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{{short description|Term for the actions of political warfare conducted by the Soviet and Russian security services}} {{short description|Political warfare conducted by the USSR & Russia}}
{{Other uses|Active Measures (disambiguation)}} {{Other uses|Active Measures (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
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| russian = активные мероприятия | russian = активные мероприятия
| rusr = aktivnye meropriyatiya | rusr = aktivnye meropriyatiya
| native pronunciation = {{IPA-ru|ɐkˈtʲivnɨje mʲɪrəprʲɪˈjætʲɪjə|}} | native pronunciation = {{IPA|ru|ɐkˈtʲivnɨje mʲɪrəprʲɪˈjætʲɪjə|}}
| literal meaning = | literal meaning =
}} }}


'''Active measures''' ({{lang-ru|активные мероприятия|translit=aktivnye meropriyatiya}}) is a term used to describe ] conducted by the ] and the ]. The term, which dates back the 1920s, includes operations such as ], ], ] and ], based on foreign policy objectives of the Soviet and Russian governments.<ref name="am">{{cite journal |url=https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/point-view/2017-05-30/active-measures-russias-key-export |title=Active Measures: Russia's key export |last1=Darczewska |first1=Jolanta |last2=Żochowski |first2=Piotr |name-list-style=amp |date=June 2017 |journal=Point of View |publisher=] |number=64 |isbn=978-83-65827-03-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |page=1 |author=Testimony of Alexander, Gen. (ret.) Keith B. |author-link=Keith B. Alexander |title=Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns |date=March 30, 2017 |publisher=] |url=https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-kalexander-033017.pdf |access-date=January 8, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Mitrokhin">{{cite book |last1=Mitrokhin |first1=Vasili |author-link1=Vasili Mitrokhin |last2=Andrew |first2=Christopher |author-link2=Christopher Andrew (historian) |title=The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/25373/the-mitrokhin-archive-by-christopher-andrew-and-vasili-mitrokhin/9780141989488 |publisher=Penguin |date=2000 |isbn=0-14-028487-7 |id=}}</ref> Active measures have continued to be used by the administration of ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abrams |first=Steve |date=2016 |title=Beyond Propaganda: Soviet Active Measures in Putin's Russia |journal=Connections |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=5–31 |doi=10.11610/Connections.15.1.01 |jstor=26326426 |issn=1812-1098|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Bertelsen |editor-first=Olga |title=Russian Active Measures: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow |date=March 2021 |publisher=ibidem Press |isbn=978-3-83821-529-7 |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russian-active-measures/9783838215297}}</ref> '''Active measures''' ({{langx|ru|активные мероприятия|translit=aktivnye meropriyatiya}}) is a term used to describe ] conducted by the ] and the ]. The term, which dates back to the 1920s, includes operations such as ], ], ] and ], based on foreign policy objectives of the Soviet and Russian governments.<ref name="am">{{cite journal |url=https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/point-view/2017-05-30/active-measures-russias-key-export |title=Active Measures: Russia's key export |last1=Darczewska |first1=Jolanta |last2=Żochowski |first2=Piotr |name-list-style=amp |date=June 2017 |journal=Point of View |publisher=] |number=64 |isbn=978-83-65827-03-6 |access-date=4 February 2022 |archive-date=3 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803171009/https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/point-view/2017-05-30/active-measures-russias-key-export |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |page=1 |author=Testimony of Alexander, Gen. (ret.) Keith B. |author-link=Keith B. Alexander |title=Disinformation: A Primer in Russian Active Measures and Influence Campaigns |date=March 30, 2017 |publisher=] |url=https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-kalexander-033017.pdf |access-date=January 8, 2019 |archive-date=24 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180924042055/https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-kalexander-033017.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Mitrokhin">{{cite book |last1=Mitrokhin |first1=Vasili |author-link1=Vasili Mitrokhin |last2=Andrew |first2=Christopher |author-link2=Christopher Andrew (historian) |title=The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/25373/the-mitrokhin-archive-by-christopher-andrew-and-vasili-mitrokhin/9780141989488 |publisher=Penguin |date=2000 |isbn=0-14-028487-7 |id= |access-date=23 March 2023 |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929154157/https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/25373/the-mitrokhin-archive-by-christopher-andrew-and-vasili-mitrokhin/9780141989488 |url-status=live }}</ref> Active measures have continued to be used by the administration of ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abrams |first=Steve |date=2016 |title=Beyond Propaganda: Soviet Active Measures in Putin's Russia |journal=Connections |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=5–31 |doi=10.11610/Connections.15.1.01 |jstor=26326426 |issn=1812-1098|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Bertelsen |editor-first=Olga |title=Russian Active Measures: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow |date=March 2021 |publisher=ibidem Press |isbn=978-3-83821-529-7 |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russian-active-measures/9783838215297 |access-date=5 April 2021 |archive-date=29 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211129174957/https://cup.columbia.edu/book/russian-active-measures/9783838215297 |url-status=live }}</ref>


