Table Of Content.E
I
ALPFIA
TEA]VT
TRAINIIVG
IVIANI.JAL
How the Soviets Trained
for Personal Combat,
Assassination, and
Subversion
TRAINING
How the Soviets Trained
for Personal Combat,
Assassination, and
Subversion
Therp op CoNTENTS
Preface .1
Thanslator's Note ...............61
Foreword ....65
KGB Alpha Team Training Manual:
How the Soviets Trained for Personal Combat, Chapter 1.. The Foundations of Special Physical Thaining "'67
Assassinatio4 and Subversion Foundations of Special Physical Training Organization
Principles of Instruction
Copyright @ 1993 by Paladin Press
rsBN 0-87364-706-8 Chapter 2. Movementl Overcoming Obstacles;
Printed in the United States of America Penetrating/Storming Buildings........ ..........87
General Systematic Directions for Teaching
Published by Paladin Press, a division of Basic Methods of Movement
Paladin Enterprises, Inc., P.O. Box 1307, Fundamentals of Movement and Overcoming Obstacles
Boulder, Colorado 80306, USA.
Movement under Special Conditions
Q03) 443-72s0
Special Features of Night Movement
Direct inquires and/or orders to the above address. Iraping Natural Obstacles
Running and Crawling
All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no Movement in Mountains
portion of this book may be reproduced in any form
Movement in Deserts
without the express written permission of the publisher.
Overcoming Man-Made Obstacles and Positions
Neither the author nor the publisher assumes Crossing Water Barriers
any responsibility for the use or misuse of
information contained in this book.
KGB ALPHATEAM TRAINING MANUAL TABLEOFCONTENTS
Chapter3. Techniques and Methods for Escaping Attacks from Behind
Teaching Personal Combat t23 Escaping from Holds in Fights on the Ground
Recommendations for Methods in Teaching Thctics of Defense and Mutual Aid
Personal Combat Self-Defense against an Enemy with a Firearm
Basic Vulnerable Areas and Points of the Human Body Basic Methods of Defense against a
Techniques of Inflicting Effective Blows Firearm Aimed from in Front
A Graduated Series of Warm-Up Exercises Basic Methods of Defense against a
Special Exercises Firearm Aimed from Behind
Blows Defense against Cold Weapons
Safety and Self-Protection in Falls The Overhand Arm Knot I-ock
Self-Protection in Falls to the Side Inward Arm Twist against an Overhand Stab
Safety in Forward Falls Underhand Stabs
A Series of Exercises in I-earning Safety/Self-Protection Backhand and Lateral Stabs
Self-Defense Using Additional Means
Chapter 4. A Practical Section in Basic Techniques
Special Physical Thaining ................147 Additional Ways to Defeat an Enemy without Using Weapons
Basic Methods for Capturing TWisting the Neck Vertebrae
Basic Methods for Silently Killing an Armed Enemy Choking Techniques
Additional Methods for Silent Killing Using Weapons and Other Objects for Self-Defense
Cold Weapons Throwing Cold Weapons at a Target
Choking Techniques
Attacks by Teams Chapter 6. Penetrating Buildings in an Attack...... ...-.-.-.-.--277
SilentAttacks on the Enemy from Concealment
Attacking an Enemy in lts Position Chapter 7. Models for Restoring Work Capacity and
Capturing an Enemy Traveling by Bicycle, Monitoring the State of Health .......285
Motorcycle, orHorse Steam Baths
Signs and Signals for Silent Operations Nutrition in Times of Heavy Physical Exertion
Some Training Exercises and Tasks Vitamins
Methods for Securing and Transporting Prisoners Water
Methods for Securing Ways of Monitoring the State of Health
The Use of Handcuffs for Securing Some Possible Breakdowns in Human Health under
Methods of Conveying a Prisoner Heavy Stress
Methods for Evacuating the Wounded Injuries
Chapter5. Escaping from and Fighting Off Readings... ........311
Physical Attacks; Mutual Aid; Thnows................................191
Escaping Attacks from the Front
Iv V
WanxrNG PnnnacE
The information presented in this book is for reference and Editor's note: The KGB Alpha Team Training Manual was pro-
historical purposes onlylT\e author, publisher, and distributors vided to Paladin Press by Jim Shortt, who, as director of
do not in any way endorse nor condone any illegal or dangerous International Body guard Association (IBA), has trained nunrcrous
activity or act that may be depicted in the following pages. Western military and police units in anti-Spetsnaz activities. Shortt
Therefore, the author, publisher, and distributors disclaim anylia- was the first outsider to train KGB personnel, and he has been
bility and assume no responsibility for the use or misuse of the active in the Baltic States both before and after independence, train'
information herein. ing these republics' police and security forces. shortt also trained
muj ahideen forces during the war in Afghanistan.
