| Главное управление контрразведки СМЕРШ СМЕРШ | |
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 14 April 1943 |
| Preceding agencies |
|
| Dissolved | 4 May 1946[1][2] |
| Type | Military counter-intelligence |
| Jurisdiction | Soviet Union newly liberated and newly occupied territories (World War II) |
| Headquarters | Lubyanka (4th and 6th floors) Moscow,Soviet Union |
| Motto | Смерть шпионам! (Death to spies!) |
| Agency executive | |
| Parent department | State Defense Committee |
| Parent agency | State Defense Committee |
SMERSH (Russian:СМЕРШ) was anumbrella organization for three independentcounter-intelligence agencies in theRed Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined byJoseph Stalin. The formal justification for its creation was to subvert the attempts byNazi German forces to infiltrate the Red Army on theEastern Front.[3][4]
The official statute of SMERSH listed the following tasks to be performed by the organisation: counter-intelligence,counter-terrorism, preventing any other activity of foreign intelligence in the Red Army; fighting "anti-Soviet elements" in the Red Army; protection of the front lines against penetration by spies and "anti-Soviet elements"; investigating traitors, deserters, andself-inflicted wounds in the Red Army; and checking military and civil personnel returning from captivity.
The organisation was officially in existence until 4 May 1946,[1][2] when its duties were transferred back to theMinistry of State Security (MGB).[5] The head of the agency throughout its existence wasViktor Abakumov, who rose to become Minister of State Security in the postwar years.
Joseph Stalin coined the nameСМЕРШ (SMERSH) as aportmanteau of the Russian-language phraseСмерть шпионам (Smertʹ shpionam, "Death to spies"). Originally focused on combating German spies infiltrating the Soviet military, the organization quickly expanded its mandate: to find and eliminate any subversive elements—hence Stalin's inclusive name for it.[6]
Until 3 February 1941, the 4th Department (Special Section, OO) of theMain Directorate of State Security (GUGB)—the most important security body within thePeople's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)—was responsible for the Soviet Armed Forces' military counter-intelligence.[7] On that date, the Special Section's 12 Sections and one Investigation Unit were separated from GUGB NKVD. The official liquidation of OO GUGB within NKVD was announced on 12 February by a joint order № 00151/003 of NKVD and NKGB USSR. The rest of GUGB was abolished and staff was moved to newly createdPeople's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB). Departments of former GUGB were renamed Directorates. For example, former Foreign Department (INO) became Foreign Directorate (INU); political police represented by Secret Political Department (SPO) became Secret Political Directorate (SPU), and so on. The former GUGB 4th Department (OO) was split into three sections. One section, which handled military counter-intelligence in NKVD troops (former 11th Section of GUGB 4th Department OO) became 3rd NKVD Department or OKR (Otdel KontrRazvedki), the chief of OKR NKVD was Aleksander Belyanov, Commissar State Security 3rd rank.[8] On 25 February 1941,Viktor Abakumov became NKVD deputy Commissar in charge of supervising this and several other departments.
The second and most significant part went to the Defense CommissariatSoviet Armed Forces (the NKO) becoming its 3rd Directorate or (3 Upravlenie). The 3rd NKO Directorate took over most of the 4th GUGB Department Sections and was headed by division commissar Anatolii Mikheev, the former and last OO GUGB NKVD chief. The third part of former OO (the 10 Section) became thePeople's Commissariat of the Navy 3rd Directorate. The head of navy KI was Andrei Petrov, a state security captain.
