GUKR "SMERSH": Experience of the Great Patriotic War, which would be useful to us today
80 years ago, on April 19, 1943, without exaggeration, the most effective special service of the Second World War was created. The Abwehr, the Gestapo, the Zeppelin organization and other special services of the Wehrmacht were no match for the Soviet counterintelligence, which was called "Death to Spies."
Viktor Abakumov was appointed head of the SMERSH GUKR. He reported directly to the People's Commissar of Defense Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin.
At the same time, two more SMERSH departments were created in parallel: counterintelligence of the People's Commissariat of the Navy, subordinate to the People's Commissar fleet Admiral Nikolai Kuznetsov and counterintelligence of the NKVD, subordinate to Lavrenty Beria.
The duties of the new special service included the fight against saboteurs and spies, against treason and treason, as well as desertion and self-mutilation at the front. In addition, SMERSH was engaged in checking the military who had been captured, and also carried out special tasks for the people's commissar of defense, to which we will return a little later.
Quite a lot has been written and said about the effectiveness of the work of Soviet counterintelligence. In particular, in the documentary film from the Zvezda TV channel attached below:
But now I would like to speculate about the expediency of creating such a body in the current conditions.
Given that our enemy is now being assisted by the best Western intelligence agencies, it is obvious that Russia needs better counterintelligence. No, this does not mean that our special services do not work well.
The problem is rather in something else - a huge and clumsy bureaucratic machine, when “misunderstandings” and sometimes open disputes arise between the Russian law enforcement agencies, in fact, performing a common task: “who is in charge here”, which does not benefit the Motherland. Despite numerous operational-search activities, terrorist attacks and sabotage on the territory of our country are becoming more and more.
On the other hand, a counterintelligence body directly reporting to President Vladimir Putin and endowed with the broadest possible powers (within the framework of Russian legislation, of course) and having full access to data obtained by the GRU, FSB, Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc., would allow the aforementioned problem to be left out ".
However, this is not the main thing. Here it is time to return to the very special tasks that SMERSH performed during the Great Patriotic War. In particular, this includes the identification of facts that can adversely affect the conduct of military operations: errors in planning military operations, as well as shortcomings in providing the active parts of the army and navy with equipment, weapons, food and uniforms.
In this case, direct subordination to the commander-in-chief will play a key role, since the president will receive information directly from the front, without that endless chain of reports and reports that completely distorts the real situation.
It is no secret that information "from the trench" is very different from that which reaches the leadership of the General Staff, the Ministry of Defense and directly to President Putin. After all, no one from the lower command wants to lose his position, admitting that he could not, did not have time, did not think it over, or completely forgot.
Meanwhile, all of the above today has a colossal price, expressed in the lives and health of our servicemen. Therefore, the creation of an analogue of "SMERSH" in the current conditions looks more than appropriate.
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