How the “special officer” became interested in me. What did the “special officers” do at the front? Who is a special officer in the army

In many films about war, the image of a special officer evokes anger, contempt and even hatred. After watching them, many people formed the opinion that special officers are people who can shoot an innocent person with virtually no trial or investigation. That these people are not familiar with the concepts of mercy and compassion, justice and honesty.

So who are they - special officers? those who sought to imprison any person, or the people on whose shoulders a heavy burden fell during the Great Patriotic War? Let's figure it out.

Special department

It was created at the end of 1918 and belonged to the counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet army. His most important task was to protect state security and combat espionage.

In April 1943, special departments began to bear a different name - SMERSH bodies (stands for "death to spies"). They created their own network of agents and opened files on all soldiers and officers.

Specialists during the war

We know from films that if a special officer came to a military unit, people could not expect anything good. A natural question arises: what was it really like?

A huge number of military personnel did not have certificates. A huge number of undocumented people were constantly moving across the front line. German spies could carry out their activities without much difficulty. Therefore, it was quite natural for the special officers to have an increased interest in people who were in and out of encirclement. In difficult conditions, they had to establish the identities of people and be able to identify German agents.

For a long time in the Soviet Union it was believed that the special forces created special detachments that were supposed to shoot retreating military units. In fact, everything was different.

Special officers are people who risked their lives no less than the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Together with everyone else, they took part in the offensive and retreated, and if the commander died, then they had to take command and raise the soldiers to attack. They showed miracles of selflessness and heroism at the front. At the same time, they had to fight alarmists and cowards, as well as identify enemy infiltrators and spies.

1. Special officers could not shoot military personnel without trial. In only one case could they use weapons: when someone tried to go over to the side of the enemy. But then each such situation was thoroughly investigated. In other cases, they only transferred information about identified violations to the military prosecutor's office.
2. At the beginning of the war, a large number of experienced, specially trained and legally educated employees of special departments died. In their place they were forced to take people without training and the necessary knowledge, who often violated the law.
3. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were a total of about four hundred employees in special departments.

Thus, special officers are, first of all, people who tried to honestly fulfill the mission assigned to them to protect the state.

The first day of my army life.
We new arrivals were just fed, washed in the bathhouse and changed into clothes. After all, we, 40 people, ended up in Lenin’s room. We sit, silently look at the boa constrictor with the epaulets of a major, who slowly eyes each of us in turn.
After about five minutes he began:
- Congratulations, comrades, on your arrival in our illustrious blah, blah, blah, you have to overcome difficulties blah, blah, boundaries, blah, blah, blah. Now let's get down to business. You will have a bath once a week. After the bath, the soldier is given his choice of either a bottle of beer - 500 ml, or a chocolate bar - 100 grams. at the choice of military personnel.
The bald audience perked up noticeably.
- Stop talking! Stand up, stand still! sit down at ease. So I'll continue. Here in front of me is the certificate of sale of your third company, on beer and chocolate. Sergeant Vatrushkin!
The sergeant entered the room.

Bring the post-bath allowance from the storeroom.
A minute later, the sergeant locked a box of beer, on it was a cardboard box of Alenka chocolate. We all shouted joyfully with our eyes alone.
- So, I will say your last name, you say “I” and name what you want to receive on bath day: beer or chocolate.
While the line was going to my name, I thought about what to choose: On the one hand, I had never drank alcohol in my life, neither before nor after, so I didn’t need beer for nothing, but on the other hand, I can, from the master’s shoulder, give your bottle to your comrades for the same chocolate from the tea shop. You can’t buy beer in a tea shop... And on the third hand, today they will buy me a chocolate bar, but tomorrow they won’t have time, I won’t be a goon and will still give them my beer, but I will be left without “Alenka”. But on the fourth side... The major said my last name.
- I! I choose Chocolate!
The room became quiet, as if I had said something indecent.
- Comrade soldier, if you choose a chocolate bar, you won’t get beer, is that clear to you?
- Yes sir.
At the end of the list, the major came close to me, looked carefully, walked away and shouted: You are all brutes, lazy people and, as it turned out, alcoholics! I'll beat the crap out of you! They wanted beer! Or maybe you should bring the women after the bath!!! ? Everyone, stand up, come out and line up! Sergeant Vatrushkin, command according to the daily routine. And you Stirlitz, I’ll ask you to stay. Sit down. (I sat down)
The major looked at me point blank.
- I am the head of the special department. (Later, I learned to accurately identify special officers by their fishy eyes.) During the three years of my service in this training unit, I showed this box with beer bottles and chocolates from the tea shop to tens of thousands of soldiers. But none of them, NO ONE, chose the chocolate bar. While you are a mystery to me, it’s my job to solve riddles. Here's a paper, write your autobiography. Very detailed, ten pages long.
He asked for a long time about his parents, foreign acquaintances, did his friends serve in our unit? For some reason he even scared me with prison, etc. (Devil knows why he needed these tricks with beer, most likely he was just a sadist).
Our company began the educational process, and I was the only one who did not have access, and instead of studying in a secret class, I sat quietly in the barracks and wrote letters to my mother. For two whole months, while the major’s secret requests about me were flying to secret addresses, I was enjoying myself, and the service was going on. A sober lifestyle is sometimes not so bad...

