The FSB has published archives dedicated to the 125th anniversary of General Nikolai Selivanovskov from Smersh.

On April 23, the Federal Security Service (FSB) published documents from its central archives to mark the 125th anniversary of military counterintelligence officer Lieutenant General Nikolai Selivanovsky.

Selivanovsky played a significant role in achieving victory during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), and also actively participated in the liquidation of the nationalist underground in the western regions of Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland.

"The early years of Nikolai Nikolaevich Selivanovsky are like the plot of a novel about the Revolution and the Civil War: mobilization for logging, life under the yoke of the German occupation, voluntary entry into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, participation in battles with the White Poles <...> The Chekist biography of Nikolai Nikolaevich began in September 1922, when his attitude to study, exemplary The performance of official duties and personal discipline were noticed by the staff of the Main Political Directorate of the NKVD of the RSFSR," the document says.

In 1940, Selivanovsky received the medal "For Bravery" for his work in preventing disruptions in the supply system of the Red Army.

By the beginning of the Second World War, the military counterintelligence officer held a senior position in the NKVD. Since its beginning, he headed a Special department in the South-Western direction, and after heavy losses in the first months of the war, he participated in the restoration of the military counterintelligence system at the front.

"In the most difficult conditions, he managed to organize effective counterintelligence work, comprehensive assistance to the command, including in the execution of the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated July 28, 1942, No. 227, called "Not a step back!", which made a significant contribution to the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad," the document says.

On April 19, 1943, the Smersh Main Directorate of Counterintelligence was formed as part of the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense. Viktor Abakumov, Commissioner of State Security of the 2nd rank, was appointed head of the new structure. Nikolai Selivanovsky became one of his deputies.

In this position, he participated in the training of military counterintelligence agencies on a number of fronts to work in the context of the deployment of offensive operations of the Red Army. It was about the territories of Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Poland. The acceleration of the pace of the offensive and the expansion of its geography required the state security agencies to significantly strengthen their operational capabilities and increase the effectiveness of their activities.

"His work in this capacity, as well as in the creation and organization of the Smersh task forces in Bucharest, Sofia and Belgrade, was appreciated by the Government — for his exemplary performance of special tasks of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army during the Patriotic War, he was awarded the "commander" Order of Kutuzov I degree," explained in the FSB.

Selivanovsky met the victory while serving as an adviser to the NKVD of the USSR at the Ministry of Public Security of Poland.

In November 1951, he was arrested in connection with the "Abakumov case," but after Stalin's death in 1953, he was released and fully rehabilitated. Selivanovsky died in Moscow on June 2, 1997, and was buried with military honors at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery.

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On March 23, the FSB published archival documents dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet military counterintelligence officer Alexander Vadis. He participated in the Great Patriotic War from the very first days. In March 1943, he was appointed head of the Smersh counterintelligence Directorate of the Central Front. In the same year, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree. From October 1943 to February 1944, he was the head of the UKR "Smersh" of the Belorussian Front.