After the 22 June 1941German invasion of the USSR,Stalin on 17 July, as Chairman ofState Defense Committee, signed special decree №187 / ss, by which military counterintelligence was returned to the NKVD as a Directorate of Special Departments or UOO, withViktor Abakumov as chief. UOO on every level was given much more power and a freer hand in decision making than at any time since the creation ofCheka.[9] Also on 19 July, by the order of NKVD №00940, the UOO was moved fromMoscow to the city ofKuibyshev.[10] Navy 3rd Directorate was still under Navy control, till 11 January 1942 when it was incorporated into Directorate of Special Departments.[11][9]
On 2 July 1941, NKGB USSR was incorporated back into the NKVD structure. NKGB did not return asGUGB, but as separate units. The NKVD structure organisation from 31 July 1941[12] shows that there are independent Directorates as in the 1st: foreign intelligence, 2nd: domestic KI, and so on. There is no GUGB within NKVD after its official liquidation in the beginning of February 1941.[13]
After the situation on the Russian fronts (known asEastern front) became more stable, on 14 April 1943, the State Defense Committee (GKO), chaired by Stalin, ordered another split of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD USSR) into three organisations: By decision of the Politburo of theCPSU [thenVKP(b)] nr. P 40/91People's Commissariat for State Security or (NKGB) was created for the second time. It was based on NKVD's Directorates. The most important of them were: 1st INU (foreign intelligence), 2nd KRU (domestic counterespionage, fighting anti-Soviet organizations, protection of state economy, house searches, and arrests)[14] NKVD 2nd Department (government and party officials protection) was transferred as NKGB 6th Directorate, NKVD Transportation Directorate was absorbed as NKGB 3rd Directorate and NKVD 4th Directorate was moved to NKGB with the same number. For detailed organization seeNKGB. "Regulations of the People's Commissariat of State Security" were approved bySNK in order № 621-191ss from 2 June 1943.After losing most of the operational units to the NKGB, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) was still a very powerful government apparatus. It was responsible for public order in USSR by using heavily armed police in each corner of the country, running the largest penal labour camps under theGulag Directorate,POWs camps and NKVD troops with loyal and well-equipped soldiers, that by the end of the war the numbers of NKVD troops were 1½ million strong with their own air force, armored and cavalry units.[15]
Resolution No. 414-138 ss ordered the NKVD's Directorate of Special Departments to be split into three separate military counterintelligence units, within the NKO, Navy Commissariat and NKVD, respectively, as has been done in early 1941. The same order that created GUKR SMERSH within the NKO created a parallel organisation within the Navy Commissariat, theNKVMF. This organization was known as the NavyUKR SMERSH and headed by Peter Gladkov and his two deputies Aleksei Lebedev and Sergei Dukhovich. In reality, Gladkov reported to Abakumov, by then deputy Commissar of the NKO, and Stalin's deputy. Formally Gladkov was subordinate to his superior People's CommissarNikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, head of Navy.
OKR SMERSH (Counterintelligence Department) of the NKVD USSR was subordinate toLavrentiy Beria, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs. The NKVD OKR SMERSH was headed by Semion Yukhimovich and later V. Smirnov.
The GKO officially created SMERSH to ensure the Soviet Union's security from internal political threats and foreign espionage, although it carried out a wide variety of other tasks between 1943 and 1946 as well.[5] SMERSH's counterintelligence operations included seeking and destroying counter revolutionaries, finding and interrogating enemy agents, hunting Soviet agents who had not returned by the appointed date, and evaluating the usefulness of captured enemy documents. SMERSH also took an active role in the affairs of theRed Army by ensuring the good quality of Red Army facilities, improving discipline, eliminating poor leaders, and preventing desertion,self-inflicted wounds, panic, sabotage and poor discipline. Other SMERSH activities included: exposing collaborators in areas recently captured by the Red Army; exposing and punishing economic crimes such as black market activity; protecting secret material and headquarters from enemy agents and saboteurs; and determining the "patriotism" of those captured, encircled, and those who had returned from foreign countries. SMERSH operatives also controlled partisan operations behind German lines and evaluated the partisans' loyalty to the Soviet Union.[16] SMERSH would then arrest and neutralise anti-Soviet partisans, saboteurs, spies, conspirators, mutineers,deserters, and people designated as traitors and criminal elements at the combat front.