SPECIALIST, a, m. Employee of the Special Department (for example, in the army, in security agencies); about any person who behaves in a special way. Why don’t you drink, special officer or something? Give him a penalty as a special officer... Dictionary of Russian argot

special officer- , a, m. An employee of a special department, a special unit. ◘ I order you, the special officer shouted, and no joke to me. He clicked the shutter. Zhitkov, 1989, 188. The special officers and tribunal officers got out of captivity and zealously set about searching for the capture of the rebels: they caught ... Explanatory dictionary of the language of the Council of Deputies

A special department is a military counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet army. Special departments were created on December 19, 1918 by a decree of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), according to which the front and army Chekas were merged with the bodies of the Military ... ... Wikipedia

special officer- especially ist, and... Russian spelling dictionary

A; m. Razg. An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... encyclopedic Dictionary

special officer- A; m.; decomposition An employee of a special department in a military unit, at an enterprise, etc., dealing with issues of protecting state secrets... Dictionary of many expressions

special officer- special/ist/ … Morphemic-spelling dictionary

especially- Adj. to special...

special- a, e. What is it about someone’s specialness, individuality; in the language of which there are no special, individual figures, features... Ukrainian Tlumach Dictionary

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For those who served in the army, especially in officer positions, it is well known who the “special officers” are. These are representatives of the KGB (and now the FSB) in army units. Their main task at all times was to carry out work to prevent the intelligence activities of the enemy (actual and potential) in the army. Essentially, these are army counterintelligence agents.
Their activities were of a very specific nature; they carried out their work quietly, inconspicuously, using methods only known to them. They were jokingly called “shut up, shut up.”
As a rule, ordinary military officers became “special officers”, as if they were “removed” from the troops and returned back to army units after special training and worked there as “special officers.”
They had fairly large powers, and in matters of their competence they went directly to the commanders of the units to which they were attached. The commanders were obliged to provide them with all possible assistance and assistance in solving special problems.
However, this in no way gave the right to “special officers” to interfere in issues of combat and political training, or to command personnel at any levels and units of the military body.
It must be said that they never did this, they had enough of their own worries, however, in any family there is a black sheep. Unfortunately, even in this environment there were overly ambitious or simply not smart officers who sometimes exceeded their powers.
“Grandfather Zhenya” once told me about one such incident from his life during our next meeting.

