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ALPHA

TEAM

TRAINING

MANUAL

How the Soviets Trained

for Personal Combat,

Assassination, and

Subversion

ALPHA

TEAM

TRAINING

MANUAL I,

• ..

How the Soviets Trained

for Personal Combat,

Assassination, and

Subversion

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

Chapter 3. Techniques and Methods for Teaching Personal Combat .••••...................•.....•..........•......... Recommendations for Methods in Teaching Tactics of Personal Combat Basic Vulnerable Areas and Points of the Human Body Techniques of Inflicting Effective Blows A Graduated Series of Warm-Up Exercises Special Exercises Blows Safety and Self-Protection in Falls Self-Protection in Falls to the Side Safety in Forward Falls A Series of Exercises in Learning Safety/Self-Protection

Chapter 4. A Practical Section in Special Physical1'raining .........••.•.•..............•............••.......... 147 Basic Methods for Capturing Basic Methods for Silently Killing an Armed Enemy Additional Methods for Silent Killing Cold Weapons Choking Techniques Attacks by Teams Silent Attacks on the Enemy from Concealment Attacking an Enemy in Its Position Capturing an Enemy Traveling by Bicycle, Motorcycle, or Horse Signs and Signals for Silent Operations Some Training Exercises and Tasks Methods for Securing and Transporting Prisoners Methods for Securing The Use of Handcuffs for Securing Methods of Conveying a Prisoner Methods for Evacuating the Wounded

Chapter 5. Escaping from and Fighting OtT Physical Attacks; Mutual Aid; Throws ••..••...........•.•.•.......... 191 Escaping Attacks from the Front

IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Escaping Attacks from Behind Escaping from Holds in Fights on the Ground Defense and Mutual Aid ·Self-Defense against an Enemy with a Firearm Basic Methods of Defense against a Firearm Aimed from in Front Basic Methods of Defense against a Firearm Aimed from Behind Defense against Cold Weapons The Overhand Arm Knot Lock Inward Arm Twist against an Overhand Stab Underhand Stabs Backhand and Lateral Stabs Self-Defense Using Additional Means Basic Techniques Additional Ways to Defeat an Enemy without Using Weapons Twisting the Neck Vertebrae Choking Techniques Using Weapons and Other Objects for Self-Defense Throwing Cold Weapons at a Target

Chapter 6. Penetrating Buildings in an Attack. ....•..............

Chapter 7. Models for Restoring Work Capacity and Monitoring the State of Health ..•...........•.........•.•.•................ Steam Baths Nutrition in Times of Heavy Physical Exertion Vitamins Water Ways of Monitoring the State of Health Some Possible Breakdowns in Human Health under Heavy Stress Injuries

Readings ..................................................................................

v

WARNING

The information presented in this book is for reference and historical purposes only! The author, publisher, and distributors do not in any way endorse nor condone any illegal or dang~rous activity or act that may be depicted in the following pages. Therefore, the author, publisher, and distributors disclaim any lia- bility and assume no responsibility for the use or misuse of the information herein.

VI

PREFACE

Editor's note: The KGB Alpha Team Training Manual was pro- vided to Paladin Press by Jim Shortt, who, as director of International Bodyguard Association (IBA), has trained numerous Western military and police units in anti-Spetsnaz activities. Shortt was the first outsider to train KGB personnel, and he has been active in the Baltic States both before and after independence, train- ing these republics' police and security forces. Shortt also trained mujahideen forces during the war in Afghanistan. Several pages in chapters 5 and 6 of this manual are missing. The same pages were missing in every copy of the manual that Shortt examined. This leads one to believe that the pages were either delib- erately pulled because of sensitive information found on them, or the Soviet military suffered from the same inefficiency as bureacuracies everywhere and the pages were inadvertently left out of the original printing. The places with missing text have been footnoted. In the following, Shortt briefly examines Soviet special opera- tions to show the relationship of various organizations and to document how the information contained in the manual was used by the KGB, GRU, MVD, and other "special assignment units." He also includes some personal accounts of his training missions in various Soviet republics to illustrate how many of the functions formerly performed by the KGB and GRU are now being assumed by police units in the various republics or local mafia groups.

