Janusz Kuzmin

"'We should measure a man by what they're prepared to do themselves. Not by what they're prepared to have others do for them.'" Janusz Kuzmin was a major in the MGB and mentor to Leo Demidov.

Prior to his posting in the MGB, Major Kuzmin worked for the Red Army as an intelligence officer. A Beria-appointee, one of Major Kuzmin's first assignments came in January 1950, where he instructed officer Leo Demidov to supervise a guided tour of Moscow for American communist dissident Jesse Austin, hoping to prevent the American from seeing anything that would tarnish his rosy opinion of the Soviet Union.

In early February 1953, Major Kuzmin ordered Leo to investigate Moscow-based veterinarian Anatoly Brodsky, whose clientele of mostly Western diplomats was a source of suspicion within the MGB. He later ordered Leo to temporarily suspend the investigation in order to confront fellow MGB agent Fyodor Andreev. Fyodor's son had earlier died under mysterious circumstances, which the MGB classed as a train collision, though Fyodor insisted that the child had been murdered. As questioning the results of an official investigation could have resulted in Fyodor's arrest, Major Kuzmin prioritised convincing Fyodor of the investigation's official rulings over the Brodsky case, fearful of divisions within the MGB.

Once Fyodor's matter was settled, and Anatoly Brodsky arrested, Major Kuzmin was visited by officer Vasili Nikitin, who revealed that Leo had struck him during the arrest for having executed Mikhail Zinoviev and his wife, both of whom had given Anatoly refuge. As punishment, Major Kuzmin ordered Leo to attend Anatoly's interrogation alongside Vasili. A few days later, after Anatoly gave a full confession, Major Kuzmin instructed Leo to investigate his own wife Raisa, whose name was listed among Anatoly's possible collaborators, as a test of loyalty.

With the beginning of the Khrushchev Thaw, Major Kuzmin was arrested for his pro-Stalinist leanings and replaced with Major Grachev.