GRU special forces: only stars are higher than us
On October 24, Russian military intelligence special forces celebrated their 70th anniversary. At first glance, it seems strange that the post-war year 1950 was chosen as the birthday of this highly respected branch of the military, because special purpose units of the Red Army operated both during the Civil War and during the Great Patriotic War, conducting reconnaissance and sabotage activities deep behind enemy lines.
Among the most striking episodes are the actions of the DRG “Jack” under the command of Captain Krylatykh, which was abandoned in East Prussia in July 1944, as well as special groups that saved Polish Krakow from destruction by the Nazis.
commanders of the DRG “Jack”
The trouble is that after the war, someone in the military leadership of the USSR recognized that the special forces units of the Soviet Army were no longer needed, and they began to be disbanded.
On the other hand, the tendency to get rid of special forces in the post-war period was not exclusively a Soviet invention. The same fate befell commando units in the armies of Great Britain and the United States, regardless of the merits and contributions of their soldiers to the defeat of the enemy.
The Americans came to their senses and began to re-form special-purpose units only with the outbreak of the Korean War.
Studying foreign experience, we realized it too. Work began on correcting mistakes and the formation of separate special-purpose companies; fortunately, the accumulated experience was systematized, and valuable personnel did not have time to grow old and lose their grip in five years.
In general, on October 24, 1950, a new generation of special forces appeared in the USSR, whose functions were much broader than “saw the wire, cut it.” The armies of potential opponents of the USSR were equipped with nuclear weapons at an accelerated pace, and the revived special forces were given more serious tasks - reconnaissance and destruction of enemy nuclear weapons and launchers.
The moment of truth for Soviet special forces was the large-scale exercise “Dnepr-67”, which took place on the territory of Ukraine with the participation of troops from the Kyiv, Belarusian and Carpathian districts.
The airborne component of the exercise made a stunning and sobering impression in the West, but the almost invisible and no less effective actions of the special forces attracted the attention of the Soviet military-political leadership. All Special Forces units involved in the exercises received gratitude from the USSR Minister of Defense, Marshal Grechko, and the groups’ actions were rated only “good” and “excellent.” Basically, excellent.
It suddenly became clear that in the nuclear-reactive era it is too early to write off a person as scrap. During the exercises, the special forces proved that with the help of two or three qualified reconnaissance groups it is possible to disable the command of a large formation, capture and neutralize a well with a nuclear bomb, blind and leave the enemy without communication, direct aircraft to sites with enemy missiles, collect and transmit the most valuable information to the top, and many other useful things.
Soon it was decided to begin the formation of separate special forces brigades in a number of military districts and to assign a separate special forces company to the armies and army corps.
At the same time, the 1071st training regiment of the Special Forces was deployed in the city of Pechory in the Pskov region, which trained reconnaissance sergeants, radio operators, and explosives operators for special mining groups, and a school for warrant officers began operating. In addition, Navy special forces and border guards were trained in the regiment.
Thanks to the Dnepr-67 exercises, peacetime special forces received another important function - to check operationally important military and civilian objects for sabotage resistance. As a rule, as part of regular special district exercises.
Many special forces exercises were aimed at searching for and capturing enemy reconnaissance and sabotage groups that had infiltrated our territory and were conducted jointly with border guards and internal troops.
Based on the results of the exercises, the command of the units and facilities “affected” by the action of the special forces were given recommendations to strengthen security measures, which, however, did not guarantee them from the next test of strength.
But the main test for Soviet special forces was the war in Afghanistan. It took the military leadership of the USSR almost five years to understand: the experience of using tank wedges and front-line operations of the Great Patriotic War is not applicable in local conflicts. The main task of fighting militants falls on the shoulders of well-trained mobile infantry units at the platoon-company-battalion level. Aviation, tanks and artillery are needed for fire support and targeted strikes against the enemy.
Today it sounds crazy, but until 1984, our special forces in Afghanistan performed commandant functions, such as guarding fuel and lubricants pipelines, and a single company in Kabul under the command of Captain Latypov, nicknamed “Kabul firefighters,” was engaged in special operations against spooks.
