Troops osnaz radio intelligence 80 e. Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is the main intelligence agency of Russia. GU is a new name introduced in 2010 during the military reform. Decryption of the GRU General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - Main intelligence agency General Staff of the Armed Forces Russian Federation. The outdated designation GRU is widespread among the people.
On the shoulders of this body lies the intelligence of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The Directorate coordinates subordinate intelligence departments, following the Constitution of the Russian Federation and acting in the interests of the state. Intelligence officers intercept information through personal involvement (conspiracy) or the use of electronics and radio.
Organization history
In the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, military intelligence existed back in the USSR (more precisely, its prototype). On the basis of the GRU of the USSR in 1992, after the signing of all documents on the collapse of the military coalition, the main body and its officers passed to Russia. On the basis of the old management, an updated one was created. The abbreviation GRU (stands for the Main Intelligence Directorate) of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was brought to the official level in 2010 after the reform of the military administration. The change in the name of the body did not affect its tasks.
During its existence, the department has participated in many missions. In 2015, staff collected information and conducted a report on the plans of Islamic groups in Central Asia. The merits of intelligence officers include the destruction of the Chechen militant leader, information analytics and actions to annex the Crimean peninsula in 2014, planning attacks in Syria in 2015, and assistance in establishing international contacts.
At the moment, the situation of the intelligence department can be called positive, since all the scouts have been bought out or exchanged and are in Russia, or on a mission abroad, but at large.
Tasks of the GRU
The set of tasks of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces was defined back in 1992 and has remained unchanged ever since. The main goals of the organization:
- information support for the benefit of a political, military, technical or scientific development countries;
- providing the central bodies of the Russian Federation (the President, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff) with the information necessary for making decisions in the field of foreign policy, economy and military relations;
- creation of conditions favorable for the implementation of the foreign policy goals of the Russian state.
Officially, information about the structure of intelligence units is not disclosed. According to unconfirmed data, the organization has 21 divisions, of which 13 are main and 8 are auxiliary. Approximate composition:
- EU countries (First Office).
- America, Australia, UK, New Zealand(second division).
- Asia (Third).
- Africa (Fourth).
- Operational intelligence (Fifth department).
- OSNAZ (radio engineering, Division Six).
- NATO.
- SPN (sabotage department).
- Military technologies.
- military economy.
- Strategic management.
- Department of information warfare.
- Space exploration.
Auxiliary departments:
- personnel;
- operational and technical;
- archives;
- information service;
- foreign relations;
- administrative department.
Among the lower departments there is OBPSN - security department special purpose.
All departments are managed by the organizational and mobilization center located at the headquarters of the organization. The address of the headquarters is Grizodubova Street in Moscow, where the official office of the head of the department and his council is located. The former headquarters building is located at 76 Khoroshevskoye Highway. You can get from one building to another by walking just 100 meters.
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The number of intelligence structures
Official data on the strength of the intelligence officers were not disclosed. According to analysts, the number of military personnel in this industry ranges from 6,000 to 15,000 people.
The intelligence forces include combined arms military units (military units) - 25,000 people. All of them are under contract. Subordinate to the management are artillery units, special equipment, and a fleet of vehicles.
GRU equipment
Much attention is paid to the appearance of scouts. The official uniform is gray (for officers) or dark blue (for subordinates) overcoats with red and gold design elements. The chief dressed in a black uniform with blue accents.
The modern emblems were designed in 1997. There is a small, medium, large emblem, which are attached to the chest or sleeve. The big one is for officers only.
The weapons equipment of the fighters is carried out according to the standards of the army. Special units should be armed with an improved set of weapons - machine gun, knife, pistol, etc. Since the time of the USSR, the weapons of the GRU are considered the best.
Personnel training
Officers for the GRU are mainly trained at the Academy of the Ministry of Defense. Leading military personnel are also trained at the Ryazan Airborne School in the direction special intelligence. A candidate who wants to enter one of the schools and subsequently become a scout must have a good knowledge of foreign languages, high level physical training, excellent health.
Exists additional education at the Academy of the Ministry of Defense - Higher academic courses. The structure of the GRU includes two of its own research institutes located in the capital.
These people prefer not to put their lives on public display. The GRU special forces do not even have their own designation, name. And the most interesting thing is their secrecy in their work. After all, special forces work in all parts of our planet, and its representatives can be dressed in absolutely any clothes, including the uniform of the army of Great Britain or other countries.
Spetsnaz is an elite unit of the military forces of the Russian Federation. Many films are made about special forces soldiers, books and articles are written about their hard work for the glory of the motherland. True, the cinematic performance is most often either embellished or understated. Only the best of the best are worthy of service in the GRU, which is why very strict selection rules have been created for them. And the most banal training day can shock ordinary person, in no way connected with the service in the law enforcement agencies of the country.
On TV or on the Internet, they will never tell or write about the real operations of the special forces, most often the noise rises because of the failure, but, fortunately for everyone, this practically does not happen.
What is GRU
Each country has its own military structures, and it just so happened that foreign intelligence performs one of the most important roles in protecting its state. In the Russian Federation, such functions are performed by the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, which means the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces. However, the predecessor of this name was the Main Intelligence Directorate. This is how the GRU decoding will sound.
Initially, it conducted its reconnaissance and sabotage activities in the interests of the Soviet Union, and was also the central body of military intelligence.
Intelligence under the king
Even before the overthrow of the monarchy, tsarist Russia, acted sabotage and reconnaissance groups. These were specially trained military units. If we recall the reign of Ivan the Fourth, then it was he who in the 16th century was the founder of the guard service, which consisted of Cossack detachments. All warriors were tested for physical health and brilliant weapon skills (cold and firearms). Since in those days the Tatars constantly raided Moscow, the main purpose of these detachments was to monitor the surrounding territories in order to prevent an attack.
At a later time, Alexei Mikhailovich already revealed the Secret Order to the country. The intelligence officers of the order collected and structured all messages and informative reports about possible enemy attacks and about the activities of countries in the neighborhood.
In 1764, Suvorov and Kutuzov put forward the idea of creating special detachments of rangers. Their operations were carried out in parallel with the main tsarist army. Jaegers staged raids and ambushes, and also attacked the enemy in the mountains, forests and other difficult areas. These were the so-called beginnings of special forces. And in 1810, Barclay de Tolly established the Expedition for Secret Affairs.
History of the GRU
When in the USSR, after the famous revolution, the workers 'and peasants' Red Army was formed, there was a need to form a special unit, which was supposed to take over the performance of intelligence functions. On this occasion, in 1918, the Bolsheviks came to the creation of the Field Headquarters of the Revolutionary Council. One of the components of this headquarters was a special department for registering, collecting and processing information that was obtained by intelligence officers. As a result, counterintelligence activities were completely shifted to the shoulders of the Field Headquarters.
In 1921, the Intelligence Department of the Red Army Headquarters was formed, it was engaged in intelligence not only in difficult and war times, but also in peacetime, they were one hundred percent covered by intelligence work. Undercover intelligence was carried out in Soviet times. In the countries neighboring the Union, special detachments of partisans were created, which carried out subversive operations.
