Are they fanatics or heroes?

In many films about war, the image of a particular person causes anger, contempt and even hatred. After watching them, many people formed the opinion that special people are people who can shoot an innocent person practically without trial and investigation. That these people are not familiar with the concepts of charity and compassion, justice and honesty.

So who are they? Are they fanatics who tried to imprison any person, or people who had a heavy burden on their shoulders during the Great Patriotic War? Let's figure it out.

Special department

It was established at the end of 1918 and was part of the counterintelligence unit that was part of the Soviet Army. His main task was to protect national security and fight against espionage.

In April 1943, special departments began to bear a different name - SMERSH bodies (was deciphered as "death to spies"). They created their own agent network and started cases on all soldiers and officers.

Particulars during the war

According to the films, we know that if a detachment came to the military unit, people could not expect anything good. There is a natural question: how was it really?

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a large number of servicemen did not have certificates. A huge number of people without documents were constantly moving across the front line. German spies could easily carry out their activities. Therefore, it was quite natural that there was a heightened interest of the Specialists towards people who had fallen out of the circle. In difficult conditions they had to establish the identity of people and be able to identify German agents.

For a long time in the Soviet Union it was believed that the special forces formed special forces, which were supposed to shoot back the military units. In fact, everything was different.

Specialists are people who risked their lives no less than soldiers and commanders of the Red Army. Together with all they participated in the offensive and retreated, and if the commander perished, they had to take command of themselves and raise the soldiers to attack. Miracles of self-sacrifice and heroism they showed at the front. At the same time, they had to fight with panic-strikers and cowards, and also to identify enemy scouts and spies.

Interesting Facts

1. Special forces could not shoot soldiers without trial and investigation. In one case, they could use weapons: when someone tried to cross over to the side of the enemy. But then each such situation was thoroughly investigated. In other cases, only the information on the revealed violations was transmitted to the military prosecutor's office.
2. At the beginning of the war, a large number of experienced, trained and legal employees of special departments were killed. In their place were forced to take people without training and necessary knowledge, which often violated the law.
3. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in the special departments in total there were about four hundred employees.

Thus, the specials are first and foremost people who tried to fulfill their mission of protecting the state, which was entrusted to them honestly.