It was 1938. The situation in the Far East was extremely tense. The Japanese became completely insolent, provocations on the border became commonplace. In this situation, says Emelyan Filaretovich, the regiment mastered the new I-16 fighters that had just been received under the rearmament program. This car was special, in which aircraft designer Polikarpov tried to combine speed and maneuverability as much as possible, which he succeeded brilliantly, but nothing comes easy without loss. The machine turned out to be quite difficult to operate and required good flight training from the pilots.
The regiment intensively mastered the new aircraft, flights took place every day, with maximum tension, because there was no time for “relaxation”. The command to engage in hostilities could be received at any moment.
Technology always remains technology, especially new, not fully “broken-in”. Problems, naturally, arose, but where could you get away from them? Once during the flight, when landing with me, the general recalls, one of the landing gear wheels on the plane did not come out and I had to land the car on the only other one, but, thank God, everything worked out. However, fortunately, there were no serious accidents, let alone catastrophes.
On this day, one plane crashed during landing, i.e. after touching, he stuck his nose into the ground and damaged the propeller blades. This happens most often when, for one reason or another, the landing gear wheels jam after landing.
The case, of course, is not pleasant, but not from the category of “emergency”. My deputy was in charge of the flights that day. He informed me about the incident and I immediately hurried to the airfield. However, a few minutes earlier, the regimental “special officer”, Senior Lieutenant Krutilin, rode there on a bicycle.
He was a “lad”, I’ll tell you Kostya, not a pleasant one, he always “poked his nose” into things that weren’t his own and tried to command not only the flight and technical personnel, but even, sometimes, squadron commanders. More than once I had to carefully put him in his place, but still smoothing out the “sharp corners”, trying to resolve conflict situations as diplomatically as possible.
However, what happened this time drove me crazy!
I discovered that flights have been stopped. What’s the matter, I asked the deputy, why aren’t we flying?
- Senior Lieutenant Krutilin, the deputy reports, ordered to stop flights due to an accident on the airfield. I didn’t start a conflict and decided to wait for you.
Where is he, I ask?
- Yes, there he is with his bicycle standing to the side.
Send a soldier, tell him that I am calling him here.
Krutilin walked up with an untied gait, without saying a word, showing with all his appearance that he was the real master of the regiment.
Comrade senior lieutenant, weren’t you taught in the army how to approach and report to the senior commander when he calls you?
- And you are not my boss for me to report to you!
Everyone was taken aback, they didn’t even expect such “greyhound” from him, they were looking to see what I would do in response. It was clearly visible that Krutilin was provoking me to an inappropriate act, so that I would break loose and do something that I had no right to do, or give up in front of him in front of my subordinates.
Get out of here, and don't set foot on the airfield without my personal permission!
“Well, you, Major, will bitterly regret this,” Krutilin, who had turned white with anger and frustration, squeezed out, grabbed his bicycle and rode off from the airfield.
I gave the command to continue flying and went to regimental headquarters. No one else saw Krutilin in the regiment's disposition, and a day later I was summoned to the commander.
Blucher had the head of the political department of the Army and the head of the special department.
Reported his arrival as expected. The commander greeted him and, with a gesture of his hand, invited the head of the special department to ask questions.
- Comrade Major, explain why you expelled the representative of the special department from the regiment, or did you yourself decide to catch spies in the regiment?
- No, comrades colonel, no one expelled Krutilin from the regiment, but only from the airfield, where he has no right to enter during flights without the permission of his superior.
- Why didn’t he allow him?
“He didn’t ask permission from the flight director; moreover, he ordered the flights to stop.”
- So did he stop?
- Yes, before my arrival at the airfield.
- Who has the right to stop or continue flights?
- Only the flight director and I personally, the regiment commander.
- And what about Krutilin, how did he explain his actions to you?
- No way, he started to be rude in front of the personnel, so I kicked him out of the airfield and told him to appear at the airfield, if necessary, during flights with my personal permission.
- So you didn’t kick him out of the regiment?
- Of course, what right would I have to do this, and why, I understand that spies will still have to be caught, and that’s his business.
- Yes, that's for sure!
The head of the special department smiled, stood up, and turned to Blucher.
- Comrade commander, I have no more questions for the major.
“And even more so for me,” Vasily Konstantinovich answered. Do you have any questions for us?
“In working order, if you allow me,” I answered.
“Well, we’ve agreed,” Blucher summed up the conversation.
- May I go?
- Yes, of course, go and work.

Krutilin was removed from the regiment and was replaced by a captain, a good, intelligent officer, with whom a common language was immediately found and all issues were resolved without any problems.
And fate brought Krutilin together again, this time during the war. He came to my regiment to ask, he didn’t want to go to the infantry, they say, we are old acquaintances from the Far East. Naturally, I put him out there, I knew what kind of goose he was.
- Emelyan Filaretovich, well, in general, this sore subject, repression, how did you manage to avoid all this?
- This is the year 1937, I fought in Spain then, and when I returned, everything had already passed. As you can see, even conflict situations with the “special officers” were resolved objectively, no one was arrested or brought to trial “for no reason.” And even more so during the war, it was necessary to fight, people died, every pilot, and especially the commander, was specially registered; they did not touch anyone without a serious reason. In my regiment and then in the division, no one was ever arrested through the special department.
What about Stalin, what was he like?
- I saw him quite closely several times at various events. He was a serious man and very authoritative. Something really unusual came from him. Glubokoye was respected. In any case, I personally can’t say anything bad about him. Well, there was no need to communicate; after all, the level is incomparably different. But I met Marshal Zhukov many times. It was he who personally asked me to go to China as the chief military adviser.
- What, you already asked?
- Yes, that’s right, because the work there had to be special. Of course, I perceived his request as an order, I didn’t think twice about it, it’s necessary, it means it’s necessary, but that’s a different story.
Okay, let's go have tea, Nila Pavlovna has already been waiting for us.

