Smersh: Why Putin has resurrected Stalin’s feared anti-spy unit

A man under arrest by Russian internal security forces was seen confessing to a “crime”, in a video posted on January 2.

He had been apprehended after allegedly posting a video on social media that purportedly showed air defenses near the Russian city of Belgorod. This city, on the border with Ukraine, was the target of Ukrainian missile attacks on the same day.

What was notable, though, about this confessional was that the man was flanked by two internal security officers who had the word Smersh emblazoned on the backs of their jackets.

Many people in the West remember Smersh from Ian Fleming’s early James Bond novels (and early films). It was the shadowy Soviet spy agency bent on eliminating the fictional British agent.

But there was nothing fictitious about Smersh itself. It was a real counterintelligence agency set up in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union during the Second World War.

Indeed, the name Smersh (a blend of Russian words Smert’ Shpionam which translates into English as “death to spies”), was supposedly coined by Stalin himself. The fact that Smersh – with its alarming moniker – has reappeared may be seen as a further indication of the increasing clampdown on all forms of internal dissent in Russia.

Smersh and German spies

Smersh was originally set up to focus on German spies operating within the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Prior to its establishment in April 1943, counterintelligence operations were within the purview of the NKVD (Osobye Otdely Narodnogo Kommissariata Vnutrennikh Del).

Thereafter, the counterintelligence reins were assumed by the 3rd Main Directorate for Counterintelligence of the People’s Commissariat of Defense (GUKR-NKO). This is the body that Stalin renamed Smersh.

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