"Smersh": historical essays and archival documents. "Smersh". Historical essays and archival documents Smersh historical essays and archival materials

"SMERSH": HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS

V.S. Khristoforov, V.K. Vinogradov, O.K. Matveev, V.I. Lazarev, N.N. Luzan, V.G. Makarov, N.M. Peremyshlnikova, A.P. Cherepkov

THE TRUTH ABOUT "SMERSH"
(Book "SMERSH": HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS)
Vadim UDMANTSEV
"VPK" N8. March 3 - 9, 2004

Another closed page from the history of domestic special services has become public knowledge. Many people know that at a certain stage of the Great Patriotic War The Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD was transformed into the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" of the People's Commissariat of Defense (NPO) of the USSR, and the very abbreviation of this organization was composed of the initial letters of the well-known slogan: "Death to spies!" However, not everyone knows that the same decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 19, 1943 created the SMERSH Counterintelligence Department of the NKVMF of the USSR and the SMERSH Counterintelligence Department of the NKVD of the USSR.

Unfortunately, it must be admitted that, despite the obvious military merits of the Smershevites, the features of their work were hushed up for many years. Here is what the head of the Department for Registration of Archival Funds of the FSB of Russia, Major General Vasily Khristoforov, who at the same time headed the team of authors of the newly published book, said: they tried to give an objective picture without embellishment and cuts ... What is said in the book has not previously appeared in the open press, moreover, all previous books about the work of SMERSH employees were either outright misinformation or an invention of the authors themselves. reflecting the reality of the work of "SMERSH" is Bogomolov's novel "The Moment of Truth. In August 1944..." By the way, Vladimir Georgievich Bogomolov also made a significant contribution to the creation of the book "SMERSH". Historical essays and archival documents", agreeing to informally advise younger authors, but his untimely death did not allow him to hold this edition in his hands.

The book contains a large number of photographs, color and black-and-white images of various documents, posters of the war years. On separate pages there are schemes of the SMERSH GUK, the SMERSH NPO of the fronts, the SMERSH NPO of the armies, as well as photo galleries of portraits of the leaders of these structures during the Great Patriotic War. Much of the photographs and documents are from personal archives, and this is very encouraging, since there are not so many veterans left alive, and also because service in the "organs" left its mark for many years - most of these people are used to "keep their mouths shut". It is known, for example, that the remarkable Russian classic writer Fyodor Abramov, having front-line experience behind him, did not leave to his descendants any noticeable purely "military" works or memoirs. Meanwhile, having spent several months in hospitals after being seriously wounded in the battles near Leningrad, from April 1943 he served in the SMERSH counterintelligence department of the Arkhangelsk military district. An incomplete university education and knowledge of German and Polish allowed Abramov to make a good career in a short time: from an operative reserve to a senior investigator. And, perhaps, it is precisely in the "Smershev's" training that the guarantee of the writer's amazing powers of observation and the accuracy of the transfer of psychological portraits of genuine characters in a number of his stories?

On the pages of the book "SMERSH". Historical essays and archival documents" describes in detail, with specific examples, the opposition of Soviet counterintelligence officers to espionage, sabotage, terrorist and other activities of foreign intelligence in units and institutions of the Red Army, the fight against traitors to the Motherland, deserters and those who engaged in self-mutilation on the fronts. Several chapters are devoted to the counterintelligence work of the "Smershevites" both in the deep rear of the enemy, and in frontline, about the brilliantly conducted operations on the radio, as a result of which the military counterintelligence of the USSR in this area was unparalleled during the Great Patriotic War. Here is how, in turn, the living chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Military Counterintelligence Department of the FSB of the Russian Federation, holder of three Orders of the Red Banner, three Orders of the Red Star and many other military awards, Lieutenant General Alexander Matveev, commented on the book "SMERSH": "The book is written in a simple, understandable This will help to convey the idea of the book more intelligibly to young Chekists... When I read this book, I imagined my entire military path... We had a very insidious and well-trained enemy in the person of the Abwehr. Equipped with everything necessary, they behaved impudently and aggressive...

Indeed, since the years of repression and the first months of the war had a deplorable effect on most Soviet "organs", yesterday's students, teachers, engineers - who made up the bulk of the employees of departments and departments of SMERSH during the Great Patriotic War - were opposed by professionals of the highest class, worked for years in intelligence and counterintelligence. In this regard, a separate chapter of the book contains detailed information about the structures and methods of work of the special services of the four main states opposing the USSR: Germany, Japan, Romania and Finland. These pages are illustrated with schemes of enemy organizations, trophy photographs of the leaders and most valuable agents of the German Abwehr, Zeppelin, Waffen SS Jagdferband, Romanian SSI, as well as Japanese and Finnish intelligence and counterintelligence, certificates of members of sabotage and reconnaissance groups and seized from them by SMERSH organs of weapons and equipment. Of particular interest are photographs of buildings that have survived to this day in the territories of Germany, Poland, Russia and the Baltic countries, in which the headquarters of enemy special services and structures were located during the war years.

