Military intelligence GRU on the invisible front

One of the most effective intelligence services in the world in the postwar years was the Soviet GRU. Secrets of military intelligence are safely stored in archives, some of them do not have a statute of limitations. The successes of our agents often have to be judged only after their failure or in many decades.

The Russian Intelligence Service as an organizational structure arose in the 16th century. Ivan IV the Terrible established the Ambassador's order, whose functions included collecting information useful for the most rational conduct of foreign policy activities.

Combined diplomatic and secret work and the great poet AS Griboedov, whose fate showed how dangerous the profession of a scout is.

In the late XIX and early XX century, Russian agents had an extensive network in almost all countries of the world. Equipped with perfectly trained personnel, she acted successfully and efficiently.

The events of 1917 and the ensuing civil war had a detrimental effect on the state of the special services, their structure was in fact destroyed. The new government had to create reconnaissance anew.

In the then fashion for abbreviations and abbreviated spellings, the service engaged in collecting information of military significance received an insignificant name for the uninitiated "Registrupr" (1918). This structure was subordinated to the Field Staff of the Red Army, and it can be said that the modern military intelligence of the GRU is its direct descendant. Further transformation of Registrrup and his renaming into the Intelligence Directorate (RU) expressed the desire to streamline the activities of Soviet agents abroad.

To increase the reliability of the information received, the sources were diversified. Information was supplied by the world's largest and unsurpassed network of Comintern agents, army intelligence, the NKVD and several other services working abroad, including diplomats.

The military intelligence service effectively worked during the Great Patriotic War on a par with the 4th Administration of the NKVD. The staff was created after careful selection and training. In 1945, this army structure received the name, which has survived to this day.

The main sources of foreign secrets in the postwar period were the management of the "S" of the MGB (hereinafter KGB) and the military intelligence of the GRU. Functions between them were divided, but the specifics of illegal work did not allow for a clear cut.

Economic and technical information, the extraction of which was the duty of state security, often intersected with military information. However, such departmental competition did not harm the common cause, but rather contributed to the success. So, the role in obtaining nuclear secrets of the Manhattan project, which played along with the foreign service of the NKVD and the military intelligence of the GRU, can not be overestimated.

In the second half of the 20th century, Soviet agents faced complex tasks. The gap in the technological backwardness of the USSR from Western countries increased, reliable information about technical characteristics and design decisions in the field of modern military equipment was required. Do not stay away from these problems and military intelligence. Special Forces GRU took part in secret operations far beyond the homeland. During the Middle East conflicts, the Vietnam War and other episodes of armed confrontation between the opposing systems, the latest examples of tanks, aircraft and electronic equipment of the probable enemy were extracted and delivered to the USSR.

The military intelligence of the GRU of modern Russia is structurally divided into 13 divisions for territorial division and functional purpose. They work in specialists of different profiles, from academic analysts and economists to experts in psychological warfare and sabotage methods. The geography of the working directions is the entire globe, over which the wings have spread their wings, depicted on the emblem of service.