Accurate coordinates of the terrorist bases, arms caches, and caravans were vital for the Russian Air Force in Syria to successfully deliver high-precision strikes. The ways of acquiring that information are a military secret for the outsiders. For many years, only the military was aware of the existence of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
Alexander Lukyanov: "The GRU headquarters in the center of Moscow a modern building complex that doesn't even have a sign but deals with global issues and watches the whole world through the means of electronic, space, and the classic operative intelligence in real time".
Over the century-long history of the Main Intelligence Directorate, more than 750 officers were decorated with the Hero of Russia (or USSR) golden stars primarily on closed lists. Only a few of their operations have been declassified. Being an intelligence operative means always remaining in the shadows. A mailbox instead of a place of service. A codename instead of a real one hidden in a top-secret folder. Their feats may be discovered only dozens of years later. These people have repeatedly saved the world from the looming global catastrophes.
"In order to be an intelligence operative, besides being patriotic and so on, one must be a highly educated person".
"An operative must be a human. Must be humane and kind".
"Becoming a soldier isn't a destiny but one must be born an operative".
"Our area of interest was the entire Europe, the entire Middle East, the entire North Africa. Basically, in the entire world".
Only intelligence officers are allowed in this GRU museum. Here, newly recruited officers can study the elements of the history of Russian military intelligence. They made an exception for us. We have a unique opportunity to look at some of the exhibits. Here's the inventory of a sleeper agent of the past. Invisible ink disguised as medication. A micro-tape camera. Here it is. It works like this. And household equipment with false compartments to hide the secret messages and micro-tape. In our case, an ordinary-looking pencil.
The Defence Ministry Archives has a unique original document which marks the creation of the Registration Directorate of the Field Staff of the Revolution Military Council on November 5, 1918 with a full staff schedule. The Registration Directorate had two departments the Operative and the Military Control, meaning counterintelligence. Few people know it now and even fewer knew it back then the column building at Prechistenka, 35 used to house the first headquarters of the Soviet military intelligence that accumulated the Intel from the agents.
"These people must be unreservedly committed to their people and their country. One can't be an intelligence operative without that quality. One must be even ready to sacrifice his life in the interest of the people, the state, the country".
The list of practical qualities includes high intelligence, an analytical mind, ability to quickly access the constantly changing situation and make the only right decision. Yan Berzin, who became head of the military intelligence in 1924, created a network of sleeper agents in Europe, the USA, and the Middle East. He reinforced the core administration and acquired special operative equipment for the Intelligence Directorate.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov, former Deputy Commander of GRU: "The Red Army Intelligence was the first to equip its sleeper agents with shortwave radio transmitters. The unique feature of the first devices was that they were assembled by the operatives from openly available parts they purchased in stores."
One of the discoveries of our vast agent network was the plan of Nazi Germany to attack the USSR.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "The military intelligence started paying special attention to Germany after Hitler seized power. The first messages of the Berlin administration conveyed his views on foreign policy, his will to resolve Germany's issues at the expense of the East and the information that Germany had started the intensive development of its Armed Forces".
At that time, 914 Russian operatives were working abroad. 316 of them were legal residents. The rest were illegals, sleeper agents, sources of invaluable Intel. The groups Otto, Zola, and Harry were operating in France Kent and Pascal in Belgium Dora in Switzerland, Phoenix in Italy. The legendary Alta group was working in Berlin, the capital of the Third Reich.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "On December 29, 1940, Moscow received a short but crucial report from the Alta group in Berlin. It said that during a closed meeting, Hitler made the decision to attack the USSR. The war was supposed to begin in March 1941".
The Intel was confirmed by other sources. According to the reports, the attack was rescheduled several times: March, May, the middle of June.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "According to the intelligence reports, echelons were moving one after another toward the East, soldiers were being called to active duty, and additional measures were being taken to prepare the population for the war".
After acquiring the information in April 1941 the Soviet government decided to conduct a secret call to active duty, mobilizing a total of 800,000 soldiers who were dispatched to the auxiliary bases in the military districts along the border. The Second Strategic Echelon was dispatched to the Kiev and Western Special Military Districts. Until mid-June, 28 divisions, 9 Army Corps directorates, and 4 Army directorates were relocated there. However, Stalin was afraid that he'd be accused of aggression so the Directive #1 on the operationalization of the troops prepared by Defence Commissar Timoshenko and Commander of the General Staff Zhukov was rejected by the Supreme Commander. Only in the morning on June 22, after the first attacks of the German aviation, Stalin announced the complete mobilization of the Armed Forces and the military industry.