In 1934, intelligence control was transferred to the People's Commissar of Defense. There were successful missions during the Spanish war, but even such a high-ranking structure as the country's intelligence was touched by the tragedy of repression. And by the beginning of World War II, half of the intelligence service was shot. Since 1942, we have known Razvedupr under the familiar name GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate).
The first special forces units in the USSR
In 1950, a secret decree was issued on the formation of special groups, whose task was to carry out sabotage operations on the side of the enemy. All the military districts of the Union were equipped with such units, forty-six companies were created in total, each consisting of one hundred and twenty soldiers. And it was they who were the basis for the creation of special forces in 1962. After 6 years, they formed special regiment for employee training.
The initial purpose of creating such units was to carry out sabotage operations in the war with NATO and to confront the United States in cold war. The image of these actions was the collection and denunciation of all information from the enemy rear to the headquarters of the GRU, sowing panic in settlements where the civilian population lives, undermining important infrastructure facilities, large-scale actions to destroy enemy headquarters. Weapons of mass destruction were strategically important, special forces destroyed missile silos, airfields used by long-range enemy aircraft, launchers, bases with submarines.
The Afghan war was fought with the active participation of GRU agents, important role special forces were also during the riots in the North Caucasus. Moreover, Tajikistan and Georgia also did not go unnoticed by elite units during their military operations (the last war with Georgia in 2008). At the moment, the Syrian war is taking place with the participation of Russian special forces.
Now the command of the GRU is giving orders to act not only by force, but also by information.
Rename from Soviet name happened in 2010. Everyone who is in the service of the GRU (decoding - the Main Intelligence Directorate) celebrates their holiday on the fifth of November, dedicated to military intelligence officers.
Management Goals
The GRU is not only a foreign intelligence agency, but also controls other military organizations in Russia, and also appears as an executive military force.
The goals of Russian intelligence can be divided into three points:
- The first is to provide all information intelligence data, first of all, to the President of our country and further in order of precedence of "roles" (Ministry of Defense, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Security Council) in the issue of protecting the borders and internal integrity of the Russian Federation. This information is necessary for conducting domestic and foreign policy and so on.
- The second is to provide suitable conditions for the successful implementation of political action in the field of defense and security.
- Third - intelligence contributes to the rise in the economic sphere, scientific and technical developments and military security of the Russian Federation.
Headquarters
The first headquarters of the GRU was located on Khodynka. The new one was built 11 years ago and is a large complex of different buildings. The area of the headquarters is huge - about seventy thousand square meters. For physical training of security forces inside there is even a sports complex with a swimming pool. The construction of such a grandiose project cost the country nine billion rubles. There is a special forces complex on Grizodubova Street.
Bat
Probably, everyone saw in the photographs or in the news the stripes on the uniform of the GRU officers in the form of a bat. Where did this animal in the emblem of the GRU come from? According to some sources, one of the Yekaterinburg journalists during the service decided to draw an emblem for his unit. This happened in 1987 and bat inside the globe so pleased the bosses and colleagues that it was immediately printed on the entire uniform of the special forces.
flower theme
To understand what the GRU is today, you can look at the meaning of the modern emblem. At the moment (since 2002), the bat has been replaced by a red carnation, it means stamina and devotion. The emblem of the GRU is the personification of an adamant decision to achieve the goal. The three-flame grenada is explained as an honorary badge with a historical past; it was awarded to the best military among the elite units.
True, in the new headquarters, the mouse, laid out on the floor, remained adjacent to the flower.
What does it consist of
Information about the structure of the GRU, its special forces at the moment is as follows:
- Western military district with the second brigade.
- The tenth brigade, mountain, operates in the North Caucasus.
- The special forces who participated in the Afghan and Chechen campaigns were from the fourteenth brigade of the Far East.
- The Western Military District has a sixteenth brigade, it also participated in the Chechen wars and in the protection of the OVO in Tajikistan.
- The Southern Military District is being defended by the twenty-second brigade. It has guard rank after the Great Patriotic War. Here is the twenty-fifth regiment of special forces.
- The Central Military District is equipped with fighters from the twenty-fourth brigade.
- A unit of the 346th brigade is located in Kabardino-Balkaria.
- Fleet on pacific ocean, Baltic and Black, North Seas is equipped with its own special units intelligence.
What is the total number
For a better understanding of what the GRU is, it is worth paying attention to the absolute secrecy about the number of its fighters. Since the activities of the special forces are inaccessible to mere mortals, there are no reliable sources about the real size of the GRU headquarters. Some say that there are six thousand of them, and some say that there are fifteen thousand people.
Moreover, in addition to the existing special forces units, general military detachments are also subordinate to the GRU, and their number is approximately twenty-five thousand fighters.
Training centers
At the moment, you can train as a special forces fighter in higher educational institutions Ryazan and Cherepovets. Ryazan Airborne School prepares specialists for sabotage activities. Exists in the Russian Federation and Military Academy Ministry of Defense. It has three faculties: strategic undercover intelligence, tactical and agent-operational intelligence.
You can enter only by owning several foreign languages and passing a special list of requirements.
Selection of fighters
What is required from candidates entering such serious institutions for study? Passing entrance tests is a very laborious process, but with the help of personal patience and accumulated knowledge, as well as physical strength, you can enter.
Absolute physical health is an indispensable requirement for all applicants. But the future commando does not have to be two meters tall and have a large muscle mass, because the most important thing in this matter is endurance. Arranged raids are usually accompanied by fairly heavy burdens and can take many kilometers.
The standards for admission, for example, include running three kilometers in ten minutes, be sure to pull yourself up twenty-five times, the hundred-meter run should fit in twelve seconds, there should be at least ninety push-ups from the floor, the same number of times you need to do the exercise for the press (here given just two minutes). One of the most important skills in the work of a special forces soldier is hand-to-hand combat.
This is followed by a very meticulous physical examination. A person must have unshakable stress resistance. His head must be in working order in any situation. To do this, use trained psychologists, and then the candidate is checked on the "lie detector". The whole family and even distant relatives are being checked by special state security agencies. Parents must unsubscribe to the leadership about their consent that their son will serve in a special forces unit.
Preparation for service in special forces
Long hard training, learning the right hand-to-hand combat(it is believed that it tempers the spirit and character of a fighter), fighting with the use of various objects (not only melee weapons), fights with initially stronger and more experienced opponents - all this awaits a recruit when training in such a serious unit. It is at these moments that the fighter realizes what the GRU is.
From the first day of training, there is a program to suggest that all of them, special forces soldiers, are the best not only among Russian military structures, but also in the whole world.
One of the difficult tests that are given specifically to find out whether a person can survive his physical potential is a long stay in a waking state, a load of transcendent physical and psychological actions. And, of course, learning to own small arms(of all kinds).
Army story.
Dedicated to my army friends.
