Viktor Suvorov
"Spetsnaz" later referred specifically to special ("spetsialnovo") 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 intelligence 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. In "Aquarium", a book published by Viktor Suvorov after defecting to the west, he alleges that the Spetsnaz used condemned criminals from the Gulag system (even condemned Spetsnaz) as "dolls" and "gladiators" for to-the-death combat training. The author mentions duels to the death becoming more rare during the time of his service due to "procurement of dolls" becoming harder. Suvorov frequently references the co-location of some secret Spetsnaz training facilities that killed prisoners in this way, adjacent to Gulags for this reason.