Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces Read online

  of the airborne troops. But there are no airborne troops in the Siberian

  military district where he is stationed. Even stranger is the fact that

  after finishing school Roberto spent some time in Spain as a tourist. That

  was in 1969. Can we imagine a tourist from the Soviet Union being in Spain

  under Franco's rule, at a time when the Soviet Union maintained no

  diplomatic relations with Spain? Roberto Rueda-Maestro was in Spain at that

  time and has some idea of the country. But the strangest aspect of this

  story is that, after spending some time in a capitalist country, the young

  man was able to enter a Soviet military school. And not any school, but the

  Ryazan higher school for airborne troops.

  These facts are clues. The full set of clues gives us the right answer,

  without fear of contradiction. The captain is a spetsnaz officer.

  ___

  During the Civil War in Spain thousands of Spanish children were

  evacuated to the Soviet Union. The exact number of children evacuated is not

  known. The figures given about this are very contradictory. But there were

  enough of them for several full-length films to be made and for books and

  articles to be written about them in the Soviet Union.

  As young men they soon became cadets at Soviet military schools. A

  well-known example is Ruben Ruis Ibarruri, son of Dolores Ibarruri, general

  secretary of the Communist Party of Spain. Even at this time the Spaniards

  were put into the airborne troops. Ruben Ibarruri, for example, found

  himself in the 8th airborne corps. It is true that in a war of defence those

  formations intended for aggressive advancing operations were found to be

  unnecessary, and they were reorganised into guard rifle divisions and used

  in defensive battles at Stalingrad. Lieutenant Ibarruri was killed while

  serving in the 35th guard rifle division which had been formed out of the

  8th airborne corps. It was a typical fate for young men at that time. But

  then they were evacuated to the Urals and Siberia, where the Spanish

  Communist Party (under Stalin's control) organised special schools for them.

  From then on references to Spanish children appeared very rarely in the

  Soviet press.

  ___

  One of the special schools was situated in the town of Ivanovo and was

  known as the E. D. Stasova International School. Some graduates of this

  school later turned up in Fidel Castro's personal bodyguard, some became

  leading figures in the Cuban intelligence service -- the most aggressive in

  the world, exceeding its teachers in the GRU and KGB in both cruelty and

  cunning. Some of the school's graduates were used as `illegals' by the GRU

  and KGB.

  It has to be said, however, that the majority of the first generation

  of Spanish children remained in the Soviet Union with no possibility of

  leaving it. But then in the 1950s and 1960s a new generation of Soviet

  Spaniards was born, differing from the first generation in that it had no

  parents in the USSR. This is very important if a young man is being sent

  abroad on a risky mission, for the Communists then have the man's parents as

  hostages.

  The second generation of Spaniards is used by the Soviet Government in

  many ways for operations abroad. One very effective device is to send some

  young Soviet Spaniards to Cuba, give them time to get used to the country

  and acclimatise themselves, and then send them to Africa and Central America

  as Cubans to fight against `American Imperialism'. The majority of Cuban

  troops serving abroad are certainly Cubans. But among them is a certain

  percentage of men who were born in the Soviet Union and who have Russian

  wives and children and a military rank in the armed forces of the USSR.

  For some reason Captain Roberto Rueda-Maestro is serving in the Urals

  military district. I must emphasise that we are still talking about the

  usual spetsnaz units, and we haven't started to discuss `agents'. An agent

  is a citizen of a foreign country recruited into the Soviet intelligence

  service. Roberto is a citizen of the Soviet Union. He does not have and has

  never had in his life any other citizenship. He has a Russian wife and

  children born on the territory of the USSR, as he was himself. That is why

  the captain is serving in a normal spetsnaz unit, as an ordinary Soviet

  officer.

  Spetsnaz seeks out and finds -- it is easy to do in the Soviet Union --

  people born in the Soviet Union but of obviously foreign origin. With a name

  like Ruedo-Maestro it is very difficult to make a career in any branch of

  the Soviet armed forces. The only exception is spetsnaz, where such a name

  is no obstacle but a passport to promotion.

  ___

  In spetsnaz I have met people with German names such as Stolz, Schwarz,

  Weiss and so forth. The story of these Soviet Germans is also connected with

  the war. According to 1979 figures there were 1,846,000 Germans living in

  the Soviet Union. But most of those Germans came to Russia two hundred years

  ago and are of no use to spetsnaz. Different Germans are required, and they

  also exist in the Soviet Union.

