SMERSH, acronym of the Russian phrase ?’Death to Spies’, is primarily known as 007’s sinister opponent in Ian Fleming novels. Yet SMERSH was a real organization, as diabolical as its fictional counterpart. No information was available on this organization until the fall of the USSR. Its importance to WWII history is relatively unknown to scholars. Ostensibly a military counterintelligence organization dedicated to fighting Nazis, it spent considerable time and effort terrifying its own, including writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was arrested for writing to a fellow officer. Its activities often strayed into political spheres, exemplified by the arrests of political leaders and foreign diplomats in Eastern Europe, including the famous rescuer of Hungarian Jews, Raoul Wallenberg, at WWII’s end. While formally part of the Defence Commissariat, SMERSH wasn’t under the control of the military hierarchy. In reality it was a secret service independent of other security organizations. Its head, Viktor Abakumov, a powerful shadowy figure whose biography is revealed here for the 1st time, reported directly to Stalin on a daily basis. Based on many Russian documents and memoirs, this book details all its known activities–its clever ?radio games, which used captured officers to lure German intelligence into traps, mass vetting of Soviet troops who’d been German prisoners, arrest and persecution of Red Army generals, infiltration of Nazi spy schools, participation in military tribunals and the ?NKVD’s Special Board, and participation in the Nuremberg trials and the ?Sovietization of Eastern Europe. Now, after a decade of research, a critical missing piece of the history of WWII and the Soviet secret services is finally exposed. Foreword Acknowledgments Notes on Transliteration and Archival Materials Introduction The big picture The roots of SMERSH Military counterintelligence: July 1941-April 1943 German intelligence services at the Eastern front The birth of SMERSH SMERSH in action: 1943-44 Towards Berlin The end of WWII SMERSH after the war: 1945-46 Epilogue: the road to the top: Abakumov becomes a minister Notes Index

SMERSH: Stalin’s Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII PDF

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