Sasha Filippov Sasha Filippov ( ; June 26 , 1925 – December 23 , 1942 ) was a spy for the Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad . Early life . Sasha Filippov was born in 1925 in Stalingrad ( modern - day Volgograd ) , Russian SFSR , Soviet Union . At the time of the Battle of Stalingrad , Filippov lived in the Stalingrad suburb of Dar Gora with his father , mother , and a younger brother who was born in 1932 . Physically , Sasha was frail and short statured . Espionage activities . When the initial Wehrmacht assault on Stalingrad resulted in battalions of the German 6th Army quickly overrunning suburbs of the city , many Russian families were caught unaware and found themselves unable to flee in time . One such family was the Filippovs . While his family stayed indoors , Filippov went out and began speaking with the German soldiers . He found out where the headquarters for the German staff was located and proceeded to offer his services as a cobbler to the officers of the invading forces . He was informed that his services would be useful and soon he was a regular sight behind the German lines , repairing and polishing shoes and boots for the officers and soldiers . Unbeknownst to the Germans , however , he had also gone to Red Army headquarters to offer his services as a spy . Designated by the Red Army as the information source code named ' schoolboy ' , Filippov would remove documents from the desks of German officers , report German conversations and enemy troop movements , and describe what German military activity he could see to Russian officers , all while mending footwear for the German Army . From this information , more precise attacks could be made on troop concentrations and the Wehrmacht headquarters located in the Dar Gora area was even shelled one night by Russian artillery , thanks to Filippov providing the exact firing coordinates . Filippov ' s parents never knew the details of his work as a double agent at the time . They knew only that their son was working for the Red Army in some fashion , though not exactly how . Death . On the evening of December 23 , 1942 , Filippov ' s parents were told by their neighbors that their son had been arrested by the Germans ; Mr . and Mrs . Filippov had apparently been anticipating this event for several weeks . The Germans had discovered his spying activities and had sentenced him to death for espionage . His mother rushed out of their house to see her son being led barefoot by a German platoon through the falling snow , accompanied by two other prisoners , one of them a female . Sasha ' s mother passed him some food , apparently with the thought that her son was being led off into captivity . This was not to be the case . The procession was marched to a grove of peashrub trees on Bryanskaya street , where Sasha and the two others were hanged in view of neighbors and his parents . Mr . Filippov was unable to witness the actual execution of his son and left before this order was given , while Sasha ' s mother remained alone with the bodies of her son and two other youngsters ' after the soldiers had marched off . Early in 1980s the researchers have revealed the name of the woman hanged together with Sasha : it was 22 - year - old Maria " Masha " Uskova , a single mother from the nearby urban - type settlement Katrichevo . The other hanged man ' s name still remains unknown . Posthumous honors . Sasha was awarded the Order of the Red Banner posthumously in 1944 . In Volgograd , the former Bryanskaya Street where he lived now bears his name , as does the public school ( No . 14 ) on that street . There is also a park named after him , where his grave and a memorial are situated . Portrayals in fiction . Filippov is portrayed by Gabriel Thomson in the film " Enemy at the Gates " , in which his role and death are dramatized , with some historical inaccuracies