  During the war, and especially in its final stages, the Red Army took a

  tremendous number of German soldiers prisoner. The prisoners were held in

  utterly inhuman conditions, and it was not surprising that some of them did

  things that they would not have done in any other situation. They were

  people driven to extremes by the brutal Gulag regime, who committed crimes

  against their fellow prisoners, sometimes even murdering their comrades, or

  forcing them to suicide. Many of those who survived, once released from the

  prison camp, were afraid to return to Germany and settled in the Soviet

  Union. Though the percentage of such people was small it still meant quite a

  lot of people, all of whom were of course on the records of the Soviet

  secret services and were used by them. The Soviet special services helped

  many of them to settle down and have a family. There were plenty of German

  women from among the Germans long settled in Russia. So now the Soviet Union

  has a second generation of Soviet Germans, born in the Soviet Union of

  fathers who have committed crimes against the German people. This is the

  kind of young German who can be met with in many spetsnaz units.

  ___

  Very rarely one comes across young Soviet Italians, too, with the same

  background as the Spaniards and Germans. And spetsnaz contains Turks, Kurds,

  Greeks, Koreans, Mongolians, Finns and people of other nationalities. How

  they came to be there I do not know. But it can be taken for granted that

  every one of them has a much-loved family in the Soviet Union. Spetsnaz

  trusts its soldiers, but still prefers to have hostages for each of its men.

  The result is that the percentage of spetsnaz soldiers who were born in

  the Soviet Union to parents of genuine foreign extraction is quite high.

  With the mixture of Soviet nationalities, mainly Russian, Ukrainians,

  Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Georgians and Uzbeks, the units are a very

  motley company indeed. You may even, suddenly, come across a real Chinese.

  Such people, citizens
of the USSR but of foreign extraction, are known as

  `the other people'. I don't know where the name came from, but the

  foreigners accept it and are not offended. In my view it is used without any

  tinge of racism, in a spirit rather of friendship and good humour, to

  differentiate people who are on the one hand Soviet people born in the

  Soviet Union of Soviet parents, and who on the other hand differ sharply

  from the main body of spetsnaz soldiers in their appearance, speech, habits

  and manners.

  I have never heard of there being purely national formations within

  spetsnaz -- a German platoon or a Spanish company. It is perfectly possible

  that they would be created in case of necessity, and perhaps there are some

  permanent spetsnaz groups chosen on a purely national basis. But I cannot

  confirm this.

  --------

  Chapter 6. Athletes

  In the Soviet Union sport has been nationalised. That means to say that

  it does not serve the interests of individuals but of society as a whole.

  The interests of the individual and the interests of society are sometimes

  very different. The state defends the interests of society against

  individuals, not just in sport but in all other spheres.

  Some individuals want to be strong, handsome and attractive. That is

  why `body-building' is so popular in the West. It is an occupation for

  individuals. In the Soviet Union it scarcely exists, because such an

  occupation brings no benefit to the state. Why should the state spend the

  nation's resources so that someone can be strong and beautiful? Consequently

  the state does not spend a single kopek on such things, does not organise

  athletic competitions, does not reward the victors with prizes and does not

  advertise achievements in that field. There are some individuals who engage

  in body-building, but they have no resources and no rights to organise their

  own societies and associations.

  The same applies to billiards, golf and some other forms of which the

  only purpose is relaxation and amusement. What benefits would it bring the

  state if it spent money on such forms of sport? For the same reason the

  Soviet Union has done nothing about sport for invalids. Why should it? To

  make the invalids happy?

  But that same state devotes colossal resources to sport which does

  bring benefit to the state. In the Soviet Union any sport is encouraged

  which: demonstrates the superiority of the Soviet system over any other

  system; provides the ordinary people with something to take their minds off

  their everyday worries; helps to strengthen the state, military and police

  apparatus.

  The Soviet Union is ready to encourage any sport in which achievement

  is measured in minutes, seconds, metres, kilometres, centimetres, kilograms

  or grams. If an athlete shows some promise that he may run a distance a

  tenth of a second quicker than an American or may jump half a centimetre

  higher than his rival across the ocean, the state will create for such an

  athlete whatever conditions he needs: it will build him a personal training

  centre, get together a personal group of trainers, doctors, managers or

  scientific consultants. The state is rich enough to spend money on

  self-advertisement. These `amateur' sportsmen earn large sums of money,

  though exactly how much is a secret. The question has irritated some Soviets

  because it would not be a secret if the amount were small. Even the

  Literaturnaya Gazeta, on 6 August, 1986, raised the question with some

  indignation.

  The Soviet Union encourages any striking spectator sport which can

  attract millions of people, make them drop what they are doing and admire

  the Soviet gymnasts, figure-skaters or acrobats. It also encourages all team

  games. Basketball, volleyball, water polo are all popular. The most

  aggressive of the team games, ice-hockey, is perhaps more of a national

  religion than is Communist ideology. Finally, it encourages any sport

  directly connected with the development of military skills: shooting,

  flying, gliding, parachute jumping, boxing, sambo, karate, the biathlon, the

  military triathlon, and so forth.