"Today at 4:00 AM without any claims having been presented to the Soviet Union, without a declaration of war German troops attacked our country".
During the fall of 1941, when the German troops were approaching the capital of the USSR, the frontline situation was drastically changed primarily thanks to the fruitful work of the Red Army Intelligence. 26 well-trained Siberian divisions were removed from the eastern border in the midst of the Moscow Battle thanks to the Intel provided by agent Richard Sorge, codename Ramsay. He reported to the command that until the end of 1941 Japan wasn't going to join the war against the USSR.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "Richard Sorge was an outstanding sleeper agent. His name is indelibly etched in the history of the Russian military intelligence".
Retired GRU Lieutenant General Vyacheslav Kondrashov conducted a serious study of the life of Richard Sorge whom they call one of the most efficient operatives of the 20th century.
1924: a young German communist Richard Sorge goes to the USSR on an assignment of the party and agrees to work for the Soviet military intelligence. After completing the training course, he works in China for several years. In 1933, Sorge heads to Japan disguised as a German newspaper reporter. He was dispatched there because of the threat of Japan attacking the Russian Far East.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "At any moment, Sorge could respond to a Moscow inquiry regarding how many divisions there were, where they were located, and what technical equipment the troops had".
In Tokyo, he was considered an Abwehr officer and a committed Nazi because Sorge was a close friend of the German Ambassador and Military Attache. He had access to all documents, including the directives coming from Berlin.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "On September 14, Sorge sent an extremely important report saying that the government commission which included the Emperor decided not to attack the USSR in 1941 and to postpone the war until 1942 depending on the success of the German Army in the war against the Soviet Union. In October, Sorge reported that the Japanese administration decided to advance southward which meant they were preparing to wage a war against the USA".
Richard Sorge was exposed by the Japanese and executed after a lengthy trial. There are usually fresh flowers on the grave of the Soviet operative located not far from Tokyo.
During the first days of the war, the Red Army Intelligence Directorate had troubles acquiring information about the situation at the Western border of the USSR.
Fyodor Ladygin, former GRU Commander: "Five countries Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Finland interned our foreign missions".
Some sleeper agents lost contact with the Center. Their radio transmitters weren't powerful enough to broadcast directly to Moscow.
Fyodor Ladygin: “The Command of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff had to take serious action to resume contact with the lost operatives to carry out intelligence operations with the help of guerrilla units in the territory occupied by the enemy.”
Since June 1941, the GRU began working on creating a spy network behind enemy lines with the help of guerrilla units. That was the responsibility of the frontline HQ's.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: “During the first weeks after the beginning of the war, about 10,000 intelligence operatives were deployed behind enemy lines from their previous positions. It was extremely difficult to operate during the offensive of the German Army. Each guerrilla unit had operative groups and individual operatives who were parachuted from our territory.
Stankovski Forest, Belarus
Gennady Yushkevich was 14 when the Germans invaded Minsk. After they executed his mother, he decided to join the guerrillas.
Gennady Yushkevich, former guerrilla fighter: "We had a slightly bigger shack. It was wider and longer. And we didn't sleep like this. We slept next to each other because there were about 15 or 20 of us. Almost everyone could fit on a single bed. The beds were similar. We laid them with spruce boughs or hay. We covered ourselves with jackets and blankets. In the summer, we'd stretch out a parachute and lived under that tent".
The Guerrilla Village Museum is located in the same Stankovski Forest not far from Minsk where his Chaika unit was sabotaging the Nazis in the days of the war. The guerrilla veteran told us how he used to assemble improvised mines.
Gennady Yushkevich: "I had to prepare a charger to lay the mine on the road or railroad tracks. When we had no explosives, we used to smelt tolite out of bombs. We put the bomb on a bonfire and tolite came streaming out".
After the liberation of Minsk, as a member of the secret subversive group Jack, under the Intelligence Directorate of the Third Belarus Front, Gennady Yushkevich was deployed behind the lines of the German East Prussia group.
Gennady Yushkevich: "In East Prussia, in the vicinity of the Minschenwalde village, there was a railroad that linked Königsberg and Tilsit, the city that was supplying the German forces. Everything was going eastwards. We had to monitor everything they were sending to the frontline and everything they were getting back. We chose a very convenient spot. There was a small river Sventoji with nice large bushes of bulrush, nettle, and raspberry, plain weeds, generally speaking. And we made a great nest there".
