The General Staff of the Soviet Union was the main military organ of the country. For this reason, many of the operations carried out under his command were kept secret. Only years later did the public learn about them.
Operation "Berezino"
The most successful operations carried out by the USSR General Staff during the Great Patriotic War were Berezino and Monastyr. The plan of the intelligence department of the General Staff and the special services was to convince the enemy of the existence of the Prestol organization on the territory of the USSR, providing secret support to the Germans.
Alexander Demyanov, who was recruited back in 1929, played a significant role in creating the legend.
Alexander Demyanov, known to German intelligence under the pseudonym "Max", and to the Soviet special services as "Heine", took part in Operation Monastery, during which he sent disinformation to the enemy headquarters according to a plan specially developed by the special services of the Soviet Union.
In August 1944, he also took part in Operation Berezino, the essence of which was that information was transmitted to the German headquarters about a German regiment allegedly hiding in a swampy area near the Berezina River, which is in great need of weapons, food, and support of the center.
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The operation involved German officers who had been previously recruited, which ensured the success of the event. All the landing signalmen were also poached to the side of the Red Army.
In a little more than six months, the enemy flew 39 sorties, as a result of which more than twenty spies, more than ten radio stations, more than two hundred and fifty units with weapons, ammunition, food and more than one and a half million rubles were thrown into the territory of the Soviet Union.
The radio game, as well as the supply of the nonexistent German unit, continued until May 1945.
Operation "Anadyr"
Another secret operation of the General Staff of the USSR was the operation to deliver Soviet missiles, air bombs and airborne troops to Cuba, codenamed "Anadyr". In addition to over fifty thousand people, it was also necessary to transport more than two hundred tons of equipment and other things.
The operation began in July 1962. For American intelligence, everything was presented as if the forces of the USSR army had begun a strategic redeployment to other places where the military equipment of the Soviet Union was allowed to stay. To make everything look the most believable, the ships sailing from the USSR were loaded with dummies of guns, tanks and other military equipment. No one, except for the highest military personnel, was aware of the main mission, for the rest, the ships went to Chukotka.
The port of Anadyr was indicated as the final destination in all accompanying documents.
The fact that the Soviet Union had installed ballistic missiles in Cuba did not become known until October 1962 after CIA officers conducted a thorough analysis of aerial footage of the area.
Operation Vietnamese Throw
For a long time, the participation of the Soviet Union in the Vietnam War was silent.
The decision to send detachments to Vietnam was made only in March 1965 after the start of regular bombing of the northern part of the US state.
The General Staff of the Soviet Union organized deliveries to Vietnam not only of military equipment and equipment, but also of specialists and military personnel. All this was carried out within the strictest secrecy.
Before being sent to a distant country, the soldiers underwent special training, they were dressed in civilian clothes and taught to write letters correctly so that it seemed to an outsider that the writer was on vacation near the sea.
In total, the USSR sent more than six thousand officers and four thousand soldiers to Vietnam. From the equipment, the Soviet Union sent two thousand tanks, seven hundred aircraft, as well as seven thousand pieces of fire equipment.
Also, the USSR organized a kind of visiting courses. The training staff of military academies and schools trained Vietnamese soldiers.
African Special Forces
For a long time, the citizens of the USSR did not even suspect that Soviet soldiers were fighting in distant Africa. Rumors about this, of course, circulated, but they were regarded as fiction, since they had no official confirmation.
Despite this, only through the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces in the interval between 1975 and 1991, almost eleven thousand soldiers of the Soviet Army passed through Angola.
Also, about the same was sent to Ethiopia. Given the presence of Soviet soldiers in Mozambique, it can be said that more than thirty thousand soldiers from the Soviet Union were in Africa at that time.
Despite the scale, the soldiers and officers who were on the lands of the African continent did not seem to exist, their exploits were not covered anywhere, and they were not awarded medals and orders. They were invisible. Even in military cards, information about the participation of their owners in hostilities in Africa was not indicated. The only thing that could be seen in them is a small stamp. Under the stamp indicating the unit where the unknown heroes served, the 10th Directorate of the USSR General Staff was hidden.
Anna Ponomareva