  The most successful, richest and largest society in the Soviet Union

  concerned with sport is the Central Army Sports Club (ZSKA). Members of the

  club have included 850 European champions, 625 world champions and 182

  Olympic champions. They have set up 341 European and 430 world records.

  Such results do not indicate that the Soviet Army is the best at

  training top-class athletes. This was admitted even by Pravda. The secret

  of success lies in the enormous resources of the Soviet Army. Pravda

  describes what happens: `It is sufficient for some even slightly promising

  boxer to come on the scene and he is immediately lured across to the ZSKA.'

  As a result, out of the twelve best boxers in the Soviet Union ten are from

  the Army Club, one from Dinamo (the sports organisation run by the KGB), and

  one from the Trud sports club. But of those ten army boxers, not one was the

  original product of the Army club. They had all been lured away from other

  clubs -- the Trudoviye reservy, the Spartak or the Burevestnik. The same

  thing happens in ice-hockey, parachute jumping, swimming and many other

  sports.

  How does the army club manage to attract athletes to it? Firstly be

  giving them military rank. Any athlete who joins the ZSKA is given the rank

  of sergeant, sergeant-major, warrant officer or officer, depending on what

  level he is at. The better his results as an athlete the higher the rank.

  Once he has a military rank an athlete is able to devote as much time to

  sport as he wishes and at the same time be regarded as an amateur, because

  professionally he is a soldier. Any Soviet `amateur' athlete who performs

  slightly better than the average receives extra pay in various forms -- `for

  additional nourishment', `for sports clothing', `for travelling', and so

  forth. The `amateur' receives for indulging in his sport much more than a

  doctor or a skilled engineer, so long as he achieves European standards. But

  the Soviet Army also pays him, and not badly, for his military rank and

  service.

  The ZSKA is very attractive for an athlete in that, when he can no

  longer engage in his sport at international level, he can still retain his

  military rank and pay. In most other clubs he would be finished altogether.

  What has this policy produced? At the 14th winter Olympic Games, Soviet

  military athletes won seventeen gold medals. If one counts also the number

  of silver and bronze winners, the number of athletes with military rank is

  greatly increased. And if one were to draw up a similar list of military

  athletes at the summer Games it would take up many pages. Is there a single

  army in the world that comes near the Soviet Army in this achievement?

  ___

  Now for another question: why is the Soviet Army so ready to hand out

  military ranks to athletes, to pay them a salary and provide them with the

  accommodation and privileges of army officers?

  The answer is that the ZSKA and its numerous branches provide a base

  that
spetsnaz uses for recruiting its best fighters. Naturally not every

  member of the ZSKA is a spetsnaz soldier. But the best athletes in ZSKA

  almost always are.

  Spetsnaz is a mixture of sport, politics, espionage and armed

  terrorism. It is difficult to determine what takes precedence and what is

  subordinate to what, everything is so closely linked together.

  In the first place the Soviet Union seeks international prestige in the

  form of gold medals at the Olympics. To achieve that it needs an

  organisation with the strictest discipline and rules, capable of squeezing

  every ounce of strength out of the athletes without ever letting them slack

  off.

  In the second place the Soviet Army needs an enormous number of people

  with exceptional athletic ability at Olympic level to carry out special

  missions behind the enemy's lines. It is desirable that these people should

  be able to visit foreign countries in peace time. Sport makes that possible.

  As far as the athletes are concerned, they are grateful for a very rich club

  which can pay them well, provide them with cars and apartments, and arrange

  trips abroad for them. Moreover, they need the sort of club in which they

  can be regarded as amateurs, though they will work nowhere else but in the

  club.

  Spetsnaz is the point where the interests of the state, the Soviet Army

  and military intelligence coincide with the interests of some individuals

  who want to devote their whole lives to sport.

  ___

  After the Second World War, as a result of the experience gained,

  sports battalions were created by the headquarters of every military

  district, group of forces and fleet; at army and flotilla HQ level sports

  companies were formed. These huge sports formations were directly under the

  control of the Ministry of Defence. They provided the means of bringing

  together the best athletes whose job was to defend the sporting honour of

  the particular army, flotilla, district, group or fleet in which they

  served. Some of the athletes were people called up for their military

  service, who left the Army once they had completed their service. But the

  majority remained in the military sports organisation for a long time with

  the rank of sergeant and higher. Soviet military intelligence chose its best

  men from the members of the sports units.