The Spy Route

Thrilling novels about Stalin’s military counterintelligence SMERSH. Lieutenant Nikolai Vatagin is assigned to service from the Moscow region to a SMERSH unit located near the liberated Minsk. On the way, the car he is riding in is attacked by a group of German saboteurs—several of his fellow passengers are killed. Once he arrives, Vatagin learns that such attacks aren’t the first: the enemy sets ambushes, destroys passengers, and then, disguised as a Soviet officer, sends an agent into the unit, infiltrating the troops. That means someone is helping the saboteurs from within. But who exactly?

The investigation leads operatives back to their home Moscow region, where Vatagin must finish a dangerous hunt for the traitor.

“Death to spies!” was the name of a special NKVD unit directly subordinate to I. Stalin. Created during the war, SMERSH relied on proven, honest, fearless Red Army officers. Everyone feared it: both the fascist intelligence services preparing sabotage on the front and the enemy’s accomplices operating deep in the Soviet rear. The enemy understood: if the counterintelligence has found their trail, retribution is inevitable.

The SMERSH series—“Stalin’s special forces”—offers a fast, tense plot each time, historical material, and dynamic action written in clear language. The combined print run of A. Tamonikov’s works exceeded 10 million copies.

“Tamoni kov’s novels are about real men, for whom valor, honor, and duty are not empty words.” — V. Kolychev