November 5 - Military Intelligence Day

5 November is the 92 anniversary of the creation of military intelligence in Russia. On this day, in 1918, the Registration Directorate of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, Lev Trotsky, was formed in the Field Headquarters of the Red Army in Petrograd in order to coordinate the efforts of all the intelligence agencies of the army. From this day leads his history Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces. Military intelligence, of course, existed in Tsarist Russia, but not as an independent unit. Therefore, today's military intelligence officers of the Russian Federation are counting down their history from November 5 of 1918. A little later, military intelligence and control courses were opened in Moscow, where geography, tactics, human intelligence were taught and French, German, English, Japanese, Swedish and Finnish were studied.

The Registration Department consisted of two departments: an agent (intelligence) 39 man and a military control (counter intelligence) 157 man. Troop Intelligence was engaged in the Intelligence Division of Operational Management with a staff of 15 people. The first chief of military intelligence was Semen Ivanovich Aralov, a Bolshevik from among the veterans of intelligence of the Russian army during the First World War. In addition to strategic and operational intelligence, the department conducted work on obtaining military-technical information, information on advanced scientific achievements in the military field.

The Registration Directorate became the predecessor of the current central military intelligence agency, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Later, Soviet military intelligence became known in official documents as the 4 Office of the General Staff. The GRU designation (Main Intelligence Agency) was officially adopted in June 1942. In the newest history of Russia, the holiday - the Day of the Military Intelligence Officer - was established by order of the RF Minister of Defense No. 490 from 12.10.2000.

Since then, the role of the GRU has increased many times over. Today, military intelligence is an essential component of state strengthening. The GRU combines all existing types of intelligence - strategic, undercover, including illegal, technical, economic, space and military, better known as GRU special forces.

The scout profession is considered one of the oldest on earth. In the days of Kievan Rus, intelligence was a matter of national importance. Ambassadors, messengers, merchants, residents of border areas and military units were involved in collecting data. Later, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in 1654, the Order of Secret Affairs was founded — the prototype of the intelligence directorate of the time. In the Military Charter of 1716, Peter I summed up the legislative and legal basis for intelligence work.

In the reign of Emperor Alexander I in January 1810, on the initiative of Barclay de Tolly, the Expedition of Secret Affairs at the War Ministry was created, and in January 1812, it was renamed Special Office under the Minister of War. The special office solved the most important tasks: conducting strategic intelligence (collecting strategically important secret information abroad), operational tactical intelligence (collecting data on enemy troops on the Russian borders) and counterintelligence (identifying and neutralizing the enemy’s agents).

Great was the role of military intelligence during the Great Patriotic War. Only in the first six months of the war, about 10 thousands of people were abandoned to the rear of the enemy, including a significant number of intelligence officers with radio transmitters. The organs of military intelligence created partisan detachments in the rear of the enemy. All this has already become the heroic history of our people.

The data obtained by military intelligence have repeatedly played a decisive role in the decision-making by the country's top leadership to ensure its security. The Soviet and then Russian military intelligence convincingly demonstrated their indispensability and effectiveness during crises in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Chechnya and other "hot spots".

For courage and heroism shown in the performance of tasks to ensure the national security of the country, 692 military intelligence officers were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation.

If the General Staff, by the figurative definition of Marshal Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov, is the “brain of the army,” then Russian military intelligence is the eyes and ears of our Armed Forces, the main means of obtaining information. Defense, armed struggle - this is the sphere of human activity, which at all times tried to hide a dense cover of mystery, and therefore all the information about the enemy, his plans and intentions, forces and means had not just to receive, but to extract, often at the risk of his life, at the full limit of all the forces and capabilities.

There is no doubt that a military intelligence officer is one of the most romantic and respected army specialties. And regardless of the specific specialization: an ordinary soldier, leaving to the rear of the enemy for the "language", causes no less admiration than the colonel, who works "under cover" in a distant country. Unfortunately, for many understandable reasons, many of these amazing people and their affairs cannot be told.

Information GRU constantly demanded by the state. These are the eyes and ears of not only the Armed Forces, but also of the state in general. This is a unique mechanism, a unique special service, with the help of which the country's leadership can make well-considered, informed decisions. The GRU carries out its activities not only in traditional reconnaissance forms, not only with traditional forces and means, but also with the use of space and other special technical means and special-purpose forces.

It is necessary to continue to do everything in order to develop and strengthen this service, including taking into account new challenges and threats to which the GRU responds adequately and in a timely manner. Military intelligence was and remains the most important instrument of Russia's military policy, reliably defending its military-political and economic interests.