==Description== ==Description==
Active measures were conducted by the ] and ] and ] organizations (], ], ], ], and ]) to influence the course of world events, in addition to ] and producing revised assessments of it. Active measures range "from ]s to ''special actions'' involving various degrees of violence". Beginning in the 1920s, they were used both abroad and domestically.<ref name="Mitrokhin"/> Active measures were conducted by the ] and ] and ] organizations (], ], ], ], and ]) to influence the course of world events, in addition to ] and producing revised assessments of it. Active measures range "from ]s to ''special actions'' involving various degrees of violence". Beginning in the 1920s, they were used both abroad and domestically.<ref name="Mitrokhin"/>


Active measures includes the establishment and support of international ] (e.g., the ]); foreign ], ] and ] parties; ] in the ]. It also included supporting underground, revolutionary, ], ], and ] groups. The programs also focused on ]ing official documents, ]s, and ], such as penetration into churches, and persecution of political dissidents. The intelligence agencies of ] states also contributed to the program, providing operatives and intelligence for assassinations and other types of ]s.<ref name="Mitrokhin" /> Active measures includes the establishment and support of international ] (e.g., the ]); foreign ], ] and ] parties; ] in the ]. It also included supporting underground, revolutionary, ], ], and ] groups. The programs also focused on ]ing official documents, ]s, and ], such as penetration into churches, and persecution of political ]. The intelligence agencies of ] states also contributed to the program, providing operatives and intelligence for assassinations and other types of ]s.<ref name="Mitrokhin" />


Retired KGB Major General ], former head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for the KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of the ]":<ref name="Kalugin"/> Retired KGB Major General ], former head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for the KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of the ]":<ref name="Kalugin"/>
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<blockquote>Not intelligence collection, but ]: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly ], to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.<ref name="Kalugin">{{cite web |url=http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/ |title=Inside the KGB: An interview with retired KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin |date=1998 |website=CNN |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627183623/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/ |archive-date=June 27, 2007}}</ref></blockquote> <blockquote>Not intelligence collection, but ]: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly ], to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.<ref name="Kalugin">{{cite web |url=http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/ |title=Inside the KGB: An interview with retired KGB Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin |date=1998 |website=CNN |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627183623/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/ |archive-date=June 27, 2007}}</ref></blockquote>


According to the ], active measures was taught in the ] of the KGB situated at ] (SVR) headquarters in ] of Moscow. The head of the "active measures department" was ], former controller of the ] spy ring.<ref name="Mitrokhin" /> According to the ]s, active measures was taught in the ] of the KGB situated at ] (SVR) headquarters in ] of Moscow. The head of the "active measures department" was ], former controller of the ] spy ring.<ref name="Mitrokhin" />


