On January 28, 1943, Marshal Georgii Zhukov and 22 generals were awarded the newly introduced Order of Suvorov of the 1st Class for the victory in Stalingrad. This was one of three orders named after the historical Russian military heroes, Generalissimo Aleksandr Suvorov (1730–1800), General Mikhail Kutuzov (1747–1813), and Prince Aleksandr Nevsky (1221–1263). The movie Aleksandr Nevsky had already attracted public attention to this Russian hero who fought German knights in the thirteenth century. Filmed by the famous director Sergei Eisenstein, it was a blockbuster in 1938 and became even more popular in 1941, when on Stalin’s order it was shown again after the German invasion. Later Stalin personally edited film scripts that glorified Suvorov as a great warrior and Kutuzov as a savior of Russia from Napoleon’s troops. Stalin gave a copy of the film Kutuzov to Winston Churchill, who courteously wrote him back: ‘I must tell you that in my view this is one of the most masterly film productions I have ever seen.’2
The Order of Suvorov was given to commanders for a successful offensive, the Order of Kutuzov for the successful planning of an operation by staff members, and the Order of Nevsky for personal courage. They were established on July 29, 1942, the day after Stalin signed the infamous Order No. 227 ‘No Step Back!’—apparently, to show that commanders would be not only punished, but also awarded.3 However, the first orders were given only at the end of December 1942–January 1943. The Order of Nevsky directly appealed to the czar’s time, when the Order of Saint Aleksandr Nevsky had been given since 1725. No historical image of Prince Nevsky existed, and in 1942 the designer depicted on the order a portrait of the actor who played Nevsky in the movie.
In July 1943, the word ‘officer’ was also introduced.4 Until then, it was not officially used in the Soviet Union because it immediately created a mental association with White Guard officers. The Red Army officers were called ‘commanders’ and only after July 1943 did they become ‘officers’. In August 1943, a propaganda brochure entitled The Heroic Past of the Russian People was published mostly for the army politruki. Now Russia was considered the leading nation among the many nations inhabiting the Soviet Union.
In the meantime, by 1943 Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence knew little about the complexity of the German intelligence and security services. This knowledge came later, as a result of the interrogations of numerous captured German intelligence officers, as well as German-trained Russian agents who voluntarily surrendered to the Soviets. Even so, it became evident that military counterintelligence needed to concentrate on fighting against the German enemy rather than focusing its attention on its own servicemen. After realizing this, Stalin ordered the creation of a real counterintelligence service, called SMERSH, which reported personally to him.
Stalin’s New Secret Service
In March 1943, the reorganization of security services began. Vsevolod Merkulov, a man with ‘an athletic figure and a splendid head of thick dark hair flecked with grey’, who Stalin put in charge of the transition, gathered the OO heads of several fronts and armies in Moscow.5 Abakumov’s closest subordinates, Pavel Zelenin, Nikolai Khannikov, Mikhail Belkin, and Isai Babich, were among the participants. Merkulov told the assembled leaders that ‘the Central Committee and Comrade Stalin’ had asked the OOs to increase their efforts so ‘no spy, agent, or terrorist would escape the attention of the special departments’.6 It is likely the changes were discussed at a late-night meeting of the GKO, which both Merkulov and Abakumov attended on March 31 at 11:30 p.m.7
In April, Merkulov presented Stalin with three different drafts for the revival of the early 1941 NKGB.8 In the first two versions, the new NKGB would include military counterintelligence under the name ‘Smerinsh’, that is, ‘Smert’ inostrannym shpionam’ or ‘Death to foreign spies’. The third version proposed two separate organizations, the NKGB and Smerinsh, as a directorate within the Defense Commissariat (NKO). This draft and other relevant documents were discussed at a GKO meeting that began at 10:05 p.m. on April 13.9 Leading NKVD and OO officers were invited—Merkulov, Abakumov, Lavrentii Tsanava, Nikolai Selivanovsky, Nikolai Korolev, Khannikov, Babich, and Nikolai Mel’nikov (deputy head of Sudoplatov’s 4th NKVD Directorate)—and all of them would end up being affected by the changes. General Filipp Golikov, the newly appointed deputy defense Commissar for Red Army personnel, and Aleksandr Shcherbakov, head of the GlavPURKKA, also attended. By 11:30 p.m. most of the participants had left, although Stalin, Molotov, Beria, and Malenkov continued their discussion until after midnight.
The next day the Politburo ordered the NKVD to be divided into two parts, and the revived NKGB became a super-agency handling foreign intelligence, counterintelligence within the USSR, and so forth (Figure 16-1).10 Merkulov was appointed NKGB Commissar while Beria remained the head of NKVD. The responsibilities that the NKVD was left with—the organization of slave labor, police work, control of the system of POW camps, and NKVD troops—were far less important and glamorous than the intelligence and counterintelligence work that the NKGB now took on.11 Although this may seem a huge diminution of Beria’s power, in actuality he retained much of it through his control of his close associate Merkulov.
Abakumov was summoned to Stalin’s office on April 15 and 18, and the final decision was made on April 19, 1943, at a Politburo meeting attended by Abakumov and Merkulov.12 As usual, the draft of the Politburo decision said that the decision was made jointly by the Party’s Central Committee and Sovnarkom (Council of Commissars). However, Stalin crossed out the words ‘the Central Committee’ with a blue pencil and signed the document as Sovnarkom’s chairman.13 The document was registered as Sovnarkom Resolution No. 415-138-ss; the two letters ‘ss’ (sovershenno sekretno) mean top secret, although members of the Sovnarkom had not seen it yet. The resolution ordered the NKVD’s UOO to be split into three separate military counterintelligence directorates within the NKO, Navy Commissariat, and NKVD, respectively, as had been done in early 1941.
Two days later Abakumov was called to Stalin’s office again and the document finalizing the creation of SMERSH was signed.14 It had a singularly long, awkward title: ‘GKO Decision No. 3222-ss/ov [the letters “ov” mean “of special importance”] on the Responsibilities and Structure of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence (GUKR) SMERSH (Smert’ shpionam).’15 Thus, in the final version the name ‘Smerinsh’ or ‘Death to foreign spies’, became ‘Smersh’, meaning ‘Death to spies’. The original, with Stalin’s signature, was sent to Abakumov.
On April 29, Abakumov was again in Stalin’s office.16 Apparently, during this half-hour visit, Stalin signed a document specifying appointments for high-level positions within GUKR SMERSH, including heads of departments, which Abakumov had prepared two days earlier.17 Nikolai Selivanovsky became Abakumov’s first deputy, while Pavel Meshik and Isai Babich became deputies.