One of the most effective intelligence services in the world in the postwar years was the Soviet GRU. Secrets of military intelligence are securely stored in archives, some of which do not have a statute of limitations. The successes of our agents often have to be judged only after their failure or after many decades.
The Russian intelligence service as an organizational structure arose in the 16th century. Ivan IV the Terrible established the Ambassadorial Order, whose functions included collecting information useful for the most rational conduct of foreign policy activity.
Combined diplomatic and secret work, and the great poet A. S. Griboedov, whose fate showed how dangerous the profession of intelligence is.
In the late XIX and early XX centuries, Russian agents had an extensive network in almost all countries of the world. Equipped with well-trained personnel, she acted successfully and efficiently.
The events of 1917 and the ensuing Civil War adversely affected the state of special services, their structure was actually destroyed. The new government had to re-create intelligence.
According to the fashion for abbreviations and abbreviations, the service that collects information of military significance received an unimportant name for the uninitiated "Registerupr" (1918). This structure was subordinate to the Field Headquarters of the Red Army, and we can say that the modern military intelligence of the GRU is its direct descendant. The further transformation of the Register Group and its renaming into the Intelligence Directorate (RU) expressed the desire to streamline the activities of Soviet agents abroad.
To increase the reliability of the information received, the sources were diversified. The information was supplied by the world's largest and unsurpassed efficiency network of Comintern agents, army intelligence, the NKVD and several other services working abroad, including diplomats.
The military intelligence service worked effectively during the Great Patriotic War along with the 4th Directorate of the NKVD. The staff was created after careful selection and training. In 1945, this army structure received the name that has survived to this day.
The main sources of foreign secrets in the post-war period were the āCā department of the MGB (hereinafter the KGB) and the GRU military intelligence. The functions between them were divided, but the specifics of illegal work did not allow a clear line to be drawn.
Economic and technical information, the extraction of which was the duty of state security, often intersected with military information. However, such departmental competition did not harm the common cause, but rather contributed to success. So, the role in obtaining the atomic secrets of the Manhattan project, which was played along with the foreign service of the NKVD and the military intelligence of the GRU, is difficult to overestimate.
In the second half of the 20th century, Soviet agents were confronted with complex tasks. The gap was widening in the technological lag of the USSR from Western countries, reliable information was required on technical characteristics and design solutions in the field of modern military equipment. Military intelligence did not stand aside from these problems. The GRU special forces took part in covert operations far beyond the borders of their homeland. During the Middle East conflicts, the Vietnam War and other episodes of armed confrontation between the warring systems, the latest models of tanks, aircraft and electronic equipment of the potential enemy were mined and delivered to the USSR.
The military intelligence of the GRU of modern Russia is structurally divided into 13 departments for territorial division and functional purpose. They work in specialists of various profiles, from scientific analysts and economists, to experts in the methods of psychological warfare and sabotage. The geography of work directions is the entire globe, over which the bat, depicted on the service emblem, spread its wings.