The strategic directorate focused oncounter-espionagewet operations andcounter-insurgencypacification operations that answered directly to Stalin.[17][18] In March 1946, SMERSH Chief Directorate was resubordinated to the People's Commissariat of Military Forces (Наркомат Вооруженных Сил, NKVS). The NKVS was later reorganized into the Ministry of Military Forces (МVS) soon thereafter,[citation needed] and SMERSH was officially discontinued 4 May 1946.[1][2]
SMERSH activities included "filtering" the soldiers andforced labourers recovered from captivity. SMERSH was actively involved in the capture of Soviet citizens who had been active inanti-communist armed groups fighting on the side of Nazi Germany such as theRussian Liberation Army, theCossack Corps of Pyotr Krasnov, and theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
As the war concluded, SMERSH was given the assignment of findingAdolf Hitler and, if possible, capturing him alive or recovering his body. Red Army officers and SMERSH agents reportedly found Hitler's partially burned corpse near theFührerbunker afterhis suicide and conducted an investigation to confirm his death and identify the remains that were secretly buried at SMERSH headquarters inMagdeburg until April 1970, when they were exhumed, completely cremated, and dumped.[19]
SMERSH fought theArmia Krajowa and post-war organisations participating e.g. in theAugustów roundup.
A separate attachment to GKO decision No. 3222-ss/ov detailed the organisation of SMERSH and its branches in the Army:
The Smersh organs are a centralized organization. At the fronts and military districts theSmersh organs (the NKO Smersh directorates at fronts and NKO Smersh departments at the armies, corps, divisions, brigades, military districts, and other units and organizations of the Red Army) are subordinated to the higher organs. (...) The Smersh organs inform Military Councils and commanders of the corresponding units, troops, and organizations of the Red Army on the matters of their work: on the results of their combat with enemy agents, on the penetration of the army units by anti-Soviet elements, and on the results of combat against traitors of the Motherland, deserters, andself mutilators.
At the end of theSecond World War,American forces examining captured German intelligence sources determined that SMERSH was composed of six directorates, six departments, and three other branches. Directorates conducted operations involving agents on the "frontline" of the intelligence war whereas departments received and interpreted the information coming in from agents and enemy intercepts. SMERSH also ran three other groups: the Komendatura, which guarded and managed SMERSH installations and prisoners; the Troika, which acted as a military court and could administer punishment without defense from the accused; and the Administrative Bureau and Secretariat, which acted as the personal staff of the SMERSH commander.[16][20]
Below is the organization of SMERSH based on German Intelligence.[16] The second chart shows another way SMERSH may have been organized.[21]
| SMERSH (per German intelligence) | SMERSH (second variant) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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GUKR SMERSH directed the work of field directorates, assigned to thefronts. These field organs were referred to as UKR SMERSH (UpravlenieKontrrazvedki) or Counterintelligence Directorates. The naming distinguished them from the GUKR (HQ) SMERSH headquarters. The difference between GUKR and UKR or OKR was in the status hierarchy in the Red Army MilitaryCI (the same structures were applied in February 1941 to NKO, NKMF and NKVD military counterintelligence units). They were ranked according to their authority. In the case of SMERSH the system of organization was: Main (or Chief) Directorate orGUKR SMERSH, Directorate of Counterintelligence orUKR SMERSH, and Department of Counterintelligence orOKR SMERSH.[22]