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

to be in charge of state security. On 20 December 1917, the All- Union Supreme Commission to Combat Counterrevolution, Sabotage, and Speculation was set up under Dzerzhinsky; it was known by the abbreviation VChK or Cheka. It was to the Communist party what the SS was to the Nazis. The Cheka com- mand structure held no Russians, just international Communists who were Czechs, Latvians, Austrians, Poles, Hungarians, Finns, and other non-Russians. The VChK would subsequently become known as the GPU, OGPU, GUGB, and then finally the NKVD (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs). Stalin formed special units to carry out assassinations abroad (of rivals such as Trotsky in Mexico) and to rid Stalin of internal opponents and those who did not actively support him. In 1936, the Cheka created an Administration for Special Tasks to kill or kidnap persons outside of the territory of the USSR who were deemed enemies of the state. However, in mid-1919 the Cheka had already created its first special-operations units, the CHON 5 and later (as the GPU) the elite Dzerzhinsky Division, which, with the break up of the NKVD, became part of the MVD. In June 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, large numbers of NKVD border guards fought against the Nazis and, as Communist party faithfuls, were among the first partisan units operating behind German lines. The NKVD formed a partisan training program at Tiflis, which they christened the "00" pro- gram, and the NKVD border guards formed the core of the first NKVD special operations units called istrebitel'nye batal'ony, which operated on sabotage missions behind German lines. Soon after the invasion, special NKVD Unit #10 gained control of par- tisan activity. The NKVD internal forces formed 15 divisions, which though sometimes committed to front-line fighting were normally used at the rear of the Red Army to prevent retreat or desertion. They were also used to punish populations that collaborated with the Germans. By the close of World War II, the NKVD had 53 NKVD divisions and 28 NKVD specialized brigades in addition to its border-guard units. They fought antiguerrilla actions in Ukraine and the Baltic States. 6 They also carried out political

4

PREFACE

"cleansing" operations, deporting and murdering whole commu- nities whose loyalty to the Communist Party was suspect. During World War II, the NKVD created a special operations brigade, OMSBON. 7 1ts members were not called Spetsnaz but rather Osnaz. 8 I have found the term Osnaz applied to designate special purpose units of political origin (i.e., KGB, NKVD, MVD), whereas Spetsnaz is used to designate a tactical or strategic unit of politically reliable personnel. Osnaz are politically superior in role to Spetsnaz. OMSBON had roles both behind German and Soviet lines. It launched 212 units behind German lines-a total of more than 7,000 men. But it also operated against Ukrainian and Baltic States nationalists in hunter teams and extermination squads. OMSBON alone boasted a head count of 140,000 people it had killed. The NKVD ran Osnaz teams in to northern Norway in opposition and duplication to Spetsnaz teams operated by the Soviet Naval Infantry during the German occupation of Norway. The Soviet army created its own Spetsnaz teams of razvedchi- ki or reconnaissance scouts responsible for diversionary recon- naissance, which meant gathering information by penetrating behind enemy lines, intercepting communications, taking and interrogating prisoners-all while they were there murdering senior officers, and destroying headquarters, weapon dumps, stores, roads, bridges, etc. The Naval Infantry followed the army's example and created its own razvedchik units.

