35 years of the special forces detachment “Vympel”: What we should know about it
The other day, on August 19, the KGB special forces detachment “Vympel” (now Directorate “B” of the FSB of the Russian Federation) turned 35 years old. And it’s unlikely that even a single year in the life of the legendary squad turned out to be simple and calm. Throughout its existence, Vympel has had its ups and downs and even went through the process of liquidation. But in the most difficult and dramatic moments of modern history, the detachment invariably stood guard over the security of the Fatherland, and its fighters, in addition to professionalism of the highest class, showed themselves to be people who honestly and with dignity performed their duty.
In the 1950s, special forces units were disbanded in the USSR. The rapidly developing jet aviation and nuclear missile weapons that appeared at this time created the illusion among the country's leadership (and not only ours) that the human factor could no longer play a significant role in modern theaters of operations. The longest lasting units were the special forces units of the Fourth Directorate (illegal operations) of the USSR MGB, whose employees after the war operated on the territory of other states, hunting for Nazi executioners and their accomplices (for example, the liquidation of Bandera). In the end, it was decided that it was inappropriate to carry out “shadow” operations, since valuable employees were killed and the political costs were high.
Over time, the leadership of the USSR began to come to the conclusion that they had gone overboard with the liquidation of special forces, and the army and state security needed not only a combined arms sledgehammer, but also a stiletto for targeted strikes on the enemy’s nerve centers. The GRU special forces were restored quite quickly, showing their incredible effectiveness at the famous Dnepr military exercises. But with the formation of regular state security special forces, things dragged on for decades.
Within the KGB in the mid-1970s, the Eighth Department of Directorate “S” (illegal intelligence within the PGU) re-emerged, and it included employees who had gone through the special operations school of Sudoplatov, Starinov and other luminaries of the Soviet sabotage war, but the work of the department was entrusted information and analytical, based on painstaking study of the experience of special operations forces of NATO armies and some other countries, such as Rhodesia and South Africa, which had high-quality commando units.
Everything was decided in 1981, when the USSR was fighting “beyond the river” for the second year, and the time had come to combine theory and practice again. The practice of special operations in the KGB at that time was carried out by KUOS (Officer Improvement Courses, which trained reserve officers in case of fire), the Zenit group, which was separated from it, which took an active part in Operation Storm-333, as well as the groups fighting in Afghanistan. Cascade". On their basis, it was decided to form a permanent Vympel detachment.
The first commander of the Vympel was Rear Admiral Evald Kozlov, who earned the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his participation in the storming of Amin’s palace.
The initial strength of the detachment was 1000 people. At first, KGB operatives were selected. The bar was set very high: even among state security professionals, no more than 1–2 people made it into the new squad of a dozen applicants. Over time, Vympel began to recruit border guards and army personnel.
The main difference between the Vympel special forces and, for example, the GRU special forces, was the mandatory operational experience for its employees, and not just reconnaissance and sabotage, physical and tactical training. This was due to plans for undercover work on the territory of a potential enemy. In addition, 90% of the personnel of the old Vympel had two higher educations.
According to some reports, the country spent up to a quarter of a million Soviet rubles on the training of one Vympel fighter. For comparison. Depending on the square footage and layout, a cooperative apartment in the USSR at that time cost a citizen 6–8 thousand rubles. The official price of the Volga car is 10 thousand. A lot of money.
Accordingly, a very serious approach was taken to the preparation of the Vympel detachment. The special forces had to know at least two foreign languages and underwent mountain training with the participation of the country's best climbers. For diving and underwater sabotage training, the “Vympelovites” went to the Black Sea, to the GRU special forces naval brigade.
One of the characteristic features of Vympel employees was a thirst to learn, gain and generalize experience from a variety of sources. Thus, the “pennants” came to learn from their Vietnamese comrades camouflage methods and swimming in rivers with a short breathing tube. Very often they visited Cuba, at the Training Center “Avispas Negras” - the very cool Cuban special forces “Black Wasps”. And there our special forces learned to walk silently barefoot through the jungle, shoot from a mortar without a base plate, holding the barrel with their hands, penetrate objects and quickly leave after sabotage. It was mandatory to overcome the “Che Guevara trail”, replete with obstacles and ingenious traps. By the way, Cubans regularly appeared in Moscow to train KGB officers in their “karate operativa” system. Experts from Nicaragua adopted and mastered the flash shooting technique and experience in fighting the contras.
Created as “special forces of the Cold War,” Vympel did not get into the Cold War. His share was the war in “hot spots”. Such as Afghanistan, as well as conflicts in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Gradually, looking at the puppet regimes emerging here and there, some financed by the United States, and some with the direct participation of their army and intelligence services, the KGB began to slowly come to an understanding of the need to be prepared for various “hybrid wars” and “color revolutions.”
