Under these circumstances, the war of Abakumov and Beria for the total control of UKRs in Europe intensified and Beria made his final, unsuccessful, attempt to subordinate SMERSH to the NKVD.
Abakumov Regains Control
On June 22, 1945, two weeks before Stalin and Beria arrived in Berlin to attend the Potsdam Conference, Abakumov wrote a long letter to Beria, complaining about Ivan Serov, Beria’s deputy and a deputy head on the matters of civilian administration of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany or SVAG headed by Marshal Georgii Zhukov.6 Serov constantly ordered the taking under NKVD control of important detainees arrested by SMERSH operatives, which Abakumov described as ‘acts of hooliganism’ against SMERSH. Abakumov also informed Beria of his instruction to Aleksandr Vadis, head of the UKR SMERSH of the 1st Belorussian Front, and his deputy Grigorii Mel’nikov, not to follow Serov’s orders without his (Abakumov’s) approval, as a countermeasure against Serov, and asked Beria to reprimand Serov.
Instead of answering Abakumov, on that same day Beria sent Stalin a plan for the reorganization of the work of NKVD plenipotentiaries.7 Beria proposed to keep Serov (and his staff) at Marshal Zhukov’s headquarters in Berlin and to appoint Abakumov’s deputy Pavel Meshik Plenipotentiary to Marshal Konev’s group of troops in Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and Selivanovsky, Plenipotentiary to Marshal Rokossovsky’s troops in Poland. Major General Aleksandr Pavlov, head of the NKVD Rear Guard Troops at the 3rd Ukrainian Front, would be Plenipotentiary to Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin’s troops in Romania and Bulgaria. The new plenipotentiaries would be responsible for all NKVD–NKGB–SMERSH routine work, would command the NKVD troops in their military areas, and would be in charge of all POWs and their transportation to the Soviet Union.
Stalin wrote on Beria’s report: ‘To Com.[rade] Beria. I agree. J. Stalin.’ But something went wrong, and only Serov was reappointed Plenipotentiary. The staffs of the other plenipotentiaries were disbanded on July 4, 1945, and their members were assigned to their previous jobs.8
As a consequence of Serov’s new appointment, the UKR SMERSH in Germany became subordinate to Serov. The embarrassed Abakumov, who deeply hated Serov (and the feeling was entirely mutual), ordered the head of this directorate, Vadis, to establish a network of SMERSH operational groups in Germany.9 Despite Serov’s protest to Beria, SMERSH departments were created under SVAG in all German counties, provinces, regions, and cities.10 These departments conducted surveillance of Soviet personnel, while the NKVD units were in charge of actions against the German population.
On July 9, 1945, the heads of all security structures received military ranks. Beria was promoted to marshal, while Abakumov was given the rank of colonel general, as were Beria’s three deputies (Serov, Sergei Kruglov, and Vasilii Chernyshev) and Bogdan Kobulov, NKGB first deputy Commissar.11 Vsevolod Merkulov became an army general.
In August, Abakumov continued his attack on Serov and Beria, and made a direct appeal to Stalin.12 Knowing Stalin’s sensitivity on the question of Party leadership, Abakumov cited a report to him from Vadis that was strongly critical of both Zhukov and Serov. Vadis had left Germany; he was beyond their reach and, therefore, could write openly. He claimed that Zhukov and Serov had tried to control the political structures of SVAG, while they should have been controlled from Moscow by the Main Political Directorate. Vadis also reported that Zhukov had awarded Serov the Gold Star for Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest military award, for making him a favorite. Abakumov’s statement that ‘many consider Zhukov to be the top candidate for Defense Commissar’ was, of course, aimed at showing Zhukov’s desire to replace Stalin as Defense Commissar, which obviously would not be well received by Stalin.
After this letter, Stalin likely spoke to Beria about Serov because the next day Beria sent a letter to Stalin defending Serov, saying that SMERSH operatives should be subordinate to Serov.13 But it was too late. Apparently, Stalin had already chosen Abakumov, and not Beria, to head state security in the near future. On August 20, 1945, Stalin signed one of the last GKO orders (No. 9887) appointing Beria chairman of the secret State Committee No. 1, thus making him head of the Soviet atomic bomb project.14 Later Beria was also responsible for State Committees No. 2 (jet engines) and No. 3 (radio location equipment).15 Stalin needed Abakumov and his men as watchdogs. Soon Abakumov started collecting compromising materials on Marshal Zhukov, the conqueror of Berlin and ruler of Germany.
Marshal Zhukov and General Serov
In Germany, Marshal Georgii Zhukov became head of SVAG and commander in chief of Soviet troops.16 The 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts were reorganized as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany or GSOVG. The UKR of GSOVG, headed by Vadis, reported not to Zhukov as commander in chief, but to Abakumov, as SMERSH’s head. Vadis soon was transferred first to Bulgaria and then to the Transbaikal Front, and Pavel Zelenin, former head of the UKR of the 3rd Belorussian Front, succeeded him (Table 27-1). UKR GSOVG’s headquarters were in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin.17
With these reorganizations Abakumov began reporting to Stalin about Zhukov. This was not something new. Since 1939, the NKVD’s OO, then UOO and SMERSH, had been collecting compromising materials involving Zhukov. The operational file was coded ‘Uzel’ (Knot).18 In 1942, Abakumov’s UOO set up listening devices on the telephones at Zhukov’s apartment and dacha; this action required a direct order from Stalin. But in July 1945, after arriving in Berlin, Abakumov began personally arresting Zhukov’s subordinates.19 Most likely, he was acting on Stalin’s order again. However, Zhukov ordered the release of his generals and threatened to arrest Abakumov.
Abakumov first reported to Stalin on Zhukov’s attempts to stop his troops’ atrocities against German civilians. In June 1945, a joint order from Zhukov and his deputy, Lieutenant General Konstantin Telegin, stated: ‘Local authorities, peasant communities, and individuals continue to complain about numerous acts of violence, rape, and robbery committed by men in Red Army uniforms… Women do not mow hay or work in the fields, for fear of being raped or robbed.’20 Zhukov concluded: ‘If order is not established… within three to five days… I will make serious decisions regarding all military and political personnel.’
On September 9, Zhukov issued another strong order: ‘Marauding, hooliganism, and violence against the German population have not stopped; on the contrary, crimes committed by servicemen have increased. This behavior… must stop immediately at all costs.’21 Zhukov ordered all commanders to live together with their subordinates and to completely prevent all contact with the local population.
Stalin did not support Zhukov’s measures, and wrote to him eleven days later: ‘Yesterday I learned from SMERSH [i.e., from Abakumov]… about the order of September 9… This order is harmful because it fails to improve discipline, and, on the contrary, breaks it and discredits commanders in the eyes of privates. Furthermore, if this order is seen by foreign army heads, they will judge the Red Army as an army of marauders. I ask that you immediately withdraw your order… I advise you to improve political work within the GSOVG troops and to use the courts of honor more frequently instead of scaring men with your orders to haul officers into the courts as common criminals.’22 Stalin preferred covering up the atrocities to fighting against them.