"Viktor Suvorov. Inside soviet military intelligence (англ) " - читать интересную книгу автора

evaluate the situation correctly were shot.
Up to this time there had been no need to account for the GRU's
activities, but now information was made available to some Party members.
This has led some specialists to the mistaken conclusion that the GRU did
not exist until this time.
However, the GRU did not take long to recover from the 1920 Purge. This
may be explained mainly by the fact that the overseas organs of the GRU were
practically untouched, and this for eminently sound reasons. Neither Lenin
nor Trotsky had any idea of shooting the intelligence officers who were
overseas, not only because they were manifestly innocent, but also because
their deaths would have absolutely no salutary effect on others since nobody
would hear about them, not even the many members of the Central Committee.
The other reason for the quick recovery of the GRU was that its agent
intelligence network in the military districts was also left untouched. At
the end of the civil war, the fronts were tranformed into 'military
districts', but the chain of command in the new districts did not undergo
any essential changes. A 'registration' department was included on the
strength of the staff of each district which continued in peace-time to
carry on agent intelligence work in countries where the district would have
to carry out military activities in any future war. Up to the time of the
1920 purge there were fifteen military districts and two fleets in the Red
Army. They all carried out, independently from each other, agent
intelligence work of a very intensive nature.
The internal military districts were no exception. Their intelligence
centres were moved out to the frontiers and it was from there that the
direction of agents was undertaken. Each internal military district also has
its tasks in wartime, and its intelligence work is based around these tasks.
The direction of activities of a frontier district is very precisely
defined; at the same time the internal district, independent of
circumstances, may operate in different directions. Consequently its agent
network in peacetime operates in different directions, too. For example, in
1920 agents of the Moscow military district operated on the territories of
Poland, Lithuania (at that time still independent) and Finland. This system
has prevailed in all respects, except that the districts and fleets have
become more numerous, as also has money available for intelligence. We are
richer now than we were then.
x x x
After 1927 Soviet military intelligence began to blossom. This was the
year in which the first five-year plan was drawn up, which aimed (as all
subsequent five-year plans have) exclusively at the growth of the military
potential of the country. The plan stipulated the creation and speedy growth
of the tank, ship-building, aviation and artillery industries. The Soviet
Union set itself the target of creating the most powerful army in the world.
The Soviet leadership made haste and demanded from its designers not only
the creation of new kinds of weaponry and military technology, but also that
Soviet armaments must be the best in the world. Monumental sums of money
were spent to attain this aim: prac-tically the whole of Russia's gold
reserves was thrown into the task. At Western auctions the Soviet
authorities sold off Russian corn and wood, pictures by Rembrandt and
Nicholas II's stamp collection. A tidy sum of money was realised.