1

Chapter 1
What is SPETSNAZ?

There always have been military and paramilitary sol-
diers and units with special training and special tasks in
Russia and the Soviet Union. There is a special expres-
sion in Russian language for the soldiers with extraor-
dinary skills and initiative that always has been se-
lected to do the hard and dangerous job of reconnais-
sance their name was and is Razvedchiki, scouts. But
these soldiers, like the airborne troops or the Navy Ma-
rines, are not Spetsnaz; they are simply skilled soldiers
who will lead the way into battle.


Modern breasttab for airborne Razvedchiki

Let have a quick look at the world of secret police and
Special Forces in Russia and the Soviet Union, and try
to define what they really are.

Tsar Ivan the 4
th
, maybe better known as The Terri-
ble, probably established the first organized secret po-
lice force Oprichnina in 1565. This police force con-
sisted of some 6.000 horsemen dressed in black frogs
and they were called Oprichniki. They formed death
squads and fought and defeated all kinds of resistance
against the ruling tsar. They were disbanded when tsar
Ivan died in 1584.

More than a hundred years later tsar Peter the Great re-
established a secret police force in 1697 and called it
Preobraczenskyy Prikaz. This force gathered informa-
tion by the use of informers and torture of prisoners.
Again, the force was disbanded when the tsar died in
1725 and it was not until 1826 that a permanent secret
police was established as the 3
rd
Department of the Im-
perial Chancellery. The final change of the tsars secret
police was made after the assasination of tsar Alexan-
der the 2
nd
in 1881. The force was expanded to two de-
partments, a polical department called Osobyy Otdel
and a security police called Okhrana. The red side
disbanded both departments after the Bolshevik coupe
in 1917. Elements of the Okhrana continue their work
on the white side in the Russian civil war 1918 20
and were subsequently shut down when the war ended.

The new rulers of Russia quickly learned that they
could not do without the power tool of a secret police,
especially with a civil war going on. Felix Dzerzhinsky
established the VChK (Vserossiskaya Tjrezvytjainaya
Kommissariya po Borbe s Kontrerevolutsiei i Sabo-
taszem), maybe better known as the Tjeka, in 1918.
This institutions full name was The All-Russian Com-
missariat for Battle against Counter-Revolutionary and
Saboteurs, and it was given supreme power to investi-
gate, prosecute and execute enemies of the revolution.
This institution also established the labourcamps, that
later was known to have caused the death of millions of
Russians. The army and the navy also lacked intelli-
gence capacity, so Leonid Trotsky founded GRU
(Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye Generalnogo
Shtaba), The Intelligence Service of the General Staff
of the Armed Forces, in 1919. This started the long
power struggle between the two main intelligence-
gathering forces of the Soviet Union, the Tjeka and
GRU. One of the Tjekas jobs was to keep an eye on
GRU!

During the 1930es and WW2 the Soviet Union estab-
lished a number of military Special Forces to support
and organize the resistance behind the German lines.
NKVD, the Tjeka successor, commanded the main part
of these forces. The reason for this was simply that the
NKVD had more power than GRU and that operations
were directed against a foreign country Germany
and this was a Tjeka task. After the war ended in 1945
these special and very experienced forces were reor-
ganized and hidden among the vast regular forces of
army, airborne and navy troops. A new secret army had
been moulded from the experience of the Great War.


NKVD communications team with partisans

These forces was a deep secret for many years, so deep
a secret that most of the Soviet population, and even
the armed forces, were unaware of their existence.
Only after the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979
and the asymmetric war between the Soviet Army and
the Mujahedin resistance that followed for 10 years, the
Soviet Union officially admitted to the existence of
these forces.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 a lot has
changed. It has become fashionable to be named Spets-
naz in Russia, actually in all of Eastern Europe, so to-
day we see more than 10 different types of Spetsnaz in
Russia. But if you ask military men in Russia who they
consider to be the true Spetsnaz, only the two GRU
variants army and navy really counts as Spetsnaz,
Special Forces. This is the reason why these two forces
are described in more details than the other forces in
this book.
2
Special or special?

In many Western countries there are difficulties under-
standing what Soviet and Russian Special Forces really
was and still are. One of the reasons for this could be,
that the Russian language has two words for the con-
cept of military units with special training and special
tasks: osobyy and spetsialnyy. The original term
for these forces were Osobogo Naznacheniya, in
short OSNAZ, while the present (and more Western in-
spired?) term often is Spetsialnogo Naznacheniya, in
short SPETSNAZ. And it gets worse if we focus more
detailed on the individual Special Forces units. Let us
take a look.

