He lived with his grandson and continued to hunt and fish on the territory of the kolkhoz "Rassvet" (Russian: Рассвет, 'Dawn').

During the night, Kuzmin guided the German units through straining paths, leading them to the outskirts of Malkino at dawn.

[2][3] In 1948 Polevoy wrote the children's story The Last Day of Matvey Kuzmin,[5] which is still included in Russian school readings for third grade.

[citation needed] Kuzmin's self-sacrifice, which was compared with that of Ivan Susanin, earned him the posthumous honour of being named a Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1943 a statue to him was raised in a Moscow Metro station Izmailovsky Park, now Partizanskaya, which was designed by the Soviet sculptor Matvey Manizer.