On the evening of June 21, 1941, the leadership of the People's Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) of the USSR received a telegram from the Leningrad region warning of an impending war with Nazi Germany. An archival document containing a copy of this telegram was first published by the Presidential Library.
The telegram addressed to the People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR Vsevolod Merkulov (1941, 1943 — 1946) from the head of the NKGB department for the Leningrad region, Pavel Kuprin, contained the following information: agent “Chernov” reported that on the morning of June 20, 1941, the German consulate received a telegram from the SFG company, transmitted by the German Foreign Ministry. This telegram proposed sending 8 German specialists called from Leningrad to Germany by plane so that they would cross the border before the morning of June 22, otherwise it would be too late.
The telegram also said that “Chernov” was in progress a conversation with the Chancellor of the Consulate Buchholz and Consul Dienstmann, summoned from Germany, found out that the situation is very tense and military action is expected in the next 2-4 days, and the initiative belongs to Germany.
The telegram also indicated that Buchholz received this information from the German Ambassador to the USSR, Werner von Schulenburg, with whom he met in Moscow. Kuprin provided Merkulov with lists of German specialists who were in Leningrad after this event.