Vadim Birstein: SMERSH

But all this would happen later. In May 1946, the newly appointed MGB Minister, Abakumov, became one of the most powerful men in the Soviet Union and a rare favorite of his Khozyain (Master)—Stalin. For the next five years, Abakumov was in control of the life of almost every Soviet citizen and his MGB could arrest any citizen it chose to—without waiting for an order from Stalin. Through the MGB branches in occupied countries, Abakumov also controlled half of Europe. Those SMERSH officers who joined the MGB along with Abakumov also gained enormous power. I will describe the next five years of MGB glory and Abakumov’s triumph in 1946–51, as well as his downfall, in another book.

1. Politburo decision P46/232, dated September 4, 1945. Document No. 1 in Politburo TsK VKP(b) i Sovet Ministrov SSSR 1945–1953 , edited by O. V. Khlevnyuk et al., 21 (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2002) (in Russian).

2. Na prieme u Stalina. Tetradi (zhurnaly) zapisei lits, pronyatykh I. V. Stalinym (1924–1953 gg.) , edited by A. V. Korotkov, A. D. Chernev, and A. A. Chernobaev, 464 (Moscow: Novyi khronograf, 2008) (in Russian).

3. Politburo decision P47/111, dated December 29, 1945. Document No. 3, in Politburo TsK VKP(b) , 24.

4. Hugh Thomas, Armed Truce: The Beginning of the Cold War, 1945–46 (New York: Atheneum, 1987), 4, 7–15.

5. Ibid., 503–14.

6. Decree of the USSR Supreme Council, dated March 15, 1946. Document No. 5, in Politburo TsK VKP(b) , 25–26.

7. Na prieme u Stalina , 472.

8. Politburo decisions P51/V, P52/2, and P52/8, dated May 4, 5, and 7, 1946. Document Nos. 184–186 in Politburo TsK VKP(b) , 207–8.

9. A footnote to Document No. 187 in Politburo TsK VKP(b) , 208–9.

10. Amy Knight, How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies (New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers, 2006).

11. Details in Kathryn S. Olmsted, Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

12. Aleksandr Kolpakidi, Likvidatory KGB. Spetsoperatsii sovetskikh spetssluzhb 1941–2004 (Moscow: Yauza-Eksmo, 2004), 407–8 (in Russian). A report of Kim Philby on Volkov’s attempted defection to Philby’s handler, the NKGB rezident Boris Krotov, played a key role in capturing Volkov and his wife. See details in Andrew and Gordievsky, KGB , 371–2. Supposedly, in 1947 Volkov was sentenced to a 25-year imprisonment.

13. Decision of the Central Committee’s Plenum P9/2, dated August 21–23, 1946. Document No. 187 in Politburo TsK VKP(b) , 208–9.

14. Merkulov’s letter, June 1946. Quoted in Nikita Petrov, ‘Samyi obrazovannyi palach,’ Novaya gazeta. ‘Pravda Gulaga ,’ No. 12 (33), August 30, 2010 (in Russian), http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/gulag12/00.html, retrieved September 8, 2011.

15. Merkulov’s letter to Khrushchev, dated August 23, 1953. Document No. 5 in O. Marinin, ‘“Dokladyvayu o soderzhanii razgovorov, kotorye u menya byli s vragom naroda Beria…”,’ in Neizvestnaya Rossiya: XX vek , Vol. 3 (Moscow: Istoricheskoe nasledie, 1993), 43–84 (in Russian).

16. In Yevgenii Zhirnov, ‘Na doklady v Kreml’ on ezdil v mashine Gimmlera,’ Kommersant-Vlast’ , no. 19 (472), May 21, 2002 (in Russian), http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/322678, retrieved September 9, 2011.

17. The report in Politburo TsK VKP(b) , 208.

18. Nicola Sinevirsky, SMERSH (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1950), 82.

19. Detailed new MGB structure in N. V. Petrov, Kto rukovodil organami bezopasnosti 1941–1954. Spravochnik (Moscow: Zven’ya, 2010), 35–64 (in Russian).

20. Ibid., 51.

21. MGB Order No. 00496, dated November 2-4, 1946. Details in O. B. Mozokhin, Pravo na repressii (Moscow: Kuchkovo pole, 2006), 331 (in Russian).

22. Grishaev’s report on Abakumov, dated November 15, 1952, in Kirill Stolyarov, Palachi i zhertvy (Moscow: Olma-Press, 1997), 66–67 (in Russian).

23. Quoted in Nikita Petrov, ‘Bukhgalter—takoi prostoi,’ Novaya gazeta. Pravda ‘GULAGa ’, no. 18, October 27, 2010, http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/gulag18/01.html, retrieved September 9, 2011..

24. Cited in Nikita Petrov, Pervyi predsedatel’ KGB Ivan Serov (Moscow: Materik, 2005), 151 (in Russian).

25-year imprisonment: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

1st Baltic Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

1st Belorussian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

1st Czechoslovak Army Corps: 1

1st Polish Army: 1

1st Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

2nd Baltic Front: 1, 2, 3, 4

2nd Belorussian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

2nd GUKR Department: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

2nd (NKGB) Directorate: 1, 2, 3

2nd Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

3rd Baltic Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

3rd Belorussian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,

3rd MGB Main Directorate: 1, 2

3rd NKO Directorate: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

3rd Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

4th Department (3rd MGB Main Directorate): 1, 2

4th GUKR Department: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

4th NKVD/NKGB Directorate: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

4th Ukrainian Front: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, m 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

6th German Army: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

6th GUKR Department: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Abakumov, Viktor: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79

Abwehr (German Military Intelligence and Counterintelligence): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

Abwehr (Abteilung I): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Abwehr (Abteilung II): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Abwehr (Abteilung III): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Abwehr schools: 1, 2, 3, 4

Akifusa, Shun: 1, 2

alcohol: 1, 2

Aleksandrovsk Prison: 1, 2, 3, 4

Allied Control Commission (ACC): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Amster, Otto: 1, 2

Amt IV (Gestapo): 1

Amt VI (SD): 1, 2

Amt Mil: 1

Anders, Wladyslaw: 1

Antonescu, Ion: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Apollonov, Arkadii: 1, 2

April 19, 1943 decree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Armija Krajowa: 1, 2, 3

Army Group Center: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Army Group North: 1, 2, 3, 4

Army Group South: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Arrow Cross Party: 1

Article 58: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Article 193: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Artuzov, Artur: 1, 2

Asano, Takashi: 1

assault battalion: 1, 2, 3

Ast Vienna: 1, 2

Auschwitz: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Avseevich, Aleksandr: 1, 2, 3

Axis: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Babich, Isai: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Baden: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Baltic States: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

barrage units: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Baryshnikov, Vladimir: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Bashtakov, Leonid: 1, 2, 3

Bastamov, Vladimir: 1, 2

battalion: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23