from his final year at the Talitsa Forestry College. This episode in Nikolai Kuznetsov’s life was later documented in the article “New Documents on the Komsomol Youth of Intelligence Officer N. Kuznetsov”, published in Tyumenskaya Pravda (May 20, 1965, No. 117).
Archival records confirm that the Kuznetsov family were middle-class peasants who lived solely by their own labor. Nikolai’s father, Ivan Kuznetsov, had volunteered for the Fifth Red Army during the Civil War, fought in the liberation of Siberia, and advanced as far as Krasnoyarsk. In March 1920, at the age of 45, he was honorably discharged — “released to a civilian state”, as the military order phrased it — under Order No. 33 of the 5th Army, dated March 2. Upon returning home, he resumed work as a peasant farmer.
Nikolai Kuznetsov was deeply shaken by the injustice. When his mother urged him to set aside his chores and stop tormenting himself with worry, he replied with quiet resolve: “For the truth I will stand to the death!”
In the aftermath, he threw himself into work at the “Red Plowman” commune of the Balair Village Council and took charge of the local Komsomol political school. Confident in his innocence, he submitted a formal appeal to the Conflict Commission of the Tyumen District Komsomol Committee and the Komsomol Central Committee. But no response came.
Growing anxious, on March 20, 1930, he wrote again to the District Committee: “Comrade Chairman of the Committee. I ask you to inform me of the outcome of my case regarding reinstatement into the Komsomol. Please request verification from the party cell of our commune and from authorities in Talitsa. I urge you to expedite the decision — it is hard for me to keep waiting”.
Despite his expulsion, the college administration had already issued Nikolai a certificate in December 1929 confirming completion of the Tyumen Agricultural College course and nearly the full curriculum of the Talitsa Forestry College.
Andrey Petrovich Yakovenko, Kuznetsov’s classmate from both the seven-year secondary school and the forestry college, later recalled:
“At the end of December 1929, Nika and I were called to the director’s office and informed of our expulsion from the college. The decision was based on a false denunciation by hostile elements who accused us of hiding our social origins. Without verifying the facts, the administration issued the order.
In our conversation afterward, Nika asked about my plans. I told him it wouldn’t be difficult for me to disprove the allegations — and indeed, within two weeks I had resumed my studies at the technical school.
‘Well, in the meantime, I’m going to the village,’ Kuznetsov said. ‘Time will show’.
Nika took his expulsion from both the college and the Komsomol very hard. From our later meetings, it was clear the bitterness lingered for a long time. Yet he never held a grudge — not against anyone. And only people with a truly strong spirit can do that”.
