SMERSH (short for SMERt' SHpionam (СМЕРть Шпионам), or "Death to Spies") was the name of counterintelligence departments in the Soviet Union formed during the Great Patriotic War (World War Two), to secure the rear of the active Red Army, on the front to arrest "traitors, deserters, spies, and criminal elements" (from
SMERSH - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)