It all started in the middle of 1990. I, like a mediocre failed entry exams to the Voronezh Construction Institute, was drafted into the ranks of the valiant Soviet army. I will not say that for me it was a great tragedy; I happily finished school and it was indifferent to me how to while away the next two or three years: to write stupid lectures or to march in boots along some unknown parade ground. Everything was taken for granted and inevitable by me, and I was ready for anything.
And on June 20, I was brought with a crowd of frenzied conscripts to the assembly point of the regional military registration and enlistment office, where they assigned me to a team that was going to a certain city of Klimovsk, which was located near Moscow. At first, I dreamed of testing myself in severe suffering and thundering to places somewhere “more exotic”: to the North or Far East but after the first night in the noisy and gloomy dormitory collection point, on a wooden trestle bed with the same wooden pillow, I was already glad that fate was throwing me not so far from home. In addition, from the first day I immediately wanted to go back to friends and romantic sprees, but the only thing that calmed me was that I was not the only one so miserable, but my four good buddies, like me, were shaved into soldiers for the next couple of years.
In short, on June 22, 1990, I left the hospitable recruiting office, and on the 23rd in the morning I entered the parade ground of military unit 34 ***, exhausted by the heat and trampled by kirzachs. On the way, we tried to find out everything from the “merchant”-captain: where we were going, what kind of troops, and how it was in general, but the merchant didn’t explain much - communication, Moscow region, you’ll find out for yourself later, and at the same time he smiled sweetly, kindly. In fact, that small and cozy part that sheltered me for two years turned out to be the 309th Central Radio Direction Finding Unit of Special Purpose and was subordinate to the GRU. Part was engaged in radio intelligence and was not on the globe corner that her trap antennas would not reach. Part stood on the edge of the forest beyond the outskirts of the city. The first impression was unexpected: I liked it there. In my thoughts, I imagined something deserted and faceless with a mass of gray, frightening barracks and all sorts of military facilities, devoid of any reminders of the comfortable city life, where I would ruin my irretrievable young years in anguish and deprivation. It turned out that everything was not so dreary at all. Planted inside with dense trees and grass, the part turned out to be small and cozy.
As I already wrote, on the one hand, the part bordered on the forest, along the front there were houses of officer families - DOS, and, on the side, summer cottages of these very families of officers. And then there were beautiful fields ... In summer covered with thick grass, in winter - with impenetrable snow, these fields were completely sown with various ... antennas. These were bizarre antenna fields that I had never seen before. And far away in these fields were intelligence centers, which we call sites: 1st, 2nd, 5th. Fate and commanders were preparing me for the 2nd.
How beautiful summer evenings near Moscow... Especially when hordes of the wildest mosquitoes near Moscow rise from the forest lakes and, since there is not a single pasture in the district where you can suck blood from silent cows and rams to your heart's content, this whole flock swoops down on the nearest blood supplier - 309 TsRPU OSNAZ. And there was no escape in the summer from these vile creatures. They seemed to be able to pierce even the tops of kirzaches with their red-hot stings, what can we say about soldiers' cotton! And only by autumn ... But this is a digression. I continue.
After the selection, which was made by a commission consisting of officers of the senior com. composition, I was assigned to the 6th training company. The selection went as follows. We were summoned in turn to the Lenin room, where the commission was located. It was my turn, I went in and introduced myself. When asked where I want to continue my service, I answered that I was in intelligence. Then the major asked what I had at school for English language? I lied about five. Then he pointed to the table and asked how it sounds in English? I replied. He asked the same question, pointing at the window with a pen, I answered again. The last question was to count from ten to one. I counted. At this level, I knew English - at school I had a solid C grade. So I was assigned to a training intelligence company. In addition to her, in those days, there was another training unit in the unit - the 7th company. It trained signalmen.
And it began... Rises, retreats, charters, fizukha, parade ground, charters, parade ground, rises.... The first days were unbearably dreary... On one of the formations, peering into the distant expanses of the boundless skies and looking at the faces exhausted by the heat and sergeants of comrades, the thought suddenly occurred to me: earlier, at home, there, in that life, I was such a cheerful guy, and everything around was just as cheerful and carefree. And now I am surrounded by completely unfamiliar people, whose names I have not even managed to remember yet, and they are all gloomy and taciturn, as I must be myself, and probably now in two years I will never smile even once, and now. .. So it was... But the days passed and they were replaced by nights, and with each new day something new came into my heart. Fierce longing disappeared and its place was occupied by hope. The first and best cure for such blues was friends!
Where are you guys now! How you helped me in those first months of difficult trials, to maintain my strength of mind, not to slide into melancholy of despondency, not to die from loneliness that gnaws my heart ... Life scattered us across the expanses and cities, but I remember you and probably will never be able to forget. ..
Oath. July 21, 1990 I took an oath of allegiance to the Motherland - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! Could I then have imagined that in just a year and a half my Motherland would be led by dark forces into the deepest tailspin from which, although it will be able to get out, but with incredible losses, it will not be able to recover to this day ...
And then, after the oath, life became somewhat more interesting. In addition to the unforgettable ones - the parade ground and charters, as well as the merciless cleaning of the territory, a fresh outlet appeared: they began to teach us specialties. We were told that our job would be to carry out combat duty, that our duties would include listening to the radio communications of the aviation of a potential enemy, i.e., the aviation of the NATO bloc. And now the soldier’s drill was diluted with daily exercises, where we learned to listen to English speech in atmospheric interference mode, to distinguish the type of aircraft by the sound of the transmitter, to study the structure and deployment of enemy troops, tactical and special training, and a lot of things hitherto unknown. And the deeper I plunged into this world, the world of ringing and distant ether, the world of enemy planes invisible to me, flying in the night, the more I understood that we were being taught the real thing, that we would not stupidly trample the parade ground and collect garbage in heaps for two years. that behind everything that is driven into our heads lies something mysterious and insanely interesting. As a counterbalance to all this, the obligation to go on guard and outfits was also added. I loved the guards, I hated the outfits fiercely. I thought the outfit for the kitchen was the most disgusting. And just after the very first dismissal, during the report to the duty officer, I was mediocrely "pochikat" by this same duty officer, who sniffed out the smell of vodka fumes flying from me. I was escorted to the medical unit for the so-called examination (I just breathed into the glass, and the orderly sniffed), and then I was taken to the location of the company, which was already on the evening inspection and was missing exactly one soldier, i.e. me. It was a significant flight, for which, after the lights out, I was executed by superior sergeant force. As a result, I was deprived of all the last remaining benefits, received from the company commander four outfits for the service, and, plus all the troubles, our company stepped into the big outfit in part, and I was enrolled in the most rotten job in this outfit - an assistant cook in the dining room . I won’t describe how I flew there, but when it was all over, a day later the company was again put in a large outfit, and everything was repeated again - again the dining room and again the assistant cook ... To be fair, I must add that out of four outfits for the company, appointed commander, I flew only one. The beginning of the internship freed me from this!
The best fighters in training were selected for the internship in the first stage. Everyone wanted to get an internship and I was afraid that after the global "flight" I would not see it as my own ears, but, thank the Soviet commanders and their wisdom, I entered that number. Combat duty took place according to a certain time pattern: six through twelve. Six hours shift, six - rest, twelve hours shift, six - rest, and so on in a circle. The twelve-hour shift proceeded at night from 20-00 to 08-00. And it was the most interesting and exciting time. But, at first, we were taken to internships only during the day, and only after some time they were taken out to the night.
