On November 5, Russia celebrates the Day of the Military Intelligence Officer. 105 years ago, on November 5, 1918, the Registration Directorate was formed as part of the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council to coordinate the efforts of all intelligence agencies of the Red Army. It became the prototype of the central military intelligence body of modern Russia, the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

The first head of the department was Semyon Aralov, a former staff captain of the tsarist army and a member of the revolutionary movement. After the creation of the new service in the RSFSR, measures were taken to train intelligence personnel: in particular, military intelligence and control courses were opened in Moscow, where cadets studied geography, tactics, the basics of human intelligence and foreign languages.

The Registry Office was engaged in strategic and operational intelligence, as well as obtaining information about the world's advanced scientific achievements in the military field.

In Soviet times, the intelligence agency changed its name several times. Thus, in April 1921, the Registration Directorate was transformed into the Intelligence Directorate (Razvedupr) of the Headquarters of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), and in 1926 the structure was reorganized into the IV Directorate of the Headquarters of the Red Army.

This was followed by several more changes in the structure of the organization and its name. A year before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the department became known as the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army.

Contribution to the Victory over Nazism

After the German attack on the USSR, the support of the combat operations of the troops and the operations carried out by them became the main activity of intelligence. As noted in the materials of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, "the work of intelligence officers operating behind the front line, in the temporarily occupied territories and in a number of foreign countries was distinguished by great scope and effectiveness."

"From the first days of the war, reconnaissance and reconnaissance-sabotage groups were sent to the rear of the enemy, on the basis of which partisan detachments were subsequently deployed in many areas, and a reserve reconnaissance network was created. The preparation and conduct of all strategic, front-line and army operations relied on strategic and operational intelligence," the Russian Defense Ministry said on its website.

In February 1942, the Intelligence Directorate was reorganized again and received the name familiar to everyone today - the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). In October of the same year, the GRU was separated from the General Staff and subordinated directly to the People's Commissar of Defense. The scope of the directorate's responsibilities included conducting all human intelligence and sabotage activities both abroad and in the territory of the USSR occupied by the Germans.

A number of high-profile successes of the GRU belong to the period of the Great Patriotic War. For example, in 1942, military intelligence officers, in cooperation with other Soviet special services, carried out Operation Monastery. At that time, Soviet intelligence managed to infiltrate its agent Alexander Demyanov into the Abwehr, who was later thrown into Soviet territory by Berlin as a German "spy".

From his homeland, Demyanov transmitted disinformation to Germany, which misled the Nazi leadership. Until the end of Operation Monastery in 1944, the Germans did not realize that they were dealing with a Soviet intelligence officer. The staging of the Soviet special services was so convincing that it also misled the British special services. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill even considered it necessary to warn Stalin about the work of a German "spy" in the General Staff of the USSR.

  • Alexander Demyanov (Max) during a radio session with a German intelligence center
  • © Foreign Intelligence Service

No less legendary was the work of intelligence officer Jan Czerniak, who back in the 1930s managed to create an intelligence network in Germany under the code name "Krona". In 1941, Krona agents obtained and sent to Moscow a copy of Operation Barbarossa, and in 1943, a plan for the Nazi offensive near Kursk. In 1944 alone, thanks to the work of an intelligence officer, more than 12,5 sheets of technical documentation and 60 samples of enemy electronic equipment got to the Soviet Union.

"Military intelligence made a huge contribution to the victory over Nazism. Thanks to the efforts of our intelligence officers, the Soviet command knew what forces the enemy had, where he was directing his strike, how much equipment he had, and whether there were traitors in our headquarters. These are just some of the questions that intelligence gave answers to our commanders," retired Colonel Viktor Baranets, a military columnist for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, told RT.

"Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse"

After the war, in connection with the reorganization of the intelligence services of the USSR, the GRU of the General Staff was abolished, and most of its functions and employees were transferred to the Committee of Information under the Council of Ministers. Thus, military and political intelligence services were combined in one department. The committee was headed by Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vyacheslav Molotov.

However, in January 1949, the functions of military intelligence were returned to the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR, in connection with which military intelligence received its former name - GRU.

A new stage in the life of military intelligence officers came after the collapse of the USSR. In 1992, the GRU of the General Staff of the USSR with all directorates under the military districts and fleets on the territory of Russia became part of the GRU of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. And since 2010, this department has been called the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

  • Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Admiral Igor Kostyukov
  • RIA Novosti
  • © Alexei Maishev

For obvious reasons, not much is known about today's work of military intelligence officers. The head of the GDGS is currently Admiral Igor Kostyukov. The website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation says that the purpose of the GDGS is to provide the country's top leadership with intelligence information necessary for decision-making in the political, economic, defense, scientific, technical and environmental spheres.

"The data obtained by military intelligence has repeatedly played a decisive role in the decision-making of the country's top leadership to ensure its security. Military intelligence has convincingly demonstrated its indispensability and effectiveness during crisis situations in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Chechnya, Syria and other armed conflicts," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

In addition, the GDGS, with its work, contributes to the economic development, scientific and technical progress of the country and the military-technical security of the Russian Federation, according to the website of the military department.

As Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu noted in 2017, military intelligence officers made a significant contribution to the victory over terrorist groups in Syria, ensuring, among other things, the accurate delivery of strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces on the facilities of militant groups.

A new challenge for the GDGS was the special operation in Ukraine. In an interview with RIA Novosti, Professor of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, retired GRU Colonel Vladimir Vinokurov noted that the NWO requires the solution of such intelligence tasks as "controlling the situation in the European theater of operations and assessing emerging challenges and threats", revealing the intentions of the West "to further use Ukraine to put pressure on Russia" and the plans of the Kiev regime to organize terrorist attacks against the Russian Federation.

"There is no doubt that the GRU will solve the tasks in full, thanks to which the goals of the NWO in Ukraine - demilitarization and denazification - will be successfully achieved," Vladimir Vinokurov stressed.

Military observer Alexander Khrolenko, in an interview with RT, also noted that military intelligence today makes a significant contribution to ensuring Russia's security.

"Intelligence officers receive information about both those threats to the country that already exist and those that are just being formed. The Main Directorate of the State Staff collects data on a daily and hourly basis, which is processed and then brought to the attention of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and, of course, the President of Russia. Military intelligence helps the country's leadership to keep its finger on the pulse and be warned in advance about certain dangers," the analyst concluded.