A seasoned operative could implicitly determine what was inside the closed train cars.
Gennady Yushkevich: "Usually, if a boxcar had its doors open and there was a beam and a couple of soldiers were standing next to it we knew that there were up to 50 soldiers inside that car. If there was an open platform with something like haystacks on it we were trying to make out some mountings or tracks through our binoculars to make sure they were transporting tanks".
For many Soviet operatives, the East Prussia deployment became fatal. Forests were more like parks with no underbrush open spaces were crossed with many rivers and canals bridges were usually guarded 24/7.
Here, at the Wolfsschanze headquarters, an attempt on Hitler's life was made one week before the deployment of the Jack group. The region was personally supervised by Himmler. No airplane could fly there unnoticed. Each broadcast got immediately pinged. A special hunter unit with dogs was waiting for the paratroopers on the ground.
The police, the field gendarmerie, data collection, transmission, a raid, an hours-long escape, and data collection again. A communication session and a new raid. That was an average day of the operative group. Out of ten officers, only three came back alive.
The 90-year-old intelligence veteran still has a tight grip on his gun.
Belarus, Stalin's Line range
- Did you get to shoot this rifle? This one.
Gennady Yushkevich:
- No, I had a carbine. It looked almost identically but it was a carbine. And then, they gave me a PPS assault rifle in Belarus. They dropped us a box with PPS rifles and white winter coats.
One of the range's historic shooting grounds called Stalin's Defense Line. Operative Yushkevich shows how he used to cross the enemy obstacles.
Gennady Yushkevich: "We had to climb over wire fences. They were dense and had about 12 layers of wire so we had to cut through three layers. My task was to cut the wire. I used to cut it with scissors, then bend it outwards, and two people could crawl into the hole. We used to call it a guitar. They were carrying a bomb. I was laying the cord of the fuze. I helped blow up three trains and one command vehicle. We stole a pile of documents from it".
One in four full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory awarded during WWII was an operative. Operatives Yegorov and Kantaria unfurled a victory banner over the Reichstag. The surrender of Japan was signed in September 1945 by a Soviet intelligence officer Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko.
Military Secret 100th Anniversary of the GRU
Right after WWII, our former anti-Hitler coalition allies started preparing for a war against the USSR. An unthinkable operation. Operation Unthinkable is the codename of the offensive plan developed in spring 1945 on the order of Prime Minister Winston Churchill by the Armed Forces' Joint Planning Staff. The British had been flatly denying the existence of such plans up until 1998.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "The Soviet intelligence operatives deployed to Great Britain continued operating during the final stage of the war and after the military action in Europe was over. They were closely following the British administration which was gradually taking an anti-Soviet stance. There was one particularly important operative group X composed of British military commanders, including the commanders of the British intelligence".
On May 18, 1945, one of the sources within the group sends a report. Operative Brion sends a telegram to Moscow with an unusual urgency category written by hand that wasn't specified by any document. He wrote: "extreme lightning."
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "The telegram said that Churchill had ordered the Joint Planning Staff to begin preparing an operation against the Soviet Army to launch a surprise attack against the Soviet troops and force the Red Army to the Curzon Line".
The telegram was immediately presented to the Soviet Supreme Commander. The Command began preparing to repel the surprise attack launched by the allies.
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "The British military planners reported to Churchill that it was impossible to execute the operation because the Soviet troops had combat experience and were bigger in troop strength and America had refused to support the initiative due to the change in its political leadership. The Operation Unthinkable, Churchill personally came up with the name, was canceled".
During the first years after WWII, the US was the only nuclear power. A balance of power was necessary to prevent Washington from starting a new war.
"On August 13, 1953, a hydrogen bomb was tested".
The Soviet nuclear project: a colossal work that involved the minds and labor of dozens of thousands of scientists, engineers, and workers. Among them was a narrow circle of individuals whose names were never disclosed and whose contribution was priceless. Their occupation was intelligence.
Gennady Semyonov, MUCTR Professor: "We're entering the laboratory of monitoring-and-measuring instruments and control systems named after the Hero of the Russian Federation George Koval. Under his guidance professors of the university were assembling the stands".
Nowadays, George Koval's photo is on the memorial board of honor at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. But back then, neither his colleagues nor students suspected that he was on a secret mission in the US. Koval's military ID said "private" with no unit specified. People knew him as a promising head of the laboratory with an exotic accent.