We have established that the first Special Forces were
OSNAZ and not SPETSNAZ. So from the beginning
before WW2 there was the Special Forces OSNAZ
under NKVD command. During WW2 the famous
OMSBON (Otdelnaya Motostrelkovaya Brigada
Osobogo Naznacheniya), the Independent Motorized
Infantry Special Forces Brigade, was established. It
was responsible for training of partisans and planning
of partisan sabotage b ehind the enemy lines. Com-
manding officer for OMSBON, Major General Mikhail
Fedorovich Orlov, was one of the first military com-
manders that systematically developed Special Forces
warfare in an asymmetric environment.


Major General Mikhail
Fedorovich Orlov

After the end of
WW2 the Soviet
Army and Navy
were reorganized.
This also caused
NKVD and GRU to
go separate ways
with their Special
Forces. At this time
the term Spetsnaz
was introduced as a
sort of successor for
Osnaz, mainly be-
cause of the influence from the Western allies and their
approach to the Special Forces structure and use. But
not all the units since Electronic Warfare units were
still named Osnaz, so now you had Osnaz as an inte-
grated part of Spetsnaz. In more recent days the term
Osnaz are being used by the militia for their Special
Forces Units, the OMON (Otryad Militsiy Osobogo
Naznacheniya), so you see, the mix-up continues.

Brigades and formations

A term that for many years has confused Western writ-
ers and journalists are the Brigada-unit. In the West-
ern military world a brigade is a main combat unit of 3
5.000 soldiers. In the Soviet Union and Russia the
main combat formation has always been the regiment.
The Russian understanding of the term brigade is
more like out Western Fire brigade which is rather
undefined as a size of a unit and therefore more a title.
This means that a Soviet or Russian Special Forces
Brigade could be anything from a hundred to several
hundreds of soldiers!

Another widely used term in Russia is Otryad, that
means a formation and again this is not a clearly de-
fined unit size. If you really need to put some sort of
size on these two units, a brigade could be 5 600 sol-
diers and a formation 50 100 soldiers.

So who are they?

Spetsnaz is an abbreviation of the name Voyska Spet-
sialnogo Naznacheniya, which means forces with
special tasks, a much broader definition than used in
the Western forces. It is impossible to make a direct
comparison between Spetsnaz and Western Special
Forces like the British SAS or the American Navy
SEALs, since their organisation, structure, tasks,
equipment and way of doing things are very different
from their Western counterparts. The Soviet and Rus-
sian Special Forces have never had the same techno-
logical support or the same possibilities to exercise
with other forces.

As mentioned earlier there are several Spetsnaz-forces
in modern Russia. This could be seen as a heritage
from the Soviet Union with competing authorities and
the use of the old Roman way: Divide et Impera. In
the old days as today none of the leaders dared to
have one man commanding an entire elite corps, so
they were all divided into smaller fractions.

Soldier from FSB ALFA-unit in Mos-
cow 1993

In Russia you will find Spets-
naz on several different mili-
tary levels: Strategic, operative
and Tactical levels. The term
covers different types of units,
from local recon- and special-
subunits inside military units
like the Division (tactical le-
vel), to special unit inside the
Airborne Divisions and the
Ministry of the Interiors Anti-
terror units (tactical and opera-
tive level). Not to forget the in-
dividual secret agents of the
Government Security Forces (strategic level). These
units all have different structure etc. In many Western
articles and books Spetsnaz also covers Army recon
Units, Airborne Forces and the Navy Infantry, but that
is not the case in this book. In my opinion these units
are elite infantry like the American Rangers or the Brit-
ish Gurkhas. In consequence of this it would not be
3
correct to assume that military Spetsnaz amounts to
some 40 or 50.000 soldiers, but more likely 4 6.000,
divided into units under central command in Moscow
or subordinated the Military Districts or Navies. A
mixture of officers, enlisted personnel and conscripts,
mans these units and some of the unit will only have a
skeleton crew. There is a substantially reserve that can
be called in with fairly short notice, but to insist on the
big numbers seen in Western literature is simply not
reasonable.
Different Special Forces

This book will focus on:

Army Special Forces (GRU),
Navy Special Forces (GRU and the navy),
State Security Special Forces (FSB, SVR,
FPS, FPO) and
Minstry of Interior Special Forces (VV and
MVD)

Focus will as earlier mentioned in particular be on the
real military Spetsnaz from the Army and Navy.

