There is a lot of conflicting information about SMERSH, caused primarily by the secrecy of the activities of this organization. However, archives are gradually opening, and with them new facts become available.
special organ
In recent years, the word SMERSH has become almost synonymous with punitive authorities. So, the head of the "Union of Right Forces" Leonid Gozman even compared SMERSH with the Nazi SS, finding differences between them only in form, and the representative of the society "Memorial" Nikita Petrov called sky-high numbers of victims of SMERSH - 70 thousand shot.
However, these data can be easily disputed. It is enough to raise the statistics of law enforcement agencies and see, that for the entire period of the existence of SMERSH (1943-1946 gg.) a little over 14 thousand death sentences, including ordinary crimes.
First of all, SMERSH was created as an organ, counteracting reconnaissance and sabotage activities of Nazi Germany in the Soviet rear, which intensified after the defeat of the Germans near Stalingrad. According to the decision of the State Defense Committee, SMERSH was supposed to replace the Office of Special Departments of the NKVD.
The original name of the special organ sounded like "Smernesh" ("Death to German Spies"), however, this option did not suit Stalin: “Are other intelligence services not working against us??», - Commander-in-Chief said. 21 April 1943 year the final version was recorded - SMERSH.
In action
SMERSH really showed itself on the eve of the Battle of Kursk. His agents managed not only to reveal the plans of the Germans regarding the offensive in the Kursk direction, but also to determine the place and date of the operation. Need to take into account, that Soviet counterintelligence officers were opposed by experienced and resourceful agents of the German special services, including the Abwehr.
To top 1943 at about 200 German intelligence schools prepared saboteurs for being thrown into the Soviet rear. Abwehr and SD developed and tried to implement a plan, according to which Kalmykia, North Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Crimea and other national regions were to become hotbeds of civil war.
In, that there was no "stab in the back" - the main merit of SMERSH. In this, an important role was also played by 3000 Soviet agents, who successfully suppressed the operations of German special services on enemy territory at the stage of preparation.
A separate activity of SMERSH was the so-called "radio games" - the deliberate transmission of disinformation to the German side through the recruited German agents. FROM 1943 by 1945 Soviet counterintelligence spent a year 186 similar "radio games", in fact, completely depriving the Germans of the opportunity to get military secrets, while neutralizing from above 400 Hitler's intelligence officers.
The result of the three-year work of SMERSH was the neutralization of over 30 thousands of spies and saboteurs of the enemy. Not a single intelligence service in the world can boast of such results..
On the front line
SMERSH agents fought not only in the rear, but also at the forefront. Moreover, their activities were often associated with greater dangers., than regular soldiers. According to statistics, the operative served on the front line for no more than three months., out of action as a result of injury or death. In total, over the years of the war, more than 6 thousand SMERSH employees. Four of them were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union..
Many SMERSH members showed miracles of heroism, as, eg, Senior Lieutenant A. F. Kalmyks, who, with a group of comrades, broke into the village, where there was a large German garrison. Calling fire on myself, Kalmykov allowed Soviet troops to destroy about 300 Nazis and liberate the settlement.
Known episode, occurred during the Battle of Berlin, when counterintelligence officers of the 47th Guards Rifle Division of the 8th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front carried out an operation to capture one of the central offices of the Abwehr. Intelligence managed to find the building of the Abwehr on the outskirts of the German capital, disguised as an agricultural institute.
Fight against change
One of the tasks of SMERSH was the fight against traitors to the Motherland. For these purposes, his agents developed a very original method. We are talking about staging the surrender of entire groups of Red Army soldiers, under the guise of which experienced counterintelligence officers acted. Two such operations were carried out 2 and 3 June 1943 of the year. As soon as the agents under the guise of defectors approached the German soldiers, they threw grenades at the enemy. Such a preventive measure made it possible in the future to calculate, that the German troops, when real deserters appear, will meet them with fire to kill.
Filter
Immediately after the victory, the allies of the USSR, fulfilling the agreements, began to return many Soviet citizens to their homeland, including prisoners of war, as well as those, who fought against their former compatriots on the side of Nazi Germany. In the USSR, they were met by SMERSH employees. Acting as a kind of filter, they weeded out the trustworthy from the suspicious.
Historians, focusing on the punitive and repressive nature of the activities of SMERSH, write, that the Soviet special services ruthlessly cracked down on prisoners, sending them instead of Hitler's camps to Stalin's. However, the facts show that, that such a screening system was by no means blind.
So, in May and June 1945 year, SMERSH employees revealed 36 generals of the Red Army, returning from the other side of the front. All of them were delivered to Moscow, where a separate decision was made for each of them, based on collected materials. Eventually 25 military leaders were acquitted, a 11, in respect of which the facts of cooperation with the Nazis were proven, were put on trial.
Total passed through the SMERSH verification filter 58 686 human, of them 16 456 people - former soldiers and officers of the Red Army, 12 160 people - Ostarbeiters of military age. After a multi-stage check, it was revealed 378 a person who, to one degree or another, was involved in collaboration with the Nazi regime. They were not shot without trial or investigation., as some historians say. All of them were sent to the investigators for a more in-depth inquiry..
Taras Repin