I already had some experience. For example, the notorious “Prague Spring”, which in fact was a kind of “orangeade” with the participation of Western intelligence services to carry out a “velvet” coup d’etat to disable one of the most important allies of the USSR, a member of the CMEA and the Warsaw War. To stabilize the situation in Czechoslovakia, the Department of Internal Affairs had to conduct a large-scale and expensive military operation “Danube”. But now it has become clear that with a skillful approach, coup attempts can be defeated with small forces.
In 1990, the Vympelov team, together with Cuban special forces, successfully worked out a very similar exercise scenario - they removed a conditional junta from power in one conditional state.
By this time, Vympel was at the peak of its form and managed to conduct a number of training operations within the country, during which the nuclear icebreaker Sibir, the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant and some other important military and industrial facilities were liberated from “terrorists.” The reports of the special forces formed the basis for the measures taken to eliminate gaps in the security of many important facilities.
One of the little-known Vympel operations was Operation Chesma. At the same time, the NATO command, under the guise of maneuvers, carried out the Arch Bay Express special operation in Greece and Turkey. In fact, the “maneuvers” were aimed at destabilizing
Bulgaria and the Soviet republics of Transcaucasia. Operation Chesma, with the participation of Vympel, carried out in the same region, was the response of the KGB of the USSR. Agents and operational observers were involved in the operation. The results exceeded any expectations. NATO members left a fair amount of legacy, which allowed KGB operatives to film the closed film “According to Received Data,” shown in April 1991 to members of the USSR Armed Forces Committee on Defense and Security of the Country.
The operatives asked the deputies to take measures to prevent the outbreak of civil war in the south of the country. But at that time, among the deputies of the USSR Supreme Council, the percentage of “foremen of Perestroika” was off the charts, and the warning was simply brushed aside.
Just then the country entered a period of instability, going through the collapse of a single space, a series of civil wars and a ruthless struggle for power by the newly emerged elites.
The moment of truth for the Vympel squad was October 1993.
The attempt to impeach President Yeltsin by the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation ended with the deployment of troops into Moscow, the death of hundreds of people and the firing of tanks at the White House by the Russian Armed Forces, in which opponents of Yeltsin and his team were holed up.
Unlike the timid State Emergency Committee, which did everything possible to prevent blood from being shed, Yeltsin’s “young reformers” clicked their mandibles and thirsted for human flesh. The Vympel and Alpha detachments were ordered to storm the White House and break the resistance of its defenders. Understanding full well that the Yeltsinoids, by their actions, were pushing the country towards a new civil war, the Vympelovites abandoned the attack.
Yeltsin raged, tore and screamed, but he failed to smear the Vympel and Alpha with blood. As a result, the drunken president harbored a grudge and in December 1993 signed a decree transferring Vympel to the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the new name Vega. “Alpha” had difficulty, but managed to defend itself.
In fact, with this decree, Yeltsin, who only knew how to break things, signed the verdict on Vympel, whose task was secret operations abroad. Not seeing any use for themselves in the Ministry of Internal Affairs system, 112 operatives from the detachment immediately submitted reports of resignation. Only 50 pennants remained in Vega.
Having heard about the liquidation of Vympel, vultures from American (as they would now be called) PMCs flocked to Moscow with tempting job offers. It is known for sure that not a single one of the special forces was tempted by the American cookies, refusing the American recruiters. The former “Vympelovites” were willingly received by the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Federal Grid Company, the Main Directorate of Defense and the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
The remaining special forces in the Vega detachment had to preserve, if possible, the spirit and traditions of Vympel, and also participate in counter-terrorist operations in Budennovsk and Minvody.
By the beginning of the second Chechen war, “Vega” had still returned to the FSB as Directorate “B” of the Special Purpose Center. Soon the detachment was returned to its original name.
True, since then, Vympel is no longer engaged in “shadow” operations abroad, but is a special forces detachment to combat terrorism. Its fighters carried out dozens of successful operations to eliminate bandits in Dagestan and Chechnya, together with Alpha they rescued hostages in Dubrovka, and at the cost of their lives freed children from a school seized by terrorists in Beslan.
Recent events in Crimea have shown that the Vympelovites are serving to ensure the safety of the inhabitants of the Peninsula. In a shootout with Bandera saboteurs and terrorists, a Vympel employee and commander of the operational group was killed.
On Vympel’s birthday, I would like to wish its employees only training worries, and above all, health, personal and professional success in defending the Fatherland. And so that they always feel the support and respect of the people and the state.
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