GUKR in Moscow consisted of 11 operational and 3 non-operational departments, a total of 646 men. For comparison, GUKR SMERSH's predecessor, UOO NKVD Directorate of Special Departments within the NKVD (Russian:УОО НКВД) consisted of 225 men in 1942. Not all departments corresponded to their UOO NKVD predecessors. With the new focus on the Germans and other enemies, two departments, the 3rd and 4th, transferred from the NKVD/NKGB.[22][p. 257]
The 3rd Department had the task of capturing German spies in the rear and organizingradio games with their help, and the 4th Department headed counter-intelligence measures behind the front line.Five of the departments, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th. were involved directly in investigation.[22]
The UKR SMERSH (Counterintelligence Directorate) of the front, directed the OKRs Counterintelligence Departments (OtdielKontrrazvedki) within the armies and units. There SMERSH officers were attached to each rifle corps. The OKR at the division level consisted of 21 men, including a head, his deputy, a ciphering officer, investigators, commandant, and a platoon of guards. The OKR of each army included 57 men, while the size of the front UKR depended on how many armies composed the front. If the front consisted of five armies, its UKR included 130 officers, if there were fewer armies, the UKR had 112 officers.[22]
Military Districts had a different structure. For example, the Moscow Military District, the biggest one at the time, had between 109 and 193 officers; they went through special training for filtering POWs. SMERSH units at the fronts were supported by NKVD internal troops for guarding prisoners, for operational work UKR and OKR SMERSH units were supported by regular Red Army servicemen. SMERSH front directorates were provided with a battalion, SMERSH army departments with a company, and SMERSH departments at the regiment, division, or brigade level, a platoon.[22]
| Front or Military District | Front Commander | UKR Head |
|---|---|---|
| Karelian Front (disbanded Nov 1944) | Col Gen.Valerian A. Frolov | Aleksei Sidnev thenDmitrii Mel'nikov |
| Leningrad Front | MarshalLeonid Govorov | A Bystrov |
| Kalinin Front (1st Baltic Front from Oct 1943,Sambia Group from Mar 1945) | Army Gen.Andrei Yeremenko | N. Khanikov |
| Volkhov Front (in Feb 1944 divided between the Leningrad and 2nd Baltic Fronts) | MarshalKirill Meretskov | D. Mel'nikov |
| Northwestern Front (disbanded Nov 1943, 2nd Belorussian Front from Feb 1944) | Col. Gen.Ivan Konev | Ya. Yedunov |
| Western Front (3rd Belorussian Front from April 1944) | Army Gen.Vasili Sokolovsky | P. Zelenin |
| Central Front (Soviet Union) (1st Belorussian Front from Oct 1943) | MarshalK. Rokossovsky | A. Vadis |
| Voronezh Front (1st Ukrainian Front from Oct 1943) | Army Gen.Nikolai Vatutin | N. Osetrov |
| Bryansk Front (2nd Baltic Front from Oct 1943) | Col. Gen.Max Reyter | N. Zheleznikov |
| Southern Front (4th Ukrainian Front from Oct 1943) | Army Gen.Fyodor Tolbukhin | N. Kovalchuk |
| Steppe Military District (2nd Ukrainian Front from Oct 1943) | Col. Gen.Markian Popov | N. Korolev |
| Northern Caucasian Front (Primorsk Army from Nov 1943) | Col. Gen.Ivan I. Maslennikov, Col. Gen. I. Petrol from May 1943 | M. Belkin |
| Transcaucasian Front | Army Gen.Ivan Tyulenev | N. Rukhadze |
| Transbaikal Front | Col. Gen.Mikhail Kovalyov | I. Saloimsky |
| Far Eastern Front | Army Gen.Purkayev | A. Chesnokov |
| Moscow Military District | Col. Gen.Pavel Artemiev | F. Tutushkin |
Source: Vadim J. Birstein,SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon[22] | ||
In itscounter-espionage andcounter-intelligence roles, SMERSH appears to have been extremely successful throughoutWorld War II. SMERSH actions resulted in numerous captures, desertions, and defections of German intelligence officers and agents, some of whom SMERSH turned intodouble agents. Indeed, the Germans began to consider missions where their losses were less than ninety percent "satisfactory". According to German sources, the Soviets rendered approximately 39,500 German agents useless by the end of the war.