Several pages in chapters 5 and 6 of this manual are missing' The
,o^" pog"i were missing in every copy of the manual that Shortt
saminecl. This teads one to believe that the pages were either delib-
erately pulled because of sensitive information found on them, or thc
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 rcrt have been footnoted
In the following, Shortt briefly examines Soviet special opera-
tions to show the relationship ofvarious organizations and. to
docurnent how the information contained in the manual was used
by the KGB, GRU, MVD, and other "special assignment units'"
He also includes sotne personal accounts of his yaining 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 thevarious republics or local mafia groups'
VI
KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL
PREFACE
. I was sitting in a small apartment in the Iawian capital of Riga squash facility, but rather an integral part of the training and
in January lgg2withmembers of the Latvian Securiiy
service-,s update of the Soviet regime's countersubversion forces. This
bodyguard department. Between us we were-as the
Irish in me manual was produced for the special forces of the MVD' and the
would say-doing justice to a goodly number of bottles
of Kristal KGB,4 as well as Defense Ministry personnel seconded to them.
Dzidrais, Latvian vodka, and melnais balzams,
a potent tarlike This manual was intended for the training of personnel operat-
local liquor. our host, a major with the service,
had been in his ing on internal security duties within the Soviet Union and also in
time a graduate and later instructor at the
soviet Defense in-depth missions against enemies of the Soviet Union. Soviet
Intelligence (cRU) #4 spetsnazrBrigade based near
the Estonian Spetsnaz troops operated from front lines of battle up to 1,000
town of Viljandi.
kilometers to the enemy's rear.
While the snow and minus-16-degree temperature
kept the The Interior Ministry controlled two types of personnel: the
Latvian vodka-in-waiting correctly chilled, I pored
over the pho- MVD militia, or Soviet police, and the MVD (VV), or Internal
tograph album of my host and mused that it was, in
many ways, Forces. The MVD militia had their special forces in the OMON
similar to my own. Although the uniforms and equipmrnt
*"r" formations while the MVD units-which were the de facto inter-
different, the scenarios were similar. when I came
to-the training nal army of the Soviet Union-had specialist units called
manuals used by the Soviet Spetsnaz, I noticed that
they *.r. rur_ Spetsnaz Soviets.
prisingly few and all written in 1945 by veterans
of the partisan The task of the internal army was putting down rebellion and
units, OSNAZ Brigade, and Reconnaissance Scouts.
Theii prima- hunting Western special forces that landed in time of war behind
ry emphasis was on physical capability, daring, and conditioning. Soviet lines. Sandwiching the interior army of the MVD and the
Next, I looked over more recentry produced close-quarter-ba1-
Defense Ministry's exterior army was the KGB-its First Chief
tle (cQB) manuals from the army physical training
department Directorate that had the exterior army was the "Cascade"
and the Naval Infantry2 termed in Russian rukopasinyi
ioi. T\ey (Kaskad)program for offensive special forces operations against
covered unarmed scenarios, edged weapons (such as
the bayonei, the West, including assassination and sabotage. The Second Chief
entrenching tool, and knife), and finally projectiles,
as well as the Directorate with the Chief Directorate of Border Guards that hhd
techniques for throwing bayonet, rifle and bayonet,
entrenching control of special units within the Soviet Union, especially the
tool, and a special sharpened steel plate. Just when
I thought I hai KGB Alpha teams that cross-trained for the Cascade program. To
seen it all on special combat techniques!
understand the different types of Soviet special assignment forces
The manual you now hord in your hands has been
transrated that existed (and still exist to a large extent within the
from its original cyrillic format. I was told that it
was a very spe- Confederation of Independent States [CIS], the successor to the
cial manual because it was produced by A.I. Dolmatov,
the rnan USSR), it is necessary to examine the development and evolution
who had trained the KGB special units codenamed..Alpha,,
of such units from the Bolshevik seizure of power in L9L7 -
teams at the Moscow Dynamo sports club. If you
had asked any
official of the former Union of soviet Socialist Republics
(ussR) HISTORY OF SPECIAL OPERATIONS
what Dynamo was, he would have answered, ..Juit
a sports club;
policemen use it." Ask any western sovietologist
the same ques- The Bolshevik Revolution was not in fact a Russian revolution.
