Today this word is not uncommon causes a negative reaction, since the interlocutors do not always fully understand who exactly we are talking about.
Thanks to the effect of feature films and books, many have come to the conclusion that those who are capable of shoot a man without a shadow of a doubt, even if the latter’s guilt has not been proven.
Others believe that special officers do not need a normal investigation of the criminal’s guilt at all, since have full power do whatever comes into their head.
This led to the creation of a certain image of a special officer who is not receptive to pleas, and is also incapable of showing compassion and maintaining honesty. Therefore, it is so important for a modern person to understand how an artistic image differs from his historical original.
Who were the special officers really? Outspoken fanatics those who are ready to put a person in camps without proper grounds, or those who performed thankless, but very important work for society. It's worth looking into it in more detail.
Formation of a special department
The need for decisive people always exists. It becomes especially bright at a time when the country is in danger.
Therefore, the appearance of special officers occurred at one of these turning points, namely in 1918, when the young Soviet state was in a state of fratricidal war, victory in which was not yet a foregone conclusion.
In particular, it was then that the opening was authorized special department who will deal counterintelligence activities.
The key task that faced the representatives of the department was to maintain the security of the state, as well as counter-espionage.
The department reached its peak of activity during the Second World War. In particular, in 1943 new name appears SMERSH, which can be deciphered as death to Spies, and they are starting to use it against special officers.
Agents were engaged creating a network of informants, and also sent their own people to individual units, creating a dossier on almost every soldier and commander.
Specialists during the war
Cinematography demonstrates unflattering image employee of the special department. When such a person came to the disposal of the unit, it openly spoke about problems and upcoming purges within the unit. But was it really like that?
This question interests many. Thus, during the first period of the war, many soldiers simply did not have the necessary documents, certifying their type of activity.
That's why Not only escaped prisoners of war regularly moved across the front line or those who lagged behind their units, but also enemy agents.
A bunch of Wehrmacht spies used this opportunity to infiltrate command staff or support companies, carrying out sabotage or delivering information to the enemy about upcoming operations and the location of units.
To eliminate the danger for soldiers associated with the enemy receiving information about their deployment, special officers appeared who risked everything in order to bring closer victorious end of the war.
Therefore, one should not downplay their contribution to the war, as is fashionable today, presenting them as some murderers and executioners. Representatives of special departments and directorates also went on the offensive and also retreated, and in the case when the last squad commander fell under enemy fire, it was the special officer who had to take his place and lead the soldiers with him by personal example.
Not infrequently, special officers performed the most amazing feats of heroism, although oh they are often hushed up. They also had to do thankless jobs, including executions of alarmists and cowards, but at that critical moment in the first years of the war, this was the only way to keep the front line in relative stability.
But even at this time their main focus remained identifying enemy agents operating within the army.
Despite the prevailing opinion, special officers no one gave the right to kill soldiers without conducting an investigation, without proving guilt and without at least a formal trial.
Therefore, any mention of the fact that special officers allegedly shot military personnel in batches should be consider as speculation. The only situation in which such actions were permitted and even mandatory was an attempt to go over to the enemy's side.
However, even in this case, it was mandatory to conduct an investigation into each such case. Otherwise, the special officer only had to prepare a case and send it to the military prosecutor's office, and only after that a sentence was passed against the accused.
Employee, individualist Dictionary of Russian synonyms. specialist noun, number of synonyms: 2 individualist (3) ... Synonym dictionary
special officer- SPECIALIST, a, m. Employee of the Special Department (for example, in the army, in security agencies); about any person who behaves in a special way. Why don’t you drink, special officer or something? Give him a penalty as a special officer... Dictionary of Russian argot
special officer- , a, m. An employee of a special department, a special unit. ◘ I order you, the special officer shouted, and no joke to me. He clicked the shutter. Zhitkov, 1989, 188. The special officers and tribunal officers got out of captivity and zealously set about searching for the capture of the rebels: they caught ... Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Council of Deputies
A special department is a military counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet army. Special departments were created on December 19, 1918 by a decree of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), according to which the front and army Chekas were merged with the bodies of the Military ... ... Wikipedia
special officer- especially ist, and... Russian spelling dictionary
A; m. Razg. An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... encyclopedic Dictionary
special officer- A; m.; decomposition An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... Dictionary of many expressions
special officer- special/ist/ … Morphemic-spelling dictionary
especially- Adj. to special...
special- a, e. What is it about someone’s specialness, individuality; in the language of which there are no special, individual figures, features... Ukrainian Tlumach Dictionary
Books
- Special officer “Swing the pendulum”! , Korchevsky, Yuri Grigorievich. If you have fallen from today to 1941, be prepared to go through all the circles of front-line hell: break out of encirclement, fight in a tank brigade and military reconnaissance, in the legendary Osnaz...
