SMERSH :: The W2N.net

SMERSH (Russian: СМЕРШ, acronym of SMERt' SHpionam, Russian: СМЕРть Шпионам, English: Death to Spies) were the counter-intelligence departments in the Soviet Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14th, 1943.¹² The name is phonetically similar to the Russian words "смерч" (smerch) for tornado and "смерть" (smert) for death.

History

Counter-intelligence

The main task of SMERSH was to secure the Red Army's operational rear; investigate, arrest and neutralize anti-Soviet partisans, saboteurs, spies, conspirators, mutineers, deserters, and people designated as traitors and criminal elements at the combat front. On February 3, 1941, the Special Sections (osoby otdel) of the NKVD (responsible for Military counterintelligence of the Soviet Army) became part of the Army and Navy (RKKA and RKKF, respectively). The GUGB was separated from the NKVD and renamed the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB), with the Counter-Intelligence (CI) sections assigned to it. Following the outbreak of World War II, the NKVD and NKGB were reunited on July 20, 1941 and CI was returned to the NKVD in January 1942.³⁴

As the requirements of the war expanded and the Soviet armies began their conquest of previously occupied German territory, the complexities of counter-espionage, counter-insurgency, and occupation were sufficiently large to encourage Stalin to consolidate all of SMERSH under his direct control. On April 15, 1943, CI was again transferred to the People's Commissariats of Defense (NKO) and the Navy (NKF), becoming SMERSH within NKO. The full name of the head entity was Главное управление контрразведки СМЕРШ Народного комиссариата обороны СССР, or USSR People's Commissariat of Defense Chief Counterintelligence Directorate "SMERSH". The organization was headed by Viktor Abakumov, who was a subordinate of Lavrenty Beria. Therefore, SMERSH belonged to the state security apparatus rather than to the Red Army.³⁴

The strategic directorate focused on counter-espionage wet operations and counter-insurgency pacification operations that answered directly to Stalin.³⁴ In March 1946 SMERSH Chief Directorate was resubordinated to the People's Commissariat of Military Forces (Наркомат Вооруженных Сил, НКВС). HKBC was latter reorganized into the Ministry of Military Forces (МВС) soon thereafter, and SMERSH was officially discontinued in May, 1946.

Other activities

SMERSH activities included "filtering" the soldiers and forced labourers recovered from captivity.

As the war concluded, SMERSH was given the assignment of finding Adolf Hitler and, if possible, capturing him alive or recovering his body. Red Army officers and SMERSH agents found Hitler's partially burned corpse near the Führerbunker after his suicide and conducted an investigation to confirm the events of his death and identify the remains which (along with those of Eva Braun) were reportedly secretly buried at SMERSH headquarters in Magdeburg until April 1970, when they were exhumed, completely cremated, and dumped in a river.⁵⁶

Organization

SMERSH

                   People's Commissar of Defense 
                    
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                         Chief and deputies 
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                             Secretariat 
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          Section 1 ----------------------------- Section 5
 Counter-intelligence protection  |          Oversight of SMERSH      
of central Red Army institutions  |           organs in military
                                  |               districts        
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          Section 2 ----------------------------- Section 6       
      Work among POWs             |            Investigations
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          Section 3 ----------------------------- Section 7 
    Counterespionage and          |           Information and
    Conduct radio games           |               statistic
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          Section 4 ----------------------------- Section 8
Organization of Counter-                           Codes
  intelligence behind                               and
      front lines                              communications

Org.References - Lubianka 2. Iz istorii otiecziestwiennoj kontrrazwiedki, W.A. Sobolewa Moskwa 1999

In popular culture

SMERSH appears as the opposition service in some of the earlier James Bond novels by the author Ian Fleming.

References

^ The Soviet Army - SMERSH at SpetsNaz Psychology
^ Anton Antonov-Ovseenko Beria, Moscow, ACT, 1999, ISBN 5-327-03178-1, pages 316-330 (Russian edition)
^ ^a ^b ^c NKVD/KGB Activities and its Cooperation with other Secret Services, International conference November 19-21, 2008, Prague
^ ^a ^b ^c "CI in World War II", Counterintelligence Reader, Volume 2 Chapter 1
^ Hitler, Stalin & Operation Myth; This is one of many sources which corroborates this interpretation of the fate of Hitler's remains: 'The remains, now a "jellied mass" according to a KGB report, were pulverized, soaked in gasoline, and then completely burned up. The ashes were mixed with coal particles and then taken 11 kilometers north of Magdeburg, where they were dumped into the Bideriz sic, a tributary of the Elbe river (Editor's note: could be the Biederitzer See, near the village of Biederitz or the Ehle R. which runs north of Biederitz and flows into the Elbe-Umflutkanal).'
^ Where is Hitler's grave?

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