Yury Lebedev, BMSTU Professor: “He used to pronounce "thermocouple" as "tshermocouple". And thermocouples were always part of lecture modules. He had an ineradicable but sweet accent.”
George Koval moved to the United States with his parents when he was a kid. He spent his childhood and youthhood in America. In the 1930's, he returned back to the USSR with his family to take part in the creation of the new society. In Moscow, Koval studied engineering at the University of Chemical Technology. The GRU noticed his skills. He was fluent in English and knew about life in American. George Koval completed an operative training course and was deployed to the US. He was operating under his real name.
In 1944, he received a draft notice and was summoned to the recruiting station".
Vyacheslav Kondrashov: "This way, the Soviet spy was assigned to the top-secret object in Oak Ridge, where enriched uranium and plutonium were produced for the nuclear project".
Aleksandr Zhukov, Director of MUCTR History Center: "He held his cigarettes differently, like a Siberian. He always covered it so neither rain nor wind could put it out. If there had been an actual psychologist who could inspect his portrait, they would've said that Koval came from Eastern Europe".
George Koval managed to discover the secret of the neutron detonator and even hand over its parts through a liaison.
Yury Lebedev: “It's one of the most secret components of the bomb. Moreover, its still classified. He was serving in Oak Ridge as a dosimetrist, a perfect job for a spy. He had access to the most secret facilities in the line of his duty.”
In the meantime, the US launched a spy mania campaign searching for Moscow's agents. Afraid that his Soviet past might get exposed, Koval returned to the USSR. Koval spent the rest of his life working at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology on 1st Miusskaya Street. After retiring, he lived in his country house in Abramtsevo. It's one of the last videos of George Koval. The 90-year-old could easily chop wood. After his death, George Koval received the Hero of Russia title. His Golden Star is stored at the GRU museum.
Military Secret 100th Anniversary of the GRU
In the early 1960s, a serious confrontation was brewing between the US and the USSR which could grow into a global armed conflict. Few people know that the peaceful resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis was possible partially thanks to the work of a Soviet operative in Washington.
Fyodor Ladygin: "Back then, the Americans prepared and provoked the deployment of substantially large units of Cuban anti-revolutionary rebels to the Cuban territory. Over the next three days, the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces crushed those rebels".
The White House decided to try to capture the Island of Liberty again. The Pentagon was going to deploy one marine, two airborne one tank, and two infantry divisions there. The operation was scheduled for October 1962. The Cuban government discovered that and asked the Soviet government for help.
Fyodor Ladygin: "On May 18, 1962, even though John Kennedy had been elected the US President, the USSR decided to render assistance".
At that time, the US had 18,500 nuclear bombs 12 times more than the USSR. Moreover, our country was more easily reachable.
Fyodor Ladygin: "Under those circumstances, a decision was made to assign a missile division out of our forces (approximately 41,000 servicemen) and equip in with intermediate-range missiles with nuclear warheads".
Only on October 13, 1962, an American reconnaissance aircraft flying over Cuba reported to the US Department of Defense that intermediate range missiles had been deployed to the island. It changed the balance of power both in the Caribbean Basin and outside of it.
Valentin Tsygankov, Lieutenant General: "Back then, we already could locate and track army units on the United States' territory. Our strategic electronic intelligence discovered that at least four fighter jet wings with tanker aircraft were deployed to Florida. Besides, the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft began flying more frequently".
On October 24, the electronic intelligence intercepts the order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the US Air Force Strategic Command to be ready to use nuclear weapons.
Valentin Tsygankov: "In order to reinforce the European group, 57 strategic aircraft with tanker aircraft were deployed there. The operation was tracked by the Soviet radio and electronic intelligence".
In preventing the crisis from turning into a catastrophe, a major role was played by the GRU operative Georgi Bolshakov.
Fyodor Ladygin: "He knew how to work and talk with people of various levels. His English was perfect".
Bolshakov was on an extended assignment in the United States disguised as the editor-in-chief of the Sovetsky Soyuz Magazine. He was a confidential back-channel contact between the Soviet and American leaders.
Fyodor Ladygin: “He had ties to Robert Kennedy, the brother of the US President John Kennedy. At that time, Robert was the US Attorney General. Between 1961 and 1962 Bolshakov communicated with Robert Kennedy at least 50 times either directly or through his trusted agents. The Soviet government used this opportunity to engage the military intelligence in the resolution of the Cuban Crisis.”