- Special officer "Swing the pendulum"! , Korchevsky Yu.. If you failed from today to 1941, be prepared to go through all the circles of front-line hell: break out of encirclement, fight in a tank brigade and military reconnaissance, in the legendary Osnaz...
- The peculiarity of translation in Ukrainian-German literary exchanges, Maria Ivanitskaya. The monograph presents a complete picture of the history of Ukrainian-German artistic translation from the middle of the 19th century. until the middle of the next decade of the 21st...
Under the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR. Subsequently, with the formation of special departments of fronts, military districts, fleets, armies, flotillas and special departments under the provincial Chekas, a unified centralized system of security agencies in the troops was created. In 1934-38 military counterintelligence, as the Special, then the 5th Department, is part of the Main Directorate of State Security (GUGB) of the NKVD of the USSR. In March 1938, with the abolition of the GUGB, the 2nd Directorate (special departments) of the NKVD of the USSR was created on the basis of the 5th Department. Already in September 1938, the Special Department was recreated as the 4th Department of the GUGB. Subordinate to special departments (DS) in the Red Army, the Red Army, and the NKVD troops.
Ranks, uniforms and insignia
The Regulations on Special Bodies of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR, announced on May 23, 1936 by joint order of the NKO/NKVD of the USSR No. 91/183, and which established, including insignia and uniforms for military counterintelligence officers, stipulated that in the case of joint permission of the chiefs OO GUGB NKVD USSR and the Directorate of Command Staff of the Red Army, employees of special agencies who had a military or special military-technical education or army command experience were granted the right to wear uniforms and insignia of the command or military-technical personnel of the units they serve.
At the same time, the personnel of the central apparatus of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR and the apparatus of special departments of the UGB of territorial internal affairs bodies, as well as persons working outside the Red Army and the Navy and their subordinate institutions, are given the uniform of the NKVD state security command staff. Both before the formation of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and after July 1934, operational workers of special bodies used uniforms and buttonholes (in the ground forces) or sleeve patches (in the navy) of those military units or institutions to which they were assigned for service.
Insignia
For employees of special departments, insignia were established by category in accordance with their position:
11th category (2 diamonds): - heads of department, part of the OGPU Center; - Secretary of the OGPU Center; - deputies and assistants to the heads of the regional PO OGPU/GPU; - heads of the OGPU corps, the regional navy, groups of troops and their deputies.
10th category (1 diamond): - employees for special assignments, detective officers of the OGPU Center; - heads of the branch of the OO regional PP OGPU/GPU, OO NKVD VO, army, navy, regional navy, group of troops; - heads of the OGPU division, separate brigade, flotilla.
9th category (3 rectangles): - authorized PA of the OGPU Center; - assistant department heads and detective officers of the regional PO OGPU/GPU; - detective officers of the OO OGPU VO, army, navy, group of troops, division, brigade, flotilla.
8th category (2 rectangles): - assistants to the commissioner, assistant secretary of the OGPU Center; - authorized representatives, secretaries of PA regional PP OGPU/GPU; - authorized OO OGPU VO, army, navy, group of forces, division, brigade, flotilla and regiment.
Form
After the introduction of personal ranks for the GUGB in the fall of 1935, the question of uniforms arose among the leaders of the NKVD. The regulatory documents clearly noted that the employees of the special bodies of the GUGB NKVD “were assigned the uniform of the units they served,” and it also contained a somewhat strange condition: “... and with the insignia of the GUGB.” A lively correspondence began between the People's Commissariat and the Authorities. The NKVD's reasoning was quite understandable. Finally, on May 23, 1936, the Regulations on the special bodies of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR were announced, according to which uniforms and uniforms were established for employees of OO corps, fleets, special sections of divisions, brigades, fortified areas, flotillas, as well as individual operatives attached to units and institutions of the Red Army. insignia of the military-political composition of the relevant branches of the military according to the special ranks assigned to them by the state security agencies: - 2 diamonds - senior major of the State Security Service; - 1 diamond - major GB; - 3 rectangles - captain GB; - 2 rectangles - senior lieutenant of the State Security Service; - 1 rectangle - GB lieutenant; - 3 squares - junior lieutenant and sergeant of the State Security Service. Thus, the special officers, in the form of the political composition of the branch of the military to which the unit they served belonged, began to have, as it were, two ranks - the actual assigned special GB rank and the rank by which they were known in the unit (for example, GB major - brigade commissar). The personnel of the central apparatus of the GUGB NKVD of the USSR and the apparatus of special departments of the UGB of territorial internal affairs bodies, as well as persons working outside the Red Army and the Navy and their subordinate institutions, were assigned uniforms of state security command personnel. This situation remained until 1941, when military counterintelligence for a short time came under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Defense (On the basis of the GUGB NKVD, the 3rd NPO Directorate was formed). In May-July 1941, employees of the PA (now 3 Directorates/departments) began to be certified in the ranks of political personnel. After the return of military counterintelligence to the NKVD (since August 1941 - the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR), special officers again began to be recertified for special GB ranks. However, these re-certifications had no effect on the uniform.