And this after the stunning seizure by the GRU “Muslim battalion” of the residence of the Afghan dictator Amin. Ordinary conscript soldiers, recruited from Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmen conscripted into motorized rifle and tank units, in just 9 months of intense training acted no worse than the Zenit and Grom officer detachments of the KGB of the USSR involved in Operation Storm-333. By the way, developed by the special forces “Uncle Vasya” - the future head of the special intelligence troops department, major general and Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Vasilyevich Kolesnik.
As soon as the mistake was realized, a rotation of personnel from the already deployed special forces units began in Afghanistan, which were described according to documents as “separate motorized rifle battalions.” The demand for special forces was so great that in the mid-80s, as many as two brigades operated in the interests of the 40th Army in Afghanistan: the 15th and 22nd. In their combined detachments, soldiers and officers from all brigades and companies of the Special Forces gained combat experience, and the detachments themselves were deployed in chains along the eastern and western borders of Afghanistan to fight Dushman bases and caravans.
Soviet special forces with captured American weapons
In Afghanistan, Soviet special forces suffered significant losses. You can read about the tragedy of the “Maravara” company and the last battle of the RGSP “Caspian” on the Internet, but mainly in Afghanistan the special forces “beyond the river” gave results.
So, at the beginning of 1984, the commander of the 154th detachment (former “musbat”) Roman Abzalimov and the chief of staff Captain Grigory Bykov (future commander of the legendary Asadabad detachment) developed an operation to destroy a gathering of Dushman leaders from across the province. The operation was carried out with silent weapons - pistols with PBS and "Jalalabad pikes" - sharply sharpened fittings with a handle and sheath made of a rubber hose. As a result, relative silence around Jalalabad lasted for a year.
Major Bykov, special forces legend, commander of the Asadabad detachment
Let's not forget the Stinger hunters, Major Sergeev and Captain Kovtun. And also the special forces of the 173rd detachment, who in the fall of 1985 eliminated CIA officer Thornton, under whose leadership the “spirits” shot down a passenger plane in the vicinity of Kandahar. The legendary special forces soldier Igor Vesnin, nicknamed “Baby,” served in the 173rd detachment, who, more than others, had slaughtered caravans and five (!) military orders to his name.
In total, according to statistics, the actions of special forces in Afghanistan provided at least half of the total result of the 40th Army. This is especially surprising since Special Forces groups operated in isolation from the main forces of the army, and often without fire support from aviation and artillery.
Afghanistan. The commander of the Special Forces reconnaissance group assigns a combat mission to his soldiers
It should be noted that the military-political leadership of the Union, until the last years of the life of the USSR, was embarrassed to call the GRU special forces by its real name - special military intelligence units of the Main Intelligence Directorate. Despite the fact that the West was well aware of this, as well as many other facts. Conscript soldiers who ended up serving in special forces were informed by their father-commanders that they were serving in “special forces of the airborne forces” or “special forces of tank forces,” although they themselves were well aware of the true state of affairs.
For the same incomprehensible reason, the names of the head of the GRU, General Ivashutin, and the commander of all Soviet special forces, “Uncle Vasya” Kolesnik, were terribly classified for privates and sergeants.
And only with the publication of an article about the Pechora Special Forces training in the magazine “Soviet Warrior” in 1990, people learned “top secret information” where exactly “our answer to John Rambo” was being prepared.
The next serious test for the special forces was the last years of its existence and the collapse of the USSR. The 12th brigade located in the Georgian town of Lagodekhi and the 22nd brigade withdrawn to Azerbaijan in the late 80s began to be actively involved in the “restoration of the constitutional order” on the ground, and in fact, they were ordered to correct the mistakes of the country’s political leadership.
At the end of 12, intelligence officers of the 1988th brigade restored order in the Azerbaijani city of Zagatala, and throughout 1989 they were engaged in searching for and eliminating training centers for Armenian militants in the vicinity of the cities of Kirovakan, Leninakan, and Pambak. In April 1989, special forces extinguished bloody manifestations of “friendship of peoples” in South Ossetia, which at that time was part of the Georgian SSR.
