On December 19, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of Military Counterintelligence. This structure is engaged in activities that are very important for the security of the country and the armed forces: "special officers" identify persons cooperating with foreign intelligence services, fight terrorism, crime and corruption, drug addiction and other deviant phenomena in the army. The current date for the Russian military counterintelligence is of great importance - it is the 99th anniversary of the creation of special departments on December 19, 1918 as part of the Cheka of the RSFSR. Almost a century has passed, but military counterintelligence officers are still colloquially called "special officers".
The path of military counterintelligence in Russia was thorny and difficult. This service has repeatedly changed its names, underwent various organizational changes, but the essence of its work remained unchanged. Despite the fact that the first departments dealing with counterintelligence in the army appeared in the Russian Empire in 1911, the real formation of military counterintelligence in our country is entirely connected with the Soviet period of Russian history. The revolution needed protection and the issues of organizing structures capable of fighting saboteurs and spies, the Soviet government was concerned already in 1918. First, the Military Department of the Cheka and the Military Control were created. A number of tsarist officers who had previously served in the counterintelligence departments of the army were recruited into the Military Control.
However, the duality in the system of organizing counterintelligence management did not contribute to its effectiveness. Viktor Eduardovich Kingisepp, an old Bolshevik, a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, attached to the Cheka, came up with a proposal to eliminate the duality. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky heeded Kingisepp's arguments. Already in December 1918. The Special Department of the Cheka was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR.
The first head of the Special Department of the Cheka was Mikhail Sergeevich Kedrov. A Bolshevik with a solid pre-revolutionary experience, Kedrov in November 1917 was included in the collegium of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR, becoming commissar for the demobilization of the Russian army. In September 1918, Kedrov headed the Military Department of the Cheka, so it was not surprising that it was he who was entrusted with the leadership of the military counterintelligence agencies. On January 1, 1919, Kedrov issued an order ordering the unification of the Military Departments of the Cheka and the Military Control within the framework of the Special Department of the Cheka. The duality of the military counterintelligence system was eliminated.
The most reliable cadres were sent to serve in special departments, preference was given to proven communists. The first congress of employees of special departments even adopted a special resolution, in which it emphasized that the requirements for party seniority imposed on security officers should be higher than for other Soviet party, military and civil servants. In 1919, the chairman of the Cheka Felix Dzerzhinsky himself became the head of the Special Department of the Cheka. Thus, he took over the direct leadership of the military counterintelligence agencies. Special departments of the Cheka played an important role in the fight against spies and saboteurs during the Civil War. During the Civil War, counterintelligence officers liquidated a large number of conspiracies in which opponents of the Soviet regime took part.
An interesting episode in the history of military counterintelligence is the transfer of responsibilities for the protection of the state border of the RSFSR to the Special Department of the Cheka, which followed in November 1920. From July 1920 to July 1922 The special department of the Cheka was headed by Vyacheslav Rudolfovich Menzhinsky, who then replaced Dzerzhinsky as head of the OGPU. In January 1922, the Secret Operations Directorate (SOU) was created, in which in July 1922 two departments were allocated - counterintelligence, responsible for general counterintelligence in the country and the fight against counterrevolutionary organizations, and a special one, responsible for counterintelligence work in the army and in the navy. It was in the 1920s - 1930s that the military counterintelligence bodies were further strengthened. In 1934, the Special Department became part of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR as the 5th department (since 1936), and in 1938, after the abolition of the GUGB, on the basis of the 5th department, the 2nd Directorate of special departments of the NKVD of the USSR. However, in 1938, at the initiative of Lavrenty Beria, the Main Directorate of State Security was re-established. The 4th Special Department of the GUGB, in charge of military counterintelligence, was revived in its composition.
The most serious test for military counterintelligence officers was the Great Patriotic War. In 1941, the Directorate of Special Departments was recreated, which included the 3rd Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR and the Special Department of the NKVD of the USSR. On April 19, 1943, by a decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR, the legendary Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR was created.
The slogan "Death to spies!" Was chosen as its name. SMERSH was directly subordinate to the People's Commissar of Defense Joseph Stalin, and Viktor Semenovich Abakumov was appointed head of SMERSH, who previously held the post of Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR and head of the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR, and before that headed the Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR in the Rostov Region. In addition to the SMERSH GUKR of the People's Commissariat of Defense, its own SMERSH department was created at the People's Commissariat of the USSR Navy, and the SMERSH department was created at the USSR People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs under the leadership of Semyon Yukhimovich. For better conspiracy, all SMERSH operatives were ordered to wear the uniform of the troops in which they served.
The SMERSH authorities were entrusted with the duties of combating spies of enemy intelligence services, combating desertion and deliberate self-mutilation at the front, with the abuse of command personnel, and with military crimes. The very abbreviation SMERSH terrified not only the enemy, but also criminals and lawbreakers in the ranks of the Red Army, deserters and traitors of all stripes. As the occupied territories of the Soviet Union were liberated, the SMERSH authorities began to clarify the events that took place during the occupation, including identifying persons who collaborated with the Nazi occupation authorities. It was the SMERSH organs that played the main role in identifying and arresting many war criminals - policemen, punitive officers and their accomplices from among Soviet citizens. Today, in some publications, SMERSH organs are shown exclusively as ruthless "punishers" who allegedly shot in the back of their own soldiers and persecuted Soviet servicemen for the smallest violations, sometimes on trumped-up charges.
