SMERSH is a Soviet counterintelligence agency that was featured in Ian Fleming’s early James Bond novels and films as 007’s nemesis. SMERSH is a conjunction of two Russian words: “Smert’ Shpionam”, (Смерть Шпионам), which means “Death to Spies”. Though Fleming’s SMERSH was supposed to be modelled on the real SMERSH organisation, the novels had SMERSH as a massive Soviet counterintelligence operation aimed at sending operatives abroad to subvert the West with an additional goal of killing Western spies, particularly Bond.

The novel, Casino Royale, breaks SMERSH down into five departments or Otdyels:

1. Department I: In charge of counterintelligence among Soviet organisations at home and abroad.
2. Department II: Operations, including executions.
3. Department III: Administration and finance.
4. Department IV: Investigations and legal work. Personnel.
5. Department V: Prosecutions — the section which passes final judgment on all victims.

Colonel Rosa Klebb is head of Otdyel II, the SMERSH torture and death department in the novel From Russia with Love.

Novel background: Within the world of James Bond, SMERSH is a Soviet counter-intelligence agency that is a recurring threat to James Bond and the British Secret Service. SMERSH made its first and perhaps longest-lasting impact on Bond in Casino Royale when the SMERSH agent who killed Le Chiffre carved a Russian letter (representing SMERSH) into the back of Bond’s hand. Despite skin grafts, a faint scar remained thereafter. Since this incident Bond has sought revenge on a number of occasions beginning with Fleming’s second novel Live and Let Die where Bond is almost completely uninterested in disrupting Mr Big’s setup to finance Soviet operations until he learns that Big is an agent of SMERSH. SMERSH attempts to strike back in From Russia with Love. In the novel, 007 is issued a “death warrant” for immediate execution (“To be killed with ignominy”) by SMERSH. Not only is Bond set up for assassination, but SMERSH also goes to great lengths to make his death one that will be embarrassing and scandalous throughout the entire intelligence community. Bond again squares off against SMERSH in Goldfinger after learning Auric Goldfinger is the treasurer of the agency.

After Goldfinger, SMERSH is only mentioned fleetingly by Fleming, usually in reference to having been “disbanded” or put out of operation. In the continuation novels (and novelisations), however, SMERSH makes a comeback as an organisation that has essentially been renamed and reorganised within the Soviet intelligence community. They are first mentioned again in the novelisation to the film The Spy Who Loved Me, although they are replaced in the film by the KGB. In John Gardner’s series of Bond novels, SMERSH is renamed as “Department V” (the letter) in Icebreaker. They return once again playing a much larger role in No Deals, Mr Bond, this time renamed yet again as “Department Eight, Directorate S,” and have been reorganised as a subsection of the KGB.

Film background: In the James Bond film series, Bond’s archenemy became SPECTRE, first used in Ian Fleming’s novel Thunderball (film-wise, SPECTRE is mentioned in the first Bond film, Dr No). Film versions of novels in which SMERSH was featured either substituted them with SPECTRE or made the villains independent operatives. In truth, SMERSH never really makes an appearance in the James Bond film franchise at all, although it is referred to twice. In the film From Russia with Love, Bond initially thinks he is fighting SMERSH, only to find that the villains are actually working for SPECTRE; this includes the villain Rosa Klebb, who was formerly a SMERSH operative, but who has secretly defected to SPECTRE.

The second reference to SMERSH in films was in the The Living Daylights (1987), which featured a faked re-activation of SMERSH. It was noted by General Pushkin, the then-current head of the KGB, as having been defunct for twenty years prior to the film.

See also:

• Organisations
• SMERSH agents