• DOI:10.1177/002200948702200403
• Corpus ID: 159160922

Smersh: Soviet Military Counter-intelligence during the Second World War

@article{Stephan1987SmershSM,
  title={Smersh: Soviet Military Counter-intelligence during the Second World War},
  author={Robert W. Stephan},
  journal={Journal of Contemporary History},
  year={1987},
  volume={22},
  pages={585 - 613}
}

• R. Stephan
• Published 1 October 1987
• Political Science
• Journal of Contemporary History

The proposal accepted by the Central Committee on 19 December 1918, which established the Osobyye Otdeli (or OOs Special Departments as Soviet military counter-intelligence is often called) of the VeCheka (the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-revolution, Speculation, Sabotage and Misconduct in Office Lenin's secret police) can be considered a watershed in the recent history of civil-military relations in modern states. For 19 December 1918 marks the first time in contemporary history that a formally constituted, centralized, military counterintelligence organization was imposed upon an army by a civilian hierarchy, and subordinated not directly to the military leadership but to a civilian authority. With the exception of a few short periods during the Revolution and Civil War, a few months in early 1941, and the period from April 1943 to 1946, Soviet military counterintelligence has always been, and still remains, subordinate to the state security apparatus. From their inception, the Special Departments were given wide latitude by Lenin to ensure the political security and the combateffectiveness of the Red Army. Therefore, as a result of the chaotic situation generated by the Revolution and Civil War, the OOs were authorized to make arrests, carry out searches without warrants, investigate counter-revolutionary crimes, conduct counter-espionage and counter-intelligence operations at home and abroad and, under certain circumstances, also carry out executions. Other duties included, but were not limited to, such activities as combating desertion, crime and corruption, and generally maintaining security in the rear area of the Red Army. The most salient feature of 00 operations during the Revolution and Civil War was that 'army chekists' played a key role in eliminating all enemies of the Bolshevik