SMERSH utilized a number of different counterintelligence tactics: informants, security troops, radio games, and the passing ofdisinformation, ensuring both the reliability of the military and the civilian population. SMERSH set up a system of informants by sending a SMERSH officer to each battalion composed of between 1,000 and 1,500 men. Each SMERSH officer would enlist a number of "residents" who recruited their own "reserve resident" and between six and eight informants. Informants reported those sympathetic to the Germans, desertion, unpatriotic attitudes, and low morale and were authorized to take "immediate corrective action" if the need arose.[20] SMERSH recruited between 1,540,000 and 3,400,000 informants, or about twelve percent of the entireRed Army. However, SMERSH coerced up to half of all of its informants to work for them.
In order to secure the Red Army's rear, SMERSH evacuated civilians and set up checkpoints so as to assert physical control. Next, agents sought and arrested "suspicious persons" who might be German agents. Finally, SMERSH interrogated those arrested.
Compared to its predecessor (Directorate of Special Departments – UOO), SMERSH was mostly focused on enemies spies, although Red Army servicemen were still under suspicion.Abakumov kept Stalin updated on all high-ranking commanders, and on the behavior of a number of leading military officers.
To confuse German intelligence with disinformation, SMERSH utilized radio playbacks and played over 183 radio games over the course of the war. Operation "Opyt'" serves as a good example of the effectiveness of these radio games. Between May and June 1943, SMERSH used three German agents to spread disinformation about the Kursk counteroffensive by suggesting the Red Army had begun to dig in rather than prepare for an attack, thus contributing to the success of the Red Army's surprise attack. BeforeOperation Bagration, the largest Allied operation of the Second World War, SMERSH caught and "doubled" a number of German agents who tricked the German military into underestimating the number of Soviet troops by 1.2 million men.[23]
SMERSH played a major role in creating and controlling partisan operations behind German lines. After capturing German-held territory and reuniting with the Red Army, SMERSH interviewed partisans in order to determine the partisans' loyalty to the regime.[16]
SMERSH has been popularized due to the organization's prominence as one of the common antagonists inIan Fleming's earlyJames Bond novels; however, Fleming's portrayal has been generally criticized as quite inaccurate by historians. In later works Fleming abandoned the use of SMERSH as his chosen antagonists, introducing the purely fictional villainous organizationSPECTRE.[24][25][26][27][28]
In all Bond films based on Fleming's works that featured SMERSH, the agency was either changed to SPECTRE or omitted altogether. However, SMERSH is mentioned inFrom Russia With Love. Also, an operation 'smiert shpionam' ('death to spies') forms part of the plot ofThe Living Daylights, but this was organized by a Russian General acting without approval of the Soviet Government.
In 1968L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of theChurch of Scientology, began writing that all of the world's governments had been taken over by SMERSH and that the organization was controlling the world throughpsychiatry, whichthe Church opposes. Hubbard proposed to defeat the alleged SMERSH infiltration by smugglingSea Organization members intoSwitzerland, taking over theWorld Federation of Mental Health inGeneva, and then discrediting psychiatry by using the front organization to promote eugenics and mass euthanization to theUnited Nations. Hubbard abandoned the plan after the SwissFederal Office of Public Health took notice of the Sea Org's plan.[29]
Intelligence and counter-intelligence work was often a topic of considerable interest in Russia. With millions of veterans after the war many of them later became writers and directors. The Committee for State Security had a special"KGB Award in the field of literature and art" honoring depictions of an intelligence work. In modern Russia there a successor —"FSB Award". Spy books were printed in editions numbering in the millions in the Soviet Union with a spy as a one of a sacred figures in mind. Even today there are regular re-publications of Soviet novels and documentaries under the "Counterintelligence Library" collection. Spy movies also were released every year with 1968 being a special one: in that yearThe Shield and the Sword,Dead Season andThe Secret Agent's Blunder were released, and all three later became classic.
Literature
Movies
TV Series
Video games
SMERSH was an acronym for Smert' Shpionam which is translated Death to Spies. It [...] was given the name SMERSH by Joseph Stalin who rejected the originally proposed title Death to German Spies. Stalin believed that the new intelligence service should concern itself with all spies.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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