Spetsnaz Units

Lore & Background

The origins of the Spetsnaz can be found in the Russian Civil War. To act against anti-Communist workers and farmers, the Soviet regime set up so-called Chasti Osobogo Naznacheniya (Части особого назначения, abbreviated CHON) in 1918. In the next year they were expanded to the so-called Cheka (The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission), fighting counterrevolution and sabotage. The NKVD descended from the Cheka, while the GRU was established in 1918 as part of the Red Army, separate from the Cheka.

During the Cold War, by the end of the 1950s the KGB and GRU set new special forces units up. The 3rd Separate Guards Spetsnaz Brigade was founded in 1966, originally formed in the Soviet Union before moving to East Germany in Fürstenberg/Havel; it was awarded Guards status in 1985. During the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Spetsnaz units secured key points in the capital, Prague, seizing the airport, bridges, and radio stations, though the seizure of the president's palace was primarily carried out by Soviet airborne troops and KGB forces.

There is well-documented evidence of GRU special forces deployed as advisors and trainers in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Soviet Spetsnaz forces took part in the Soviet–Afghan War of 1979–1989, usually fighting fast insertion/extraction-type warfare with helicopters. Their most famous operation, Operation Storm-333, was executed on 27 December 1979 which saw Soviet special forces storming the Tajbeg Palace in Afghanistan and killing Afghan President Hafizullah Amin, his son and approximately 150-200 of his personal guards in 40 minutes.

The operation involved approximately 54 KGB and GRU special forces operators, including members of the Alpha Group and Zenith Group.

Reader's Guide

The Russian abbreviations spetsnaz and osnaz are syllabic abbreviations of Soviet era Russian, for spetsialnogo naznacheniya and osobogo naznacheniya, both of which may be interpreted as "special purpose." In Ukrainian they are known as spetspryz (спецприз), an abbreviation of viiska spetsiialnoho pryznachennia (війська спеціяльного призначення). They are general terms that were used for a variety of Soviet special operations (spetsoperatsiya) units.

In addition, many Cheka and Internal Troops units (such as OMSDON and ODON) also included osobovo naznacheniya in their full names. Regular forces assigned to special tasks were sometimes also referred to by terms such as Spetsnaz and osnaz. Spetsnaz later referred specifically to special (spetsialnogo) purpose (naznacheniya) or special operations (spetsoperatsiya; spec ops) 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 purportedly incredible prowess, from the serious to the highly questionable, have captivated the imagination of Russians. A number of books about the Soviet military 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.

Did You Know?

• Viktor Leonov, a Soviet Navy frogman, twice received the title Hero of the Soviet Union for his clandestine operations during World War II.
• In 1956, former Soviet frogman Eduard Koltsov claimed to have killed British diver Lionel Crabb during a reconnaissance mission around the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze.