ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL How the Soviets Trained for Personal Combat, Assassination, and Subversion ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL I, -.. How the Soviets Trained for Personal Combat, Assassination, and Subversion TABLE OF CONTENTS Pr-eface ....................................................................•................... ! 11:-anslator's Note ..................................................................... 61 For-eword .................................................................................. 65 KGB Alpha Team Training Manual: How the Soviets Trained for Personal Combat, Chapter 1. The Foundations of Special Physical Training ... 67 Assassination, and Subversion Foundations of Special Physical Training Organization Copyright © 1993 by Paladin Press Principles of Instruction ISBN 0-87364-706-8 Chapter 2. Movement; Overcoming Obstacles; Printed in the United States of America Penetrating/Storming Buildings ............................................. 87 General Systematic Directions for Teaching Published by Paladin Press, a division of Basic Methods of Movement Paladin Enterprises, Inc., P.O. Box 1307, Boulder, Colorado 80306, USA. Fundamentals of Movement and Overcoming Obstacles (303) 443-7250 Movement under Special Conditions Special Features of Night Movement Direct inquires and/or orders to the above address. Leaping Natural Obstacles Running and Crawling All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, no Movement in Mountains portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the publisher. Movement in Deserts Overcoming Man-Made Obstacles and Positions Neither the author nor the publisher assumes Crossing Water Barriers any responsibility for the use or misuse of information contained in this book. III ' KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 3. Techniques and Methods for Escaping Attacks from Behind Teaching Personal Combat .••••...................•.....•..........•......... 123 Escaping from Holds in Fights on the Ground Recommendations for Methods in Teaching Tactics of Defense and Mutual Aid Personal Combat ·Self-Defense against an Enemy with a Firearm Basic Vulnerable Areas and Points of the Human Body Basic Methods of Defense against a Techniques of Inflicting Effective Blows Firearm Aimed from in Front A Graduated Series of Warm-Up Exercises Basic Methods of Defense against a Special Exercises Firearm Aimed from Behind Blows Defense against Cold Weapons Safety and Self-Protection in Falls The Overhand Arm Knot Lock Self-Protection in Falls to the Side Inward Arm Twist against an Overhand Stab Safety in Forward Falls Underhand Stabs A Series of Exercises in Learning Safety/Self-Protection Backhand and Lateral Stabs Self-Defense Using Additional Means Chapter 4. A Practical Section in Basic Techniques Special Physical1'raining .........••.•.•..............•............••.......... 14 7 Additional Ways to Defeat an Enemy without Using Weapons Basic Methods for Capturing Twisting the Neck Vertebrae Basic Methods for Silently Killing an Armed Enemy Choking Techniques Additional Methods for Silent Killing Using Weapons and Other Objects for Self-Defense Cold Weapons Throwing Cold Weapons at a Target Choking Techniques Attacks by Teams Chapter 6. Penetrating Buildings in an Attack. ....•.............. 277 Silent Attacks on the Enemy from Concealment Attacking an Enemy in Its Position Chapter 7. Models for Restoring Work Capacity and Capturing an Enemy Traveling by Bicycle, Monitoring the State of Health ..•...........•.........•.•.•................ 285 Motorcycle, or Horse Steam Baths Signs and Signals for Silent Operations Nutrition in Times of Heavy Physical Exertion Some Training Exercises and Tasks Vitamins Methods for Securing and Transporting Prisoners Water Methods for Securing Ways of Monitoring the State of Health The Use of Handcuffs for Securing Some Possible Breakdowns in Human Health under Methods of Conveying a Prisoner Heavy Stress Methods for Evacuating the Wounded Injuries Chapter 5. Escaping from and Fighting OtT Readings ..................................................................................311 Physical Attacks; Mutual Aid; Throws ••..••...........•.•.•.......... 