SMERSH SMERSH ( , acronym of ( Spetsyalnye MEtody Razoblacheniya SHpyonov ; Special Methods of Spy Detection ) , but also anecdotically referred to as " SMERt ' SHpionam " ; " Death to spies " ) was an umbrella name for three independent counter - intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier , but officially founded on 14 April 1943 . The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin . The pretext for its creation was to subvert the attempts by German forces to infiltrate the Red Army . Official statute of SMERSH listed following tasks to be solved by this organization : The organisation was officially in existence until 4 May 1946 , when its duties were transferred back to the NKGB . The head of the agency throughout its existence was Viktor Abakumov , who rose to become Minister of State Security in the postwar years . History . Reorganisation of the State Police agency ( World War II ) . On 3 February 1941 , the Special Sections ( " osoby otdel " ) of the NKVD ( responsible for Military counterintelligence of the Soviet Army ) became part of the Soviet Armed Forces ( particularly Red Army and Red Fleet ) . At the same time the Main Directorate for State Security ( GUGB ) was split from the NKVD into separate commissariat named the People ' s Commissariat for State Security ( NKGB ) , with the Counter - Intelligence ( KI ) sections assigned to it . The NKVD and NKGF were reunited on 20 July 1941 following the German invasion of the USSR , and CI was returned to the NKVD in January 1942 . On 14 April 1943 , the State Defense Committee ( GKO ) , chaired by Stalin , ordered another split of the People ' s Commissariat for Internal Affairs Main Directorate for State Security ( GUGB / NKVD ) into three organisations : In addition to GUKR - NKO SMERSH directorate , two additional independent SMERSH units were established : Of all three GUKR - NKO SMERSH got most extensive coverage in films and literature and respectively is best known . On 19 April 1943 , staff was appointed to SMERSH . The KI was again transferred to the People ' s Commissariats of Defence ( NKO ) and the Navy ( NKF ) , becoming SMERSH within NKO . The full name of the head entity was " Главное управление контрразведки СМЕРШ Народного комиссариата обороны СССР " , or " USSR People ' s Commissariat of Defence Chief Counterintelligence Directorate " SMERSH " " . Popular misconception that head of the organization Viktor Abakumov , was a subordinate of Lavrenty Beria is incorrect . Abakumov was a direct subordinate of Stalin , Beria has own department of SMERSH and all 3 SMERSH organizations belonged to different branches of Soviet structure ( NKO , Navy and NKVD respectively ) . There are many possible reasons for this division . As the requirements of the war expanded and the Soviet armies began their conquest of previously occupied German territory , the complexities of counter - espionage , counter - insurgency , and occupation were sufficiently large to encourage Stalin to consolidate all of SMERSH under his direct control . Not only did the breakup streamline the Soviet Union ’ s internal and external intelligence operations , but it allowed the GKO and Joseph Stalin greater control over each of these organisations . Intelligence officers became responsible for their effectiveness as they could not blame their failure on the regular military officers in the GUGB / NKVD ’ s chain of command . Further , Stalin was able to check the growing ambition of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria , the head of the GUGB / NKVD . The GKO utilized this sudden name change in order to create confusion within the Abwehr , the German military intelligence organization . The GUKR - NKO received the nickname SMERSH in a Special Department meeting with Stalin in which Stalin rejected the nickname “ Death to German Spies ” or “ Smert ’ nemetskim shpionam ” retorting : “ Why . . . should we only be speaking of German spies ? Aren ’ t other intelligence services working against our country ? Let ’ s call it ‘ Smert ’ Shpionam ’ ( Death to Spies ) . ” Duties . The GKO officially created SMERSH to ensure the Soviet Union ’ s security from internal political threats and foreign espionage , although it carried out a wide variety of other tasks between 1943 and 1946 as well . SMERSH ’ s counterintelligence operations included seeking and destroying counter revolutionaries , finding and interrogating enemy agents , hunting Soviet agents who had not returned by the appointed date , and evaluating the usefulness of captured enemy documents . SMERSH also took an active role in the affairs of the Red Army by ensuring the good quality of Red Army facilities , improving discipline , eliminating poor leaders , and preventing desertion , self - inflicted wounds , panic , sabotage and poor discipline . Other SMERSH activities included : exposing collaborators in areas recently captured by the Red Army ; exposing and punishing economic crimes such as black market activity ; protecting secret material and headquarters from enemy agents and saboteurs ; and determining the “ patriotism ” of those captured , encircled , and those who had returned from foreign countries . SMERSH operatives also controlled partisan operations behind German lines and evaluated the partisans ’ loyalty to the Soviet Union . SMERSH would then arrest and neutralise anti - Soviet partisans , saboteurs , spies , conspirators , mutineers , deserters , and people designated as traitors and criminal elements at the combat front . As the requirements of the war expanded and the Soviet armies began their conquest of previously occupied German territory , the complexities of counter - espionage , counter - insurgency , and occupation were sufficiently large to encourage Stalin to consolidate all of SMERSH under his direct control . The strategic directorate focused on counter - espionage wet operations and counter - insurgency pacification operations that answered directly to Stalin . In March 1946 SMERSH Chief Directorate was resubordinated to the People ' s Commissariat of Military Forces ( Наркомат Вооруженных Сил , NKVS ) . The NKVS was later reorganized into the Ministry of Military Forces ( МVS ) soon thereafter , and SMERSH was officially discontinued 4 May 1946 . Other activities . SMERSH activities included " filtering " the soldiers and forced labourers recovered from captivity . SMERSH was also actively involved in the capture of Soviet citizens who had been active in anti - communist armed groups fighting on the side of Nazi Germany such as the Russian Liberation Army , the Cossack Corps of Pyotr Krasnov , and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists ( see also forced repatriation ) . As the war concluded , SMERSH was given the assignment of finding Adolf Hitler and , if possible , capturing him alive or recovering his body . Red Army officers and SMERSH agents found Hitler ' s partially burned corpse near the Führerbunker after his suicide and conducted an investigation to confirm the events of his death and identify the remains which ( along with those of Eva Braun ) were reportedly secretly buried at SMERSH headquarters in Magdeburg until April 1970 , when they were exhumed , completely cremated , and dumped in the Elbe river . Organization . At the end of the Second World War , American forces examining captured German intelligence sources determined that SMERSH was composed of six directorates , six departments , and three other branches . Directorates conducted operations involving agents on the “ frontline ” of the intelligence war whereas departments received and interpreted the information coming in from agents and enemy intercepts . SMERSH also ran three other groups ; the Komendatura , which guarded and managed SMERSH installations and prisoners ; the Troika , which acted as a military court and could administer punishment without defense from the accused ; and the Administrative Bureau and Secretariat , which acted as the personal staff of the SMERSH commander . Below is the organization of SMERSH based on German Intelligence : < / div > This Chart shows another way SMERSH may have been organized : Methods . In its counter - espionage and counter - intelligence roles , SMERSH appears to have been extremely successful throughout World War II . SMERSH actions resulted in numerous captures , desertions , and defections of German intelligence officers and agents , some of whom SMERSH turned into double agents . Indeed , the Germans began to consider missions where their losses were less than ninety percent “ satisfactory . ” According to German sources , the Soviets rendered approximately 39 , 500 German agents useless by the end of the war . SMERSH utilized a number of different counterintelligence tactics : informants , security troops , radio games , and the passing of disinformation , ensuring both the reliability of the military and the civilian population . SMERSH set up a system of informants by sending a SMERSH officer to each battalion composed of between 1 , 000 and 1 , 500 men . Each SMERSH officer would enlist a number of “ residents ” who recruited their own “ reserve resident ” and between six and eight informants . Informants reported those sympathetic to the Germans , desertion , unpatriotic attitudes , and low morale and were authorized to take “ immediate corrective action ” if the need arose . SMERSH recruited between 1 , 540 , 000 and 3 , 400 , 000 informants , or about twelve percent of the entire Red Army . However , SMERSH coerced up to half of all of its informants to work for them . In order to secure the Red Army ’ s rear , SMERSH evacuated civilians and set up checkpoints so as to assert physical control . Next , agents sought and arrested “ suspicious persons ” who might be German agents . Finally , SMERSH interrogated those arrested . To confuse German intelligence with disinformation , SMERSH utilized radio playbacks and played over 183 radio games over the course of the war . Operation “ Opyt ’ ” serves as a good example of the effectiveness of these radio games . Between May and June 1943 , SMERSH used three German agents to spread disinformation about the Kursk counteroffensive by suggesting the Red Army had begun to dig in rather than prepare for an attack , thus contributing to the success of the Red Army ’ s surprise attack . Before Operation Bagration , the largest Allied operation of the Second World War , SMERSH caught and “ doubled ” a number of German agents who tricked the German military into underestimating the number of Soviet troops by 1 . 2 million men . SMERSH played a major role in creating and controlling partisan operations behind German lines . After capturing German - held territory and reuniting with the Red Army , SMERSH interviewed partisans in order to determine the partisans ’ loyalty to the regime .