THE KGB

The KGB was formed in March 1954. The Central Committee of the CPSU 9 split the NKVD into two distinct organizations. Simply put, this was a security measure by one part of the central committee to prevent a state security body from ever wielding the type of concentrated power the NKVD had exerted under and on behalf of Stalin. Many figures in the central committee of that period ended up arrested, tortured, and even murdered by the NKVD. The concept behind bisecting the NKVD was to return state security from being the watchdog of the Central Committee to being its lapdog

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

KGB Alpha Team officer with prisoner. Photo courtesy of Novosti Press Agency

and, sometimes, guardian. From the NKVD were created the KGB and MVD, one to supposedly watch the other. The MVD took responsibility for the militia or Soviet police force and for the vast internal army, including OMSBON units such as the zagraditel'nye otryady, or blocking battalions of the NKVD, which were placed behind Soviet army combat units to prevent retreat and desertions, and also the istrebitelnye otryady, or NKVD hunter battal- ions used to find and liquidate anti-Soviet guerrillas. The MVD also assumed responsibility from the NKVD for the guarding and security of more than a thousand prison camps (gulags).

PREFACE

KGB border guards. Photo courtesy of Jim Shortt

7

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

cated from childhood through a series of military and CPSU-spon- sored training programs for their roles in the military.

PREMIUTARY TRAINING

It is fair to say that the average Soviet conscript inducted into special assignment units within the GRU, 11 MVD, or KGB began his premilitary training at the age of 10 in an obligatory school program sponsored by the Ministry of Defense called the GT0. 12 Although civilian in nature, this school program was aimed at creating and maintaining a high standard of physical fitness for males and females. Overseen and inspected by the Ministry of Defense's Department of Preliminary Military Training, it was established not only in schools, but also in factories, colleges, and collective farms, and also encompassed some postmilitary service training up to the age of 60 under separate schemes. The GTO program had by three subdivisions in schools:

Age Group

10- 14- 16-

Program Name

Courage and Skill Young Sportsman Strength and Courage

These program were introduced in 1967 when conscript ser- vice was reduced from three to two years in the hope that part of the time lost to military service would be recouped by this school- time preparation for service. Local military units provided the program's instructors, and the final objective was to prepare the boys for conscript service with the defense forces, internal forces, or KGB forces. Under the 1967 Law of Universal Military Service, young men from the age of 18 are required to report for military service. It is usual that GTO instructors organize an additional 80 hours of intensive preinduction training course covering nuclear, biological, and chemical defense; forced marches; martial arts; ski races, cross- country races, and orienteering.

10

PREFACE

However, in addition to the compulsory GTO program there exists also a voluntary military program run by DOSAAF, 13 which is under the direct control of the Defense Ministry. From the age of 14, children can begin training with DOSAAF. The 1972 DOSAAF regulations state that "the society will provide leader- ship for the development of military-technical skills." All parachute and flight training in the Soviet Union is under the con- trol of the Defense Forces. The basic training comprises a mini- mum of 140 hours plus training camps over a period of two years. The youngsters can qualify as pilots and parachutists while also learning to drive and maintain vehicles. In June 1991, I visited the central military bookshop in Moscow and purchased a number of posters illustrating the work- ings of Soviet weapon systems from the AK-74 rifle to BMD- tanks all published by DOSAAF. I also purchased a copy of Kniga YunnogoArmeetsa, the young soldier's handbook pub- lished in 1989 by DOSAAF and aimed at the 14- to 17-year age group. Although a quarter of the book focused on what a nice man Lenin was and how lucky the Soviet Union was to have Communism, the rest contained concrete instruction on a variety of subjects: military structure and recognition of vehicles and air- craft, rank and insignia recognition, and weapons handling and marksmanship covering the following weapons:

Type Caliber Designation

TOZ-8 .22 cal. Bolt-action rifle TOZ-12 (^) .22 cal. Bolt-action rifle AKM/AKMS 7.62mm Assault rifle PPD-40 7.65mm Submachine gun PPSh-41 7.65mm Submachine gun PPS-43 7.65mm Submachine gun

Other subjects covered in the manual were first aid, recon- naissance and intelligence gathering, semaphore, morse code, construction of simple transceivers, operation and maintenance of the military transceivers R-105M, R-108M, R-109M, and the

