The Kontrrazvedka () was the counterintelligence division of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. Its main functions were to carry out military reconnaissance, the prosecution of captured enemies and counter-insurgency operations.
Background During the early 20th century, Ukrainian anarchists initiated a campaign of terrorism against the Russian Empire. Robberies, known as "expropriations", where frequently carried out against institutions of the state and capitalism. Unlike other criminal groups of the time, anarchist organisations spent the money from these expropriations on the publication of propaganda, without keeping any for themselves. The anarchist terrorist campaign culminated during the 1905 Revolution, during which 4,500 imperial officials were either killed or wounded. Tens of thousands of terrorist attacks, including expropriations, were also carried out in the years following the suppression of the revolution.
This series of expropriations resulted in the development of an ad hoc intelligence apparatus by the militant anarchist organisations, which aided in the planning of raids and attacks through thorough research and reconnaissance. The Union of Poor Peasants, which carried out expropriations in Katerynoslav province, developed its own intelligence gathering operation during its targeted assassination of a police officer by Oleksandr Semenyuta. This meant that, by the outbreak of the 1917 Revolution, there were many anarchist insurgents that had prior experience in counterintelligence. One of these anarchists was Lev Zadov, who had been imprisoned for his criminal activities by the imperial authorities and released during the February Revolution, after which he returned home to Yuzivka and participated in the activities of the local Soviet. Following the outbreak of Civil War, Zadov then went on to fight in Maksim Cherednyak's detachment of Red Guards against the counterrevolution of the White movement, before linking up with the Makhnovshchina during their war of independence against the Central Powers. The local insurgents, led by Nestor Makhno, had already developed their own reconnaissance unit by the time of the battle of Dibrivka. The unit consisted largely of former border guards, whose reconnaissance of the enemy positions ensured the insurgent victory over the occupation forces.
First formation
In February 1919, the insurgents entered into an alliance with the Red Army, integrating themselves into Pavel Dybenko's 1st Zadneprovsk Ukrainian Soviet Division, in return for armaments. Following the capture of Berdiansk by the insurgent 3rd Brigade on 15 March, Maksim Cherednyak was appointed to form a counterintelligence division, which would procure provisions for the insurgents and hunt down collaborators of the White movement in the city. Cherednyak, who had previously organised a counterintelligence detachment for the Southern Front of the Red Army, established the Kontrrazvedka, which was immediately tasked with carrying out requisitioning in order to supply provisions to the insurgent brigade.
Cherednyak also established a civilian counterintelligence section in Mariupol, and again tasked them with procuring provisions for the insurgents, either through expropriation or levies. This had become more necessary as the Red Army command had cut supplies to the Ukrainian insurgents, who increasingly recruited intelligence agents with backgrounds in both expropriation and terrorism. Cherednyak's own associates, including Lev Zadov, were the first members of this new Kontrrazvedka. Among the new recruits were former members of the Union of Poor Peasants, including Oleksandr Lepechenko, Isidor Lyuty and Hryhory Vasylivsky, as well as veteran intelligence specialists, such as Yakov Glazgon, K. Kovalevich and P. Sobolev.
Within weeks, the Berdiansk Kontrrazvedka came into conflict with the local division of the Cheka, after uncovering evidence that local Bolsheviks had planned to assassinate Nestor Makhno. In response to this, combined with the political repression being carried out by the Cheka in southern Ukraine, Makhno ordered Cherednyak's Kontrrazvedka to break up the Berdiansk Cheka division. Conflict between the Makhnovists and their Bolshevik commanders culminated with Makhno's resignation from the Red Army. Under the weight of political repression, the Kontrrazvedka dissolved, with many of the organisation's agents joining Makhno's detachment in retreating into the west.
Second formation In Ukraine Makhno himself reorganised the Kontrrazvedka around the 500 cavalry that formed his personal security service, the "Black Sotnia", a unit that became infamous due to its punitive actions. In July 1919, during the meeting of the Makhnovists with Nykyfor Hryhoriv, the Kontrrazvedka investigated the ataman's actions in Kherson. They found Hrhyoriv guilty of committing pogroms and collaborating with the White movement, for which he was executed. In August 1919, when the Makhnovists reached Novyi Buh, the Kontrrazvedka engineered a coup within the Red Army's , which included a number of former insurgent commanders that remained sympathetic to the Makhnovshchina, resulting in much of the unit defecting to the Makhnovists. On 1 September 1919, the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine (RIAU) was reorganised at an insurgent conference in Dobrovelychkivka, resulting in the re-election of the entire formation, including the Military Revolutionary Council (VRS) and the Kontrrazvedka. Over the subsequent weeks, the Military Kontrrazvedka led a series of raids against White trains and carried out bank robbies behind the White rear in Pryazovia, in order to fund the insurgent army.
