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.