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

TAI-43 field telephone. Patrolling formations, fieldcraft, and basic survival skills-including navigation by compass, sun, and stars-are covered. Civil defense skills covering traffic manage- ment and fighting fires with syringe pumps, hoses, and OVP- and OP-5 fire extinguishers are covered in depth. Nuclear, bio- logical, and chemical defense are also covered, along with the use and maintenance of the GP-5, DP-6, DP-6m, and R-2 respi- rator masks. Badge award standards for athletics, motor cross, motorcycle cross, fixed-wing and rotory aircraft pilot's license, parachuting, and scuba diving also receive coverage. The Boy Scouts would be hard pressed to match the variety of skills train- ing available. Appropriately enough, the CPSU has its own premilitary training that also leads to adult membership in the CPSU-which, as I have said, is a prerequisite for anyone working in special assignment units because it implies political correctness and reli- ability. Children from the age of seven can step onto the first rung of CPSU membership by joining the Octobrists; at the age of 10 they can move to the Pioneers, where they participate in drills, marches, and guarding war memorials, as well as learning tactics, civil defense, first aid, military discipline and regulations. During their annual Zarnitsa 14 war games, they get to handle unloaded weapons and learn about military vehicles. "A Pioneer reveres the memory of fallen fighters and prepares to become a defender of the motherland," the youngsters are constantly reminded. At 15, they can join VLKSM/ 5 known as Komsomol. Young men remain in the movement during their conscript service. At 29 years they can join the CPSU. They participate in annual Orlyonok^16 war games and receive training in weapons handling; radio communications (including finding of covert transmitters by triangulation); grenade throwing; shooting; and company-, platoon-, and squad-size operations. Every year from January through March, all young men who have reached 17 are required to register for conscription at their local military commissariat or voenkomat. The job of the voenko- mat is to gather files on the young men after contacting their schools, the MVD, KGB, DOSAAF, and the Komsomol. The file

12

PREFACE

contains information on their educations achievements, leader- ship skills, family backgrounds, ethnic origins, political back- grounds, special skills, and career plans. The Special committees (Spetskomy) of the GRU, MVD Interior Forces, and KGB Forces use the file as a means of pre- liminary selection.Their selection standards are as follows:

• capable but uncomplicated young men, mostly from the farms or small towns of Russia rather then the ethnic minorities
• preferably DOSAAF volunteers with parachute training
• generally about 10 years of secondary education (intellectuals are not normally welcome but healthy, resourceful, fast learners are)
• weight between 130 and 180 pounds, with a minimum height of 5 feet 7 inches

When conscripts report to their center for conscript service, they are not informed of initial selection for special assignment duties. When they reach the unit for which they have been desig- nated, then the political officer or zampolit will inform all the conscripts. This does not guarantee placement in the unit. Regardless of whether they enter special or conventional units, the conscripts then enter two programs. The first is a two-to- three-week initial training program called the "young soldiers course." At some time, they enter the VSK 17 program, first intro- duced in 1965 but later upgraded in 1973. The program is designed to prepare soldiers for the rigors of combat and to encourage them to take up sports in their free time. To this end, a system of awards and badges exist. However, physical fitness testing takes place several times during the conscripts' service. Servicemen are required to participate daily in physical training during the course of their six-day working week. In addition they must: a. have a theoretical knowledge of a number of physical fit- ness programs operating in the USSR b. know how to explain and perform a minimum of two rou- tines from the USSR Physical Training Manual c. participate in at least five Olympic sports competitions d. participate in the pentathlon and and special-unit biathlons

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

the year the Spetsnaz Committee of the Third Department of the Fifth Directorate of the GRU visit the college to headhunt potential Spetsnaz officers, as they do the reconnaissance faculty of the Suvorov and Frunze military colleges in Kiev, the Kiev Military College, and the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow. Other officers will be headhunted after graduations and placement with their units. GRU Spetsnaz maintains two NCO training brigades and one college for training officers.