To create an overview maybe it would be practical to
take a quick walk through the Spetsnaz environment.
Army Spetsnaz

The central parts of Army Spetsnaz units are profes-
sionals, but the main bulk still is conscripts. Conscrip-
tion is 2 years of very hard training, probably like the
British SAS in the Territorial Army. After these two
years the conscript can be demobilized (dembel in Rus-
sian), or choose from the following three options if he
is qualified:

He can move on to officers course at the Air-
borne Forces Officers Academy.
He can stay on as an enlisted man.
He can be transferred to the active reserve for
a 5-years period.

Shoulder patch for Army Spetsnaz (modern)

As previous mentioned army spetsnaz are organized in
brigades, either independent or subordinated a Military
District or a Front. The brigade in Belarus Military
District always had a special position as a testing bri-
gade for new equipment and methods of operation.
This would ensure that the best-equipped and best-
trained brigade was available and ready for action
against NATO on the European Central Front.

The core of the brigades gets a far better training than
the reserve or the conscripts. Besides the normal train-
ing in parachute jumping, reconnaissance, hand-to-
hand combat and weapons practice they are taught for-
eign language, radio code techniques and silent killing.
My personal experience with Russian Special Forces
soldiers indicate, that their language skills are limited
to reading of signs and roadmaps and some very lim-
ited use of the language. Even though one must pre-
sume that GRU like a lot of other similar authorities
link the individual soldier to a geographical area, like
the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden and Norway),
their language skills are not well enough to enable
them to pose as a native. But another consequence of
this geographical system probably is that in every Rus-
sian Diplomatic Mission there is a Rezident (command-
ing officer) who takes care of GRU business in that
particular country.

In March 2003 GRU took over the military part of the
electronic surveillance from FAPSI (Federalnoye
Agenstvo Pravichelstvennoy Svyazi i Informatsiy pri
Presidente Rossiiskoy Federatsiy), The Federal Agency
for Security of Communications and Information Sys-
tems.

FAPSI shoulder patch

The Army Spetsnaz units are called ooSpN (Otdelniy
Otryad Spetzialniya Naznacheniya), Independent Spe-
cial Operations Detachments. These detachments are
company-sized, which means 75 150 soldiers. Unit
are numbered with 3-digits, for example 173. ooSpN
that was established in Afghanistan in 1980 and later
on participated in the invasion of Chechniya.

Units can be deployed by parachute, as a long-range
recon patrol or as a disguided part of a regular army
unit. Often small detachments are integrated in air-
borne formations in order to get the detachment unseen
into their operations area.
4
Navy and Naval Spetsnaz

Navy and Naval Spetsnaz are normally recruited from
the Navy or the Navy Marine Infantry. Often young
soldiers join the Spetsnaz after ending their conscrip-
tion. Basic training is conducted in Kiev, the rest of the
training with the teams. Some of the specialized divers
training takes place on one of the 3 diving schools.
Some recruitment goes through the paramilitary youth
organisation DOSAAF (Dobrovol'noe Obshestvo Sode-
istviya Armii Aviacii i Flotu), The Volunteer organisa-
tion for support of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Navy spetsnaz shoulder patch

Navy Spetsnaz conduct reconnaissance missions
against areas of interest close to the coastline or where
Navy Infantry will land. A lot of training missions are
carried out against other countries harbour facilities
and naval installations. They use a lot of time on para-
chute jumps, combat swimming and sabotage. In pea-
cetime Navy Spetsnaz are often used to test units guar-
ding major facilities such as power plants, nuclear in-
stallations, Navy bases etc. Navy Spetsnaz are not di-
rectly subordinated GRU, but operate through the indi-
vidual Navys Intelligence Center.

Units were established in the beginning of the 50es
under the name RON (Rota Osobogo Naznacheniya),
Special Operations Company. Today they are called
OMRP (Otdel'niy Morskoy Razvedyvatel'niy Punkt),
Independent Navy Reconnaissance Center. Like the
Army Spetsnaz they have 3-digit number, for example
561. OMRP from the Baltic Fleet.

Unit can be deployed by parachute, from surface ves-
sels or from special mini-submarines like the PIRA-
NHA.


The Navy OB PDSS units

The Central Navy Staff operate a number of separate
units to protect Fleets, Naval Bases and port installa-
tions. Units are called OB PDSS (Otdel'naya Brigada
Podvodnyh Diversionnyy Special'nyy Sil), Independent
Brigade against Underwater Saboteurs, and are defen-
sive forces. They do not go on recon missions, their job
are to defend Russia against the other countries Navy
Special Forces


Skuldermrke for OB PDSS enhed nummer 269
i Gadzhievo ved Nordflden

OB PDSS units are fairly small, but they have very
sophisticated equipment at their disposal, among these
firearms that can fre under water, stun grenades and
listening and explosive devices.

