| This dissertation is the first attempt to trace the origins and early development of the Red Army's intelligence directorate. It covers the period from its establishment in 1918 through 1933. During these years, the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff was known variously as the Razvedopr, the "Fourth Department," the RU, and later as the Glavnoe Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenie, or GRU. The RU was the primary Soviet intelligence gathering organization, and it also played a central role in Soviet foreign policy, military planning, and industrialization.;The introduction summarizes the state of scholarship on Soviet military intelligence. Chapter One recounts the origins of the Red Army intelligence directorate. Chapter Two describes how between 1922 and 1928, Red Army intelligence officers and agents organized and led rebellions, insurrections or military expeditions in Weimar Germany, Bulgaria, Estonia, China, and Afghanistan. Chapters Three through Five consider the Fourth Department's agent operations. Espionage provided the Soviet Union with a vast amount of technological information essential for military and industrial modernization, formed the basis upon which the Red Army analyzed future military requirements and foreign threats, and sparked a series of diplomatic crises which had important consequences for Moscow's relationship with and perception of the outside world.;Chapter Six discusses the RU's role in the covert cooperation between the Red Army and the German Army of the Weimar Republic (the Reichswehr). Red Army intelligence was responsible for, among other things, liaison to the German Army and monitoring the course of the joint operations. Chapter Seven assesses the efficacy and impact of the Intelligence Directorate's analytical efforts, concluding that although it was quite successful in accurately gauging the objective military capabilities of foreign powers, powerful ideological and cultural blinders served to severely distort its objective view of the world.;The dissertation concludes with an epilogue which sets the stage for further work on such topics as the RU's response to the growing threats from Nazi Germany and Japan, the Spanish Civil War, Stalin's purge of the Red Army, the RU's preparations for war, military operations in the Far East, Poland and Finland, and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. |
