Before 1991, there was a very powerful country in the world, and at its peak, this country could compete with the United States, or even suppress the United States, and this country was the Soviet Union. For a long time after World War II, the Soviet Union, with its strong military strength, became the world's first pole, and no one dared to mess with it.
Among the many soviet forces, there was a combat squad called Alpha, which was called the most powerful special operations force in the Soviet Union, which frightened the world.
It is not surprising that the Alpha Squad shocked the world, after all, it was an army cultivated by the Soviet Union, but if it ranked first among the major special forces of the Soviet Union, then it would be too powerful, what kind of strength did this force have to win such a title?
1. Forces dedicated to counter-terrorism
After the end of World War II, under the constraints of the world's major powers, large-scale military conflicts were significantly reduced, and more were small-scale firefights. Coupled with the rapid development of large-scale weapons research and development technology, several major powers in the world basically have strategic weapons that can deter small groups, so war is becoming more and more unwinnable.
However, the inability to fight between large countries does not mean that small countries will not suffer. The overly powerful United States and the Soviet Union fought a Cold War around the world, but they engaged in proxy wars in some areas, which made some small countries miserable and thus bred terrorism.
Since the 1970s, terrorism has begun to sweep the world, and endless terrorist attacks have broken out in countries around the world. These terrorists often act alone and launch "lone wolf" attacks, usually targeting politicians, aircraft, schools, stations, etc., causing extremely bad social impact and causing great headaches to governments.
Such a practice by terrorists is invincible. Moreover, these attacks often occur in places where people in the country gather, so is it necessary to throw missiles at these places? Therefore, in the first few years of terrorism, the troops of various countries had no way to defend themselves and could only be passively beaten.
At that time, the media of the world commented that this was an alternative world war, and the biggest victims of this war were innocent people, who lived in an environment that could be attacked at any time.
In this context, countries around the world have opened up the key training of individual forces, changed the previous tactics of opening up and cooperating on the battlefield, and began to focus on the training of tactical squads. The Alpha Squad was created during that period, so it can also be said that it is a team dedicated to counter-terrorism.
Second, elite generals selected from within the KGB
Terrorism was so rampant that even the Soviet Union was not immune. At Moscow Airport in 1973, four terrorists carrying shotguns infiltrated a civil airliner about to take off from Moscow and hijacked it, using the lives of everyone on board as a bargaining chip to blackmail the Soviet government into preparing $1.5 million to redeem the hostages.
Of course, the Soviet government could not just hold its hands, and if they gave money this time, it would make the terrorists feel that the Soviet Union was a bully and keep coming to the door to carry out terrorist acts.
So the Soviet Union dispatched the famous KGB. This feared secret service did not disappoint the Soviet government, dispatched elite generals, disguised as negotiators, to approach the terrorists, and finally successfully eliminated them and rescued the hostages.
The occurrence of this incident made the Soviet government aware of the dangers of terrorism, especially at that time in the special period of the Soviet Union's full preparation for the Winter Olympics, if such an incident occurred again, it would have a very serious negative impact on the Soviet Union, and even affect the success of the Winter Olympics.
In order to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, the Soviet government decided to set up a combat squad to deal with terrorist-related incidents. Since the KGB had done quite well in this terrorist incident, the task of forming the squad was entrusted to the KGB.
The KGB was so attentive to the matter that it was carefully selected from within, selecting 40 talented people with absolute loyalty and superb skills, and formed a combat team code-named "A". The group code name is top secret and was not declassified until the collapse of the Soviet Union, and can only be called alpha group according to pronunciation.
Third, why does Alpha win the most powerful title
As soon as the Alpha Group was formed, it won the title of the most powerful special forces unit in the Soviet Union, for the simple reason that the threshold for membership in this unit was very high. First of all, all alpha team members must be between the ages of 25 and 27, and the medical examination requires reference to the airborne troops, which directly blocks a lot of people.
Secondly, in order to enter the Alpha Group, it is also necessary to have a higher military academy degree and have received orthodox higher military education, which means that those who enter the Alpha Group are basically officers; finally, these people who enter the preliminary selection must also undergo the devil training of the KGB, can survive and meet the final assessment criteria, and can successfully become a member of the Alpha Group.