What a soldier wants, and especially a first year, most of all, anyone who has ever served in the army knows. These are two integral components: food and sleep. Everything. Everything else is secondary and not a single human desire can dominate these monsters of soldier's bliss. Perhaps this, in part, reduces the soldier, as a representative of homo sapiens, to a detachment of some lower and primitive animals, but such are the laws of army life. I always wanted to eat, but I wanted to sleep always and everywhere. And, if it was still possible to somehow fight hunger (besides the dining room there was also a soldier's cafe "Orbita" and a grocery store in the DOS (which, however, you still had to manage to get into)), then sleep remained the most invincible enemy. I myself fell asleep like a horse more than once - standing, at the post at the Banner of the unit, I fell asleep in motion in the ranks on the way to duty; if there was an opportunity to “flatten my face” in any place most inappropriate for this, I did it mechanically, without thinking. The sleepiest realm in our unit was the club. We were periodically taken there to listen to some incomprehensible lectures, reports, political information and even watch movies. The lectures were incomprehensible because I don’t remember absolutely anything that was ever said there, and all because as soon as I sat down in a wooden folding chair, my eyes immediately filled with fog and my brain began to give out abstract pictures from the subconscious . Sleep came instantly. As a rule, the sergeants sat behind us and tracked those whose head fell below a certain degree. To bring a soldier out of the bliss of Morpheus, they used a simple and effective tool - a linen gum. A soldier who fell asleep in the wrong place immediately received a sharp and burning click on the ear from behind, which for a while made him cheer up and make an intelligent and attentive face. But a minute later, the brain turned on its cartoons again and the sergeants clicked on the ears of the falling asleep defenders of the Motherland with joy and rapture. Sometimes it seemed to me that I had learned to sleep with my eyes open.
Why am I talking about sleep? Because the night shift lasted twelve hours. On the shift (combat duty), a lot of things could not be done. It was possible to leave the post only with the permission of the shift supervisor, passing the listening frequency to a friend and taking a special token. It was forbidden to eat (except for the night shift in certain time), to read, and since everyone had headphones on their heads, and at each post there were at least two of the most powerful Katran receivers tied with endless antenna fields, it was forbidden to listen to all kinds of civilian radio stations, in terms of music, etc. ( Yes, they were at that time SNC, yes Europe plus Moscow). It was also forbidden to fill in the forms with an ink pen. (more on this later). But the worst offense was sleep. AT war time a tribunal threatened to sleep on the database, in our peaceful days it is a wild flogging by commanders of all instances up to the unit commander, deprivation of dismissals, outfits, removal from shifts ... The soldier was obliged to sit at his post lined with equipment and listen. Whoever you heard, find out, enter the radio exchange on the form, report to the shift supervisor, and hand over the form. In general, everything is simple, you only need a certain amount of knowledge (for each post - your own), but the experience that comes with time. This experience required an internship.
Once, when I was already an old man, sleeping, I was fixed by the head of the 4th department. In the morning, I was summoned from the company to the 2nd site personally to the deputy commander of the unit for operational work, Lieutenant Colonel A. It was a seasoned professional scout, harsh and harsh, with a thunderous low bass. The call to him reeked of serious trouble. I had a close encounter with Lieutenant Colonel A. for the second time (the first was when they wanted to send me on a business trip to Georgia, to the city of Gardabani, but I refused). I went into his office and introduced myself. A. sat in an armchair and from under his eyebrows looked murderously at me with a satanic look. I felt like an insect. Report what happened? he boomed. Seeing that it was more expensive for me to excuse myself, I said everything as it is: they say, I wanted to sleep terribly and could not resist, this will not happen again. A. silently looked at me for a minute. A minute seemed like an eternity to me. You are free, - said A. and buried himself in the papers. I flew out of the office like a bullet. And that's it. I did not have any unpleasant consequences, but the desire to run into A. again was completely repulsed. And after this incident, my father came to me and we sat with him at the checkpoint. Lieutenant Colonel A was passing by. Seeing us, he suddenly turned towards us. I stood up quietly. A. shook hands with his father and said only one phrase: “You have a good son. At least honest." And, turning around, he went on. The father was proud of his son, and I am glad that I pleased the father.
Now let's count. Let's take a shift from 08 to 14 and time for rest, lunch, etc. from 14 to 20. Here comes 14-00. You must be replaced. As a rule, it took about half an hour, then the road from the site to the part - another 20 minutes, then lunch - about 30 minutes, then some formation, then you just need to run for a point, smoke, wash, file - another 40 minutes. Total We subtract two hours from your time on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. And now you abruptly pass out in bed, knowing that the next shift is from 20-00 to 08-00, which means that the nasty orderly will give the command “Change get up!” somewhere around 18-30, because it is necessary, again, to wash, clear up the needs, march to the dining room and have dinner there, then line up, reach the 2nd platform, line up again, listen to a summary of the current situation from the shift supervisor, receive an order to intercede on combat duty and then only go to change your comrade. In the dry residue, a soldier sleeps for 2.5-3 hours. This is on the condition that you are a soldier from a training company, that is, a cadet. In the battalion, young soldiers - spirits - did not know at all what daytime sleep was.
And then there's the internship. It was autumn, September. For me, the most wonderful time. We were taken on duty together with a change of battalion soldiers. And these are: spirits tormented by insomnia and skulls, the skulls themselves, frantic and merciless, well, and grandfathers resting on the laurels of a well-deserved old age and looking at us, young cadets, with arrogant and squeamish looks. We were not touched. It was believed that it was too early, because our time would come a little later - we would all be in the battalion. The road from the part to the 2nd site led through the DOS, then went out into the open space along the forest, and then completely turned into the silence and expanse of the antenna fields. All this distance, about a kilometer, the shift, as a rule, went on with a drill step, with the aim of somehow still mocking young soldiers, because only spirits marched, and skulls, under the approving glances of grandfathers, were beaten from behind with kirzachs on the legs and hissed angrily in the ear : “Higher leg, soul! Leg up! Hang yourself ... "But for now, they treated us loyally and we just marched as a combatant with all our might, hitting the concrete with our boots in thoughts about what would await us further, in the battalion.
We were trained by old operators, whose service life was at the end. They were preparing a replacement for themselves, knowing that the sooner we start working independently, the more likely they are to demobilize early, they increase. Periodically, they were replaced by skulls - it was more difficult to manage with them. The skull by its nature hates the spirit and, of course, depending on the upbringing and character, it shows this hatred. I knew good guys with feigned Cherepov bravado, but they did not go beyond certain limits of what was permitted, but I also knew such scum to whom this little power gave a chance to reveal all the abomination of their nasty little soul, and they selflessly used this power.