On October 22, Bolshakov transmitted Kennedy's message that he was ready for a compromise.
Fyodor Ladygin: "Bolshakov reported that they were ready to withdraw their Thor missiles from Turkey. The missiles had a range of 3000 km and could even reach Moscow".
On October 27, the US President presented an additional proposal.
Fyodor Ladygin: "We were supposed to withdraw all our forces and weapons from Cuba and they were supposed to withdraw their missiles from Turkey and undertake an obligation not to attack Cuba. Khrushchev's response became the final stage of the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis".
Military Secret 100th Anniversary of the GRU
In the midst of the Cold War, Colonel General (future Army General) Pyotr Ivashutin, 53, was appointed as Commander of the GRU. The nature and results of his actions made him a great reformer.
Fyodor Ladygin: "During the Ivashutin era of the GRU the Main Intelligence Directorate acquired means of space reconnaissance. Frankly speaking, at that time, space reconnaissance seemed like an excessive measure. During the Ivashutin era, the special ops became extremely proficient at carrying out their objectives. Electronic intelligence was developing in all fields both in terms of range and new channels of acquiring information. It basically became global".
Valentin Tsygankov: "We had long-range position finders, mobile long-range position finders".
Valentin Tsygankov was a member of the Trostnik group which was deployed to Cuba in June 1964 to monitor the activities of the US Armed Forces.
Valentin Tsygankov: "In order for us to locate a radiating object, two signals had to overlap. Our Trostnik group provided one signal. The second signal was provided by the ship Krym. We used to coordinate all the data. We met them in the Cienfuegos harbor and agreed on our positions, times, and means of data transfer, our code names, and so on. We were working together".
Acquiring data is not that easy. It's not transmitted through open channels. Sometimes, electronic intelligence has to use indirect indicators to monitor the enemy.
Valentin Tsygankov: "For many years expert analysts of the electronic intelligence collect indicators that allow them to assess the activities of the armed forces, the level of their readiness, and the activities of the strategic aviation".
During the Cold War, both Soviet and American electronic intelligence services traversed space. The fact that the potential enemy possessed nuclear weapons forced the intelligence to globally monitor all strategic facilities all around the world.
Anatoly Pogoryansky, Colonel: "Space reconnaissance appeared as a type of military intelligence in 1962, when the artificial satellite Vostok was launched. The satellite had reconnaissance gear on board".
Back then, Anatoly Pogoryansky was developing onboard equipment at a closed research facility. In the 1960s, one could already recognize the quantity and even the type of weapons from space.
Anatoly Pogoryansky: "One could see in detail the writings on aircraft and large vessels. Moreover, that photographic equipment could cover vast territories".
In the 1980s, digital technologies allowed broadcasting the images in real time.
Anatoly Pogoryansky: "The invention of these electro-optical devices, the systems of electro-optical reconnaissance, and, later, radar systems allowed us to face a new complex of reconnaissance challenges: to expose the signs of the enemy's direct preparations to attack".
Military Secret 100th Anniversary of the GRU
Vladimir Manchenko, former Special Ops Commander: "The Special Operations Forces have a "GRU" prefix. It's something we're especially proud of".
Vladimir Manchenko began serving in Special Ops right after graduating from Military School. Between 1992 and 1997, he was the head of the department. At first sight, special ops usually appear impossible: to track the mobile nuclear warhead complexes behind the enemy lines. The history of the Special Operations Forces began in 1950. It was then when the dreaded word SPETSNAZ appeared.
Vladimir Manchenko: “We had to track those systems. We had to be able to locate and track them and in addition to locating, we needed to sometimes incapacitate or even destroy the target on the march, during withdrawal, or at their home base.”
Moreover, in case of war, the Special Ops were supposed to locate and neutralize enemy command and communication systems. Thanks to the data provided by the operatives each facility was located and assigned to a unit. Capture operations were trained with dummy installations.
Vladimir Manchenko: "Special Ops Brigades had dummy Pershings. We used to inflate and install them. They were the same size as the actual enemy tanks".
The GRU Special Ops are legendary. The officers of those units are believed to have unique unarmed combat and tactical training techniques. Retired GRU Special Ops Colonel Vladimir Manchenko shared some secrets with us.
Vladimir Manchenko: “One must learn to use hand-to-hand techniques when there are rules and when there are no rules. Hand-to-hand fighting trainers usually don't teach you how to attack or defend yourself with a pioneer shovel. They don't. They don't teach you where to strike with a knife.”