Until February 1941, military counterintelligence officers directly in their units wore the uniform of the service branch with insignia of political personnel (the presence of sleeve stars of political personnel and the absence of sleeve insignia of state security) and were called either special ranks of state security or ranks of political personnel. The personnel of the 4th department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (from September 29, 1938 to February 26, 1941 served as military counterintelligence) wore uniforms and state security insignia and had the rank of “GB Sergeant - GB Commissar General” " - special state security ranks. In the period from February 1941 to July-August 1941, military counterintelligence officers also wore the uniform of the service branch of the armed forces with insignia of political personnel and had only political personnel ranks. Employees of the central apparatus (3rd NPO Directorate) during the same period wore GB uniforms and GB special ranks (Head of the 3rd NPO Directorate, GB Major A. N. Mikheev, deputy chief - GB Major N. A. Osetrov, and so on) . On July 17, 1941, with the formation of the Directorate of Special Departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, counterintelligence officers in the troops switched to the special ranks of the GB (but also probably used the ranks of political personnel). The uniform remained the same - political personnel.
On April 19, 1943, on the basis of the Directorate of Special Departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR, the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" was created and transferred to the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. Former special officers became subordinate to the People's Commissar of Defense. In this regard, almost all of them were awarded general army ranks, that is, without the prefix “state security” in their personal rank. On May 3, 1946, the GUKR "SMERSH" NGOs of the USSR were reorganized again into the MGB OO.
Functions of special departments
The functions of the Special Department of the NKVD (chief, deputy, intelligence officers) included monitoring the political and moral state of the unit, identifying state criminals (traitors, spies, saboteurs, terrorists, counter-revolutionary organizations and groups of people conducting anti-Soviet agitation, and others), conducting investigations into state crimes under the supervision of the prosecutor's office and transfer cases to military tribunals.
From the beginning of the war to October 1941, special departments and detachments of the NKVD troops detained 657,364 military personnel who lagged behind their units and fled from the front. Among this mass, 1,505 spies and 308 saboteurs were identified and exposed. As of December 1941, special departments arrested 4,647 traitors, 3,325 cowards and alarmists, 13,887 deserters, 4,295 distributors of provocative rumors, 2,358 self-shooters, and 4,214 for banditry and looting.
see also
In the late 70s - early 80s of the 20th century, the functions of special departments serving military units on the Soviet-Turkish border, rather unofficially, included the function of blocking breakthroughs from the side of the border deep into Soviet territory within the border zone. The operations were carried out in direct connection with border groups leading the pursuit from the border. In these operations, which do not have official confirmation, the most active participants were privates and sergeants of the so-called security departments of special departments, who sometimes came into fire contact with the violators who managed to overcome the border barriers and go deeper into the territory of the USSR up to 5-7 km. Operations of this kind were never made public and, perhaps, were not documented for a simple reason: the border is inviolable. Thanks to the officers of the special departments of military counterintelligence, the soldiers and sergeants of the security departments had very high individual combat training, allowing them to operate effectively not only as part of small, 3-5 people, mobile groups, but also individually.