191 Escaping Attacks from the Front IV v WARNING PREFACE The information presented in this book is for reference and Editor's note: The KGB Alpha Team Training Manual was pro­ historical purposes only! The author, publisher, and distributors vided to Paladin Press by Jim Shortt, who, as director of do not in any way endorse nor condone any illegal or dang~rous International Bodyguard Association (IBA), has trained numerous activity or act that may be depicted in the following pages. Western military and police units in anti-Spetsnaz activities. Shortt Therefore, the author, publisher, and distributors disclaim any lia­ was the first outsider to train KGB personnel, and he has been bility and assume no responsibility for the use or misuse of the active in the Baltic States both before and after independence, train­ information herein. ing these republics' police and security forces. Shortt also trained mujahideen forces during the war in Afghanistan. Several pages in chapters 5 and 6 ofthis manual are missing. The same pages were missing in every copy of the manual that Shortt examined. This leads one to believe that the pages were either delib­ erately pulled because ofsensitive information found on them, or the Soviet military suffered from the same inefficiency as bureacuracies everywhere and the pages were inadvertently left out of the original printing. The places with missing text have been footnoted. In the following, Shortt briefly examines Soviet special opera­ tions to show the relationship of various organizations and to document how the information contained in the manual was used by the KGB, GRU, MVD, and other "special assignment units." He also includes some personal accounts of his training missions in various Soviet republics to illustrate how many of the functions formerly performed by the KGB and GRU are now being assumed by police units in the various republics or local mafia groups. VI 1 KGB ALPHA TEAM TRAINING MANUAL PREFACE I was sitting in a small apartment in the Latvian capital of Riga squash facility, but rather an integral part of the training and in January 1992 with members of the Latvian Security Service's update of the Soviet regime's countersubversion forces. This bodyguard department. Between us we were-as the Irish in me manual was produced for the special forces of the MVIY and the would say--doing justice to a goodly number of bottles of Krista/ KGB,4 as well as Defense Ministry personnel seconded to them. Dzidrais, Latvian vodka, and melnais balzams, a potent tarlike This manual was intended for the training of personnel operat­ local liquor. Our host, a major with the service, had been in his ing on internal security duties within the Soviet Union and also in time a graduate and later instructor at the Soviet Defense in-depth missions against enemies of the Soviet Union. Soviet Intelligence (GRU) #4 Spetsnaz' Brigade based near the Estonian Spetsnaz troops operated from front lines of battle up to 1,000 town of Viljandi. kilometers to the enemy's rear. While the snow and minus-16-degree temperature kept the The Interior Ministry controlled two types of personnel: the Latvian vodka-in-waiting correctly chilled, I pored over the pho­ MVD militia, or Soviet police, and the MVD (VV), or Internal tograph c:tlbum of my host and mused that it was, in many ways, Forces. The MVD militia had their special forces in the OMON similar to my own. Although the uniforms and equipment were formations while the MVD units-which were the de facto inter­ different, the scenarios were similar. When I came to the training nal army of the Soviet Union-had specialist units called manuals used by the Soviet Spetsnaz, I noticed that they were sur­ Spetsnaz Soviets. prisingly few and all written in 1945 by veterans of the partisan The task of the internal army was putting down rebellion and units, OSNAZ Brigade, and Reconnaissance Scouts. Their prima­ hunting Western special forces that landed in time of war behind ry emphasis was on physical capability, daring, and conditioning. Soviet lines. Sandwiching the interior army of the MVD and the Next, I looked over more recently produced close-quarter-bat­ Defense Ministry's exterior army was the KG B-its First Chief tle (CQB) manuals from the army physical training department Directorate that had the exterior army was the "Cascade" and the Naval Infantry/ termed in Russian rukopashnyi boi. They (Kaskad) program for offensive special forces operations against covered unarmed scenarios, edged weapons (such as the bayonet, the West, including assassination and sabotage. The Second Chief entrenching tool, and knife), and finally projectiles, as well as the Directorate with the Chief Directorate of Border Guards that had techniques for throwing bayonet, rifle and bayonet, entrenching control of special units within the Soviet Union, especially the tool, and a special sharpened steel plate. Just when I thought I had KGB Alpha teams that cross-trained for the Cascade program. To seen it all on special combat techniques! understand the different types of Soviet special assignment forces The manual you now hold in your hands has been translated that existed (and still exist to a large extent within the from its original Cyrillic format. I was told that it was a very spe­ Confederation of Independent