You know, these people who can participate in the primary election are themselves elite generals within the KGB, and they are all top masters in the ordinary army, and then after alpha's selection, the final selection can only be described as terror.
However, the most important thing about a squad is not the strength of the individual, but the strength of the group, so after selecting the group members, Alpha will also conduct another demonic training for these people.
In the course of the training, they have to learn many combat skills, including but not limited to the use of firearms and ammunition, the skills of hand-to-hand combat, reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, etc., the most important of which is to cultivate their thinking of daring to sacrifice for the country and the people and the sense of fighting that they can sacrifice individuals for the group.
Therefore, when an alpha team that has completed a training session goes out on a mission, it is often not about life and death, they do not consider whether they will be injured or sacrificed, they only want to complete the task, only think about protecting the country and the people. Such a height of thought has given this team an invincible fighting force and has won the most powerful title.
Fourth, Alpha's outstanding record
After the establishment of the Alpha Group, it successfully solved a number of terrorist-related incidents, the vast majority of which are top-secret missions that outsiders have no way of knowing. It wasn't until 1979 that a terrorist sneaked into the U.S. Embassy in the Soviet Union and kidnapped the U.S. ambassador and demanded that the Soviet government must send him out of the Soviet Union or die with the U.S. ambassador.
This matter is very serious, once the US ambassador is really killed here, it will have a serious impact on the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, and may even lead to war. In order to quickly solve the terrorist, the Alpha team was mobilized, and they quickly solved the terrorist in a very short period of time, freed the ambassador, and caused no casualties, which shocked the world.
Soon after, the Alpha team managed to rescue 25 students from two terrorists armed with submachine guns in the city of Sarahpur. In the time that followed, alpha teams made frequent moves throughout the Soviet Union, freed thousands of hostages, and successfully eliminated dozens of terrorist incidents.
Not only that, but the Alpha Team has also played an important role in the frontal battlefield. During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it was the Alpha team that took the lead in opening the way to the official residence of the then Afghan President Amin, which allowed subsequent Soviet troops to continuously attack the heavily guarded presidential residence.
In this battle, the Soviet Union used only 500 troops to solve Amin's presidential guard of more than 2,000 people, and the most striking thing was that only 10 casualties were inflicted. Such casualties were unimaginable in the past, but the involvement of the Alpha team made such a result a reality.
During the existence of the Soviet Union, the Alpha Group kept terrorism out of the Soviet Union and was admirable for protecting the Soviet people from terrorist attacks. So, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the alliance that was once sworn to protect became history, and where will the Alpha Group go?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia inherited its legacy and most of its army, and the Alpha Group was also taken over by Russia. At this time, the object of protection of the Alpha Group has not changed, but the name of the country has changed.
During this period, because of the severe decline of Russia's national strength, internal and external contradictions were very acute. In particular, the Chechen Republic has always wanted independence from Russia, and some Chechen ethnic elements have also begun to engage in terrorism in Russia, which has caused great headaches for the Russian government.
At this time, the alpha team had to face a more serious situation and a more complicated matter to deal with. In order to better complete the counter-terrorism mission, the Russian government has carried out a major expansion of the alpha team, from the original 40 to 400 people.
Therefore, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Alpha Group, far from falling, became the anti-terrorist sword in the hands of the Russian government, continuing to play a very important role in this special front, and remaining one of the largest special forces in the world.
It is worth mentioning that due to the extremely strict age requirements of the alpha team members, coupled with the high intensity of combat tasks, the exit rate of alpha team members is quite high.
These members who retired from the Alpha Group have not returned to mediocrity, but have played a very important backbone role in the army, and even some of them have been recruited as security experts of major enterprises, on the other hand, they can also be said to continue to contribute to the cause of counter-terrorism, such an Alpha Group is admirable.
Text/Leyu
References: Russian Counter-Terrorism Raiders, Alpha Special Forces, Zhou Xiaoguang