Notes
Links
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Synonyms:See what “Special Officer” is in other dictionaries:
Employee, individualist Dictionary of Russian synonyms. specialist noun, number of synonyms: 2 individualist (3) ... Synonym dictionary
special officer- SPECIALIST, a, m. Employee of the Special Department (for example, in the army, in security agencies); about any person who behaves in a special way. Why don’t you drink, special officer or something? Give him a penalty as a special officer... Dictionary of Russian argot
special officer- , a, m. An employee of a special department, a special unit. ◘ I order you, the special officer shouted, and no joke to me. He clicked the shutter. Zhitkov, 1989, 188. The special officers and tribunal officers got out of captivity and zealously set about searching for the capture of the rebels: they caught ... Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Council of Deputies
M. coll. An employee of a special department dealing with issues of political reliability and state security (in the USSR). Ephraim's explanatory dictionary. T. F. Efremova. 2000... Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova
special officer- especially ist, and... Russian spelling dictionary
A; m. Razg. An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... encyclopedic Dictionary
Everyone had their own war. The pilot sees the war in his own way. A sapper in his own way.
And for a front-line special officer, war means endless looters, deserters, self-shooters, defectors.
Before the war and in the first years of the war, there were no officer ranks in the army. There were division commanders, platoon commanders, and even a deputy commander - deputy commander for naval affairs. There were officer ranks in the NKVD. But very unique. Sergeants were equivalent to today's lieutenants, and major - to today's major general. Then, after the introduction of officer ranks in the army, the ranks in the NKVD and the army were equalized. Sergeants were promoted to lieutenants. And they gave him the right to detain (Only detain!) if there were grounds, an army officer two ranks higher than him. That is, the major could detain the colonel.
The battalion special officer had a plan: each department should have its own informant. Not an easy task at the front! It happened that in a month half of the battalion dropped out. Some go to the hospital, and some go under a rock. So fill it up! There was no time to be very sophisticated and secretive when working with agents. The agent was usually covered up using the simplest method. They called everyone in for questioning one by one. And they hid an agent among everyone. During the day there was a war. It was impossible to tear the soldiers away. Only at night. When the German was sleeping. So they woke us up one by one and interrogated each one for half an hour. Everyone except the agent was asked the same questions for the hundredth time. Can you imagine how the soldiers “loved” the special officer? As soon as I fell asleep (and there was a lot of things at the front. Even sometimes there were women, alcohol and food - you could eat yourself too much. Besides sleep. The most valuable thing at the front is sleep) As soon as I fell asleep, they pushed the special officer away and dragged him into the dugout. Where he asks the same stupid questions that the soldier has already answered twenty times. And not just once a month.
The special officer himself felt somewhat better. But not much. He could sometimes sleep during the day, but not for long. During the day, first of all, there is war. And secondly, the headquarters also work during the day. They're getting sick of visits and calls. And weekly reports on the work done and the situation in the unit entrusted to his care must be written. And then there are monthly summary reports. And do not confuse the data in both. In the higher-level special department, these reports were still (sometimes) read. If at night a soldier can sometimes still catch three hundred to four hundred minutes of sleep, but a special officer cannot. We need to work - plan! It happened that the special officer fell asleep together with the interrogated person at the same table. They slept like that until they woke them up.
The special officer also had a plan to replenish the penal battalions. (Also a lot of paperwork for everyone.) They say that 3% of the personnel. It had to be done. Otherwise they will add it themselves. And there is no need to overdo it. Nobody will appreciate it. (Although our home-grown liberals describe it differently in their opuses. The more you imprison, the higher the rank they will give.) The rank will be raised - the position does not allow it. We need to be promoted to the division. And there are enough of their own there. With higher education! Unless one of them dies. But who has a greater chance of dying: an army officer or a battalion special officer? But the configuration plan can be increased from what has been achieved. To cover the shortcomings of other special officers.
Let me explain:Not all units have an objective opportunity to fulfill the plan for completing the penal battalion. Some suffered heavy losses. Those who survived were nominated for awards. And who will send the heroes to the penal battalion? Those who approved the award lists? And why should we judge them? They have nothing more criminal than drunkenness. A hero for drinking in a penal battalion? Where have you seen this? And who will allow the warhead to be exposed? And so few were left under fire.
New recruits were sent to the unit. Or rather, they haven’t sent it yet. Only the roster was replenished on paper. And the recruits themselves were stuck somewhere in the trains on the tracks. Maybe they won't arrive at all. They will get bombed. And some are listed as fully equipped according to documents. So work here... The higher-level special department is looking for someone to load with work. Redistributes the load. And everyone is whining. We can’t cope, they say! Objective reasons are given. And why the hell should the special officer show off his high performance? So they will load up the upstart. Whoever is lucky is driven...
In our films, the special officer in this case must look for the white guard’s grandfather from the hero. And on this basis and...