On 19 September, the Makhnovshchina concluded an agreement with the Ukrainian People's Republic, which allowed a brief period of respite for the two forces. At this time, the Kontrrazvedka began infiltrating the Ukrainian People's Army (UPA) and reported that the nationalists had begun negotiations with the White movement at Khrystynivka. They also reported on an apparent nationalist attempt to remove Makhno and merge the two armies, which allegedly included Fedir Shchus and Halyna Kuzmenko. These developments culminated with the Kontrrazvedka plotting the assassination of the nationalist leader Symon Petliura, which they planned to carry out at an arranged meeting with him in Uman. But Petliura managed to avoid his would-be assassins, who were surrounded and killed after a two-hour battle with the UPA, forcing both sides to withdraw. Some Ukrainian nationalists responded by defecting to the Makhnovists, who were integrated into the Free Cossack Insurgent Group following their investigation by the Kontrrazvedka, which continued surveilling their commanders and even executed some for having committing pogroms after joining.
In Russia
Meanwhile, other agents of the first Kontrrazvedka had signed up to Maria Nikiforova's terrorist detachment, which organised assassination attempts against leaders of the White movement, such as Anton Denikin and Alexander Kolchak. Cherednyak's group made it to Siberia, where he led an insurgent movement against the Russian State. Kovalevich led his own group to Moscow, where he collaborated with Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in an attempt to assassinate leading figures of the Russian Communist Party, while Sobolev even attempted to blow up the Kremlin. By October 1919, these attempts were all uncovered by the Cheka, which ambushed and killed the former kontrrazvedniks in a series of raids. In his memoirs, Makhnovist chief of staff Viktor Bilash claimed that the activities of the Moscow group happened under direction of the Kontrrazvedka, while leaflets issued by the Moscow group itself declared their planned attacks to be revenge for the execution of Makhnovists by the Cheka. Testimony by one of the captured anarchists even established a direct link between the actions of the Moscow group and those of the Makhnovists in Ukraine.
Third formation The Military Section of the Kontrrazevkda had continued working behind the frontlines in the White rear, where they reported a military vacuum, with no White units to be found in multiple directions. Following the insurgent victory over the Volunteer Army at the battle of Peregonovka, the insurgent staff immediately resolved to return to left-bank Ukraine, where they planned to build a regime of free soviets, as laid out in their Draft Declaration by the Fourth Regional Congress in Oleksandrivsk. The Makhnovists declared a system of justice be created through self-organisation, which led once again to the rise of the Kontrrazvedka. The Kontrrazvedka played a particularly important role in the insurgent capture of Berdiansk, where they recruited local fisherman to attack the White garrison and let the insurgents into the city.
By the time that the Makhnovshchina was in control of most of southern and eastern Ukraine, the Kontrrazvedka itself had intelligence centres in every single major settlement, often situated in places that soldiers frequented, like taverns and cafes. This network kept tabs on White movements and kept the insurgent command updated on conditions in the rear. The Kontrrazvedka also had agents infiltrating the Red and White armies, a dangerous enough job that it was often assigned to delinquent insurgents as punishment.
The Civilian branch of the Kontrrazvedka was given largely unchecked power within the Makhnovist territory, which resulted in widespread use of cordon and search tactics and arrests of subversive persons. At this time, the Kontrrazvedka was led by Dmitry Popov, under whom the organisation developed a reputation for torture and arbitrary executions, fed by both Red and White reports. Reports from Katerynoslav depicted numerous executions on the banks of the Dnieper, where the Kontrrazvedka would leave the bodies to wash ashore. Among the executed were participants in the Polonsky conspiracy, an attempt by Bolsheviks to assassinate leading insurgents and overthrow the Makhnovshchina, which the Kontrrazvedka uncovered and suppressed. When the Whites later entered Katerynoslav, they found 70 bodies of those executed by the Kontrrazvedka.
With the Volunteer Army having already systematically looted the area, the insurgents carried out requisitions on a more orderly basis, targeting the procurement of provisions necessary for the survival of the army and the wider population. This was carried out largely in the major cities, while the Kontrrazvedka rarely touched rural villages. The Kontrrazvedka looted the homes of executed White officers, under the pretext of looking for weapons, in a series of arbitrary actions that were unauthorised by the insurgent staff. In all the major cities of southern Ukraine, the Kontrrazvedka carried out the expropriation of former White property from local banks and imposed levies on both landlords and the bourgeoisie. Finally, the Kontrrazvedka requisitioned winter clothing for the insurgents, for which they became known as "shubniks" (, due to the fur coats they wore. Although much of the looting was carried out in order to support the Insurgent Army, the Kontrrazvedka also redistributed the expropriated wealth to the urban poor, with thousands regularly queuing up outside their headquarters for portions and money also being transferred to city orphanages.