SPETSNAZ

GRU Spetsnaz officers were trained at the KGB's Special Tasks School at Balashikha near Moscow until the early 1970s, when a school was formed at Krasnodar in the North Caucasus Military District. It was named after General of the Army Sergei M. Shtemenko, postwar pioneer of the GRU Spetsnaz. A normal Spetsnaz brigade consists of between 400 and, 1300 men divided into 200-man otryady. Each otriad contains three companies plus a signals company. Each company has three groups; each group finally subdivides into three patrols of four to five men, each called an otdelenie. In time of war, each brigade is brought up to full strength by recalling reserves from civilian life. Normally, independent Spetsnaz companies attached in support of conventional units consist of 140 personnel, 111 of which are conscripts. The ratio of officers to men is usually twice as high in special assignment units, usually one officer for every 12 men as opposed to one officer for every 25 men in conventional units. The defense forces like to maintain that their job is solely con- cerned with the defense of the USSR and that they leave the messy job of internal security to the MVD and KGB, but this is not supported by fact. The very origin of army Spetsnaz is in internal security work. In 1927 a 15-man special diversionary unit parachuted into the Saksaul of Kazakhstan to operate against Muslim separatists. Further parachute operations followed in 1929 and 1931. Airborne forces came into being in August 1930 with the role of diversion- ary reconnaissance. In February 1932, a document regulating their

PREFACE

role listed ambushes and behind-the-lines sabotage of enemy headquarters and logistics as their primary roles. The first name given to airborne forces (now the VDV) was Brigady Desantnykh Spetsial 'no go Naznacheniya or Airborne Assault Special Assignment Brigades. By 1938, the USSR had five airborne corps, and each corps had one to two special mission battalions. In November 1936, the first Spetsnaz detachment staffed by KGB and GRU personnel was started in Spain during that coun- try's civil war. Besides Soviets and Spanish Communists, about 100 foreigners from the International Brigade were directly recruited. In 1937 all KGB/GRU special operations units were incorporated within a new Fourteenth Special Corps, which was disbanded after the end of the Spanish Civil War, with some 300 Spanish members joining special assignment units in the NKVD of the Soviet Union. A GRU veteran of the Spanish Civil War led a 50-man Spetsnaz unit against the Finns during the Winter War of 1939-1940, but with little tangible success. Then came World War II, with special assignment units deployed by NKVD behind both German lines and their own, and by the GRU through both the army and Naval Infantry. After the war, GRU Spetsnaz was disbanded, and all special assignment tasks fell to the NKVD or the MVD, as has been described. GRU Spetsnaz was revitalized in the late 1950s at about the same time the NATO nations were busy developing their special operations capabilities after a postwar lack of interest in the special forces field. Hence, the need arose to train GRU Spetsnaz officers for a while in the KGB special tasks school near Moscow. The GRU Spetsnaz were not in position in the scheme of things to be involved with the suppression of rebellion in the Eastern bloc immediately after 1945. From 1945 the NKVD operated special assignment units throughout Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, eastern Poland, Ruthenia, Bukovina, and Bessarabia, territories recently annexed to the west of the USSR, as well as already annexed areas such as the Ukraine. These antipartisan campaigns were fought practically into the 1960s. In the Baltic States, the U.S. Air Force flew secret missions supplying the guerrillas, but unfortunately the CIA

