was posthumously expelled from the Communist Partyas an enemy
of the people.
Slutskiy’s death set off an even more vicious purge of the foreign
directorate, which claimed four directors in less than one year.
More importantly, the purge of the NKVD’s foreign intelligence
arms leftJoseph Stalin with little access to foreign intelligence
about developments in Europe or the Far East. According to Rus-
sian records, for 127 days in 1938 Stalin did not receive a single
foreign intelligence report.SMERSH. In April 1943 Joseph Stalinmandated a new counterintel-
ligenceservice for the People’s Commissariat of Defense. Smersh, an
abbreviation of Smert shpiyonamor “Death to Spies,” was created to
ensure control of the military, the punishment of anti-Soviet elements
in the military and the partisanmovement, and as a parallel security
service to contend with Lavrenty Beria, who had political oversight
over the NKGB and the NKVD. Stalin may have seen Smershas a
way to coordinate counterintelligence operations with the planning of
offensive military operations.
Stalin appointed Viktor Abakumov, a young and competent secu-
rity officer who had risen quickly during the purges of the 1930s, to
head Smersh with the rank of colonel general. Smersh had an active
presence in all military units down to the battalion level. Recent re-
search established that Smershhad a staff of 15,000–30,000 officers,
with a headquarters staff in Moscow of 225. It had five regiments
with every Red Army front, as well as detachments with rear area
units, partisan formations, and Axis prison camps. Smershofficers’
major responsibility was the recruitment of informantswithin the
army, prisoner of warcamps, and the civilian population to help
identify Nazi agents and military deserters. So effective was this web
of agents and informers that German intelligence efforts inside the
Soviet Union were totally foiled.
Smershofficers closely operated with partisan detachments within
Nazi-occupied areas of the Soviet Union as well as in Poland, Hun-
gary, and Czechoslovakia, frequently eliminating those believed to be
anti-Soviet. Following the defeat of the Third Reich, Smersh’s Vet-
ting and Screening Commissions (Proverochni-filtrovochnye kom-
missii) interrogated former Soviet prisoners of war, as well as SovietSMERSH • 24306-313 P-Z.qxd 7/27/06 7:57 AM Page 243