Vladimir Manchenko is one of the authors of the famous unofficial symbol of the GRU He got the idea from one of his subordinates during a mountain drill in the 1980s.
Vladimir Manchenko: "Comrade Lieutenant, aren't we just like bats? We sleep in the day and hunt at night. And I remembered that idea. I was going to sleep thinking to myself, "We're just like bats".
Colonel Vladimir Manchenko made a sketch of the new GRU symbol. After that, his drawing was submitted for coordination to General Fyodor Ladygin.
Fyodor Ladygin: "They brought it to my office. I looked at the drawing, it was pretty good. And then I noticed that the ears of the bat looked just like a rifle sight".
The GRU Special Ops have always had the most difficult tasks. December 1979, Afghanistan. Armed demonstrations of the Islamic opposition. Mutinies in the Army. The leader of the state Hafizullah Amin unleashed terror against the undesirables. After Amin ordered to murder the friend of the USSR Taraki, Moscow made a decision to deploy troops in Afghanistan. Brezhnev took the assassination of Taraki personally because he'd promised to protect him.
Vladimir Manchenko: "The political leadership of the country was searching for a way out. We had to do something with the Afghan administration that had escaped our influence and was being treacherous towards us".
While preparing the operation to topple Amin, the USSR used his own request for military assistance.
Eduard Ibragimov, former Deputy Special Ops Commander: “We only selected the soldiers who've served more than a year, physically strong, and mentally steady. After that, we conducted a series of tests and interviews.
Rustamkhodzha Tursunkulov, former Special Ops Commander: "The Muslim Battalion arrived in Bagram on December 18 to defend the Tajbeg Palace, where Chairman of the Revolutionary Council Amin was hiding. Our unit was deployed there to guard the Palace".
It was the so-called Muslim Battalion composed of the servicemen of the Central Asian origin. They were training at the base of the 15th Special Ops Brigade in Tashkent. The operation to seize the Tajbeg Palace was developed by the GRU Colonel Vasily Kolesnikov. He was appointed to lead the operation involving 500 GRU Special Ops officers and 60 KGB officers from two special units Zenit and Grom. The fact that they would have to capture the palace instead of defending it was revealed right before the operation. Rustam Tursunkulov was ordered to quickly deploy an APC with an assault team to the Palace.
Rustamkhodzha Tursunkulov: "They told me that I was to deploy my soldiers at the H-hour. I remember that man, he told me, "The assault team must reach the Palace, my boy. You must get them there, even if only a couple of them survive." He made me promise that I wouldn't disclose what I heard".
Amin's new residence seemed like an impregnable fortress. The interior of the palace was guarded by personal security guards. The second line of defense included seven guard posts. There were four guards armed with high-caliber machine guns and grenade launchers at each post. One tank and three mechanized infantry battalions, a guard brigade, and an air defense regiment were guarding the outer perimeter. In total, about 2,500 people were guarding the Palace.
Rustamkhodzha Tursunkulov: "We had a special code word. Those who didn't respond to our code word "Misha-Yasha" and had no white armband were to be eliminated. The shooting was horrible. The APC was driving sideways and I was running right behind it. A bullet pierced my helmet and knocked it off my head".
He remembers his every step. He can describe the operation in detail looking at a photo. One of my APC's was carrying the Zenit group. They deployed here and ran up these stairs. We followed them. My orders were to take the personnel that survives the ascent and block these passages so that no one could pass there. No one was supposed to escape. However, the operation made me change the initial plan. I had to climb higher with my group. A Tu-22 bomber was flying above our heads at the level of the second floor and firing in that direction. It helped us".
At that second, Rustam heard a cry for help and made a decision to enter the building.
Rustamkhodzha Tursunkulov: "The man crying participated in the scout operation organized by Vasily Kolesnikov. Many of my men were wounded. We carried them to the APC of the Zenit group. I realized that something was happening there and they needed help. We had no signal support. We were at a crossroads, we could neither go nor ignore them. I took five of my men and entered the Palace. We checked all the doors. That's a strategy we had been taught. You open the door. If it doesn't open, you shoot the lock, and it opens. You throw a grenade inside. When we were on the second floor, we saw Amin lying behind the bar counter".
The assault lasted only 43 minutes. Their casualties were minimal: 5 dead and 35 wounded. 23 of them refused to go to the hospital. This combat operation of the Soviet Special Ops was included in the Special Forces Encyclopedia. Generations of intelligence officers have been and will be studying it.