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

shared its operations with MI6, which was riddled with Soviet spies and sympathizers. When East Germany rose in rebellion in 1953, the KGB and MVD were on hand to put the rebellion down. KGB and MVD special units ensured the annexation of Poland and Czechoslovakia. In March 1948 Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, who advocated independence for his coun- try, was found dead in the courtyard of his residence. The USSR claimed he committed suicide; the Czechs believe a KGB special unit was responsible. When Polish leader Wladyslaw Gomulka proved too independent, he was replaced. In 1956 when Hungary rose in rebellion, there was no GRU Spetsnaz on hand to act, so the head of the KGB, General Ivan Serov, launched a campaign to seize Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy and his advisors. Serov arranged a Soviet-Hungarian official dinner in Budapest that Nagy and his people attended. Halfway through the dinner, Serov and his Spets group from the Balashikha school and the Department of the 1st Directorate -which had inherited the Central Committee special tasks--did the dirty deed. (A similar tactic was used in December 1979 to seize Afghan government officials during the Soviet invasion.) Serov was a Frunze graduate and member of the Soviet army. In 1939 he transferred to NKVD and served under General Kobulov, the organization's counterinsurgency specialist. Kobulov's NKVD istrebitel'nye otryady supplied the security at the Yalta conference, protecting British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet lead- er Generalissimo Joseph Stalin. Stalin and Churchill then went straight to the Ukraine and Byelorussia on guerrilla-extermina- tion duties. Serov was sent to the Baltic States to direct similar duties there. Later he transferred to the Ukraine where he befriended Nikita Khrushchev, who was to promote him to chair- man of the KGB. By 1968, however, the GRU Spetsnaz was in full operation and was used in the seizure of Prague, working alongside the KGB's Department V, which had replaced Department 13, and elements of the MVD Spetsnazovtsy on loan from the Feli~

18

PREFACE

Dzerzhinsky Division. GRU Spetsnaz from the brigades based at Kirovograd and Mariinogorko were earmarked to work with KGB Department V personnel and personnel from the Balashikha school. They would be supported by the 103rd Guards Airborne Division based at Vitebsk. Soviet logistics specialists depleted Czechoslovakia's military supplies through contrived Warsaw Pact exercises in that country, East Germany, and western USSR. The Warsaw Pact then scheduled exercises in Bohemia to divert the Czechoslovak military from intended crossing points. Friday 16 August 1968, all special assignment personnel were placed on standby for the invasion and started discreet preparations. On 20 August 1968, Aeroflot aircraft began landing at Prague's Ruzyne airport. Just before 8 P.M. an AN-24 from Moscow arrived con- taining communications and signals personnel and the Spetsnaz headquarters element. At 9:30 P.M. another unscheduled AN from Lvov containing the Department V personnel arrived. They were met by Colonel Elias of the Czechoslovak Interior Ministry and Lieutenant Colonel Stachovsky of the Border Guard, representing the Czechoslovak counterparts of MVD and KGB. The KGB Osnaz departed for the Soviet embassy in Prague and its AN24 returned to Lvov. At 12:00 P.M. the Czech Interior Ministry personnel closed the airport, and the KGB Osnaz arrived with Czech-speaking Soviet officers. The Osnaz, though dressed as civilians, openly carried weapons and seized the control tower,

. foreign departures, customs, and airport communications. Two Aeroflot AN-12s carrying the GRU Spetsnaz landed and taxied to the administration building. The Spetsnaz linked up with the Osnaz troops and swept through the airport, driving all airport personnel and tourists out of the building. Women and children were then allowed to return. At 5:30A.M. on 21 August, the Spetsnaz group allowed airport personnel and tourists to leave. While this was happening, three GRU Spetsnaz from Mariinogorko Brigade arrived with the lead elements of 103rd Guards Airborne Division. One of the first VDV units to arrive was 271st Airborne Artillery Regiment, which moved to a position overlooking Prague and positioned its artillery. The rest of the 103rd Division-the 393rd, 583rd, and 688th Guards-occupied

