'SPECIAL FORCES' FROM THE SOVIET UNION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950051-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 51
• Publication Date: June 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950051-2
WASHINGTON POST
15 June 1986
Jack Anderson and Dale Ion Atta
Special Forces
Soviet special forces?the Spetsnaz?have a
rough similarity to our Green Berets and other
countries' elite commando units. But the signifi-
cant difference is that the trained killers of the
Spetsnaz have always operated under the sinister
direction of the maltary secret
the initials GRU.
The political orientation of the Spetsnaz has
often led to assignments that are far removed
from Western ideas of what military units should
be doing in peacetime: from assassinations in
Afghanistan to sabotage in El Salvador. The
Spetsnaz?or politically reliable units like
them?have a history dating back to the first
chaotic years following the Bolshevik Revolution.
Assassination, deception, disruption and stir-.
prise attacks in rear areas were used by the
fledging Red Army's "special assignment" caval-
ry in the civil war against the Whites from 1917
to 1920. And Lenin's dreaded secret police units,
the Cheka, discouraged any thought of retreat by
the regular army troops by the simple expedient
of machine-gunning anyone who ran.
Stalin used special police units to enforce the
ruinous collectivization of 1929-30 that led to the
starvation of millions of peasants in the Ukraine
FILE ONLY
' From the Soviet Union
alone. In the early, disastrous stages of the Nazi
invasion of 1941, it was the summary execution
of field commanders by special forces that kept
Soviet commanders from retreating?and
millions of its finest troops were killed or cap-
tured in the German blitzkrieg.
ft was also during World War II that the
modern heritage of the Spetsnaz took shape.
Soviet partisans carried out a wide variety of
guerrilla attacks, espionage, sabotage and assas-
sination behind the Nazi lines.
Such successes as "Operation Railway War" in
July 1943 were the model for Spetsnaz planning
today. Soviet guerrillas derailed 836 German
military trains and blew up 184 railway bridges
and 556 road bridges at the height of the battle
for Kursh?the greatest tank battle in history,
which broke the back of Hitler's panzets.
Since World War II, however, Soviet Spetsnaz
forces have written a less bloody and far less
honorable record?from the brutal suppression
of revolt in Bulgaria in the mid-1960s te the
extinction of the "Prague Spring" in Czecho-
slovakia in 1968 and the invasion of Afghanistan
in 1979.
The primary Spetsnaz mission in Afghanistan
was to assassinate the American-educated Soviet
puppet president, Hafizullah Amin, to make way
for someone even more subservient to Moscow.
Amin had survived subtler attempts by the KGB
to poison him, so the Spetsnaz action in Decem-
ber 1979 was a full-scale military assault. Amin
was holed up. on the top floor of the high-walled
Darulaman Palace southwest of Kabul. The pal-
ace guard. fought desperately against the Spets-
naz commandos for more than three hours, but
were finally overwhelmed.
The Spetsnaz killers found their quarry drink-
ing at a bar with a beautiful courtesan at his side.
They killed everyone, so that no witnesses. could
attest that this was anything but an indigenous
Afghan uprising against Amin.
Only a few months later, in August 1980?af-
ter one American commando raid on Iran had
failed and another was considered likely to rescue
the embassy hostages in Tehran?Spetsnaz
forces were poised with the crack Soviet 105th
Airborne Guards to move into northwestern Iran
from Baku.
The Spetsnaz have been busy in Afghanistan
ever since the initial invasion, launching surprise
attacks against the mujaheddin. "Spetsnaz units
were deployed to Afghanistan prior to the De-
cember 1979 invasion," a secret Pentagon report
notes. "Its presence has provided the Kremlin a
key instrument with which to conduct a variety of
tactical and strategic operations designed to
counter the Islamic insurgency."
There is some evidence that the GRU may be
exporting Spetsnaz experts to Central America.
Some Pentagon specialists believe the sabotage
of the crucial Cuscatlan bridge in El Salvador
during the winter of 1984 was too skillfully done
to have been the work of native communist
guerrillas.
There is also the puzzle of the much-headlined
(if belatedly discovered) Soviet combat brigade
stationed in Cuba. What is its purpose? Some
intelligence analysts think it constitutes a Praeto-
rian Guard to protect Fidel Castro if things get
,rough. Others think it could be a Spetsnaz unit
training for a sRecial operation, such as striking_
against the United States. "Another mission of
ISpetsnazi," the secret Pentagon report notes,
"is training and assistance provided to foreign
insurgent and terrorist groups."
41986, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950051-2