Vladimir Kovtun: "Here's our field uniform. We call it mabuta".
Vladimir Kovtun served in the GRU Special Ops in Afghanistan and participated in more than 100 operations. His group was considered the most efficient when it comes to searching weapon caravans.
Vladimir Kovtun, former Deputy Special Ops Commander: "Each group had at least two AKM rifles or silencer-mounted AKMS rifles. Speaking of guns, they love good grease and caress. Each operative was extremely passionate about maintaining their guns".
The American mobile rocket launcher Stinger in the hands of the so-called mujahids posed a serious threat for the Russian troops in Afghanistan. If a helicopter or an aircraft came into its range, 9 cases out of 10 ended in tragedy. Military intelligence had orders to acquire the missile to figure out how it worked and develop and defense system.
Vladimir Kovtun: "We received the order. We were hunting for it since 1986 because, in 1986, it was used for the first time in Jalalabad. Back then they destroyed three out of five of our helicopters"
Many units were hunting the Stinger, but intelligence managed to capture it in battle. First Lieutenant Kovtun, Sergeant Autbayev, and helicopter pilot Captain Sobol under the command of Major Sergeyev.
Vladimir Kovtun: "We were flying to check the area of our future ambush. Eugeny Sergeyev was in charge of the operation. Perhaps, it was the near-ground altitude that helped us neutralize that mujahid camp. They managed to fire two missiles at us. Sergeyev, three our soldiers, and I engaged the enemy. The fight was brutal".
One helicopter remained in the air and was firing missiles at the mujahids, neutralizing 16 fighters.
Vladimir Kovtun: "I was chasing a mujahid with a pipe on his back and a case in his hands. He was shooting at me but I still managed to catch him. I took his case and the weapon, the pipe. There was no time to examine it".
The Special Ops operatives acquired two rocket launchers one empty, another one fully loaded all documents, including the phone numbers of the suppliers and captured a wounded mujahid. It wasn't a lucky coincidence.
Vladimir Kovtun: "Our expertise, the expertise of our pilots and soldiers, our skills, and the ability to assess the situation. It's not a coincidence, it's consistency".
Mujahids used to tell stories about the Soviet Special Ops operatives appearing literally from nowhere. There was nowhere to hide from them. Vladimir Kovtun confirms that's how it was. He shares the secret of their surprise.
Vladimir Kovtun: "We were hiding at the peaks. Right, at the peaks. And let herdsmen and dogs check if there were an enemy group nearby. And if we were in a valley, we had to crawl around the gulleys all day long because you got spotted if you raised your head. That's not how we did things. Maybe that was the reason they believed we appeared from nowhere. The advanced guard carefully inspects the area along the road. After that, our group runs 1.5 km to that road and lays an ambush. Ambushes shock the enemy. They are driving through a secured area and suddenly, they're being fired at. The Motherland is proud of you".
"The Motherland thanks you. The Motherland counts on you".
"It was the last night our soldiers spent in Afghanistan the last night before the first day of peace. It's over now".
"This legendary footage shows the last column of the Soviet troops crossing the bridge over the Amu River and leaving Afghanistan. Commander of the 40th Army General Boris Gromov is riding the last APC. “I'd like to say that there's no Soviet soldier, officer, or sergeant behind me".
In reality, the GRU operatives were the last to withdraw from Afghanistan several days later. The Soviet Union collapsed one year after withdrawing the troops from Afghanistan. In the 1990s, many Russian special services were radically reformed. However, the Military Command managed to preserve the unique intelligence service as a whole and avoid major upheavals.
Fyodor Ladygin: Our area of interest was the entire Europe.
- Europe?
- Right. The entire Europe. The entire Middle East. The entire North Africa. Central Africa. Basically, the entire world.
Fyodor Ladygin headed the GRU in 1992 when the Russian state was only shaping. He recalls that they had to work day and night.
- First, we had to work every day.
- No weekends?
- No weekends and holidays. No Saturdays and Sundays. I used to come to the office at about 7:15 or 7:20 AM something like that. On average days, I left the office at about 11:00 PM.
Today, it's a historic office, almost a memorial. The portraits of all GRU Commanders since its foundation up to the present day are hanging on the walls. The interior almost hasn't changed.
Fyodor Ladygin: "There used to be way more phones here. We had direct lines with the Minister and Commander of the General Staff Primakov. We also had two direct lines with the Kremlin and a small internal phone to communicate with the heads of the departments".