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

to the city of Sarapul in the Russian Republic and from there flew 70 kilometers northwest to Izhevsk, where they transferred to buses and drove to a school where two criminals were holding children hostage and demanding to be given an aircraft to fly to the West. Working with the local KGB, they negotiated the sur- render of the criminals and release of the hostages. Then in 1987 Interior Ministry troops from the Siberian city of Perm seized an aircraft, attempting to fly to the West. Sgt. Nikolai Matsnev, the gang leader, persuaded five other conscripts to join him, two from his base and three from another. Three of the plot- ters were drug abusers, using both opium and hashish. Matsnev and Privates Konoval and Yagmurzhi took weapons and ammuni- tion from their armory and set off on foot for another camp where the other three were stealing an armored vehicle. En route, an MVD militia patrol car stopped them, and they killed the two sergeants inside. Konoval fled and was later arrested. Matznev and Yagmurzhi took a taxi to the airport and shot their way through security to the aircraft, a TU -134 destined for the Siberian oil fields. In the process they damaged the fuselage and killed two of the 74 passengers. They demanded that the pilot fly them to the West, and he agreed to do so once the aircraft was repaired. Matsnev released the women and children and other hostages. Yagmurzhi demanded opium and a guitar from the air- port authorities and then promptly lapsed in to a drugged sleep. The Spetsrota then stormed the plane, killing Matsnev and wounding Yagmurzhi, but two passengers were also killed. Among other intervention duties of the Spets group were security and rescue duties at Chernobyl when a nuclear reactor exploded in 1986. In February 1988 Azerbaijani gangs swept through the town of Sumgait on the shores of the Caspian Sea, raping and killing Armenians and burning. Even Azerbaijanis who helped their Armenian neighbors were attacked and killed and their women raped. A story started that, on 27 February, two Azeris had been killed by Armenians. A riot started, and between 60 and 100 peo- ple were killed. The Azerbaijani Interior Ministry moved slowly to quell the rioting, so the 104th Guards Airborne Division was

PREFACE

Soviet Spetsnaz learned how to use their entrenching tools as weapons in the KGB Alpha Team Manual. Photo courtesy ofJim Shortt

sent in to crush the rioting and the MVD Spetsnazovtsy went in to rescue Armenians in the town. On 9 April1989, they were in Tbilial with the members of the 104th Guards Airborne Division from Kirovabad to quell national- ist unrest. The local Interior Ministry troops were sent in under the command of Interior Forces General Yuri Yefimov, who asked the Defense Forces District Commander Colonel General Igor Rodionov for assistance. Twenty civilians died from entrenching tool injuries and toxic gas. The Defense Forces admitted using 27

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

canisters of a riot-control agent called cheryomukha but denied that it was toxic, comparing it with tear gas. Statements taken from one member of the Spetsrota present were published in a Lithuanian newspaper on 4 May. He spoke of members of the unit putting on their berets when they arrived and that there was only 100 of the special unit among the paratroopers and other MVD units. The Spetsrota drew their entrenching tools and started to hack at the crowd regardless of sex or age. The soldier recalls it as a night filled with terror he will never forget. Soon after, on 24 Apri11989, the unit was sent to Perm on the Kama River in the Urals. Three zeks, prison camp inmates, had taken an MVD cap- tain and three female staff hostage. They were armed with prison picks and were demanding weapons, ballistic vests, and safe passage out of the USSR. A KGB negotiation team tried fruitlessly to get them to surrender. Misha Komisarov, a member of the Spetsrota, describes what happened: "That morning we were told to fly to Perm and arrived at 19:00 hours when it was beginning to get dark. The zeks said they would start killing the hostages in 90 minutes. There were 30 of us in the assault group 23 ; we prepared diversionary munitions 24 and cutting charges. "When zeks killed the captain, we stormed the building, wear- ing body armor and titanium helmets for protection. We cut an entry port in the wall with explosives. The first unit went in and seized two prisoners. Down the corridor other zeks held the women. We knocked the door down, threw in stun grenades, 25 and released the women hostages."

MVDINTERNALFORCES

Thus started a summer of pogroms that took the MVD Spetsnazovtsy around the USSR in support of MVD internal troops. The first was in Uzbekistan in May 1989, where eventual- ly 12,000 MVD Interior Forces had to be deployed. The unit was deployed to Fergana and supported by the Independent Airborne Regiment formed from the old 105th Guards Airborne Division. This regiment consisted of veterans of the Afghanistan War and