These units are normally stationed at Navy bases, for
example at Gadzhievo, a nuclear submarine base with
the Northern Fleet. If necessary they can be stationed
on board a major surface vessel to participate in the
ships defence against hostile divers and submarines.

5
State Security Service Spetsnaz

When the Soviet Union was dissolved, so was KGB.
Today the State Security Service Spetsnaz are divided
between FSB, SVR, FPS and FSO.

FSB (Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti), The Na-
tional Security Service, takes care of the interior secu-
rity, which is protection of the borders, anti-terror and
counter-intelligence. They tend to look more relaxed
on the term border and their operations areas are
border areas and related areas of interest, including ar-
eas in other neighbouring countries and the Russian
Embassies around the world. FSB probably has agents
on most of the Russian Embassies with their own
Rezident. The anti-terror part is becoming more and
more vital, and FSB command a couple of very profes-
sional units called
ALFA, BETA and
VYMPEL. These names
do not indicate anything
about these units; the
names simply are the
first three letters in the
alphabet. In March 2003
FSB took over the civil-
ian part of FAPSI, and
became responsible for
non-military communi-
cations security in Rus-
sia.
Original ALFA shoulder patch

SVR (Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki), The Foreign Intelli-
gence Service, mainly deals with espionage and coun-
ter-espionage, in fact as a direct successor of KGB.
Naturally there would be a SVR-rezident on every em-
bassy supported by a staff of operatives.

FPS (Federalnaya Pogranichnaya Sluzhba), also
known as The Border Troops, has been under security
service control. Since borders are taken very literally
there are border troops personnel attached to all Rus-
sian Embassies.

Finally we have the Central National Security Service
FSO (Federalnaya Sluzhba Okhran) that protect the
central administration and communications installa-
tions. FSO also took over responsibilities from FAPSI.
Ministry of Interior Spetsnaz

MVD, (Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del), Ministry of In-
terior, is rsponsible for the general security in Russia.
They dela with riots, local anti-terror, hostage situa-
tions, organized crimes and all other local crime. To
do this they have a great number of special units of
which some can be compared with the Western SWAT
teams. The general name for these units is OMON (Ot-
ryad Militsiy Osobogo Naznacheniya), The Special
Forces of the Militia, and they cover a vast area of re-
sponsibilities, which is why these units are scattered all
over the country.


OMON skuldermrke

From the birth of the Soviet Union is was necessary to
have a large standing military force for the purpose of
upholding law and order in the country. This force
could be seen as reminiscence from the civil war
around 1920 and the wish to always be prepared to
fight and destroy counter-revolutionary forces in the
country. These forces are organized ain the same way
as the army and are called VV (Vnutrenniye Voyska),
The Internal Security Forces. They have been in action
numerous times against citizens of the Soviet Union
and Russia in order to suppress riots or rebellions. The
largest formation is called The Dzerzhinsky Division
and the general term for this force is ODON (Otdel-
naya Diviziya Osobogo Naznacheniya), The Independ-
ent Special Forces Division.


ODON shoulder patch for a recon unit

Militia Spetsnaz

To complete the Special Forces picture I will shortly
mention the Militia (Police) Spetsnaz. These forces are
seen more and more in the medias and are used by the
real Spetsnaz when there is a need for a lot of man-
power, for instance during the hostage drama in Beslan
in 2004. The Militia Spetsnaz do not have the same
training level as the Army or Security Forces Spetsnaz,
but training and equipment are getting closer to their
Western counterpart. Unfortunately leadership and
6
communication still seems to be as bad as in the Soviet
Union.



Militia shoulder patch

Other examples of Spetsnaz

As earlier mentioned there are many Spetsnaz forces
in Russia today. An interesting example is the Air
Force Rescue Service, which we would call SAR. But
this one is also a Space Rescue Service!



Soviet Union SAR shoulder patch

This service was founded during WW2 and went
through an enormous development during the Soviet
war in Afghanistan. The Soviet Army and Air Force
lost a lot of helicopters and airplanes in Afghanistan
and the rescue service tried to save as many pilots as
possible.

The Air Force Rescue Service has continued its devel-
opment and implmented advanced equipment and
training and is today a very capable service. Unfortuna-
tely there are financial problems in Russia which is the
reason for not all units being as well equipped and trai-
ned as they could be.

Russian SAR shoulder patch


Finally I would like to mention The Presidents regi-
ment, which of many is considered a parade unit. But
this unit also have a security finction, since this regi-
ment is responsible for the protection of kremlin and
the central ministries.



Touristphoto from The Red Square in Moscow

These last examples of Spetsnaz are just to show
how different the Eastern and Western definition for
Special Forces really is.