SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon: Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII

摘要

Introduced to many in the West by Ian Fleming in his James Bond novels, SMERSH -Smert' spionam or Death to Spies - is a widely recognized but poorly understood acronym. Fleming wrote the Bond novels at a time when little was known in the West about SMERSH, including (apparently for Fleming at least) the fact that it had ceased to exist by the end of 1946. This short-lived organization with its unusually blunt title (preceded in the full version of the title by GUKR - Main Directorate for Counter-intelligence) was created in April 1943 for the conduct of military counter-intelligence under the auspices of the People's Commissariat for Defence or NKO. Since July 1941, this function had been carried out by Special Sections of the NKVD (OO/NKVD).