While modelled on the real SMERSH organisation (which existed 1943-1946), Fleming's SMERSH expanded upon the original's operational jurisdiction, resulting in a large-scale subversive organisation which operated internationally and more closely resembled the real-life KGB. SMERSH (a portmanteau of the Russian Smyert Shpionam - Смерть Шпионам - which means 'Death to Spies') is a fictional Soviet counterintelligence agency featured primarily in the early James Bond novels by Ian Fleming. It was deactivated 20 years ago.' ― General Pushkin
' Smiert Spionam? Was a Beria operation, in Stalin's time.
