SPETSNAZ - THE SOVIET SPECIAL FORCES

The Inside Story Of The Soviet Special Forces

Athletes

Chapter 6 Page 3 NEXT PAGE >

Secondly, the Soviet Union introduced a `limited' contingent of its troops into Afghanistan. The Soviet leaders' idea was that the word `limited' would serve to reassure everyone -- there would be grounds for concern if there were an `unlimited' contingent of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. But so long as the `limited' contingent of Soviet troops is still in Afghanistan it would not be a bad idea to limit the number of Soviet colonels, majors, captains and sergeants in the countries of the West, especially those wearing blue berets and little gilt parachute badges on their lapels. It is those people in the blue berets who are killing children, women and old men in Afghanistan in the most brutal and ruthless way.

Thirdly, a Soviet pilot shot down a passenger plane with hundreds of people in it. After that, is there any sense in meeting Soviet airmen at international competitions and finding out who is better and who is worse? Surely the answer is clear, without any competition.

Sport is politics, and big-time sport is big-time politics. At the end of the last war the Soviet Union seized the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and the West has never recognised the Soviet Union's right to those territories. All right, said the Soviet leaders, if you won't recognise it de jure, recognise it de facto. A great deal has been done, some of it with the help of sport. During the Moscow Olympic Games some of the competitions took place in Moscow and some of them in the occupied territories of the Baltic states. At that time I talked to a number of Western politicians and sportsmen. I asked them: if the Soviet Union had occupied Sweden, would they have gone to the Olympic Games in Moscow? With one indignant voice they replied, `No!' But if parts of the Games had taken place in Moscow and part in Stockholm would they have gone to occupied Stockholm? Here there was no limit to their indignation. They considered themselves people of character and they would never have gone to occupied countries. Then why, I asked, did they go to an Olympic Games, part of which took place in the occupied territory of the Baltic states? To that question I received no answer.

The units made up of professional athletes in spetsnaz are an elite within an elite. They are made up of far better human material (some of Olympic standard), enjoy incomparably better living conditions and many more privileges than other spetsnaz units.

In carrying out their missions the professional athletes have the right to make contact with spetsnaz agents on enemy territory and obtain help from them. They are in effect the advance guard for all the other spetsnaz formations. They are the first to be issued with latest weapons and equipment and the first to try out the newly devised and most risky kinds of operation. It is only after experiments have been carried out by the units of athletes that new weapons, equipment and ways of operating are adopted by regular spetsnaz units. Here is an example:

In my book Aquarium, first published in July 1985, I described the period of my life when I served as an officer of the Intelligence directorate of a military district and often had to act as the personal representative of the district's chief of intelligence with the spetsnaz groups. The period I described was identified: it was after my return from `liberated' Czechoslovakia and before I entered the Military-Diplomatic Academy in the summer of 1970.

I described the ordinary spetsnaz units that I had to deal with. One group carried out a parachute jump from 100 metres. Each man had just one parachute: in that situation a spare one was pointless. The jump took place over snow. Throughout the book I refer only to one type of parachute: the D-1-8. Four months later, in the magazine Sovetsky Voin for November 1985, a Lieutenant-General Lisov published what might be called the pre-history of group parachute jumps by spetsnaz units from critically low levels. The General describes a group jump from a height of 100 metres in which each man had only one parachute, and he explains that a spare one is not needed. The jump takes place over snow. The article refers to only one type of parachute -- the D-1-8.

General Lisov was describing trials which were carried out from October 1967 to March 1968. The General did not, of course, say why the trials were carried out and the word spetsnaz was not, of course, used. But he underlined the fact that the trial was not conducted because it had any connection with sport. On the contrary, according to the rules laid down by the international sports bodies at that time, anyone who during a contest opened his parachute less than 400 metres from the ground was disqualified.

General Lisov conducted the trial contrary to all rules of the sport and not to demonstrate sporting prowess. The military athletes left the aircraft at a height of 100 metres, so their parachutes must have opened even lower down. The group jump took place simultaneously from several aircraft, with the parachutists leaving their plane at about one-second intervals. Each of them was in the air for between 9.5 and 13 seconds. General Lisov summed it up like this: 100 metres, 50 men, 23 seconds. An amazing result by any standards.

The fifty men symbolised the fifty years of the Soviet Army. It was planned to carry out the jump of 23 February, 1968, on the Army's anniversary, but because of the weather it was postponed till 1 March.

I could not have known at that time about General Lisov's trials. But it is now clear to me that the tactic that was being developed in the spetsnaz fighting units in 1969-70 had been initiated by professional military athletes a year before.

This dangerous stunt was carried out in my ordinary spetsnaz unit in rather simpler conditions: we jumped in a group of thirteen men from the wide rear door of an Antonov-12 aircraft. The professionals described by General Lisov jumped from the narrow side doors of an Antonov-2, which is more awkward and dangerous. The professionals made the jump in a much bigger group, more closely together and with greater accuracy.

In spite of the fact that the ordinary spetsnaz units did not succeed and will never succeed in achieving results comparable with those of the professional athletes, nevertheless the idea of the group jump from a height of a hundred metres provided the fighting units with an exceptionally valuable technique. The special troops are on the ground before the planes have vanished over the horizon, and they are ready for action before the enemy has had time to grasp what is happening. They need this technique to be able to attack the enemy without any warning at all. That is the reason for taking such a risk.

During a war the fighting units of spetsnaz will be carrying out missions behind the enemy's lines. Surely the units of professional athletes, which are capable of carrying out extremely dangerous work with even greater precision and speed than the ordinary spetsnaz units, should not be left unemployed in wartime?

Before leaving the subject entirely, I would like to add a few words about another use of Soviet athletes for terrorist operations. Not only the Soviet Army but also the Soviet state's punitive apparatus (known at various times as the NKVD, the MGB, the MVD and the KGB) has its own sports organisation, Dinamo. Here are some illustrations of its practical application. continued next page...