Spetsnaz GRU

History GRU

Spetsnaz means more or less: special forces. In Russia, GRU is the Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

At first, the military intelligence had created some “special forces” in 1918, but it was not well organized and so efficient. But at the end of the WW2 and the beginning of the cold war(50s), seeing that the Americans have nuclear weapons and good tactics, the Russians create the Spetsnaz to destroy the American’s nuclear weapons.

In 1962, other Spetsnaz brigades are created with the job to spy and sabotage. Around the years 80s, the Spetsnaz are not considered as today because they were poorly trained.

During the Afghanistan war in 1979, a new brigade of Spetsnaz is created to serve in Afghanistan, called “the muslim brigade». They have to protect the palace of the Afghan President: Hafizullah Amin. But Russia decides to overthrow Amin. So the “muslim brigade” support during the operation the other Russian special forces.

Recruitment

The selection is extremely rude and a great emphasis is placed on the hardiness. During the formation, they will have:

-to use weapons from Russia and other countries.

-have a perfect fitness like all special forces but with on emphasis placed on the mental and the resistance.

-to know how to fight with hands and knives.

-to be strong mentally because they will have some oral examination in a kind of torture.

-and for sure to know or they will learn many bases of languages like English, French, Spanish and some oriental ones.

Weapons

AK-47

This is the pricipal one but their are a lot of others like:

-AKS-74

-AKS-74U

-Dragunov SVD

-PKM

-RPG-7D