Vladimir Aleksandrovich
Molodtsov
1911-1942
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Molodtsov was the commander of an underground reconnaissance and sabotage group operating in the catacombs of the city of Odessa and its surroundings, a captain of state security. He was born on June 5 (18), 1911 in the city of Sasovo, the Tambov province (now it is the Ryazan region) in the family of a railroad worker. In 1922 the family moved to the village of Prozorovka (now it is the village of Kratovo, the Ramenskoye district, the Moscow region). He studied at Sasovskaya elementary railway school, Kratovskaya seven-year-old school (finished in 1926), at a nine-year school in the city of Ramenskoye, in Moscow Railway School № 1 (finished in 1929). Since 1929 he worked as a laborer, locksmith. In October 1930, according to the Komsomol permit, he arrived at the mine in the Bobrik-Donskoy coal basin near Moscow: he was a miner, since 1931 he was a secretary of the Komsomol committee of the mine, since 1933 he was an assistant to the head of the mine. In 1934 he graduated from the Faculty of Labor at the Moscow Institute of Engineering and Economics. He was a Komsomol activist – along with his main job, he was the secretary of the Komsomol organization of the mine and a freelance correspondent for the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. He was a member of the CPSU(b) since April 1931. He worked in the organs of the NKVD of the USSR since 1934, according to the party set. He graduated from the Central School of the NKVD in 1935. He served in the NKVD Directorate for the Moscow region. In March 1941 he was transferred to the First Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR (foreign Intelligence). Since June 1941 he was in a special group under the NKVD of the USSR. In July 1941, the head of one of the political intelligence units, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Molodtsov, was sent to Odessa to conduct special operations at the head of an operational reconnaissance and sabotage group. On September 12, V.A. Molodtsov reported to Moscow on the creation of a group consisting of 20 people. The main base of the detachment was in the Odessa catacombs. On the day of October 16, 1941, when our troops left the city, the detachment began combat work and ambushed a column of enemy troops. Killing up to forty-five Nazis, partisans returned to the catacombs without loss. By the end of 1941, the Molodtsov-Badayev detachment derailed four railway trains with enemy manpower and ammunition, engaged in combat battles with punishers more than ten times, mined roads, destroyed communication nodes. So, on October 23, the building of the commandant’s office, where a meeting of high-ranking officials from the occupiers and their accomplices took place, flew into the air from an explosive device planted by Molodtsov’s group. More than 200 officers led by General Gluhoyanu found their deaths under the rubble of the house. On the night of November 18, a luxury passenger train exploded and derailed on a mined railway track, in which more than 250 Nazi officials and officers died. On February 9, 1942, as a result of the betrayal of the Romanian secret police, they managed to capture a brave scout. V.A. Molodtsov was shackled from the first day of his imprisonment and was subjected to cruel tortures, during which he behaved exceptionally steadfastly and courageously. He did not mention any of his comrades, nor his real name. The demonstrative trial, arranged by the Romanian occupation authorities, lasted from May 25 to May 29, 1942. On May 29, in the courtyard of the prison, V.A. Molodtsov, in the presence of other prisoners, was read the verdict of the military field court, according to which he was sentenced to execution. The NKVD resident categorically refused the offer to file a petition addressed to the Romanian king for clemency, stating: «We are on our own land, and we do not ask for mercy from the enemy». On the evening of July 12, 1942, V.A. Molodtsov was shot. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 5, 1944, for courage and perseverance in carrying out special tasks of the command and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Captain of State Security Vladimir Aleksandrovich Molodtsov was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (5.11.1944, posthumously), the Red Banner (17.02.1942).
Address: Moscow, Yasny ave., 24, bldg. 3
