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Starting in 1943, SMERSH was responsible for identifying foreign scientists and data to be obtained via the Soviets' atomic espionage program.<ref>Kent Hunter, "[http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=F7EVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6w0EAAAAIBAJ&dq=smersh&pg=3661%2C460673 How Russian Experts Produce Atomic Bombs]," ''Milwaukee Sentinel'', September 24, 1950, Section A, p. 1</ref> SMERSH was also responsible for seeking out and blackmailing, kidnapping, or "liquidating" dissidents, defectors and other opponents of the Soviet regime.<ref>Ronald Seth, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=x5nZAAAAMAAJ The executioners: the story of SMERSH]'' (Grosset & Dunlap, 1970)</ref> In 1945, SMERSH agents arrested Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was then serving in the Soviet Navy.<ref>Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q7-CDK0G24C ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'', Vol. 1], Tr. Thomas P. Whitney (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061253715, p. 16</ref> In May 1946, SMERSH was disbanded, its functions transferred the Third Chief Directorate (Main Administration of Counter-Intelligence [GUKR]) of the MGB. (Some writers refer to this unit, as well as the pre-1943 O.O., as "SMERSH.")<ref>See for example John Griswold, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uariyzldrJwC Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations And Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories]'' (AuthorHouse, 2006) ISBN 1425931006, p. 184; Denis Collins, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=15gfIulH4D8C Spying: the secret history of history]'' (Black Dog Publishing, 2004) ISBN 1579123953, p. 122; Deborah Cadbury, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=e4g_jgwzXzoC Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space]'' (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061176281, p. 67</ref>

Starting in 1943, SMERSH was responsible for identifying foreign scientists and data to be obtained via the Soviets' atomic espionage program.<ref>Kent Hunter, "[http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=F7EVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6w0EAAAAIBAJ&dq=smersh&pg=3661%2C460673 How Russian Experts Produce Atomic Bombs]," ''Milwaukee Sentinel'', September 24, 1950, Section A, p. 1</ref> SMERSH was also responsible for seeking out and blackmailing, kidnapping, or "liquidating" dissidents, defectors and other opponents of the Soviet regime.<ref>Ronald Seth, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=x5nZAAAAMAAJ The executioners: the story of SMERSH]'' (Grosset & Dunlap, 1970)</ref> In 1945, SMERSH agents arrested Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who was then serving in the Soviet Navy.<ref>Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, [https://books.google.com/books?id=7Q7-CDK0G24C ''The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation'', Vol. 1], Tr. Thomas P. Whitney (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061253715, p. 16</ref> In May 1946, SMERSH was disbanded, its functions transferred the Third Chief Directorate (Main Administration of Counter-Intelligence [GUKR]) of the MGB. (Some writers refer to this unit, as well as the pre-1943 O.O., as "SMERSH.")<ref>See for example John Griswold, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uariyzldrJwC Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations And Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories]'' (AuthorHouse, 2006) ISBN 1425931006, p. 184; Denis Collins, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=15gfIulH4D8C Spying: the secret history of history]'' (Black Dog Publishing, 2004) ISBN 1579123953, p. 122; Deborah Cadbury, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=e4g_jgwzXzoC Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space]'' (HarperCollins, 2007) ISBN 0061176281, p. 67</ref>

SMERSH recovered the charred remains of [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Eva Braun]], [[Josef Goebbels]] and his wife and six children, and reburied after some time in an obscure location in Magdeburg, Prussia.  SMERSH kept alive a [[conspiracy theory]] for many years that Hitler had possibly survived and escaped to [[South America]] while the hunt for other Nazi war criminals continued for several decades. The exact details of SMERSH's activities in recovering the corpses of Hitler and his immediate inner circle never emerged until the late 1980s and 1990s.

SMERSH recovered the charred remains of [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Eva Braun]], [[Josef Goebbels]] and his wife and six children, and reburied them after some time in an obscure location in Magdeburg, Prussia.  SMERSH kept alive a [[conspiracy theory]] for many years that Hitler had possibly survived and escaped to [[South America]] while the hunt for other Nazi war criminals continued for several decades. The exact details of SMERSH's activities in recovering the corpses of Hitler and his immediate inner circle never emerged until the late 1980s and 1990s.

In 1948, the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists (NTS), a group of Soviet refugees in West Germany, published in its newspaper ''Possev'' the diary of Soviet defector Mikhail Mondich (under the psudonym "Nicola Sinevirsky") in which SMERSH was first named in the West. The organization was responsible for ferreting out alleged "enemies of the Soviet system," according to Mondich, and was determined that all such suspects "must die."<ref>Mikhail Mondich, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PbYeAAAAMAAJ Smersh]'' (Holt, 1950) pp. 73-74</ref> In 1952, Ian Fleming, former assistant to the director of British Naval Intelligence, began using "SMERSH" as the name of the enemy Soviet agency in his James Bond novels. The following year, NKVD Captain Nicolai Khokhlov, a former top assassin for SMERSH, was sent to West Berlin to kill NTS Chairman George Okolovich. Instead, Khokhlov defected, subsequently revealing to Western intelligence agencies the nefarious history of SMERSH.<ref>Vincent Buranelli and Nan Buranelli, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QWXfAAAAMAAJ Spy/counterspy: an encyclopedia of espionage]'' (McGraw-Hill, 1982) 0070089159, p. 294</ref>

In 1948, the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists (NTS), a group of Soviet refugees in West Germany, published in its newspaper ''Possev'' the diary of Soviet defector Mikhail Mondich (under the psudonym "Nicola Sinevirsky") in which SMERSH was first named in the West. The organization was responsible for ferreting out alleged "enemies of the Soviet system," according to Mondich, and was determined that all such suspects "must die."<ref>Mikhail Mondich, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=PbYeAAAAMAAJ Smersh]'' (Holt, 1950) pp. 73-74</ref> In 1952, Ian Fleming, former assistant to the director of British Naval Intelligence, began using "SMERSH" as the name of the enemy Soviet agency in his James Bond novels. The following year, NKVD Captain Nicolai Khokhlov, a former top assassin for SMERSH, was sent to West Berlin to kill NTS Chairman George Okolovich. Instead, Khokhlov defected, subsequently revealing to Western intelligence agencies the nefarious history of SMERSH.<ref>Vincent Buranelli and Nan Buranelli, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=QWXfAAAAMAAJ Spy/counterspy: an encyclopedia of espionage]'' (McGraw-Hill, 1982) 0070089159, p. 294</ref>