In our hall, the 4th (upper) department, there were 16 posts. They were arranged in two rows of eight, one after the other. An operator sat behind each post and vigilantly “butted” (from the database). Behind the backs of the "butters" was the "aquarium". A glazed room in which sat a junior officer - the shift chief (NS) and two soldiers entering incoming information into an antediluvian (advanced at that time) computer. Each post included a bunch of various equipment, the basis of which was the R399A Katran shortwave receiver. Depending on the purpose and task of the post, additional equipment worked with the Katran, plus sound recording tape recorders. Throughout my service, I worked at several posts, but the main and most favorite was the one with which I started my internship - post No. 62. His name was =Alpha=.
All day long we sat on shifts, and in the evenings we returned to the barracks, where we joyfully met with friends, and in the madness of soldier's fun we finished off the next day.
Mid-September was marked by an old classic Soviet joke - we were removed from our shifts and sent to the potatoes. Potatoes were lying in the field in the smoldering, ruined slurry. It had to be collected. It was more pleasant to deal with a carrot, it did not roll in the mud, and therefore it was more fun to pull it out. By October, the cold had hit, and in order not to freeze and not to become dumb from the monotony of work, we neighed wildly. We named our small brigade Pavlik Morozov's brigade. The weather favored it.
In October the weather turned bad. We were thrown into some state farm on a deserted field near Moscow. It was dug up to the very horizon and dotted with bright pockmarks of potatoes indifferent to everything. In addition, the puddles in the aisle were covered with a crust of ice, and the sky was curtained by a dull gloom. From it soullessly fell, then a fine autumn rain, then heavy snowflakes swollen with grayness. And we went. Two buckets each, to the bottom of which dirt immediately sticks; know drag to the tractor. The time was approaching noon, life seemed lived in vain, the minutes dragged on like an eternity. The space was covered with a dull muslin hanging from the sky. I dragged my two buckets to the tractor and, stepping into one of the puddles, I realized that I was stuck. I made several jerks and, unable to keep my balance, fell flat on my back. A slap, and I lie, contemplating the downcast skies, and with a sinking heart I feel how hell is slowly and scorchingly flowing behind the collar of the pea coat, into the sleeves, into the boots. The cold seized me to convulsions, but what could I do! Somehow I got up and, throwing buckets that no one needed, as if on stilts, trudged back to the road. The cars that brought us had left long ago, and at the edge of the field a weak, frail fire smoked. I wandered over to him. I went and cursed everything. The whole white light seemed so nasty to me that I wanted to close my eyes and not see anything around. My only consolation was to fall and die here right now. All the melancholy, despair and all my troubles suddenly united and fell on my youthful shoulders with an unbearable burden of hopelessness. So I walked through the whole field in the dank rain, not feeling my legs, shuddering at every movement from the disgust of the cold clinging to me. Three or four poor fellows, like me, who had experienced the cold of autumn fields, were sitting by the fire, and they were trying to build a fire. There were no trees, no branches around, and they burned you don’t understand what. I joined. Then we found the tire. Then they went out onto the road and, having stopped the Kamaz, asked for diesel fuel. The driver poured this wonderful liquid into some container for us and, pouring it over the tire, we got a real fire. The tire smoked mercilessly. Our faces turned from deathly pale to black, but we climbed closer to the fire, trying to somehow warm ourselves. I didn't notice how our company got bigger and bigger. From all corners of the field, the afflicted were drawn to the black fire. And now there are already a lot of us and we look at each other's sooty faces and frantic laughter breaks through us. It looks like it's hysterical, but life is starting to return to our bodies, and it seems that I shouldn't have cursed her so much. We laugh, life goes on. Everything will be fine, we are together!
The days flew by unnoticed. Finally it's time to sip the romance of the night shift.
Night. The usual bustle of the day had subsided on the landing. Our 4th department lives in its usual rhythm. There is silence in the hall, only the ether is thinly ringing, pouring out of the headphones, and the equipment is buzzing monotonously at the posts. There is darkness outside the windows and, if you look closely, you can only see a lone lamp at the checkpoint nearby, and then - blackness. Somewhere behind this blackness, in the barracks, my comrades are sleeping, and the unceremonious shouts of orderlies are unable to break their sleep; somewhere in the forest sentries follow their routes. They do not sleep, like me, and they think, think, remember... And somewhere out there, very far away, in another life, your dearest people are sleeping: mother, father, brother... They sleep and do not know I’m probably standing at someone else’s window now and, peering into the impenetrable darkness, I see them ... I see my yard, a birch under my balcony, my house, a girl from the first floor ... It’s night there too. Quiet sweet night. But not the same as here. Not like that...
The shift took care of the duty in advance. At dinner, everything needed was collected from the outfit in the dining room: potatoes, butter, bread, tea, sugar. In the “teapot” a “delivery” was taken (this is when products are brought into the teahouse and you need to “rummage through”, manage to get enough for your share): shortbread, succulents, bagels, puffs with jam, milk in triangular bags. A little later, the potatoes will be cooked in an electric samovar and when the nightly breakfast arrives, they will be eaten with pleasure with all the above splendor. You can't boil potatoes while on duty. You can’t bring anything edible on duty. But we do it with various tricks, and often the shift supervisors take away what has been carried and mercilessly throw it into the trash. Food can be taken away at different stages: at the formation of the shift in the unit - the duty officer for the unit, on the way to the site - the assistant on duty for the unit, when building on the receipt of a combat mission - the operational duty officer, and already directly in the hall - the National Assembly, the shift leader. And we come up with hundreds of ingenious ways to “snatch” precious bags and bags of “zhor”. And if nothing can be carried through, the guilty (spirits) receive a well-deserved punishment and the shift is doomed to eat only what the orderly will bring from some unknown warehouses around midnight. And this, as a rule: several loaves of black bread (a certain amount for each department), gingerbread, one for each brother, sugar and a paper bag of tea. Bread is often fresh. Gingerbread, if you do not soak it in tea, is impossible. Well, tea ... When you pour boiling water in a mug, straw and sawdust immediately float up, the water slowly turns into a light beige color and the absence of the smell of the product indicates that there is no tea at all. It should be noted, again, that only old people and skulls eat potatoes and other joys brought on duty. The spirits are content only with what is officially allowed, although, under fear of punishment from the old people and the National Assembly, it is they who bring “zhor” into the hall, boil potatoes on the samovar, taking full responsibility for the nightly breakfast. One night we were cooking dumplings in a samovar.