One of the chapters - "The Big Sieve" of military counterintelligence "- tells about the work of the "Smershevites" among prisoners of war. It was also not an easy job, because during the entire period of the Second World War, the Red Army captured 4,377,300 military personnel of enemy European states and 639,635 of the Kwantung Army The secret services were hiding among the soldiers and officers, while the agents recruited and trained by them still continued to shoot in the back of the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army in the liberated territories. and about 900 intelligence officers and counterintelligence officers of imperial Japan.The book contains memorandums on the results of the work of collection and transit points, on the results of intelligence and operational work among enemy prisoners of war, intelligence reports, denunciations and statements by German prisoners of war about their readiness to cooperate with Soviet counterintelligence, relevant photographs.

The same chapter talks about the filtering by military counterintelligence of hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers and other persons who were captured or surrounded by the enemy, about numerous cases of hiding former punishers, accomplices of enemy services and their agents. Among others, specific facts of the recruitment of citizens of the USSR by the special services of foreign, including allied states, are given. For the first time, photographs of fake IDs of members of partisan detachments of the French Resistance, as well as corresponding memos to the head of the Main Directorate of the NPO "SMERSH" V. Abakumov, marked "Top Secret" were published.

The only thing left to regret is that the book, being a "gift edition", was published in a small edition - only 4,000 copies - and is expensive, which is why both historians and veterans are unlikely to afford it. However, some hope for a possible more massive and less expensive re-edition of SMERSH was inspired by the phrase of a member of the author's team - the head of the Moscow Main Archives Alexei Kiselev, said at the presentation of the book: "These materials should be available to the general reader. It is necessary to publish them, first of all , for young people - so that they know the real, and not the fictitious truth about those events ... "

"Smersh": Historical essays and archival documents

The second, corrected and supplemented edition of the book-album "Smersh": Historical essays and archival documents "(M., 2005. - 343 p.) has been published. About "Smersh" in our country and abroad they wrote and write different things. Write, sometimes being overly carried away, either by accident or on purpose, mixing truth with lies, reality with legends, stereotypes are being replaced by others.

Today, for the first time, historians have had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the texts of authentic materials from the funds of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, which are directly related to the activities of Smersh. All essays presented in the book are strictly documentary.

This name determined the main task - the protection of the Red Army from the enemy's special services. In addition to combating the activities of foreign intelligence services in units and institutions of the Red Army, "Smersh" also solved the tasks of "creating conditions on the fronts that exclude the possibility of enemy agents passing through the front line with impunity"; he was supposed to fight against treachery and desertion, check military personnel and other persons who were captured, and also carry out "performance of special tasks of the People's Commissar of Defense." Head of the GUKR "Smersh" V.S. Abakumov reported directly to I.V. Stalin and was appointed Deputy People's Commissar of Defense.

The structure of "Smersh" was built strictly vertically, each unit was subordinate only to its higher counterintelligence agencies.

The Smersh counterintelligence officers received their baptism of fire on the Kursk Bulge. For the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia prepared a special edition, which for the first time presented materials related to the participation of Smersh in these events. Therefore, in the book under review, the description of some points related to the Battle of Kursk is given concisely in order to avoid repetition.

Behind the lines of previously unknown materials given in the book, one can see how the war grinded human destinies. The recent scandal that erupted around the film "Bastards", which dealt with the supposedly existing school of teenage saboteurs in the USSR, showed once again that the so-called. "rulers of thoughts" from among the "creative intelligentsia" do not know (or do not want to know) the true history.

#comm#If they had looked at the published documents at one time, they would have learned that it was the German, and not the Soviet, as the film claims, that the special services actively used children to carry out reconnaissance activities and carry out sabotage.#/comm#

Having selected several groups of homeless children, the Abwehr officers taught them mine-explosive work and threw them into the rear of the Soviet troops, setting the task of disabling steam locomotives. To accomplish this goal, teenagers were given explosive devices disguised as pieces of coal.

The captured Red Army soldiers, whom the Germans transferred across the front line, were also actively used for reconnaissance and sabotage operations. According to official data, during the war years, counterintelligence neutralized 43,477 agents of the German special services.

