A Russian national resident in Latvia, Kononov was Soviet guerrilla in nazi-occupied Latvia during World War II. He was active in a guerrilla attack on a Malye Baty rural police station, May 1944. The guerrillas killed six Schutzmaenner-German auxiliary policemen from among local collaborationists, and three members of their families. It was an act of vengeance several months after the policemen betrayed a Soviet reconnaissance crew Germans killed off.
Vassili Kononov pleaded innocent. As he said in the courtroom, twenty thousand WWII guerrillas were fighting Germans and collaborationists in Latvia alone. If he was guilty, the prosecution ought to qualify as war criminals all anti-nazi fighters.
"A war was on, and I was fighting military occupiers of my Motherland and my native village," the veteran said in his final statement.