tion, and he would add that the Dynamo organization
existed in Irnin maintained himself in power by force of arms. First he used
every major Soviet city and was dominated by the
KGB and the Latvian infantry to guard the Kremlin in Moscow against the
MVD (soviet Interior Ministry). It was not your usual
after-work Russian people, and second he appointed a Pole, Felix Dzerzhinsky,
KGB ALPTIA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL PREFACE
to be in charge of state security. On 20 December 1917, the All- "cleansing" operations, deporting and murdering whole commu-
Union Supreme Commission to Combat Counterrevolution, nities whose loyalty to the Communist Party was suspect. During
Sabotage, and Speculation was set up under Dzerzhinsky; it was World War II, the NKVD created a special operations brigade,
known by the abbreviation VChK or Cheka. It was to the OMSBON.? lts members were not called Spetsnaz but rather
Communist party what the SS was to the Nazis. The Cheka com- Osnaz.* I have found the term Osnaz applied to designate special
mand structure held no Russians, just international Communists purpose units of political origin (i.e., KGB, NKVD, MVD)'
who were Czechs, I:tvians, Austrians, poles, Hungarians, Finns, whereas Spetsnaz is used to designate a tactical or strategic unit
and other non-Russians. The VChK would subsequently become of politically reliable personnel. Osnaz are politically superior in
known as the GPU, OGPU, GUGB, and then finally the NKVD role to Spetsnaz. OMSBON had roles both behind German and
(The People's Commissariat for Intemal Affairs). Soviet lines. It launched 212 units behind German lines-a total
Stalin fonned special units to carry out assassinations abroad of more than 7,000 men. But it also operated against Ukrainian
(of rivals such as Trotsky in Mexico) and to rid Stalin
of internal and Baltic States nationalists in hunter teams and extermination
opponents and those who did not actively support him. In 1936, squads. OMSBON alone boasted a head count of 140,000 people
the Cheka created an Administration for Special Tasks to kill
or it had killed. The NKVD ran Osnaz teams in to northern Norway
kidnap persons outside of the territory of the USSR who were in opposition and duplication to Spetsnaz teams operated by the
deemed enemies of the state. However, in mid-1919 the Cheka Soviet Naval Infantry during the German occupation of Norway.
had already created its first special-operations units, the CHONs The Soviet army created its own Spetsnaz teams of razvedchi-
and later (as the GPU) the elite Dzerzhinsky Division, which, /ri or reconnaissance scouts responsible for diversionary recon-
with the break up of the NKVD, became part of the MVD. naissance, which meant gathering information by penetrating
In June 1941 when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, large behind enemy lines, intercepting communications, taking and
numbers of NKVD border guards fought against the Nazis and, as interrogating prisoners-all while they were there murdering
Communist party faithfuls, were among the first partisan units senior officers, and destroying headquarters, weapon dumps,
operating behind German lines. The NKVD formed a partisan stores, roads, bridges, etc. The Naval Infantry followed the
..00,,
training program at Tiflis, which they christened the pro- army's example and created its own razvedchikunits-
gram, and the NKVD border guards formed the core of
the first
NKVD special operations units called istrebitel'nye batal,ony, THE KGB
which operated on sabotage missions behind German lines. Soon
after the invasion, special NKVD Unit #10 gained control of par- The KGB was formed in March L954. The Central Committee
tisan activity. of the CPSU'split the NKVD into two distinct organizations.
The NKVD internal forces formed 15 divisions, which though Simply put, this was a security measure by one part of the central
sometimes committed to frontJine fighting were normally used at committee to prevent a state security body from ever wielding the
the rear of the Red Army to prevent retreat or desertion. They type of concentrated power the NKVD had exerted under and on
were also used to punish populations that collaborated with the behalf of Stalin.
Germans. By the close of World War II, the NKVD had 53 Many figures in the central committee of that period ended up
NKVD divisions and 28 NKVD specialized brigades in addition arrested, tortured, and even murderedby the NKVD. The concept
to its border-guard units. They fought antiguerrilla actions in behind bisecting the NKVD was to return state security from
Ukraine and the Baltic States.6 They also carried out political being the watchdog of the Central Committee to being its lapdog
KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL
PREFACE
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. *': ;ts.. .,l.E4l
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 Nkvo hunter battal_ iul!:m
ions used to find and liquidate anti-Soviet
guenillas. The MVD also
assumed responsibility from the NKVD
for the guarding and security
of more than a thousand prison camps (gulags). KGB border guards. Photo courtesy of Jim Shortt
/
KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL PREFACE
KGB Hunter Groups mounted (above) and on
foot (right). photos of the KGB chairman and was reserved, euphemistically, for
courtesy of Jim Shortt "Central Committee special tasks" only.
