

By attaching a special-purpose unit to the office of the First Chief Directorate in Moscow (later the Seventh Directorate ), it was hoped that the Soviet Union's defensive capacity against terrorist attacks would increase significantly. It might have been established as a response to West Germany's creation of the Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (or the GSG 9).

On 28 July 1974, Alpha Group was created on the orders of the KGB Chairman, Yuri Andropov, in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich massacre. In the Soviet Union Creation and organization