It is no secret that there were those in the USSR who were waiting for the arrival of the Germans and were ready to provide them with all possible assistance. Some radio games ("Monastyr", "Janus") were specifically aimed at preventing the appearance of a "fifth column" of various anti-Soviet groups; others ("Rout", "Reeds") were called upon to paralyze the attempts made by the Germans to organize armed uprisings against Soviet power in the national-territorial formations of the USSR. From published sources, we today became aware of the Baltic, Turkestan, Tatar, Caucasian, Ukrainian and Russian formations of the armed forces of the Third Reich from among the citizens of the USSR and emigrants. The book contains information about how the Germans trained a special group, which was entrusted with the task of "unifying small rebel groups operating in Kalmykia and organizing an uprising of Kalmyks against Soviet power, as well as carrying out major acts of sabotage in the Soviet rear." Some of the landing enemy paratroopers were captured, after which it was possible to start the radio game "Aryans", during which important information was obtained by our counterintelligence, misinformation was transmitted to the enemy, his agents were liquidated or captured, destroyed military equipment etc.

Radio games not only contributed to obtaining valuable information, but also made it possible to disorient the enemy. The largest radio game, called "The Riddle", lasted from the summer of 1943 until April 1945 and was carried out against the Zeppelin-Nord intelligence agency.

#comm# During the war, Soviet counterintelligence carried out 183 radio games, as a result of which over 400 agents and employees of German intelligence were identified and neutralized. #/comm#

The publication touches upon the circumstances of the transition to the side of the enemy, Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasov; describes the circumstances of Hitler's suicide and the methods of ideological warfare. Until recently, these were closed topics. This circumstance gave rise to many myths that still continue to excite the minds of publicists, with a frequency worthy of better use, who continue to publish books about the "tragic fate" of a traitor (according to all the laws of officer ethics, Vlasov committed precisely a betrayal).

This book about "Smersh" is the first documented description of the activities of the most successful counterintelligence of the twentieth century. Its effectiveness was recognized not only by the allies, but also by the opponents of the USSR. This was the merit of those who thought through, led and directly carried out special operations. On the pages of the book, we repeatedly meet the name of a person whose activities as the head of Smersh were forgotten for many years. Arrested in July 1951, USSR Minister of State Security V.S. Abakumov, was shot in December 1954. Since then, if his name was mentioned, it was only in a negative context, next to the names of L.P. Beria, V.N. Merkulova and others.

A separate chapter is devoted to the special services of those countries with which the USSR waged war (Germany, Romania, Finland, Japan). in the most detailed way the confrontation between the Abwehr and the Soviet counterintelligence is shown, a diagram of the organizational structure of the German military intelligence is presented; provides information about its leaders; photographs and documents. It is characteristic that the activity of the enemy special services is analyzed objectively and impartially, without any "party" pathos.

#comm#The desire for objectivity is generally one of the distinguishing features of the work of the authors of this publication.#/comm#

The book-album is illustrated with rare photographs, including from the personal archives of counterintelligence officers who took part in the Great Patriotic War.

A separate chapter is devoted to documenting the crimes committed by the invaders in the occupied areas, as well as the work to search for and punish war criminals and their accomplices from among Soviet citizens.

In the afterword to the book, the authors throw a bridge to the present. Although Smersh as a structure ceased to exist in 1946, military counterintelligence continued to operate effectively. A brief overview of her work in the 1960s-80s and beyond, up to the present day, is given on last pages books, is quite logical and fits into the general concept of the publication.

Note that on all-Russian competition journalistic and literary works "We are proud of our Fatherland" in April 2004, the team of authors of the book was awarded the first prize in the "Documentary" section.