Along with the collapse of the Union, the nationalists who came to power took over the special forces. From the command of the brigade in Lagodekhi, the Georgian Nazis demanded that all weapons be transferred to the “Georgian people”, and for refusing to comply, the brigade was blocked, and attacks began on its soldiers.
The 22nd brigade, stationed in the Azerbaijani settlement. Perekishkül was diligently “spudded up” by recruiters from among Armenian and Azerbaijani militants, trying to get special forces with combat experience into their ranks.
In September 1992, the Yeltsinoids decided to redeploy the 12th brigade to the Asbest region (Ural Military District), and the 22nd brigade moved to Aksai, Rostov region.
At the same time, the 15th brigade from Chirchik (Uzbekistan), which gave three Heroes of the Soviet Union, the 467th training regiment, plus three brigades (8th, 9th, 10th) in Ukraine were lost to the Russian special forces.
True, in contrast to the mediocre “reform” of the special forces by the Ukrainian “shavarniks”, the Uzbek leadership did not organize a purge of personnel on the principle of “will you fight with the Muscovites?”, and was soon able to be convinced of the correctness of the decision made: from August 1992 to the end of 1994 year, the “tag” participated in large-scale military operations against Islamists - both on its own border with Afghanistan and in Tajikistan, together with units of the Russian 201st Motorized Rifle Division.
At the beginning of 1995, the time came for Russian special forces to remember the lessons of Afghanistan - the war in Chechnya began. In general, 1995 became the most tragic year in the history of the Russian special forces, since the intelligence officers had to work “for themselves and for that guy,” given the poor morale and combat training of motorized riflemen. For which, of course, we should “thank” the drunken Borya Yeltsin, his government, which consisted of the Gaidar-Chubais, as well as the Minister of Defense Grachev, who suffered from mischief.
Apparently, the main success of the special forces in the “first Chechen” was the destruction of the main forces of Raduev’s bandit group, which were going to break out from the captured village of Pervomaiskoye in January 1996. And the main defeats were the surrender of the reconnaissance group of the 22nd brigade during the January battles for Grozny, as well as the death of 46 special forces from Sergeev’s detachment (a Stinger hunter) from the explosion of the school building they occupied. Neither before nor after have Russian special forces experienced such simultaneous losses. Before this, the bloodiest battle between special forces and superior forces of “spirits” and “black storks” was considered to be the operation in the Maravar Gorge of Afghanistan on April 21, 1985, which claimed the lives of 31 scouts of the 1st company of the Asadabad detachment.
GRU special forces reconnaissance group in Chechnya
On the eve of the “second Chechen war”, the GRU special forces had time to prepare and better study the enemy, since everyone knew that no signed documents would stop the ruling “Ichkerian” thugs, and in 1997, the Russian military leadership came to the understanding that the first thing the Chechen militants would try to capture is Dagestan .
loading into the RGSpN helicopter
Until August 1999, the forces of the 411th and 173rd Special Forces detachments deployed to the Caucasus carried out reconnaissance of the areas adjacent to “Ichkeria”, studied the warning system and security on the Chechen side of the border, and identified the scheme for the delivery and sale of pirated oil products. Simultaneously with colleagues from the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, army special forces carried out work to discover channels for the supply and storage of weapons by “sleeper” cells of Dagestan militants.
During the battles for Dagestan, the military group of the Russian army was reinforced by the 8th Special Forces detachment, which exposed the strongholds and positions of the militants, supplying the group’s headquarters with accurate and valuable information. With the development of hostilities, the special forces were reinforced by combined and separate detachments sent from all military districts of the country.
The result was immediate. Soon, units of the Russian army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB defeated the terrorist gangs that had invaded Dagestan and began an offensive deep into the territory of Chechnya.
Previous negative experiences were also taken into account. The advance of troops across Chechen territory occurred only with the permission of the commander of the assigned GRU special forces group, which was conducting reconnaissance in the area. It is these measures that explain the low losses of troops during the advance to Grozny.
Soon the special forces switched to their favorite tactics - raid operations on militant bases and search and ambush operations. These measures have proven to be especially effective in the foothills and mountainous regions of Chechnya.
As in Afghanistan, special forces began to actively use inspection teams on helicopters, which helped not only to detect, but also to immediately eliminate small gangs of militants.