Kyiv. December 2011

From 1941 to 1943, military counterintelligence agencies were subordinate to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria. If in Soviet times little and only good things were said about the work of military security officers, then after the collapse of the USSR they said a lot and often bad things.

If you believe the opuses of individual domestic journalists and screenwriters of modern films “about the war,” military counterintelligence officers constantly drank in the rear, slept with well-groomed and cleanly dressed young nurses, and when the medical battalion ran out of alcohol and wanted something new, they went to the front line. Having fabricated several criminal cases and personally shot victims in the back of the head with a revolver, the “military counterintelligence officers” returned to the rear, where alcohol and lustful medical staff were already waiting for them. From time to time they were given military awards. Probably for victories on the sexual front and success in battles with the green serpent. And so throughout the Great Patriotic War. It is unclear, however, who caught the German agents and cared for the wounded. What else did you want from the subordinates of the “sexual maniac and executioner” Lavrentiy Beria? They followed the example of their boss in everything.

Everything in life was different. It so happened that of all the operational units of the Lubyanka (not counting the border guards and military personnel of the internal troops), the military security officers were the first to engage the enemy and they (of all the state security units) had some of the greatest losses. Suffice it to say that during the period from June 22, 1941 to March 1, 1943, military counterintelligence lost 3,725 people killed, 3,092 missing, and 3,520 wounded. In the fall of 1941, on the Southwestern Front, the former head of the 3rd Directorate of the NKO, A. N. Mikheev, was surrounded and killed.

On the other hand, it was the military counterintelligence officers who took the brunt of the blow from the German intelligence services, who organized the mass dispatch of their intelligence officers, provocateurs and saboteurs to the front-line zone. Suffice it to say that from 1941 to 1943, the enemy sent up to 55% of its agents into the zone of responsibility (front line) of military security officers. And by the beginning of 1945, this figure increased to 90%. To this we must add “transiters” - those who crossed the front line on foot, and not by plane. And many of the German agents knew in advance that if they were arrested by Soviet law enforcement officers, they would be shot. Therefore, when detained, they often offered armed resistance.

Military counterintelligence officers risked their lives no less than the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army on the front line. In fact, ordinary employees (investigative officers serving military units) acted autonomously. Together with the fighters, they first fought on the border and then quickly retreated. In the event of the death or serious injury of a unit commander, the counterintelligence officer had to not only replace the military leader, but also, if necessary, raise the soldiers to attack. At the same time, they continued to fulfill their professional duty - they fought against deserters, alarmists, and enemy agents that were rapidly filling the front-line zone.

They had to fight from the first hours of the war, relying only on themselves. If their colleagues from other units of the NKVD were able to receive instructions from their superiors on what to do in “special conditions,” then military counterintelligence officers acted autonomously. It is difficult to say whether they knew about Directive No. 34794 of the 3rd Directorate of NGOs of the USSR adopted on June 22, 1941. In it, the main task of security officers in the active army and military counterintelligence officers of the Far Eastern Front (FEF) was to identify the agents of German intelligence agencies and anti-Soviet elements in the Red Army. It was ordered to “accelerate the creation of residencies and provide them with reserve residents”, to prevent military personnel from disclosing military secrets, and special attention should be paid to employees of headquarters and communications centers. Maybe they were able to tell it to them after all.

But about another governing document of the 3rd Directorate of NGOs of the USSR - Directive No. 35523 of June 27, 1941 “On the work of the bodies of the 3rd Directorate of NGOs in wartime”, most likely, no. During the first days of the war, there was no communication between Headquarters and the headquarters of individual armies.