Well, our filmmakers are capable of all sorts of nonsense. Think about it: the archives have been evacuated. They lie undisassembled in the evacuation. Some remained or were destroyed under the Germans. Archivists were mobilized into the army. A request, of course, can be sent, but who will answer it? Well, even someone from some Siberian archive will answer. So what? In civilian life, half of the Russians had grandfathers who fought in the wrong place. And after the civil OGPU, for 20 years, they searched the archives to find enemies. If someone was not repressed or rehabilitated, then it’s not your business to cancel it. Since he’s alive and free, that means it’s necessary. Comrades who were more competent than you worked there. And the answer will come no earlier than in a year. A year at the front is an eternity. Either the hero will die, or the special agent will die. Or some will be reorganized and scattered across different fronts. Or to hospitals...
And where do you get the time and energy for this writing? And the authorities will be interested: this special officer apparently doesn’t have enough work. He writes and writes. It's time to inspect. And add more work.
In the newly formed part, there were usually enough clients to fulfill the plan. And if there wasn’t enough, they simply registered, in addition to defectors and deserters, AWOLs and rowdies. For a fight with senior ranks. Letters from the front were rarely processed. Only if the scribblers were really going wild. Or the directive was issued precisely on this occasion. And so they simply crossed out lines of letters from the front. And this was not done by a special department, but by the political department of the unit. Sometimes the entire letter was crossed out. Apart from “alive and well”. If they found fault with the letters, everyone could have been transferred to penal battalions. And who will fight in ordinary units? (Penal units are poorly armed infantry. But in war, other types of troops are needed.) And there are not enough barrier detachments to guard the greatly expanded penal battalions. And then there will be nothing left to scare the military personnel. So at least they were still afraid of the penal battalions. (Someone).
They had to answer for their agents. If an agent was killed, additional interrogation protocols were required. Who did you go with? When was the last time you saw? Etc. And at the same time it was impossible to expose the agent even after death. How can you avoid being exposed when asking such questions? Do you always ask questions like this about every murdered person? They'll definitely put you in a mental hospital. So they messed around. He will compose interrogation reports and say that “that’s how it happened.” There's no one to check anyway. And it was even worse if the agent ran over to the Germans. Then, in addition to all of the above, you had to write your own explanation of how you came to live like this?
There was also a plan to identify and punish special officers. Another reason not to stick your neck out. You never know who at the top will not like your activity. And you can always find a reason to find fault. Yes, here you go: for careerist reasons, he fabricated a case against the hero. And he let a traitor pass through his ranks. One consolation was that they would not send us further than the front. And they were not transferred to the infantry as privates. Unless it's for something really creepy. There were not enough competent special officers. They simply demoted him in rank and sent him back. Sometimes in a year the rank was reduced twice, and then restored again for military merits.
Army officers did not like the special officers, but they appreciated their work. And not because they were afraid. The front-line officer was no longer afraid of anything. It’s just that at the beginning of the war, when not only there were not enough officers in the units, but also special officers (and both of them had not yet learned to do their job), power in the units was often seized by criminal elements. Yes, this happened later too. Especially if a hundred people from one village were sent to the unit. Or even from one zone. The commanders were written off as battle losses, and they themselves began to loot rather than fight. Or the whole unit deserted with weapons.
And experienced warriors learned to use special forces. An experienced soldier sensed it long before the attack (whether ours or the Germans). As soon as he smells it, he begins to talk: “But at lunchtime the German trenches smelled of fried cutlets. My mouth is already watering! They feed the Germans well! Not like us." And so on until they report it to the special officer. According to the instructions, the special officer in this case must arrest the “agitator” and transfer him to a special department of the army for further investigation. Which is what he did. There he was interrogated for two weeks. (The deadline for the inquiry was set that way. There was no point in rushing and shortening the time frame for the inquiry. Other cases would be pinned on the nimble investigator), and then they were returned, but to another unit. (And the offensive had already run out of steam by this time). Again, according to the instructions. So that the military collective does not disintegrate. Where else should I put it? To the rear? Or against the wall? Who will fight? And they weren’t always sent to the penal battalion. There was no configuration plan. Yes, and there were some cunning soldiers. We learned to get out.
After the war, some said this when they met a special officer they knew: “Thank you to the special department. It was only thanks to him that I remained alive!” They were mocking you, you bastards!