== History == == History ==
As early as 1923, ] ordered the creation of a Special Disinformation Office. Defector ] claimed that Stalin himself coined the term ''disinformation'' in 1923 by giving it a French sounding name in order to deceive other nations into believing it was a practice invented in France. The noun ''disinformation'' does not originate from Russia, it is a translation of the French word {{lang|fr|désinformation}}.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ion Mihai |last1=Pacepa |author-link1=Ion Mihai Pacepa |first2=Ronald J. |last2=Rychlak |author-link2=Ronald J. Rychlak |name-list-style=amp |date=June 25, 2013 |title=Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=WND Books |pages=4–6, 34–39, & 75 |isbn=978-1-93648-860-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Martin J. |last1=Manning |first2=Herbert |last2=Romerstein |author2-link=Herbert Romerstein |name-list-style=amp |date=November 30, 2004 |title=Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda |location=Westport, CN |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=82–83 |isbn=978-0-31329-605-5}}</ref> Defector ] claimed that ] coined the term ''disinformation'' in 1923 by giving it a French sounding name in order to deceive other nations into believing it was a practice invented in France. The noun ''disinformation'' does not originate from Russia, it is a translation of the French word {{lang|fr|désinformation}}.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ion Mihai |last1=Pacepa |author-link1=Ion Mihai Pacepa |first2=Ronald J. |last2=Rychlak |author-link2=Ronald J. Rychlak |name-list-style=amp |date=June 25, 2013 |title=Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=WND Books |pages=4–6, 34–39, & 75 |isbn=978-1-93648-860-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Martin J. |last1=Manning |first2=Herbert |last2=Romerstein |author2-link=Herbert Romerstein |name-list-style=amp |date=November 30, 2004 |title=Historical Dictionary of American Propaganda |location=Westport, CN |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=82–83 |isbn=978-0-31329-605-5}}</ref>


== Implementation == == Implementation ==
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==== Promotion of guerrilla and terrorist organizations worldwide ==== ==== Promotion of guerrilla and terrorist organizations worldwide ====
{{further|Propaganda in the Soviet Union}} {{further|Propaganda in the Soviet Union}}
Soviet secret services have been described as "the primary instructors of guerrillas worldwide".<ref name="Lunev">{{cite book |last=Lunev |first=Stanislav |author-link=Stanislav Lunev |date=1998 |title=Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Regnery Publishing, Inc |isbn=0-89526-390-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/intelligence_engl.txt |last=Suvorov |first=Viktor |author-link=Viktor Suvorov |date=1984 |title=Inside Soviet Military Intelligence |location=New York City |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-02-615510-9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050830232410/http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/intelligence_engl.txt |archive-date=2005-08-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/specnaz_engl.txt |last=Suvorov |first=Viktor |date=1987 |title=Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces |location=London, UK |publisher=Hamish Hamilton Ltd |isbn=0-241-11961-8 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050910035911/http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/specnaz_engl.txt |archive-date=2005-09-10}}</ref> According to ], KGB General ] once said: "In today's world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon."<ref name="Pacep2Duplicate">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2006/08/russian-footprints-ion-mihai-pacepa/ |title=Russian Footprints |first=Ion Mihai |last=Pacepa |date=August 24, 2006 |magazine=] |access-date=24 February 2023 }}</ref> He also claimed that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention". In 1969 alone, 82 planes were hijacked worldwide by the KGB-financed ].<ref name="Pacep2Duplicate" /> Soviet secret services have been described as "the primary instructors of guerrillas worldwide".<ref name="Lunev">{{cite book |last=Lunev |first=Stanislav |author-link=Stanislav Lunev |date=1998 |title=Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Regnery Publishing, Inc |isbn=0-89526-390-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/intelligence_engl.txt |last=Suvorov |first=Viktor |author-link=Viktor Suvorov |date=1984 |title=Inside Soviet Military Intelligence |location=New York City |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-02-615510-9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050830232410/http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/intelligence_engl.txt |archive-date=2005-08-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/specnaz_engl.txt |last=Suvorov |first=Viktor |date=1987 |title=Spetsnaz: The Inside Story of the Soviet Special Forces |location=London, UK |publisher=Hamish Hamilton Ltd |isbn=0-241-11961-8 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050910035911/http://lib.ru/WSUWOROW/specnaz_engl.txt |archive-date=2005-09-10}}</ref> According to ], KGB General ] once said: "In today's world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon."<ref name="Pacep2Duplicate">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2006/08/russian-footprints-ion-mihai-pacepa/ |title=Russian Footprints |first=Ion Mihai |last=Pacepa |date=August 24, 2006 |magazine=] |access-date=24 February 2023 |archive-date=13 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213222243/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjUzMGU4NTMyOTdkOTdmNTA1MWJlYjYyZDliODZkOGM= |url-status=live }}</ref> He also claimed that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention". In 1969 alone, 82 planes were hijacked worldwide by the KGB-financed ].<ref name="Pacep2Duplicate" />