This document defined the main functions of military counterintelligence:

“1) intelligence and operational work: a) in units of the Red Army; b) in the rear, supporting units operating at the front; c) among the civilian environment;

2) the fight against desertion (employees of special departments were part of the Red Army barrage detachments, which, contrary to popular belief, were not directly related to the state security agencies. - Auth.);

3) work on enemy territory” (initially in an area up to 100 km from the front line, in contact with the intelligence department of the USSR NPO. - Auth.).

“Special officers” were supposed to be located both at headquarters, ensuring secrecy, and in the first echelons at command posts. At the same time, military counterintelligence officers received the right to conduct investigative actions against military personnel and civilians associated with them, while they had to receive authorization for arrests of mid-level command personnel from the Military Council of the army or front, and for senior and senior command personnel from the People's Commissar of Defense.

The organization of counterintelligence departments of 3 departments of military districts, armies and fronts began; their structure provided for the presence of three departments - to combat espionage, nationalist and anti-Soviet organizations and lone anti-Soviet activists.

The “special officers” took control of military communications, the delivery of military equipment, weapons and ammunition to the active army, for which third departments were established on the railways, the activities of which were intertwined (and, apparently, duplicated in some way) with state security agencies in transport .

At the beginning of July 1941, by order of People's Commissar Timoshenko, the head of the 3rd NPO Directorate, A. N. Mikheev, received the right to independently appoint positions in the structure of special departments, up to and including deputy heads of district and front-line third departments.

In 1941, third departments were organized at the headquarters of the commanders-in-chief of the North-Western, Western and South-Western directions. Within two days, the subordination of the army's military counterintelligence agencies changed, returning to the state security system.

By Decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR No. 187/ss dated July 17, 1941, signed by I. Stalin, the bodies of the 3rd Directorate of the USSR NPO were reorganized into Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR. Their functions included the fight against espionage and betrayal in the Red Army and against desertion in the front line (with the right to arrest and shoot deserters on the spot). The chain of command has changed. Now the commissioner of the special department in the regiment and division, in addition to his immediate superiors in the NKVD, was subordinate to the commissar of the regiment and division (after the introduction in October

1942 in the army and navy, the institution of unity of command - respectively to the commander of the regiment and formation).

Directive of the NKVD of the USSR No. 169 on the tasks of special departments in connection with the reorganization of military counterintelligence agencies was issued on July 18, 1941 and, according to many historians, had a propaganda character. The next day, July 19, 1941, Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Viktor Semenovich Abakumov was appointed head of the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR.

On the same day, order No. 00941 of the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria, in order to combat deserters, spies and saboteurs, ordered the formation of rifle platoons in special departments of divisions and corps, separate rifle companies in special departments of armies, separate rifle companies in special departments of fronts. rifle battalions, with these units staffed by NKVD troops.

Already in the first months of the war, the need for military counterintelligence officers increased sharply. To solve this problem, at the Higher School of the NKVD of the USSR, on July 26, 1941, training courses for operational workers for special departments were organized (NKVD order No. 00960 of July 23, 1941). The plan was to recruit 650 people and train them for one month. Nikanor Karpovich Davydov, concurrently the head of the Higher School of the NKVD, brigade commander (in the order he holds this rank, abolished in 1940), was appointed head of the courses. During their studies, the first students of the course had to build defensive structures and catch German paratroopers near Moscow.

From August 11, 1941, these courses were transferred to a three-month training program. In September 1941, 300 graduates of the Higher School were sent to military counterintelligence units.

By order of the head of the Higher School on October 28, 1941, 238 course graduates were sent to a special department of the Moscow Military District. The last group of course graduates, numbering 194 people, was sent to the NKVD in December 1941. Then the Higher School was disbanded, then re-created.

In March 1942, a branch of the Higher School of the NKVD of the USSR was organized in Moscow. It was supposed to train 500 people within four months. The first recruitment was made from the reserve of workers of the Special Department of the NKVD of the Moscow Military District. This branch was part of the Higher School until July 1943, then it was transferred to the State Institution K “Smersh” of the USSR NGO. During the war, a total of 2,417 security officers sent to the army and navy completed the courses.

At the same time, training was underway for special departments at the Higher School itself. Thus, in 1942, a large group of graduates was sent to the disposal of a special department of the Stalingrad Front. In total, during the Great Patriotic War, the Higher School trained 1,943 people for special departments.