Fyodor Ladygin often had to explain to the Russian leaders that our foreign friends were acting based on double standards.
Fyodor Ladygin: "Nobody's threatening us! We've got no enemies!" Our so-called partners began pushing us on all fronts. The NATO expansion to the East is basically a tank avalanche. The thing is, we felt, saw, heard, and understood that, unfortunately, the Russian leadership wasn't counteracting their actions in the 90s".
In the late 1990s, Europe was shaken by a series of armed ethnic conflicts that accompanied another geopolitical catastrophe, the collapse of Yugoslavia. The so-called Operation Allied Force violated all the rules of international law. In contravention of the UN resolution, for the first time since WWII, a European state was bombed by the strategic aviation of the US Air Force and multi-purpose nuclear submarines.
Fyodor Ladygin: "I wish they had heard what Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ratko Mladic told me personally with tears in his eyes. "I wish they saw what they did to our land." They were wreaking havoc there during the entire 1990s. It was only the beginning. They wanted to show us what fate awaited Russia".
Military Secret 100th Anniversary of the GRU
Since the moment NATO started bombing Yugoslavia, Russia was trying to find a political way to oppose the North Atlantic Alliance.
Boris Yeltsin: "We most certainly don't want to have a fight with NATO but we won't play nice either".
As a result, to ensure its own geopolitical interests, Russia was forced to deploy peacekeepers. Before the main forces moved out, a small unit secretly arrived at the airport. It was led by the current head of Ingushetia, Airborne Troops Colonel Yunus-bek Yevkurov. The details of that operation haven't been disclosed until today.
Yunus-bek Yevkurov, governor of Ingushetia: “I had 38 people under my command. Six of them were Russian Cossacks, they were like wild geese. We were fighting against the Croats. That's what we had to do. In addition, there were also operatives who had been deployed to the region. I was leading the unit. I set the arrival time for my unit, eight hours tops. We secured the area, posted secret guards, and were monitoring the situation.”
In the days of the crisis, intelligence operative Eugeny Barmyantsev was deployed to Yugoslavia.
Eugeny Barmyantsev, Lieutenant General: "The situation was complicated indeed, extremely complicated. Both the General Staff and the Defence Ministry saw the escalating situation. And the main thing, the leadership of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was erratic in its decision-making. Through the Serbian government, we kept giving the Yugoslavian authorities advice on how they should act in certain situations and how to deal with the Americans and NATO. Sometimes, we succeeded, sometimes, we didn't. Some measures were implemented, and some weren't. We had to prepare for a military action by the NATO".
The Russian Airborne Brigade which was part of the Peacekeeper Division led by an American general was positioned in Bosnia and Herzegovina near the town of Ugljevik. On June 10, Commander of the Brigade Colonel Nikolay Ignatov was secretly ordered to prepare a 200-soldier battalion and covertly march towards the village of Slatina.
Eugeny Barmyantsev: "Four or five hours. We had to be there first to prevent them from capturing the strategic airport in Slatina and gain a foothold there".
At about 11:00 AM, the British vanguard showed up that entered Kosovo from the territory of Macedonia two companies of 250 troops. 350 French servicemen were on their way.
Yunus-bek Yevkurov: "We had acquired the information about the direction the British were going to come from. The Battalion Command deployed one platoon there, posted guards on the perimeter according to the military science and tactics and raised Russian flags. The NATO troops had to see those Russian flags".
The importance of the operation could hardly be overestimated especially back then. The Pristina Thrust showed that despite the economic hardships, Russia had a capable army.
Eugeny Barmyantsev: "In 1999, the turbulent years in Russia weren't over yet. The sight of a capable Russian Army gave our people courage. We had an army and we had bastions we could rely on".
Military Secret 100th Anniversary of the GRU
Sorge Street. October 2018. School #141 in Moscow. The second-graders are participating in the Sorge Cadets initiation ceremony. This tradition is more than 20 years old.
- To live brightly and to study eagerly.
- We swear!
- To think freely and to create passionately.
- We swear!
- To remember the birth of the truth and not to be afraid to make mistakes.
- We swear! We swear! We swear! We swear!
It doesn't mean that those kids will grow up to be intelligence operatives. But they will grow up to be patriots. Looking back at the feats of the heroes of the Russian intelligence these kids realize what it means to serve your Motherland truly, modestly, and selflessly.
