Word: smertness
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While your article "007 v. SMERSH" [June 29] will probably sell more books for Ian Fleming, it somewhat left the authenticity of SMERSH up in the air. After some research, I have discovered it definitely existed. SMERSH is short for two Russian words, Smert Shpionam (Death to Spies). It was formed just before World War II by the then NKVD. Its mission was the tracking down and punishment of foreign spies, and to detect any signs of dissent within the ranks of the Soviet armed forces. Every battalion, regiment and company of the Red army had a SMERSH agent attached...
...word occurred more often in Nurnberg's testimony than the word "death." It buzzed through the quadrilingual earphones: "Tod . . . mort . . . smert . . . death." It screamed from the piles of transcribed Nazi speeches: "Death for the Poles! . . . death for the Russians! . . . death for the Jews! . . . death for the traitors! . . ." But in the six weeks the U.S. and British prosecutors had taken to present their meticulous case, no one had spoken of death for the defendants...
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