And suddenly someone flew. The ether is filled with a characteristic hum and sounds. The operator quickly puts the headphones hanging around his neck on his head, sharply hits the button protruding from the remote control on the table with his palm, giving direction finders on the 1st platform a direction finding command and says into the microphone built into the headphones, the operating frequency: “Alpha, it works!”. I'm sitting on a stool nearby, my pair of headphones is also connected to the post. I hear everything. The heart freezes. I listen to the English speech breaking through the noise of the interference. Here he is! Flies! I listen and look at my operator without looking up. He is focused and attentive. So he stretched and chose on the antenna panel the antenna necessary for better hearing. The ether is silent. We are waiting. Here is the enhanced background again - the transmitter started working and the one on the plane spoke again. He calls the earth, he is not heard. Here he was heard, the earth answers him. The operator, manipulating a special joystick built into the post, indicates to the direction finders in two words - which of the speakers on the air they need to take direction: “It works!” - the direction finder invisible to us at the other end of the antenna field on the 1st platform, having already set the given frequency, accepting the wave captured by the antennas with its devices, determines the direction of the radiation. "Silence!" - in direction finder speakers English speech, but this is the earth talking, you don’t need to take bearings, we need the one in the sky. “It works.... It is silent...” The operator quickly writes with a pencil on the plastic surface of the table. "It's working... It's silent..." Two tape recorders at the edges of the table are winding the air on tape. They will come in handy if we missed something, didn’t hear it. "It works .... It is silent ..." That's it. Contact ended. We are contacting the direction finder. It gives direction in azimuth. Now - "tablet". The "tablet" tells us the area of the object's flight. Now all information is collected. The operator reports the contact to the NS, transfers the information to the form and transfers it to the NS. In our work we use only pencils. It is impossible to take notes on the plastic of the table with an ink pen. Therefore, they do not use ink pens during work, they only fill out the duty log with it. The contact is recorded in this special journal, located at each post. At the end of the shift, the journal is signed by the National Assembly (DB, forms, equipment handed over - DB accepted).
"Tablet" is a wonderful and unique post. Somehow, being already junior sergeant, I was invited there by my friend, who was dragging service there. He received a package from home. He served in the 3rd company - in connection, not a countryman - from Nizhny, they were not friends, but often communicated through the "negotiation" in terms of work. The "tablet" was located in the thick of operational work - at the command post.
The command post is a large hall filled with posts, behind which only officers were on duty. I really liked CP. In the mornings, the data and reports accumulated during the day were put there. Usually the spirit did it. But sometimes I myself, already an old-timer, took forms in the "aquarium" and went there to once again see how GRU officers work. I went into the hall and silently passed the information to the officer on duty, then signed. The first thing that caught my eye was a huge map of the world. The map was made of black glass, and the outlines of the continents were highlighted in white on it. She occupied the entire wall from ceiling to floor. Everywhere, all over the map, some numbers flashed, routes were laid, it shimmered and flickered all over. The officers, paying no attention to me, were busy with something of their own, very important. There was the noise of direct-printing machines, the rumble and rattle of some instruments I had never seen before. There was a lot of work going on there. In the corner there was a huge (for those times) TV, which usually had the CNN channel in English. characteristic feature KP had windows. They had double frames between which, inside, closed horizontal blinds hung. The windows were always closed and the blinds were never raised. As one of the officers told me: once in the nearby forest, a mushroom picker from the neighboring village of Sertyakino stumbled upon a stump from which a disguised intricate device protruded. The mushroom picker, honor and praise be to him, turned to our military unit, they say, you never know. The device turned out to be a room eavesdropper by reading window glass vibrations and was directed by the emitter at the control room windows. Immediately after that, there were blinds.
So, I went to visit the Tablet at night. The NA was not a picky officer and let me go for a while. Entering the checkpoint, I immediately darted into a small room without a door, to the left of the entrance, filled with darkness. There was a post in the middle of the room. My friend was sitting at a table lit by a table lamp, and opposite him, on the wall, flaunted the same black glass map as on the CP, only in a reduced size, about 2 by 1.5 meters. The card did not shine and did not attract much attention. There was darkness everywhere in the corners and the mystical atmosphere from the stories of Edgar Allan Poe filled the room. My friend and I, hiding away in a corner, began to eat. It was real Indian tea, chocolates, honey cakes and lard. Salo and gingerbread. Now it looks ridiculous, but that night it was real wealth. We sat and chatted, told each other about civilian life, dreamed about something and spent the night as best we could. Then he suddenly said to me: “Do you want me to show you what happens when you give a “command” to the bearing from your post?” I was, of course, interested. We hid the mugs and sat down at his post. I contacted my 62nd via intercom and asked my replacement to give a command to the bearing of any ground station that would go on the air first, but my friend said that it would not be interesting, we would wait for someone to fly. They began to wait. Suddenly, a small screen at his post lit up with numbers: 11244. This was the frequency controlled by my post. The main frequency of the Gint Talk communication system. The aircraft of the US Strategic Air Command worked on it: reconnaissance, bomber aircraft and tankers. Immediately, a magical map came to life on the wall opposite. A long beam appeared on it, taking its base in the western part of the USSR. I took a closer look and realized that the beam comes from the Moscow region. “This is ours,” said the comrade, pointing to the beam. This beam indicated the direction of the search for our direction finder, located on the 1st site. Immediately after it, along the entire perimeter of our Soviet border, several more of the same rays flashed, and they all began to move smoothly in different directions, each relative to its beginning. They then froze, then began to move again. Then their direction became more directed, and now two, three beams intersected at approximately one point, a fourth, fifth approached, the rest crawled around the map trying to find something. The zone where the greater number of rays crossed fell in the area of the Barents Sea. “That's where it flies,” my friend said, and I sat open-mouthed and thought: what scales does this powerful system cover, into which I had the honor to plunge, and even take the most direct part in it!
This is how the Krug intelligence system worked. around the perimeter Soviet Union there were eight of the same military units like ours. All of them were on combat duty. In addition, four more units were stationed outside the USSR: Cuba, Vietnam, Mongolia and Burma. When an enemy aircraft went on the air, we, the “microphone operators,” first worked, followed by direction finders. According to the call sign, the nature of the transmitter, the flight zone, the nature of the transmitted information, communication with the ground station and other specific nuances, the aircraft was identified, its combat affiliation, target and flight zone were established. Based on certain data transmitted by him, we could determine the flight route, mission, and other information necessary for the defense of the country. All the information collected by the parts of the "circle" was hastily processed and flowed to the CP of the 2nd site - the central node of the system.
Autumn was coming to an end. The internship was replaced by potatoes, guards, outfits. On November 22, I independently entered the database for the 52nd post, and on December 9 we last time spent the night in school. It's time to move to the battalion ...
It consisted of 5 companies. 1st and 2nd - reconnaissance, 3rd and 4th - communications and 5th - household company. The 1st, 2nd and 5th were located in a new three-story barracks, and the 3rd and 4th in an old noisy building with high ceilings. The saddest thing is that we, who became friends for half a year of training, were divided in half. Half went to the 1st, half to the 2nd company and we said goodbye, almost forever, although we knew that we would live in the same building, but on different floors. According to the stories, we knew that the statutory order reigned in the first company, while in the second, on the contrary, non-regulation. No one knew where to get better, but we guessed that we would have to “fly” in any of the companies for half a year. I was sent to the 2nd. We were greeted there joyfully and unfriendly by the familiar greeting: "Spirits, hang yourself!" The 1st squad of the 2nd platoon is my first assignment in the battalion. The first impression is complete confusion and oppression. If in training we were all equal and only sergeants commanded us, and life proceeded strictly according to the charter and without assault, then the battalion immediately made it clear that everything would be completely different here. The skulls looked at us with undisguised hatred, realizing that their “spiritual” life was ending, the old men arrogantly showed their superiority over us with their impudent and relaxed behavior, and the demobilization (a week later they had 100 days left before the order) condescendingly smiled, detached from everything. with their own affairs. Here their own orders reigned and it remained only, reluctantly, to wait what would happen next. And then it was like that for two days no one touched us, we did our spiritual work: we washed, ground, rubbed the mastic floors ... On the third night after the lights out, the skulls from the old people were given the command to show us what-how much. This was the first serious test for our character, for the skulls beat us mercilessly. They beat me mainly in the chest, kidneys, legs, so as not to leave bruises on the exposed parts of the body. Several people were beaten furiously at once and there was no way to defend themselves. The old men cheerfully cheered up the skulls, and the demobilized looked at all this with indifference and smiles, and, probably, remembering themselves as spirits, walked around the barracks indifferently. Thus began our real army life.
