Special purpose units have always been part of the Russian army. They performed tasks of particular difficulty, and the mere mention of them terrified the enemy. They had a special status, but they began to be called special forces only in the twentieth century.
Tatar cavalry
Spetsnaz is a certain psychology. In Russia, a country with a strong Orthodox tradition, mercenaries were the first "special forces". They were allowed to do things that regular connections could not afford. The special forces can be considered the Tatar cavalry, the detachment of which determined the victory of Moscow in the Shelon battle.
As follows from Novgorod sources, the Novgorodians at first managed to use their superiority in forces. They "beat a lot and beat a Muscovite a lot," and in the end they chased "Muscovites for Shelon." But then the Tatars attacked the Novgorod infantry. A detachment of Kasimov Tatars, attached to the commander Strig Obolensky, apparently arrived in time on Shelon in the midst of the battle.
Neither the Pskovites nor the court of Ivan III took part in the battle. A select detachment of cavalry - the archbishop's regiment - still had the opportunity to intervene and drive off the Tatars. But he did not move. The pressure of the Tatar cavalry, which acted with particular cruelty, simply did not leave the Novgorodians a chance for a successful outcome of the battle.
Scots
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Special forces were also Scots, who were hired by the Russian tsars. The story of Jimmy Linget is indicative in this respect.
This "valiant warrior and noble man," according to Jerome Horsey, led a detachment of Scottish mercenaries in the service of the Russian Tsar in the 16th century. “Twelve hundred of these soldiers fought the Tatars more successfully than twelve thousand Russians with their short bows and arrows. The Crimean Tatars, who did not know guns and pistols before, were scared to death by the shooting cavalry, which they had not seen before, and shouted: “Get away from these new devils who came with their throwing“puffs”. This greatly amused the king. Later they received awards and lands on which they were allowed to settle, married beautiful Livonian women, started families and lived in the favor of the sovereign and his people."
Flying squads
In the course of the Northern War, for quick and effective action against garrisons and individual units of the enemy, a temporary "flying detachment" (corvolant) was often created, consisting of cavalry, infantry, mounted on horses and artillery.
Thus, the successful actions of the corvolant A. D. Menshikov were noted in the battle of Kalish (1706), and during the defense of Poltava. However, the most famous victory of the Russian "flying squadron" was the Battle of Lesnaya in November 1708, when Russian troops managed to defeat the 12,000-strong Swedish Levengaupt corps going to join Charles XII. In addition to the defeat of the Swedish detachment, a huge baggage train with food and equipment was taken, which significantly affected the general course of the war.
On February 16, 1810, the Naval Guards Crew was formed. Impressed by Napoleon's Naval Battalion, Alexander I decided to create a similar guards military unit.
The crew received the baptism of fire in the Patriotic War of 1812, successfully acting as an engineering unit. A feature of the sailors' actions at the first stage of the Patriotic War was that they, using improvised means, quickly built ferries for the retreating Russian troops, carried their protection, and then destroyed bridges in front of face of the approaching enemy.
At the beginning of the Battle of Borodino, allowing the Russian huntsmen to retreat through Koloch, the sailors set fire to the bridge. However, already on the burning bridge, part of the 106th French regiment still managed to cross the river. Three Russian jaeger regiments and a team of sailors (30 people) took part in the counterattack. As a result, the French regiment was almost completely destroyed and the enemy in this sector of the battle no longer made serious attacks. In the Bagrationovs' area, the artillery of the Guards crew also distinguished itself, helping to repel cavalry attacks on the square of the Izmailovsky and Lithuanian regiments. In total, in the Battle of Borodino, the Naval Guards crew lost 24 officers and sailors in killed and wounded. 27 people for distinction at Borodino were awarded various awards
Plastuns
Spetsnaz, in the sense in which we understand the word "spetsnaz" now, are considered to be the scouts. The word "plastun" comes from the verb "plastuvati" - to crawl, hugging the ground. Thus, this word reflects not only the method of inconspicuous movement, but also the very principle of conducting operations: imperceptibly for the enemy, merging with the surrounding environment. According to the researcher of the Cossacks D. Koshkarev, even the Cossacks lay in a layer in the Dnieper reeds, looking out for the enemy and performing small reconnaissance and sabotage operations. Among the 40 Zaporozhye kurens was the so-called Plastunsky, whose Cossacks performed this service.
