An interesting documentary on joining the
Russian military special forces. Spetsnaz (
Russian: спецназ;
IPA: [spʲɪt͡sˈnas]) abbreviation for Войска специального назначения, tr. Voyska spetsialnogo naznacheniya, pronounced [vɐjsˈka spʲɪt͡sɨˈalʲnəvə nəznɐˈt͡ɕenʲɪjə] (
English:
Special Purpose Forces) is an umbrella term for special forces in Russian. Historically, the term referred to special military units controlled by the military intelligence service
GRU (
Spetsnaz GRU). It also describes special purpose units, or task forces of other ministries (such as the
Ministry of Emergency Situations' special rescue unit)[1] in post-Soviet countries.
Etymology
The Russian acronyms
SPETSNAZ (spetsialnogo naznacheniya) and
OSNAZ (osobogo naznacheniya), both meaning "special purpose", are general terms used for a variety of special operations forces (or regular forces assigned to special tasks). They are syllabic abbreviations typical of early
Soviet-era Russian, although many
Cheka and
Internal Troops units (such as
OMSDON) used osobogo naznacheniya in their full names.
Spetsnaz later referred to special purpose or special operations forces, and the word's widespread use is a relatively recent, post-perestroika development in
Russian language.
The Soviet public used to know very little about their country's special forces until many state secrets were disclosed under the glasnost ("openness") policy of
Mikhail Gorbachev during the late
1980s. Since then, stories about spetsnaz and their supposedly incredible prowess, from the serious to the highly questionable, have captivated the imagination of patriotic
Russians, particularly in the background of the decay in military and security forces during perestroika and the post-Soviet era. A number of books about the
Soviet military intelligence special forces, such as
1987's Spetsnaz:
The Story Behind the
Soviet SAS by defected GRU agent
Viktor Suvorov, helped introduce the term to the
Western public as well.
In post-Soviet
Russia "spetsnaz" became a colloquial term as special operations (spetsoperatsiya), from police raids to military operations in internal conflicts, grew more common.
Coverage of these operations, and the celebrity status of special operations forces in state-controlled media, encouraged the public to identify many of these forces by name:
SOBR,
Alpha, Vityaz, and so forth. The term spetsnaz has also continued to be used in several other post-Soviet states such as
Belarus,
Ukraine and
Kazakhstan for their own special operations forces.
In Russia, foreign special operations forces are also known as "spetsnaz" (for example,
United States special operations forces would be called "amerikanskiy spetsnaz").
Timeline
The concept of using special tactics and strategies was originally proposed by Russian military theorist Mikhail Svechnykov (executed during the
Great Purge in
1938), who envisaged the development of unconventional warfare capabilities to overcome disadvantages faced by conventional forces in the field. Its implementation was begun by the "grandfather of the spetsnaz",
Ilya Starinov.[citation needed]
During
World War II, the
Red Army reconnaissance and sabotage detachments were formed under the supervision of the
Second Department of the
General Staff of the
Soviet Armed Forces. These forces were subordinate to front commanders.[2] The infamous
NKVD internal security and espionage agency also had their own special purpose (osnaz) detachments, including many saboteur teams who were airdropped into enemy-occupied territories to work with (and often take over and lead) the
Soviet Partisans.
In
1950,
Georgy Zhukov advocated the creation of 46 military spetsnaz companies, each consisting of
120 servicemen. This was the first use of "spetsnaz" to denote a separate military branch since World War II. These companies were later expanded to battalions and then to brigades. However, some separate companies (orSpN)
and detachments (ooSpN) existed with brigades until the dissolution of the
Soviet Union.
The spetsnaz included fourteen army brigades, two naval brigades and a number of separate detachments and companies, operating under the
Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and collectively known as Spetsnaz GRU. These units and formations existed in the highest-possible secrecy, and were disguised as Soviet paratroopers (
Army spetsnaz) or naval infantrymen (Naval spetsnaz) by their uniforms and insignia.
Twenty-four years after the birth of Spetsnaz, the first counter-terrorist unit was established by
KGB head
Yuri Andropov. From the late
1970s through the 1980s, a number of special-purpose units were created in the KGB and the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (
MVD).
- published: 26 Aug 2014
- views: 631299