THE SOVIET ARTMY - SMERSH

In 1943 the Soviet Army started a counter-offensive against the fascist invaders and a need arose to purge liberated territories from enemy's agents, reconnaissance/saboteur groups, remains of defeated German troops, bandit units etc. On 19-th of April, 1943 by order of Stalin SMERSH, the Chief Counter-Intelligence Department for People's Defense Commissariat of the USSR, was set up.

The counter-intelligence SMERSH was under Stalin's personal command and was not a part of the GRU. However, the most of SMERSH investigating specialists were taken from GRU Special Force units. Such a specialist-investigator, called a "wolf-hound" in the slang, had not only to master the hand-to-hand technique, to use any available thing as a weapon, to fire with both hands (such method of firing is called "Macedonian style fire"). He must be able to catch alive a well-armed, specially trained and physically strong fighter. To do that, it was necessary to master such a fighting system that would surpass all existing fighting systems.

Here we can quote some figures. Only in 1943 "wolf-hounds" investigators neutralized and arrested 80.296 hostile agents, saboteurs, bandits, and other criminal elements at liberated territories.

After the end of the Second World War the counter-intelligence SMERSH was disbanded and the most of its workers came back to the GRU.

After Stalin's death the new leadership of this country started to conduct their reforms in the Soviet Army. Training of universal super-fighters seemed to be a useless and even a dangerous thing, therefore the special units of the GRU were disbanded.