Of course, in the activities of SMERSH, like any other structure, there were mistakes and excesses and, given the specifics, these mistakes could lead to broken lives and cost someone's life. But it is unacceptable to blame the entire SMERSH for these mistakes and even crimes. Smershevtsy fought with weapons in their hands against the Nazi invaders, policemen, collaborators, participated in the elimination of gangs of criminals and deserters who were operating in forests, in rural areas and liberated cities. The contribution of SMERSH to the restoration of Soviet power, law and order in the liberated territories of the Soviet Union is invaluable. Many SMERSH counterintelligence officers were killed in battles with the enemy, were killed in the line of duty in the rear. For example, during the fighting for the liberation of Belarus, 236 SMERSH employees were killed and another 136 employees were missing. SMERSH operatives served on average for three to four months, after which they dropped out due to death on a combat mission or due to an injury received. SMERSH employees Senior Lieutenant Pyotr Anfimovich Zhidkov, Lieutenant Grigory Mikhailovich Kravtsov, Lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Krygin, Lieutenant Vasily Mikhailovich Chebotarev were posthumously awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But a lot of Smershevites did not receive gold stars, although they fully deserved it - the authorities were not particularly generous for awards to counterintelligence officers.
After the victory over Nazi Germany, the SMERSH counterintelligence service was engaged in the study and filtration of soldiers and officers returning from German captivity. In May 1946, the SMERSH bodies were disbanded, on their basis, special departments were revived, transferred to the jurisdiction of the USSR Ministry of State Security. Subsequently, special departments retained their functions as part of the USSR State Security Committee. On March 18, 1954, the Third Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR was created as part of the KGB, which was responsible for military counterintelligence and the activities of special departments. 1960 to 1982 it was called the Third Directorate, and in 1982 the status of the Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR was returned.
Special departments were created in all military districts and fleets. In the Soviet troops stationed outside the country, the Directorates of special departments of the GSVG (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany), SGV (Northern Group of Forces in Poland), TsGV (Central Group of Forces in Czechoslovakia), YUGV (Southern Group of Forces in Hungary) were created. A separate Directorate of Special Departments operated in the Strategic Missile Forces, and in 1983 the Directorate of Special Departments was created, which was responsible for counterintelligence work in the Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.
from February 1974 to July 14, 1987 The Third Directorate was headed by Lieutenant General (since 1985 - Colonel General) Nikolai Alekseevich Dushin (1921-2001). In the Red Army, he entered service in 1940, after graduating from the Stalingrad military-political school he served as a company political instructor, commander of a rifle company on the Far Eastern Front, and in 1943 he was transferred to the SMERSH military counterintelligence agencies. Nikolai Dushin served in the structures of military counterintelligence all his life - he devoted almost half a century to special departments. From December 1960 to June 1964, Nikolai Alekseevich headed the Directorate of Special Departments for the GSVG, then from June 1964 to August 1970. was the head of the 1st department of the Third Directorate of the KGB of the USSR. In 1987, Dushin was removed from his post - allegedly in connection with the revealed violations of the work of special departments in military units in the Far East. In fact, to all appearances, the 66-year-old colonel-general fell under the unfolding flywheel of the "purge" of the state security organs and the armed forces of the USSR from the patriots - the communists. Recall that it was in 1987-1989. the "liberation" of the Soviet power structures from the "old cadres" of the Stalinist draft took place at an accelerated pace, in which M. S. Gorbachev and his entourage could see the danger to their plans for "perestroika" and the collapse of the Soviet state.
In Soviet times, "special officers" worked in every large military unit of the Soviet Army and Navy. In peaceful conditions, they were entrusted with the duties of monitoring the moral, psychological and ideological situation in military collectives. Military counterintelligence officers played a very important role during the participation of the Soviet Union in the armed conflict in Afghanistan. Many military counterintelligence officers went through the Afghan war, took part in hostilities, in secret operations against the Mujahideen. These skills were useful to them and the younger generation of military counterintelligence officers already in the post-Soviet era, when a number of armed conflicts flared up on the territory of the former USSR.
Many people today know the name of Admiral German Alekseevich Ugryumov - Hero of the Russian Federation. The ship of the Caspian Flotilla (in which the officer began his service), streets in Astrakhan, Vladivostok, Grozny are named in honor of German Ugryumov. A native of the military counterintelligence agencies of the Russian Navy, in which he served from 1975 to 1998, in the late 1990s, German Ugryumov came to the central office of the FSB of the Russian Federation - as the first deputy head of the Military Counterintelligence Directorate of the FSB of the Russian Federation, supervised the activities of the military counterintelligence of the Russian Navy. In November 1999, German Ugryumov headed the Department for the Protection of the Constitutional System and the Fight against Terrorism of the FSB of the Russian Federation. He planned and developed numerous operations to combat terrorists in the North Caucasus, and on January 21, 2001, Vice Admiral Ugryumov was simultaneously appointed the head of the Regional Operational Headquarters in the North Caucasus. Unfortunately, on May 31, 2001, only at the age of 52, German Ugryumov died suddenly in his office on the territory of the headquarters of a Russian military group in the village of Khankala (Chechen Republic).
Today, employees of military counterintelligence agencies, no matter how society treats them, continue to carry out their heavy and dangerous service to protect the national security of the Russian state. On this significant day for them, it remains only to congratulate the military counterintelligence officers and veterans of the service on the holiday, to wish them more success and fewer losses.