Here is the last entry of those times in my notebook, which characterizes my life in the battalion:
“12/19/90. You can live. I almost got used to it, but... I didn't sleep at all today. I am very tired. It's bad, you know..."
And yet, there were wonderful moments when we left the company for shifts, where, although the skulls were fierce, the atmosphere was not so tense, and where we were engaged in a business that dragged us more and more. Thus ended the year 1990. What the 91st concealed in itself, I will now tell you.
=1991=
A new, long-awaited, 1992 has come. In the village, near the unit, our company bought a 3-liter can of muddy, smelly moonshine and on New Year's Eve in the barracks wildly ate it. I wanted adventure and we went to the 3rd floor to congratulate the 1st company. There we were treated to technical alcohol of a beautiful pink color. We diluted it with Pepsi-Cola. Then everyone went back in a frenzy, opened the sealed cupboard and raked out all the cologne from the diplomats. We drank it in a washbasin from an aluminum mug, diluted with tap water, and it turned white like milk. At the end, I didn't remember anything. In the morning they barely got me up - I had to go to my shift. They led me to the shift by the arms, hiding from the pom. DPC. All the time I was throwing up Polish cologne "Consul". So cheerfully and provocatively we met our demobilized New Year.
The time has come and from the skull I turned into an old man, and, finally, into a grandfather. I was awarded the 1st class, but I was not promoted in rank. So I stayed ml. sergeant. At the end of the service, the company commander drove me to the outfits. The lesson was boring and I did not remember anything significant from these outfits. I was too lazy to make a demobilization album, I didn’t want to spoil the parade either, especially since I was going to go home in civilian clothes. (I took with me only my Afghan, which still serves me faithfully in the country).
The hour has come and here is my last day in the part. All of my friends who were in the company, I took to the "teapot", where I showed myself shortcakes and milk. Then he changed into a prepared civilian and went to say goodbye to the 2nd site with the guys from the shift. This farewell was touching to tears. Still would! I lived with these guys side by side for two years! What we had to endure knew only we. Like brothers, we shared everything that we had, spent sleepless nights together on shifts, on guard, in outfits, it happened, we smoked one cigarette for eight ... We yearned and rejoiced, sad and laughed silly. All this happened to us! And now, after twenty years already, returning my thoughts to those distant years, I want to tell you guys: thank you for being with me! I will never forget you!
On November 13, 1918, the first radio intelligence unit was created as part of the Registration Department - a receiving and control station in Serpukhov, its head was Kh. Ivanov. And in the 30s. radio intelligence gained independence - its units were withdrawn from communications units and transferred to the Intelligence Department of the Red Army Headquarters, where they organized a radio intelligence department.
Special Purpose Units - perform the tasks of radio and electronic intelligenceOn November 13, 1918, the first radio intelligence unit was created as part of the Registration Department - a receiving and control station in Serpukhov, its head was Kh. Ivanov. And in the 30s. radio intelligence gained independence - its units were withdrawn from communications units and transferred to the Intelligence Department of the Red Army Headquarters, where they organized a radio intelligence department. He led separate special-purpose divisions (ORD OSNAZ), which during the Great Patriotic War became the main organizational unit of radio intelligence.
It is known that just before the start of the war, an order was received to staff 16 OSNAZ radio divisions. In November 1942, as part of internal troops were received from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army, the field departments of the special service and the OSNAZ radio station. They were reorganized into separate divisions of the special services, the central and separate radio stations of the NKVD troops. They were entrusted with the tasks of reconnaissance of the air, the implementation of radio interception, encrypted radio correspondence, preliminary processing of this data from radio networks and individual radio points.
After the end of the war, the field of activity of radio intelligence increased significantly - they began to conduct it not only from land, but also from the sea and air. When M. Zakharov was the head of the GRU, the OSNAZ radio divisions were united into larger structures. And under S. Shtemenko, the GRU began to carry out active research work to find ways to access sources using the VHF and microwave bands. In addition, under him, a nuclear explosions intelligence service appeared in the GRU, it was headed by A. Ustimenko.
In 1954, a special surveillance department of the 2nd department of the GRU was created; on the basis of the OSNAZ radio divisions, radio engineering detachments subordinate to it were formed. In May 1955, the radio intelligence department of the GRU was reorganized into the 6th Directorate of the GRU. In 1957, the General Staff issued a directive on the transfer of the GRU Special Surveillance Department with 4 subordinate radio engineering detachments to the 6th Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
However, radio intelligence began to be used most fully from the beginning of the 60s, when P. Ivashutin was appointed head of the GRU. With his direct participation, large comprehensive programs development promising directions radio intelligence - land, sea, air and space. Among those who supervised these works, one can name P. Kostin, V. Kostryukov, E. Kolokov, P. Shmyrev and others.
Before the collapse of the USSR, OSNAZ detachments were subordinate to the 1st radio intelligence department of the 6th GRU directorate. This department led the so-called OSNAZ units, which were part of the military districts and groups Soviet troops in Hungary, East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Under the leadership of the radio intelligence department, OSNAZ performed the functions of intercepting messages from communication networks foreign countries- objects of radio reconnaissance surveillance by the GRU.
There is an opinion that in Soviet times, almost all the offspring of "people's leaders" served in OSNAZ units. We publish an excerpt from an article by our partner Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta:
“... The statements of some military men that hazing is ineradicable, because it is rooted in a “citizen”, in OSNAZ, to put it mildly, were devoid of any meaning. Here, this hazing, even in its rampant, which fell on the 70-80s, was not. There was only a certain tradition of dividing into "spirits", "fighters", "scoops" and "grandfathers". And the days were still counting down. Things never went beyond these innocent pranks, and even those were carefully hidden from the officers. Of course, as in any human community, sometimes small conflicts arose between the soldiers. Fights, drinking and other violations of discipline were stopped in the bud. And if someone had a bruise under the eye, then no more than once every two or three years. And this, I dare to assure you as a former employee of this very unit, was a real state of emergency. Dismissal - every weekend. On Friday evening, black Volgas drove up and took overgrown kids to eat homemade pies.