During the offensive, the special officer moved forward along with the headquarters. Behind the part. According to the charter. Well, so that your own people don’t get shot. (And the headquarters was guarded by the commandant’s platoon of machine gunners). When retreating too. Contrary to the stupid films of the post-perestroika era, special officers did not leave the unit for the army headquarters to sit out during the battles. Firstly, because they don’t go to higher headquarters without an order. If you leave a unit without an order, the patrols will be intercepted on the way and you yourself may end up in a penal battalion. And secondly, there was no point. Especially in the first years of the war. German aviation and artillery, and especially German intelligence officers and saboteurs, hunted headquarters and staff vehicles even more than tanks and infantry. And even in the conditions of chaos in the front line of the first days of the war, our dear deserters and marauders could have been intercepted along the way. (Companies of machine gunners will not be allowed to cover redeployment to the rear). But these ones will definitely finish you off. It's good if there is no torture or bullying. And later, to avoid chaos in the front line, barrier detachments were set up. And these first shot, and then found out. (If found out). And patrols combed the area. AND SMERSH. And they had their own instructions. They could also lean it against the wall. Or “for insubordination and resistance” we can do without any kind of wall. No person - no problem! If he stays alive, then unsubscribe for him. To prevent something like this from happening, when moving around the rear of your army, you had to pre-order a pass. If the command approves, they will discharge you. Will it approve? You can try and sneak by, but at your own risk. If you get caught, at least you will receive a disciplinary action. If you stay alive. Do you need it?
So it was wiser to stick with our own people. It's safer in a pack. During the war, everyone, including special officers, firmly knew the principle: stay away from the command and closer to the kitchen!
The special officers themselves did not judge anyone. They had no right. They drew up documents for the criminal and handed them over to the army special department. And they could hand it over to the tribunal. Or they might not have conveyed it. The authorities know better.
Special officers rarely shot anyone during the war. Only together with army commanders, when they stopped panic. Or according to the verdict of the tribunals. However, the tribunals had their own executors. Although, in some cases they also brought in outsiders. Including special officers. But not regimental ones. Closer was enough. (It was only in our post-perestroika films that the special officers did nothing but torture and shoot military officers. They had no greater pleasure than torturing a hero. And in the end, shoot him if he did not die from torture.)
Although, at the front they were most often shot without any sentences. Or barrage detachments, or commanders. Alarmists and deserters. And sometimes the soldiers themselves. (“Dad! This is what’s going on here, Dad! We killed one of us here... He turned out to be a bastard.”)
And not special departments and tribunals at all.
However, about the tribunals another time.
In many films about war, the image of a special officer evokes anger, contempt and even hatred. After watching them, many people formed the opinion that special officers are people who can shoot an innocent person with virtually no trial or investigation. That these people are not familiar with the concepts of mercy and compassion, justice and honesty.
So who are they - special officers? those who sought to imprison any person, or the people on whose shoulders a heavy burden fell during the Great Patriotic War? Let's figure it out.
Special department
It was created at the end of 1918 and belonged to the counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet army. His most important task was to protect state security and combat espionage.
In April 1943, special departments began to bear a different name - SMERSH bodies (stands for "death to spies"). They created their own network of agents and opened files on all soldiers and officers.
Specialists during the war
We know from films that if a special officer came to a military unit, people could not expect anything good. A natural question arises: what was it really like?
A huge number of military personnel did not have certificates. A huge number of undocumented people were constantly moving across the front line. German spies could carry out their activities without much difficulty. Therefore, it was quite natural for the special officers to have an increased interest in people who were in and out of encirclement. In difficult conditions, they had to establish the identities of people and be able to identify German agents.
For a long time in the Soviet Union it was believed that the special forces created special detachments that were supposed to shoot retreating military units. In fact, everything was different.
Special officers are people who risked their lives no less than the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Together with everyone else, they took part in the offensive and retreated, and if the commander died, then they had to take command and raise the soldiers to attack. They showed miracles of selflessness and heroism at the front. At the same time, they had to fight alarmists and cowards, as well as identify enemy infiltrators and spies.
- Special officers could not shoot military personnel without trial. In only one case could they use weapons: when someone tried to go over to the side of the enemy. But then each such situation was thoroughly investigated. In other cases, they only transferred information about identified violations to the military prosecutor's office.
- At the beginning of the war, a large number of experienced, specially trained and legally educated employees of special departments died. In their place they were forced to take people without training and the necessary knowledge, who often violated the law.
- By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were a total of about four hundred employees in special departments.
Thus, special officers are, first of all, people who tried to honestly fulfill the mission assigned to them to protect the state.