Operation Scherhorn
World War II intelligence operation by the USSR
Operation Scherhorn (in English sources) or Operation Berezino (original Soviet codename) or Operation Beresino (in East German sources) was a secret deception operation performed by the NKVD against the Nazi secret services from August 1944 to May 1945. It was proposed by Joseph Stalin, drafted by Mikhail Maklyarsky and executed by Pavel Sudoplatov and his NKVD subordinates, assisted by German antifascists and communists.
The main objective of Operation Berezino was to create the illusion of a large German armed group operating behind the front line in Soviet held territory, and to deplete Nazi intelligence resources through capture and extermination of field operatives sent to assist these fictitious troops. The NKVD set up a fake German "resistance pocket" under "command" of Lieutenant-Colonel Heinrich Scherhorn, a real German prisoner of war who was forced to cooperate with the Soviets. The German response, Otto Skorzeny's Operation Freischütz (Operation Poacher in post-war English sources), developed according to Soviet expectations. The German commandos sent by Skorzeny were routinely arrested and forced to take part in the Soviet funkspiel. German support gradually faded but the German command maintained radio contact with "Group Scherhorn" until May 1945.
Background
According to Pavel Sudoplatov, NKVD officers Victor Ilyin and Mikhail Maklyarsky conceived Operation Berezino as an extension of Operation Monastyr ("Operation Monastery") (1941–1944). In 1941, NKVD operative Alexander Demyanov (Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Демья́нов, Soviet codename Heyne), who disguised himself as a disgruntled bohemian socialite, established contact with the German resident in Moscow. The NKVD used this opportunity to expose the Abwehr undercover network in the Soviet Union.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7097509. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1945 and 1941.
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This entry incorporates text from “Operation Scherhorn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.