SMERSH

“The Americans had a man planted in the KGB’s infamous Ninth Section – the political assassination branch that had once been known as SMERSH, but now was called Voyennaya Kontr Razvedka” p.

Paul Kenyon: The Baroness 3 – Death Is A Ruby Light 2005

“The Americans had a man planted in the KGB’s infamous Ninth Section – the political assassination branch that had once been known as SMERSH, but now was called Voyennaya Kontr Razvedka” p.

Archive 2005-03-20 2005

Son Valerii returned to Novina from the homestead in Manchuria to work with younger brother Yuri as a “volunteer” interpreter for the Red Army, while Arsenii interpreted for the Southern Naval Defense Area (Yuzhnii Morskoi Oboronitel’nii Rayon, or YUZHMOR) at Ch’ôngjin and for the Kontrazuedba (military intelligence, also known as SMERSH, for smyert shpionam, “death to spies”).

The Prewar Russian Community in Korea « Far Outliers 2003

Most of us have only heard of SMERSH in the context of James Bond books and films, if at all.

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012

SMERSH is actually an acronym for the Russian phrase Smert Shpionam, or "Death to Spies."

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012

Though SMERSH was part of the government, it was not under the military's control.

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012

SMERSH was Stalin's wartime terror apparatus; a collection of torturers and killers unleashed in 1943 to cut a bloody swath across Eastern Europe.

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012

Birstein, a Russian historian, human rights activist, and molecular geneticist now living in the United States, gives us a comprehensive look at this ruthless death machine in his new book SMERSH.

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012

Dr. C.G. McKay, author of From Information to Intrigue (Frank Cass, London, 1993) and (with Bengt Beckman) Swedish Signal Intelligence 1900-1945 (Frank Cass, London, 2003) wrote, I find it hard to believe that there is any work on SMERSH in the English language comparable to Dr. Birstein's book...

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012

"A coffee-table book glorifying SMERSH's activities published in 2003 by the FSB the successor to the KGB was also useful because it contains many photos of original documents about SMERSH."

Holly Cara Price: SMERSH: Stalin's Secret Weapon, Soviet Military Counterintelligence in WWII By Dr. Vadim Birstein Holly Cara Price 2012