In August - December 1941, the structure of the NKVD continued to change and become more complex. In total, in August 1941, the staff of the Office of Special Departments (together with the investigative unit, the secretariat, the operational department, and the administrative, economic and financial department) numbered 387 people.

By NKVD Order No. 00345 of February 18, 1942, in connection with the transfer of the railway troops to the subordination of the NKPS, special departments in these troops were transferred from the UOO to the Transport Directorate of the NKVD.

In June 1942, the staff of the Directorate of Special Departments was 225 people.

The main goal of military counterintelligence officers was to counteract German intelligence services. The system of measures to combat German intelligence agents included operational, defensive and preventive measures. The main role in the counterintelligence work of special departments was assigned to the intelligence apparatus.

According to Smersh veteran Major General S. Z. Ostryakov, the “special officers” effectively fought against enemy agents from the first months of the war. At the same time, they limited themselves to defensive tactics - they caught enemy spies and saboteurs, checked individual people from captivity and the enemy’s encirclement, identified cowards and alarmists in military units, and helped the command establish strict order in the front line.

Some special departments tried to organize operational work behind the front line, but it was mainly of a military intelligence nature. Let us explain that we were talking about the transfer across the front line of reconnaissance and sabotage groups that operated in the front-line zone. They were engaged in collecting information about the location of various objects (headquarters, fuel storage facilities, warehouses, etc.) and the deployment of military units, as well as carrying out various sabotage actions.

Despite the difficulties associated with the first months of the war, the special departments acted decisively and effectively. One of the first results of the work of military counterintelligence was summed up on October 10, 1941 by the deputy head of the Directorate of Special Departments, Solomon Milshtein: “Special departments of the NKVD and barrage detachments of the NKVD for rear protection detained 657,364 military personnel who had lagged behind their units and fled from the front. Of these, 249,969 people were detained by operational barriers of special departments and 407,395 military personnel were detained by barrage detachments of the NKVD troops to protect the rear...

Of those detained by special departments, 25,878 people were arrested, the remaining 632,486 people were formed into units and again sent to the front...

Spies - 1505; saboteurs - 308; traitors - 2621; cowards and alarmists - 2643; distributors of provocative rumors - 3987; self-shooters - 1671; others - 4371.”

In December 1941, on the proposal of the NKVD, the GKO decided on the mandatory “filtration” of military personnel who escaped from captivity or escaped encirclement. They were sent to special collection points created in each army.

In July 1941, the State Defense Committee granted special departments the right to extrajudicial execution of traitors and deserters. This measure was forced. However, in October 1942, after the front had stabilized, the State Defense Committee abolished extrajudicial executions and ordered special departments to transfer cases of traitors and deserters to military tribunals.

As a special measure to strengthen discipline, under exceptional circumstances, the execution in front of the line of deserters convicted by tribunals and convicted of banditry and armed robbery was allowed. Although in front-line units this measure was used extremely rarely. Intelligence personnel, both in active and reserve units, were involved in the fight against desertion. Informants reported to special departments about military personnel who, in their opinion, could become traitors or deserters. If there was insufficient information for an arrest, then the suspected persons were not allowed into the squads performing tasks at the front line, or were transferred to the rear. Barrier detachments and military units assigned to special departments to search for deserters combed the area near the front line and set up barriers.

The effectiveness of the work of the special departments of the NKVD of the USSR can be judged by the reports of the NKVD of the USSR to the Central Committee of the KVP (b) and the State Defense Committee on August 8, 1942, according to which the security officers detained 11,765 enemy agents.

These German intelligence agents and saboteurs, who operated at the front and in the rear of the Red Army in the first period of the war, were mainly white emigrants who dreamed of revenge; Red Army soldiers who were captured were also recruited. As early as June 15, 1941, the German command began transferring reconnaissance and sabotage groups and individual intelligence officers to the territory of the USSR, dressed in Soviet military uniforms and speaking Russian, with tasks after the outbreak of hostilities to carry out acts of sabotage - destroy telegraph and telephone communication lines, blow up bridges and railway communications, destroy military warehouses and other important objects, capture bridges in the rear of the Red Army and hold them until the advance units of the Wehrmacht arrive.