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EXPLAIN, what the new head of department had to do on Rostov land, I think, is not necessary. From many other leaders of the same level, Abakumov differed only in his youth and personal participation in interrogations, during which he, a man of great physical strength, applied the most severe methods of interrogation to those arrested. At that time, methods of physical influence were widespread practice - the top political leadership required state security officers to expose "enemies of the people" by any means. No matter how other "party degenerates" try today to distance themselves from the NKVD-KGB, these bodies primarily carried out the "will of the party", or rather, the orders of the party leadership. However, like every soviet man at your workplace...
The service zeal of the young leader did not go unnoticed by Lavrenty Beria, who himself was not too lazy to participate in interrogations of especially important people. It was people like Abakumov - young, unquestioningly and successfully fulfilling all the instructions of the leadership and, most importantly, not associated with any of the groups of the highest party nomenclature - that Stalin needed in Moscow. At the beginning of 1941, when People's Commissariat Internal Affairs of the USSR decided to divide into two independent structures - People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs and state security new vacancies for managerial positions. Abakumov was appointed to one of them - the deputy people's commissar of internal affairs. He was entrusted to supervise not the most important direction: the main departments of the police and fire protection. However, he was also in charge of the 3rd department, which was engaged in the operational-Chekist service of the border and internal troops. So Abakumov began to enter the "Stalinist clip."
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War opened the way for Abakumov to the highest power. On July 19, 1941, he was entrusted to head military counterintelligence - the department of special departments of the NKVD. Later, in April 1943, it was renamed the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" and transferred to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. The head of Smersh became deputy people's commissar of defense, and this position was occupied by Stalin himself.
But it is interesting that Viktor Semenovich ended the war only with the shoulder straps of a lieutenant general. Military rank he was promoted to colonel-general in July 1945.
IN YEARS Abakumov proved to be a good organizer during the hard times of war. According to the memoirs of veterans of military counterintelligence, he skillfully used the experience of the General Staff and built a management system for Smersh on the model of the army in the field: front departments were created in the Main Directorate. This allowed the head of military counterintelligence to better understand the operational situation on the fronts and raised his authority in the eyes of Stalin, who did not allow his subordinates to cover up their incompetence with verbiage. The leader was also bribed by the effectiveness of the work of military counterintelligence, whose structures in the fight against enemy agents demonstrated greater efficiency than their counterparts from the people's commissariats of state security and internal affairs.
Being a resolute person, Viktor Semenovich was not afraid to take responsibility and did not want to blindly follow the then established order. The military situation often required quick and unconventional solutions. So, Abakumov ordered to release German agents who had confessed from criminal liability, which greatly helped the military counterintelligence officers in the confrontation with the German special services, in neutralizing their agents.
“Belittling the merits of Abakumov in the successful work of the Smersh Main Intelligence Directorate is not serious, I think that not a single wartime counterintelligence officer will allow himself this. The practical results of Smersh's activities turned out to be higher than those of the NKGB, which was the reason for the nomination of Abakumov.
Memoirs of a Hero Soviet Union Army General P.I. Ivashutin.
The firm character of Abakumov and his ability to go against the opinions of others were manifested in the episode with the search for the remains of Hitler. In the autumn of 1945, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Beria was inclined to make a decision to acquaint our Western allies with materials on the investigation into the circumstances of Hitler's death. The people's commissars for state security and foreign affairs were of the same opinion. It remained to formally obtain approval from the Smersh counterintelligence department of the People's Commissariat of Defense and give the corresponding instruction to the representative of the NKVD in Germany, General Serov.
In November 1945, a draft cipher telegram was already drawn up:
"Berlin.
Tov. Serov
To your No. 00399
There are no objections to the transfer to the British and Americans of the information you have about the results of the investigation into the circumstances of Hitler's disappearance.
Please note that, in addition, the Allies may request the interrogation of certain persons who are with us: Günsche, Rattenhuber, Baur, etc.
In what form this information should be transmitted to the allies, consider and decide for yourself.
L. Beria"
It seemed that everything was clear, and suddenly, on November 26, the secretariat of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs reported to him about the disagreement of military counterintelligence.
"Reference
T.t. Merkulov, Kruglov, Kobulov agree with the draft telegram. Comrade Abakumov objected and said that he would report to you personally on this issue.
As a result, General Serov did not receive instructions to transfer information on Hitler to the allies. Abakumov, who had gained weight in the apparatus, could already afford to disagree with Beria, to whom he certainly owed his rise in the late 1930s.

"You need to touch someone"