Lt. General ] stated that operation "SIG" ("] Governments"), devised in 1972, intended to turn the whole Islamic world against ] and the ]. KGB Chairman ] allegedly explained to Pacepa that Lt. General ] stated that operation "SIG" ("] Governments"), devised in 1972, intended to turn the whole Islamic world against ] and the ]. KGB Chairman ] allegedly explained to Pacepa that
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Other widely publicized cases are murders of Russian communist ] and Bulgarian writer ] by ]. Other widely publicized cases are murders of Russian communist ] and Bulgarian writer ] by ].


There were also allegations that the KGB was behind the ] in 1981. The Italian ], headed by senator ] (]), worked on the Mitrokhin Archives from 2003 to March 2006. The Mitrokhin Commission received criticism during and after its existence.<ref name="Unit">'']'', 1 December 2006.</ref> It was closed in March 2006 without any proof brought to its various controversial allegations, including the claim that ], former Prime Minister of Italy and former ], was the "KGB's man in Europe." One of Guzzanti's informers, ], was arrested for defamation and arms trading at the end of 2006.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/italy/story/0,,1962357,00.html |title=Spy expert at centre of storm |first=Barbara |last=McMahon |date=2 December 2006 |newspaper=]}}</ref> There were also allegations that the KGB was behind the ] in 1981. The Italian ], headed by senator ] (]), worked on the Mitrokhin Archives from 2003 to March 2006. The Mitrokhin Commission received criticism during and after its existence.<ref name="Unit">'']'', 1 December 2006.</ref> It was closed in March 2006 without any proof brought to its various controversial allegations, including the claim that ], former Prime Minister of Italy and former ], was the "KGB's man in Europe." One of Guzzanti's informers, ], was arrested for defamation and arms trading at the end of 2006.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/italy/story/0,,1962357,00.html |title=Spy expert at centre of storm |first=Barbara |last=McMahon |date=2 December 2006 |newspaper=] |access-date=13 December 2016 |archive-date=26 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200826024548/https://www.theguardian.com/italy/story/0,,1962357,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>