The KGB, through its First chief Directorate, took responsi- SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT UNITS
bility for espionage and, through its second chief Directorate,
for countersubversion and counterintelligence in the civil popu- With the division of the NKVD, its various special assignment
lation. SMERSH,'0 founded in 1943 as military counterintelli- units landed either under MVD or KGB control, depending on their
gence, became the KGB's Third Chief Directorate. The roles. This meant that three distinct types of special purpose person-
NKVD's Border Guard units came under the control of the nel were available for mission direction within the USSR. Spetsnaz
KGB's Chief Directorate of Border Guards. The NKVD,s from the Defense Ministry's GRU units, Spetsnazovtsy from the
Administration for Special Tasks became the Partisan Fourth MVD, and Osnaz from both MVD and KGB. Except for the offi-
Directorate in r94r; in 1946 it evolved into special office L and cers, the vast majority of personnel who serve in these special units
later Department 13 of the First chief Directorate. It later are conscript servicemen. To assist you in better understanding this
became an independent Department V under the direct control manual, I should explain how all Soviet young men have been edu-
KGB ALPTIA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL PREFACE
cated from childhood through a series of military and CpSU-spon- However, in addition to the compulsory GTO program there
sored training programs for their roles in the military. exists also a voluntary military program run by DOSAAR'3 which
is under the direct control of the Defense Ministry. From the age
PREMILITARY TRAINING of 14, children can begin training with DOSA AF.The 1'972
DOSAAF regulations state that "the society will provide leader-
It is fair to say that the average Soviet conscript inducted
into ship for the development of military-technical skills." All
special assignment units within the GRU," MVD, or KGB
began parachute and flight training in the Soviet Union is under the con-
his premilitary training at the age of 10 in an obligatory
school trol of the Defense Forces. The basic training comprises a mini-
program sponsored by the Ministry of Defense called
the GTO.r, mum of 140 hours plus training camps over a period of two years.
Although civilian in nature, this school program was
aimed at The youngsters can qualify as pilots and parachutists while also
creating and maintaining a high standard of physical fitness
for learning to drive and maintain vehicles.
males and females. Overseen and inspected by the Ministry
of In June 199L,I visited the central military bookshop in
Defense's Department of Preliminary Military Training,
it was Moscow and purchased a number of posters illustrating the work-
established not only in schools, but also in factories, colleges,
and ings of Soviet weapon systems from the AK-74 rifle to BMD-1
collective farms, and also encompassed some postmilitary
service tanks all published by DOSAAF. I also purchased a copy of
training up to the age of 60 under separate schemes. The
GTO KnigaYunnogoArmeetsa, the young soldier's handbook pub-
program had by three subdivisions in schools: lished in 1989 by DOSAAF and aimed at the L4- to L7-year age
group. Although a quarter of the book focused on what a nice man
Age Group Program Name Lenin was and how lucky the Soviet Union was to have
Communism, the rest contained concrete instruction on a variety
10-13 Courage and Skill of subjects: military structure and recognition of vehicles and air-
t4-r5 Young Sportsman craft, rank and insignia recognition, and weapons handling and
16-18 Strength and Courage marksmanship covering the following weapons:
These program were introduced in 1967 when conscript ser- Type Caliber Designation
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- TOZ-8 .22cal. Bolt-action rifle
time preparation for service. TOZ-12 .22cal. Bolt-action rifle
Local military units provided the program's instructors,
and AKM/AKMS 7.62mm Assault rifle
the final objective was to prepare the boys for conscript
service PPD-40 7.65mm Submachine gun
with the defense forces, internal forces, or KGB forces.
Under the PPSh-41 7.65mm Submachine gun
1967[-aw of Universal Military Service, young men from the
age PPS-43 7.65mm Submachine gun
of 18 are required to report for military service. It is usual
thit
GTO instructors organize an additional 80 hours of intensive Other subjects covered in the manual were first aid, recon-
preinduction training course covering nuclear, biological,
and naissance and intelligence gathering, semaphore, morse code,
chemical defense; forced marches; martial arts; ski races,
cross- construction of simple transceivers, operation and maintenance
country races, and orienteering of the military transceivers R-105M, R-1,08M, R-109M, and the
10 11