About operational duty with listening to enemy frequencies should be told separately. Imagine a large hall where about three dozen powerful radios and about fifteen tape recorders are located in two rows. For each post, where two or three soldiers are on duty in turn, there are two radio receivers and one tape recorder. The officers are located in the "aquarium" (glass room) and look after all this economy from the outside.
What do soldiers do on duty? Of course, they listen to the frequencies in order to catch the negotiations of some NATO aircraft with the ground or the broadcast of the NATO headquarters station in Brussels. But this is in the first six months. Then the “enemy voices” became the main object of observation: Seva Novgorodtsev, the radio station “Freedom” and the abyss of various musical channels of the “decaying West”. A huge antenna field, located right outside the duty room window, made it possible to “catch by the tail” almost any wave. The first and second "categories" of military personnel in those years "dragged" mainly from "heavy metal".
Listening to music and especially "enemy voices" was strictly prohibited, but it was not possible to keep track of this. While the officer was leaving the "aquarium", while getting to the post in order to check the soldier, he had already managed to change the frequency ten times. By the way, one of the reasons why the “golden youth” was taken to OSNAZ, I think, was precisely the opportunity to listen to everything that your heart desires. The children of ministers and party leaders were the most persistent guys in this regard. They felt quite at ease under socialism and, of course, did not succumb to hostile propaganda.
"Rumourers" in OSNAZ are those who are sitting on the interception of enemy radio stations operating on the Morse Code. These posts were filled mainly by conscripts of the third and fourth "categories of importance." It seems to a person from the outside that learning Morse code is quite difficult. All these dots, dashes - is it possible to catch an unimaginable number of their combinations. It is possible, and the army has long had an effective system for their assimilation. This system is based on melodic and associative perception of surrounding sounds. For example, the letter "a" sounds: "ah-daa", and the number "4" - "chet-ve-re-ti-kaa". Sometimes a stream of dots and dashes is transformed into an unthinkably confusing phrase, which only real "hearers" are able to understand.
"Microphones" are those who catch the conversation of the pilots of NATO aircraft, which is no longer in Morse code, but in ordinary English. These posts were in the most privileged position, and mainly recruits of the first and second "categories" fell here. By the way, in 1988, when Gorbachev began the mass disarmament of the Soviet Army, the "microphones" that interact with the air defense system were transferred to combat duty. This measure was dictated by the increased interest of NATO reconnaissance aircraft in the territory of the USSR. In 1988, one of the "microphones" even managed to intercept the conversation of a similar aircraft, requesting permission from the command to penetrate into air space Soviet Union. The insolent man was immediately located and handed over to the air defense system for inspection, and the valiant "microphone" received a nominal watch as a gift from the command.
"BP", as well as "rumors", were recruited from the third and fourth "categories" of conscripts. The difference was that those who could not master the Morse code became "Bepashniks". "BP" are "trills" of various encrypted sounds, like those that we hear while sending a fax. No special skills were required in mastering this military profession, and therefore, among the hierarchy of radio interceptors, she occupied the very last place.
"Sugar" service was at direction finders. Bearing points were located not only in the part we are describing, but also throughout the vast territory former USSR. These are small divisions of 10-20 people with a quiet homely atmosphere inside. They were located somewhere in the field and were actually controlled only by lieutenants, who treated the soldiers as if they were brothers. Almost all "categories" of conscripts fell into direction finders. But there was one feature. The OSNAZ command often sent soldiers prone to violating military discipline to distant points, and therefore no one particularly sought to go there, assuming that complete chaos reigns there. Only years later, when the direction finders met with their former colleagues, it suddenly became clear that the far point was not even bad at all ... ”.
Everyone has probably heard about the famous GRU special forces, but in society this type of GRU units of the General Staff of the RF Ministry of Defense is less known as OSNAZ. What are these divisions? It simply stands for Special Purpose Units, they perform the tasks of radio and electronic intelligence.
Radio intelligence in Russia originated in Russo-Japanese War. Its creator was Admiral Makarov. It was applied navy imperial Russia. After the revolution of 1917, the power in the country changed dramatically, as did the political system of society. There was a new armed forces - the Red Army. On November 13, 1918, as part of the Registration Department (military intelligence), the first radio intelligence unit was created - a receiving and control station in Serpukhov, its head was Kh. Ivanov. And in the 30s. radio intelligence gained independence - its units were withdrawn from the communications units and transferred to the Intelligence Agency of the Red Army Headquarters, where they organized a whole radio intelligence department. He led separate special-purpose divisions (ORD OSNAZ), which during the Great Patriotic War became the main organizational unit. Interestingly, just before the start of the war, an order was received to staff 16 OSNAZ radio divisions.
In November 1942, another reform took place - the field departments of the special service and the OSNAZ radio station were accepted into the internal troops from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army. They were reorganized into separate divisions of the special services, the central and separate radio stations of the NKVD troops. They were entrusted with the tasks of reconnaissance of the radio air, the implementation of radio interception, encrypted radio correspondence, preliminary processing of this data from radio networks and individual radio points. During the war years, radio intelligence more than once obtained valuable information for the Soviet command. For example, radio intelligence was used in the battle for Moscow, during Battle of Kursk. And in the winter of 1945, Soviet radio intelligence managed to open the transfer to Hungary of the 6th SS Panzer Army. In the period from February 18 to February 25, in the areas of Koprivnitsa, Dyurdyevets, Virovitsa, radio intelligence revealed the work of four headquarters tank divisions the enemy, who were part of this army. This radio intelligence data, coupled with other intelligence information, made it possible to conclude that the Germans were preparing an offensive in March 1945 in the Lake Balaton area.
After the end of the war, the field of activity of radio intelligence increased significantly - it began to be carried out not only from land, but also from the sea and from the air. When M. Zakharov was the head of the GRU, the OSNAZ radio divisions were united into larger structures. And under S. Shtemenko, the GRU began to carry out active research work to find ways to access sources using the VHF and microwave bands. In addition, under him, a nuclear explosion intelligence service appeared in the GRU, headed by A. Ustimenko.
In 1954, a special surveillance department of the 2nd department of the GRU was created; on the basis of the OSNAZ radio divisions, radio engineering detachments subordinate to it were formed. In May 1955, the radio intelligence department of the GRU was reorganized into the 6th Directorate of the GRU. In 1957, the General Staff issued a directive on the transfer of the GRU Special Surveillance Department with 4 subordinate radio engineering detachments to the 6th Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
However, radio intelligence began to be used most fully from the beginning of the 60s, when P. Ivashutin was appointed head of the GRU. With his direct participation, large-scale comprehensive programs for the development of promising areas of radio intelligence - land, sea, air and space were implemented.
Before the collapse of the USSR, OSNAZ detachments were subordinate to the 1st radio intelligence department of the 6th GRU directorate. This department led the so-called OSNAZ units that were part of the military districts and groups of Soviet troops in Hungary, the GDR, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Under the leadership of the radio intelligence department, OSNAZ performed the functions of intercepting messages from the communication networks of NATO countries - objects of radio intelligence surveillance by the GRU.
At the moment, parts of the OSNAZ GRU continue their activities in order to protect the Russian Federation from external aggression.