It cannot be said that the years that have passed since the end of the “second Chechen war” were easy for our special forces. When Serdyukov was the Minister of Defense of Russia, for some reason the youngest brigade, which had considerable combat experience, the Berdsk brigade, was disbanded, and the special forces themselves were removed from the subordination of the GRU and transferred to the Ground Forces. Defense Minister Shoigu corrected the mistake of his predecessor by returning the Special Forces to the GRU, but the Berdsk brigade was never revived, just as the training regiment in Pechory, disbanded in 1998, was not revived.
Fortunately, near Krasnodar, the 10th brigade was re-formed, previously stationed in the village of Pervomaiskoye near the Old Crimea and completely collapsed by the independents. Moreover, the new “ten” is not a remake, but a restored old Crimean brigade, founded in 1962.
parachute training of special forces of the 10th brigade near Krasnodar
In 2009, a new stage in the development of special forces began - in the course of large-scale reforms of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Defense created a structural unit - the Special Operations Forces (SSO).
The MTR plays the same role as the Vympel detachment of the USSR KGB special forces - conducting operations abroad, since Vympel, as a result of “reorganizations,” became another counter-terrorism detachment, complementing Alpha.
The beginning of the creation of the MTR in 2013 was announced by the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Army General Gerasimov. In fact, when the MTR had already been formed. By the way, based on one of the GRU Special Forces units.
The youngest special forces of Russia already have the following assets: the fight against Somali pirates, participation in counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus, timely and bloodless assistance to the Crimeans on February 27, 2014 (the date also known as “Courtesy Day”), numerous successful special operations in Syria. Among the particularly impressive achievements are the re-liberation of Palmyra and the battle of 16 special forces against 300 ISIS “barmalei” without losses on our part.
Russian SOF in Syria
Liberation of Palmyra
instead of birches there are palm trees, but behind us is Russia
It is not surprising that, looking back at the well-deserved glory of the GRU special forces, many ministries and departments began to produce their own “special forces”, which are, in fact, tactical groups.
Even the Airborne Forces command could not escape the temptation to have its own special forces. In February 1994, in Kubinka, the 45th separate regiment (since 2014 - brigade) of the Airborne Special Forces (now the Airborne Reconnaissance Brigade) was formed on the basis of the famous 901st separate airborne assault battalion, withdrawn from Slovakia, and 218th separate reconnaissance battalion from Transnistria.
Despite the fact that the regiment soon achieved significant success in combat and political training, it did not have independent goals and objectives as part of the Airborne Forces and was soon transferred to the operational subordination of the GRU, which partially compensated for Russian military intelligence for the loss of several combat-ready brigades remaining in the former union republics.
If we talk about people who serve or have served their time in the Soviet and Russian special forces, then these are mainly calm and completely non-conflict fighters who do not have the habit of bullying fellow citizens on their professional holidays, swimming in pools and smashing beer bottles on their heads. The special forces are served by staunch, three-core people devoted to the Motherland, accustomed to working with their brains and skillfully disappearing without firing a single shot after completing a mission. They are not Rambo or professional killers. Wearing a necklace made of severed human ears around your neck is not about them. In the special forces they do not like empty bravado and window dressing; special forces are forbidden to stain their bodies with tattoos - for such tricks people end up behind the fence and are transferred to a simpler unit.
Vladimir Kovtun (far left) with captured stingers
A striking example of the manifestation of the human qualities of a special forces soldier is one of the operations of the reconnaissance group of Captain Kovtun (hunter for “Stingers”). During one of his combat reconnaissance missions, his RGSpN accidentally stumbled upon an Afghan shepherd with a flock of sheep. According to all the rules of shadow operations, the group had to get rid of the shepherdess for their own safety. However, Kovtun chose to take the boy with him and hand him over to the village elders, where, according to the command, the “spirits” had organized a stronghold. Kovtun's action was fully appreciated by the Afghans. Local elders personally led the reconnaissance group to a safe area, and it returned to the detachment’s location without losses.
In general, special forces are: less noise, innovative thinking and actions, a lot of patience and endurance - the main components of the motto “Only the stars are above us.”
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