OF COURSE that during the war years, the main department of counterintelligence of the People's Commissariat of Defense had to not only deal with the fight against espionage, but also monitor political moods officers. In the archives, by the way, there are many interesting documents about this side of the activities of military counterintelligence officers. For example, on December 23, 1943, in a memorandum labeled "Top Secret", Abakumov reported to Stalin to the State Defense Committee on the responses of the Red Army soldiers to the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the State Anthem of the Soviet Union" published in the press.
About this document, recently provided to the editors of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper by the Archive of the President Russian Federation, we will go into more detail, but for now we will give only a few statements. Here is the opinion of the head of the Main Artillery Directorate of the Red Army, Colonel-General N. Yakovlev: “Abroad, this will be regarded as a step back, as a concession to the allies, but in reality this is not so. After all, how many such steps we took during the war: we liquidated the commissars - nothing happened, they even began to fight better, introduced general and officer ranks, put on shoulder straps for everyone - discipline was strengthened.
The Holy Synod was created, the patriarch was elected, the Comintern was dissolved and, finally, the International was canceled - and all for the benefit of the Motherland ... "
Of course, statements of a different kind did not pass by the attention of military counterintelligence officers.
Aviation Lieutenant General Grendal, Head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Air Force Headquarters: “It’s good that they finally remembered Russia in the anthem, but still it seems to me that there is some concession to Roosevelt and Churchill here.”
Lieutenant Colonel Vorobyov, teacher of higher political courses named after Lenin: “All this is being done under the great influence of the allies. They dictate their will, the more they succeed now, when our country is seriously weakened in the war and their will has to be reckoned with.”
Colonel Krylov, head of the department of the Main Quartermaster Directorate of the Red Army: “We are gradually moving towards the appearance of the hymn “God Save the Tsar”. We are slowly changing our basic mindset and moving towards being nice to our allies."
Captain of the Quartermaster Service Nordkin, Senior Assistant to the Chief of the Main Quartermaster Directorate of the Red Army: “In the anthem, the exaltation of the Russian nation slips while hushing up other nations. This can be used by dark elements as great-power Russian chauvinism. The consistent protrusion of the Russian people is noticeable.”
Senior Lieutenant Baranov, Assistant Head of the Searchlight Service of the Headquarters of the Separate Moscow Air Defense Army: “The essence of our state has changed so much that we are no longer faced with the task of building a communist society and we are slipping into the bourgeois system. In this regard, Marxism is no longer suitable for us and it needs to be revised.
Sharapov, head of the administrative department of the Central House of the Red Army: “It remains only to change and dissolve the Bolshevik Party. In 1918 - 1919. there was something to agitate, then there was the slogan “Land to the peasants, factories to the workers” and freedom of speech, and then they pressed it so that millions of people laid down their heads.
The leader's resolution is also curious: "Important. Someone needs to be touched."
After the end of the war, the aging Stalin began to think about his successor. It was obvious to him that his closest associates were of little use as statesmen capable of preserving and strengthening the recreated mighty empire. The leader needed new people who were personally devoted to him - those who could be relied upon in the planned purge of the party nomenklatura, which during the war period had come to its senses from the psychological shock of the 30s.
In the upcoming changes in the country, the state security agencies were also called upon to play their role. At their head, Stalin decided to put Abakumov, whose loyalty and efficiency he had the opportunity to personally verify during the war period. In addition, Abakumov did not have personal relations with most of the leaders of the MGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was also important for the increasingly suspicious owner of the Kremlin. The cruel school of the struggle for power taught him to be extremely cautious, which over the years more and more developed into suspiciousness. Although who knows, maybe these fears were not unfounded. After all, the mystery of the death of the leader remains unsolved ...
BECOMING in May 1946, instead of General of the Army Vsevolod Merkulov, close to Beria, Abakumov, as Minister of State Security, had to solve such tasks that helped him amass many ill-wishers in the upper echelons of power. But this, apparently, is the fate of all the leaders of the "secret police": - the more effectively you work in the interests of the authorities, the more bitter fruits you can reap later. In particular, the new head of the MGB had to do a lot of military affairs - at that time, in the process of reorganizing the state security organs, the Smersh counterintelligence department moved from the military department to the MGB as one of its structural divisions - the 3rd Directorate.

In the picture: "Special folder" GUKR "Smersh".

(To be continued.)

Subject: Warfare, military history , History editions

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SMERSH. Historical essays and archival documents.

3rd edition, revised and enlarged. M.: Publishing house of GBU "TsGA of Moscow", 2015, 344 p. Compiled by: Khristoforov V., Vinogradov V., Matveev O.

On April 19, 1943, Joseph Stalin withdrew the army Special Departments from the subordination of the NKVD and created a new special service on their basis - SMERSH, putting Viktor Abakumov at its head. SMERSH is called both the most effective counterintelligence of World War II and a punitive machine. There were about 10 thousand military counterintelligence officers, of which 646 were in the central office. All of them, except for a few top leaders, including Abakumov, wore army, not Chekist, ranks. Natives of the Special Departments were recertified in May 1943. Indicative is the name "Death to Spies", personally approved by Stalin. At the same time, among the duties of the special services, set out in the appendix to resolution No. 3222, in second place after "the fight against the activities of foreign intelligence services" was "the fight against anti-Soviet elements."

Historical essays on the fight against enemy intelligence during the Great Patriotic War are illustrated with unique documents and photographs, including from the personal archives of counterintelligence officers. All essays presented in the book-album are strictly documentary.

"Smersh" as a structure ceased to exist in 1946, but the military counterintelligence continued to operate effectively. A brief overview of her work in the 1960s-80s and beyond, up to the present day, given on the last pages of the book, is quite logical and fits into the general concept of the publication.

The gift edition is addressed to veterans of counterintelligence, researchers of the history of domestic special services and a wide range of readers.