=== Puppet rebel forces === === Puppet rebel forces ===
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==== Basmachi Revolt ==== ==== Basmachi Revolt ====
{{main|Basmachi movement}} {{main|Basmachi movement}}
The ]ic anti-Soviet ] in ] posed an early threat for Soviet plans to expand their empire. The movement's roots lay in the ] that erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service in ].<ref>Victor Spolnikov, "Impact of Afghanistan's War on the Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia", in Hafeez Malik, ed, Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 101.</ref> In the months following the ] of 1917, the ] seized power in many parts of the Russian Empire and the ] began. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form an autonomous government in the city of ], in the ]. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a general massacre of up to 25,000 people. The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi who waged a ] and conventional war that seized control of large parts of the Fergana Valley and much of ].<ref name="Uzbekistan pg. 30">Uzbekistan, By Thomas R McCray, Charles F Gritzner, pg. 30, 2004, {{ISBN|1438105517}}.</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Martha B. Olcott, ''The Basmachi or Freemen's Revolt in Turkestan'', 1918-24, 355.</ref> The group's notable leaders were ] and, later, ]. Soviet Russia responded by deploying special Soviet military detachments masqueraded as ] forces and received support from British and Turkish intelligence services. The operations of these detachments facilitated the collapse of the Basmachi movement and the assassination of Pasha.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baumann |first=Dr Robert F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaVvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT110 |title=Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan |date=2015-11-06 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing |isbn=978-1-78289-965-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1922-08-18 |title=ENVER PASHA SLAIN BY SOVIET FORCE; Turks' War Leader Is Left Dead on the Field After Desperate Fight in Bokhara. LAST OF THE TRIUMVIRATE His Colleagues Talaat and Djemal Assassinated by Armenians After Fleeing From Constantinople. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/08/18/archives/enver-pasha-slain-by-soviet-force-turks-war-leader-is-left-dead-on.html |access-date=2023-03-15 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The ]ic anti-Soviet ] in ] posed an early threat to the Bolshevik movement. The movement's roots lay in the ] that erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service in ].<ref>Victor Spolnikov, "Impact of Afghanistan's War on the Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia", in Hafeez Malik, ed, Central Asia: Its Strategic Importance and Future Prospects (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994), 101.</ref> In the months following the ] of 1917, the ] seized power in many parts of the Russian Empire and the ] began. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form an autonomous government in the city of ], in the ]. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a general massacre of up to 25,000 people.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi who waged a ] and conventional war that seized control of large parts of the Fergana Valley and much of ].<ref name="Uzbekistan pg. 30">Uzbekistan, By Thomas R McCray, Charles F Gritzner, pg. 30, 2004, {{ISBN|1438105517}}.</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">Martha B. Olcott, ''The Basmachi or Freemen's Revolt in Turkestan'', 1918-24, 355.</ref> The group's notable leaders were ] and, later, ]. Soviet Russia responded by deploying special Soviet military detachments masqueraded as ] forces and received support from British and Turkish intelligence services. The operations of these detachments facilitated the collapse of the Basmachi movement and the assassination of Pasha.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baumann |first=Dr Robert F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yaVvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT110 |title=Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan |date=2015-11-06 |publisher=Pickle Partners Publishing |isbn=978-1-78289-965-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1922-08-18 |title=ENVER PASHA SLAIN BY SOVIET FORCE; Turks' War Leader Is Left Dead on the Field After Desperate Fight in Bokhara. LAST OF THE TRIUMVIRATE His Colleagues Talaat and Djemal Assassinated by Armenians After Fleeing From Constantinople. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1922/08/18/archives/enver-pasha-slain-by-soviet-force-turks-war-leader-is-left-dead-on.html |access-date=2023-03-15 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315001056/https://www.nytimes.com/1922/08/18/archives/enver-pasha-slain-by-soviet-force-turks-war-leader-is-left-dead-on.html |url-status=live }}</ref>


==== Post World War II counter-insurgency operations ==== ==== Post World War II counter-insurgency operations ====
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According to ], ] alone spent more than $1 billion for the ] against the ], which was a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost".<ref name="Lunev" /> Lunev claimed that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every ] and organization in America and abroad".<ref name="Lunev" /> According to ], ] alone spent more than $1 billion for the ] against the ], which was a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost".<ref name="Lunev" /> Lunev claimed that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every ] and organization in America and abroad".<ref name="Lunev" />


By the 1980s, the US intelligence community was skeptical of claims that attempted ] had a direct influence on the non-aligned part of the movement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Vinocur |first=John |date=1983-07-26 |title=K.G.B. Officers Try To Infiltrate Antiwar Groups |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/26/world/kgb-officers-try-to-infiltrate-antiwar-groups.html |access-date=2021-09-14 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> However, the KGB's widespread attempts at influence in the United States, Switzerland, and Denmark targeting the peace movement were known, and the World Peace Council was categorized as a ] organization by the CIA.<ref name=":0" /> By the 1980s, the US intelligence community was skeptical of claims that attempted ] had a direct influence on the non-aligned part of the movement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Vinocur |first=John |date=1983-07-26 |title=K.G.B. Officers Try To Infiltrate Antiwar Groups |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/26/world/kgb-officers-try-to-infiltrate-antiwar-groups.html |access-date=2021-09-14 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=14 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914182942/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/26/world/kgb-officers-try-to-infiltrate-antiwar-groups.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the KGB's widespread attempts at influence in the United States, Switzerland, and Denmark targeting the peace movement were known, and the World Peace Council was categorized as a ] organization by the CIA.<ref name=":0" />


The ] was established on the orders of the Communist Party of the USSR in the late 1940s and for over forty years carried out campaigns against western, mainly American, military action. Many organisations controlled or influenced by Communists affiliated themselves with it. According to ], The ] was established on the orders of the Communist Party of the USSR in the late 1940s, and for over forty years carried out campaigns against western, mainly American, military action. Many organisations controlled or influenced by Communists affiliated themselves with it. According to ],