A very tough selection was made for the Plastun teams among the most physically and psychologically prepared Cossacks. All the equipment and weapons of the scouts were adapted for action in a variety of conditions: from the Kuban floodplains to the mountains covered with forests. Contemporaries defined the tactics of the plastuns' actions laconically and precisely: “wolf mouth and fox tail”.
In 1842, the first full-time teams of plastuns were created in the cavalry regiments and foot battalions of the Black Sea army (60 people each). Plastuns played an important role in clashes with the mountaineers, and they also distinguished themselves in the Crimean War on Taman and during the defense of Sevastopol.
In case of detection by the enemy during reconnaissance, the scouts almost never surrendered. It was considered a rule that the plastuner would rather die than lose his freedom. Having correctly chosen a position and outlining in advance the path of retreat in case of a chase, the scouts either fired back or merged with the terrain, skillfully using its features. The enemy preferred to avoid a direct collision with a detachment of scouts and not pursue it, since in this case he could easily get ambushed and suffer senseless losses from well-aimed fire of the scouts
wild division
The Caucasian native cavalry division was called the "Wild Division". It was formed on 23 August 1914. 90% of the division consisted of Muslim volunteers - natives of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, who, like all the indigenous inhabitants of the Caucasus and Central Asia, were not subject to conscription under the laws of the Russian Empire. Many Russian nobles served as officers in the division.
The Wild Division proved itself well in many battles of the First World War. The division took an active part in the Kornilov performance in August 1917.
The controversy still continues over the “wild division”. According to some sources, the moral and psychological atmosphere prevailing in the division was friendly and even liberal. An important feature of the highlander rider was self-esteem and the complete absence of any servility and sycophancy. The highest valued were not ranks and titles, but personal courage and loyalty.
Other sources say the opposite. The personnel of the “wild division” were distinguished by low discipline and a love of theft: “During overnight stays, and at every opportunity, the horsemen strove to discreetly separate from the regiment with the intention of taking away everything that was lying badly from the inhabitants. The command fought against this by all means, up to the execution of the guilty, but in the first two years of the war, it was very difficult to erase from the Ingush their purely Asian view of the war as a campaign for prey."
Punin detachment
The special forces of the First World War can be attributed to a special purpose cavalry unit under the leadership of Leonid Punin. The detachment consisted of eleven officers, seventeen non-commissioned officers and junior officers, 296 Cossacks. The detachment consisted of seven demolition men, twelve signalmen (telephonists and telegraph operators), six blacksmiths, three veterinarians, five paramedics and three doctors, as well as a weapon placed on a horse tram. The Puninites began to sabotage all the railway lines from the Gulf of Riga to Polesie. Their targets were the junction railway stations: Grodno, Lodovo, Volkovysk and Novo-Troki. In addition, the detachment successfully performed other operational tasks of the front command.
The effectiveness of the work of the detachment of particular importance was facilitated by the correct structure of the unit: if necessary, the detachment could be divided into eight independent groups of 20-25 people, each of which could perform its specific task. Punin's horse detachment was equipped with melee weapons and German rifles. The partisans got their cartridges from the enemy's carts and warehouses, and food was either bought from the local population or confiscated from the Germans. The Punin detachment of special importance took part in the battles at the Riga bridgehead, in the Dvina, Mitava and Riga operations.
Special Forces GRU
October 24, 1950 - the day the GRU special forces were created. Spetsnaz training was highly intensive and was carried out using individual programs. Each 3-4 soldiers were assigned 1 officer, who watched his pupils day and night. And the officers themselves were trained according to such a rich program that after several years of training, each of them could independently replace an entire combined-arms unit. Spetsnaz was more classified than the nuclear developments of the USSR. At least, everyone knew about the presence of nuclear missiles, bombers with nuclear warheads and nuclear submarines, and not every marshal and general knew about the GRU special forces.
Spetsnaz performed and to this day performs tasks of increased complexity and secrecy: the fight against terrorism, the organization and conduct of intelligence, the implementation of special assignments abroad and much more. Spetsnaz is the elite of the Russian army, its pride and strength.