PREFACE

Captured KGB Alpha Team titanium helmet and stun grenade. Photo courtesy ofJim Shortt

specialized in mountain warfare reconnaissance. In June 1989, they moved on to Novyi Uzan in Kazakhztan for more ethnic fire- fighting. The next month, they were sent to Abkhazia in southern Georgia to rescue hundreds ofTurk-Meshkhetis people from Georgian fanatics who wanted to murder these Muslims. Legend has it that 10 of the men from the unit defeated 100 rioters in hand-to-hand fighting. NATO has always estimated that the MVD Internal Forces numbered some 30 divisions, or about a quarter of a million troops in July 1989, at the height of ethnic unrest in the USSR. Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin stated that he had a resource of 700,000 militia and only 35,000 troops, of which only about 25

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

OMON beret and insignia with black beret (chornyi beret). Photo courtesy ofJim Shortt

wrongly bear the caption of OMON or MVD VV. The Soviet Ministry of the Interior regularized the formation and operation of OMON as police special assignment units similar to S.W.A.T. and antiriot teams under Regulation 4603 in August 1988. While Interior Forces special units were centrally controlled, this gave authority to the ministers of the interior of the 16 republics that made up the Soviet Union. Some republics like Estonia told the ministry that they had adequate police resources to deal with their

PREFACE

problems and did not form OMON units. Others like Lithuania, Latvia, Moldavia, and Azerbaijan formed units. OMON units were set at between 100 and 300 men equipped with AKS-74Us, Makarov pistols, ballistic vests, riot shields, batons, and, normal- ly, VDV camouflage uniforms. OMON troops were first used on 21 August 1988 against prodemocracy protestors in Pushkin Square. From the beginning, OMON units were to be under the control of the various republics' MVD and not the USSR. In March 1988, the Ovechkin family of eleven smuggled weapons on board an Aeroflot TU-154 in Irkutsk and hijacked it in an attempt to get to London. They touched down in Leningrad, but the militia pretended they were in Helsinki. After two hours of negotiations, a five-man OMON team stormed the aircraft. The hijackers detonated an explosive device in the rear of the plane, turning it into a fireball and killing nine people and injuring 19. In October 1988, Vladimir Kryuchkov became chairman of the KGB and the Kaskad program of the Eighth Department. He immediately formed a new KGB intervention unit based in KGB HQ at Dzerzhinsky Square in Moscow. The CO was Col. R. Ishmiyarov, and the assault term commander was Maj. O.G. Aliyev. The team was provided with equipment similar to that used by the GRU Spetnazovets, plus a variety of silent weapons including the AP5 Stetchkin 9mm, which converts to full auto- matic. Volunteers came from the KGB Border Guard Service and

. received training at the Balashikha school. The team was trained in rukopashnyi boi and related physical methods by A.l. Dolmatov of the Central Dynamo sports club in Moscow, who produced the manual you are about to read. For this manual, he borrowed in part from the two 1945 GRU Spetsnaz texts for reconnaissance and prisoner handling, and reconnaissance in mountains. 28 From the start, it was obvious that the role of the Alpha teams and their MVD counterparts was not confined to humanitarian intervention. They also had a war role linked to Kaskad, which was run by Lt. Col. I. Morozova at this time. That role covered the traditional NKVD functions of fight- ing behind enemy lines and dealing with dissidents and enemy special forces.

KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL

MVD Spetsnazovets of the Spetsrota of the Dzherinsky Division in physical training. Note the Dynamo T-shirts. Photo courtesy of Novosti Information Agency

ALPHA TEAMS

Alpha teams first came to public attention on 1 December 1988, when four criminal seized a bus containing 30 school chil- dren in Ordzhonikdze and ransomed them for an IL-76T aircraft, money, and weapons. The operation ended on 2 December 1988 at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv when the Israelis convinced the criminals to surrender. The Israelis handed the hijackers over to the KGB Alpha team, who flew them back to Moscow. On 30 March 1989, 22-year-old Stanislav Skok hijacked a domestic

PREFACE

Moscow OMON units training in rappelling, entering buildings, and rukopashni boi. Photo courtesy ofN ovosti Information Agency

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