Main Directorate of Counter-Intelligence "SMERSH"

Главное управление контрразведки СМЕРШ СМЕРШ
Military counter-intelligence overview
Formed	14 April 1943 (originally); 3 December 2023 (reactivated)[1]
Preceding agencies	Directorate of Special Departments within NKVD USSR Main Directorate within MGB USSR
Dissolved	4 May 1946[2][3]
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	Death to spies!
Parent department	State Defense Committee
Parent Military counter-intelligence	State Defense Committee

SMERSH (Russian: СМЕРШ) was an umbrella organization for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin. The formal justification for its creation was to subvert the attempts by Nazi German forces to infiltrate the Red Army on the Eastern Front.^[4][5]

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, and self-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,^[2][3] when its duties were transferred back to the MGB.^[6] The head of the agency throughout its existence was Viktor Abakumov, who rose to become Minister of State Security in the postwar years. Eighty years after its initial formation, SMERSH was reactivated on 3 December 2023 as part of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.^[7]

Name

Joseph Stalin coined the name "СМЕРШ" (SMERSH) as a portmanteau of the Russian-language phrase Смерть шпиoнам (Smert’ shpiónam, "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.^[8]

History

Until 3 February 1941, the 4th Department (Special Section, OO) of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB)—the most important security body within the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD)—was responsible for the Soviet Armed Forces' military counter-intelligence.^[9] 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 created People'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.^[10] 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 Commissariat Soviet 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 the Navy Commissariat (the Red Fleet) 3rd Directorate. The head of navy KI was Andrei Petrov, a state security captain.

Duties

SMERSh identity document

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.^[6] 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 the Red 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.^[18] 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 on counter-espionage wet operations and counter-insurgency pacification operations that answered directly to Stalin.^[19][20] 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, and SMERSH was officially discontinued 4 May 1946.^[2][3]

GUKR SMERSH HQ Organization

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 the Smersh 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, and self mutilators.

• Defense Commissariat – headed by (at the time of taking post) Defence Commissar Marshal of the Soviet Union – Joseph Stalin
• Main Counterintelligence Directorate headed by (at the time of taking post) Commissar of State Security 2nd rank Viktor Abakumov.
  • first deputy: (at the time of taking post) Commissar of State Security 2nd rank – Nikolai Selivanovsky
  • deputy: (at the time of taking post) Commissar of State Security 3nd rank – Pavel Meshik
  • deputy: (at the time of taking post) State Security Commissar – Isai Babich
  • deputy for staff affairs: (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel – Ivan Vradii
• Secretariat – Secretarial work within GUKR SMERSH headed by (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel Ivan Chernov
• 1st Department – Counterintelligence within the Red Army command. Officers assigned to all military units, from the battalion level upward. Also control of political officers within Red Army – headed by State Security Colonel Ivan Gorgonov Apr 29, 1943 – May 27, 1946
• 2nd Department – CI Operations within foreign POWs, and also filtering of Soviet armed forces officers and servicemen who had been POWs. Those investigations were result of Order No. 270 and Order No. 227. Also collection of intelligence information from areas immediately behind enemy lines headed by (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel Sergei Kartashov Apr 29, 1943 – May 1946
• 3rd Department – was in charge both of identifying German agents working behind the Red Army front, and of radio games. In the field, officers or branches of the 3rd Dep. were assigned to all military units from the corps and higher. Also cooperation with 2nd dep's of UKRs of fronts and the 4th Sections of OKRs of the armies, (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel Georgii Utekhin Apr/Sep 1943
• 4th Department – Counterintelligence behind enemy lines. Taking measures like finding the channels of penetration of enemy agents into the units and institutions of the Red Army. Sending qualified counterintelligence operatives and turned German agents (double agents) to the occupied German territory to penetrate their intelligence organizations, and German administration. 4th GUKR Dep frequently cooperated with NKGB Directorates like 1st (foreign intelligence, headed by Pavel Fitin), 2nd (domestic counterintelligence ) run by Pyotr Fedotov and especially with 4th Directorate run by famous penetrator of Manhattan Project, Pavel Sudoplatov. Headed by (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel Pyotr Timofeev Apr/Sep 1943
• 5th Department – was in charge of supervising UKRs of fronts. It also maintained military field courts, headed by (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel Dimitrii Zenichev, and from July 1944 by State Security Colonel Andrei Frolov
• 6th Department – (also known as Investigation Unit) This unit was not present in a UKRs and OKRs structures. Unit existed only in the GUKR SMERSH headquarters in Moscow. Investigators of 6th Dep worked very closely with 2nd GUKR Dep officers. In charge of (6th Dep) was (at the time of taking post) State Security Lieutenant Colonel Aleksandr Leonov. (Leonov and at the time his deputy Mikhail Likhachev, played important roles in interrogations of German POWs of highest level.) Likhachev headed SMERSH group at the Nuremberg Trials. Also cases prepared by the 6th Department were tried by the Military Collegium or the OSO of the NKVD USSR.
• 7th Department – in charge of statistics and archival data. Also responsible for surveillance of high level military personnel in the Central Committee and the Defense and the Navy Commissariats, as well as those involved in secret work who were sent abroad. Dep 7th was head by (at the time of taking post) State Security Colonel Aleksandr Sidorov

At the end of the Second 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.^[18][24]

Below is the organization of SMERSH based on German Intelligence.^[18] The second chart shows another way SMERSH may have been organized.^[25]

UKR SMERSH units at the front

GUKR SMERSH directed the work of field directorates, assigned to the fronts. These field organs were referred to as UKR SMERSH (Upravlenie Kontrrazvedki) 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 Military CI (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 or GUKR SMERSH, Directorate of Counterintelligence or UKR SMERSH, and Department of Counterintelligence or OKR SMERSH.^[26]

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.^{[26][p. 257]}

The 3rd Department had the task of capturing German spies in the rear and organizing radio 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.^[26]

The UKR SMERSH (Counterintelligence Directorate) of the front, directed the OKRs Counterintelligence Departments (Otdiel Kontrrazvedki) 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.^[26]

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.^[26]

Methods

In its counter-espionage and counter-intelligence roles, SMERSH appears to have been extremely successful throughout World War II. SMERSH actions resulted in numerous captures, desertions, and defections of German intelligence officers and agents, some of whom SMERSH turned into double 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 of disinformation, 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.^[24] SMERSH recruited between 1,540,000 and 3,400,000 informants, or about twelve percent of the entire Red 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.

1. The arrest of a private or junior officer should be approved by a prosecutor;
2. The arrest of a mid-level commander should be approved by the commander and prosecutor of military unit.
3. The arrest of a high-level commander should be approved by the Military Council of the [front] and a prosecutor.
4. The arrest of a commander of the highest level should be authorized by the People's Commissar of Defense [Stalin].

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. Before Operation 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.^[27]

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.^[18]

In popular culture

See also

• Military counterintelligence of the Soviet Army
• Gestapo–NKVD Conferences
• Death to Spies

References

External links

• Media related to SMERSh at Wikimedia Commons
• Russia unveils Stalin's spy service BBC report on an exhibition in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of SMERSH's founding.
• "Track down Soviet war criminals, Ukrainian group urges, By Nathan Wilson