Stalin's Secret War: Soviet Counterintelligence against the Nazis, 1941-1945

Modern War Studies

by Robert W. Stephan

The Soviet-German War of 1941-1945 was the most extensive intelligence/counterintelligence war in modern history, involving the capture, torture, deportation, execution, and "doubling" of tens of thousands of agents--most of them Soviet citizens. While Russian armies fought furiously to defeat the Wehrmacht, Stalin's security services waged an equally ruthless secret war against Hitler's spies, as well as against the Soviet population. For the first time, Robert Stephan now combines declassified U.S. intelligence documents, captured German records, and Russian sources, including a top-secret Soviet history of its intelligence and security services, to reveal the magnitude and scope of the brutal but sophisticated Soviet counterintelligence war against Nazi Germany. Employing as many as 150,000 trained agents across a 2,400-mile front, the Soviets neutralized the majority of the more than 40,000 German agents deployed against them. As Stephan shows, their combination of Soviet military deception operations and State Security's defeat of the Abwehr's human intelligence effort had devastating consequences for the German Army in every major battle against the Red army, including Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk, the Belorussian offensive, and the Vistula-Oder operation. Simultaneously, Soviet State Security continued to penetrate the world's major intelligence services including those of its allies, terrorize its own citizens to prevent spying, desertion, and real or perceived opposition to the regime, and run millions of informants, making the USSR a vast prison covering one sixth of the world's surface. Stephan discusses all facets of the Soviet counterintelligence effort, including the major Soviet "radio games" used to mislead the Germans--operations Monastery, Berezino, and those that defeated Himmler's Operation Zeppelin. He also gives the most comprehensive account to date of the Abwehr's infamous agent "Max," whose organization allegedly ran an entire network of agents inside the USSR, and reveals the reasons for Germany's catastrophic under-estimation of Soviet forces by more than one million men during their 1944 summer offensive in Belorussia. Richly detailed and epic in scope, Stalin's Secret War opens up a previously hidden dimension of World War II. This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Genres: War, Military History, Russia, World War II

364 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2003

Reviews

[Teal · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the premise was very interesting and the research well executed, I found some facts and acknowledgements missing. There were many times that I was able to find contradictory information in other books and articles. His understanding of the enigma machine and ultra seemed limited. Well laid out and easy to read though

[Luka Novak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of books about Eastern front focus on titanic struggles between two large armies in front of Moscow, in stalingrad, Kursk and other household names. This book focuses on intelligence services of the Soviet Union, how they operated during the war and how German services acted and reacted.

Of course there are numerous blank spots, seeing how we are talking about recent history of a country never known for it's openess and intelligence services that are secretive even in most open countries. The book is filled with "it's not possible to examine Soviet documents so I had to rely on captured German documents and post-war western analysis" passages.

But even so Stephan offers a glimpse into various intelligence and security services active in Soviet Union during the war. Relying on heavily censored memoirs of key players and various documents obtained from Soviet services.

Stephan argues that soviet security agencies with quarter of the century of experience in rooting out real or imagined enemies of the state were able to erect an inpenetrable wall against German agents and prevented them from doing their job. Stephan then charts how Soviets were able to capture and turn german agents, operate double agents and infiltrate german training schools, recruiting agents before they were deployed behind Soviet lines and used them as double agents. Couple of operations are analyzed in as much detail as possible, giving reader an opportunity to see how Soviets worked.

Stephan demolishes myth about effectiveness of Gehlen's FHO, pointing out that steady stream of misinformation coupled with occasional true bits constanly fouled FHO and allowed for some most notable Soviet success stories (Stalingrad counter offensive, post-Zitadelle offensive and Bagration).

Overall author did what he could with sources at his disposal. I'm sure future books will shed more light as Russia opens their archives about this time period but for now this is about as good as it gets. Worth reading if you are interested in intelligence services on Eastern front during WW2.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

A simple truth is stated early in this book. The communist party in Russia is a counter intelligence operation first, a political party second, and runs the country with whatever time it has left. German attempts to learn what was going on inside Russia were doomed from the start. The communists are so dedicated to searching for dissidents within their country attempts to inject spies are quickly spotted.

[Stephen Boiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and largely neglected theme, deeply and thoroughly researched and tellingly presented.