<blockquote>... the Soviet intelligence really unparalleled. ... The programs—which would run all sorts of congresses, peace congresses, youth congresses, festivals, women's movements, trade union movements, campaigns against U.S. missiles in Europe, campaigns against neutron weapons, allegations that AIDS ... was invented by the CIA ... all sorts of forgeries and faked material— targeted at politicians, the academic community, at public at large. ...<ref name="Kalugin" /></blockquote> <blockquote>... the Soviet intelligence really unparalleled. ... The programs—which would run all sorts of congresses, peace congresses, youth congresses, festivals, women's movements, trade union movements, campaigns against U.S. missiles in Europe, campaigns against neutron weapons, allegations that AIDS ... was invented by the CIA ... all sorts of forgeries and faked material— targeted at politicians, the academic community, at public at large. ...<ref name="Kalugin" /></blockquote>


It has been widely claimed that the Soviet Union organised and financed western peace movements; for example, ex-KGB agent ] claimed that in the early 1980s the KGB wanted to prevent the United States from deploying nuclear missiles in ] as a counterweight to Soviet missiles in ],<ref></ref> and that they used the ] to organize and finance anti-American demonstrations in western Europe.<ref name="Comrade J">{{cite book |last=Earley |first=Pete |author-link=Pete Earley |date=2007 |title=Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War |location=New York City |publisher=Berkley Books |pages=167–177 |isbn=978-0-399-15439-3}}</ref><ref name="CNN Opposition to the Bomb">{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/opposition/ |title=Opposition to The Bomb: The fear, and occasional political intrigue, behind the ban-the-bomb movements |first=Bruce |last=Kennedy |date=1998 |website=CNN |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418133553/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/opposition/ |archive-date=April 18, 2008}}</ref><ref name="Moscow and the Peace, Offensive">{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.org/research/russiaandeurasia/bg184.cfm |title=Moscow and the Peace, Offensive |first=Jeffrey G. |last=Barlow |date=May 14, 1982 |website=] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027233109/http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/bg184.cfm |archive-date=2008-10-27}}</ref> The Soviet Union first deployed the ] (called ''SS-20 Saber'' in the West) in its European territories in March 1976, a mobile, concealable ] (IRBM) with a ] (MIRV) containing three nuclear 150-kiloton ]s.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4814/1/1998CantPhD.pdf |title=The development of the SS-20|last=Cant|first=James|date=May 1998|website=Glasgow Thesis Service |access-date=9 January 2019}}</ref> The SS-20's range of {{convert|4700–5,000|km|mi|sp=us}} was great enough to reach Western Europe from well within Soviet territory; the range was just below the ] minimum range for an ] (ICBM).{{convert|5500|km|mi|abbr=on}}.<ref name=ss20>{{cite web |title=RSD-10 MOD 1/-MOD 2 (SS-20) |publisher=Missile Threat |date=17 October 2012 |url=http://missilethreat.com/missiles/rsd-10-mod-1-mod-2-ss-20/ |access-date=15 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828104632/http://missilethreat.com/missiles/rsd-10-mod-1-mod-2-ss-20/ |archive-date=28 August 2016 }}</ref><ref name=faschron>{{cite web |title=Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Chronology |publisher=] |url=http://fas.org/nuke/control/inf/inf-chron.htm |access-date=15 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |last1=Bohlen |first1=Avis |author1-link=Avis Bohlen |last2=Burns |first2=William |last3=Pifer |first3=Steven |author3-link=Steven Pifer |last4=Woodworth |first4=John |title=The Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces: History and Lessons Learned |year=2012 |url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/30-arms-control-pifer-paper.pdf |access-date=16 August 2016 |publisher=Brookings Institution |location=Washington, D.C. |page=7}}</ref> Tretyakov made further stated that "he KGB was responsible for creating the entire ] story to stop the ] missiles,"<ref name="Comrade J" /> and that they fed misinformation to western peace groups and thereby influenced a key scientific paper on the topic by western scientists.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/4312777 |title=The Atmosphere after a Nuclear War: Twilight at Noon |last1=Crutzen |first1=Paul J. |author-link1=Paul J. Crutzen |last2=Birks |first2=John W. |author-link2=John W. Birks |name-list-style=amp |date=1982 |journal=] |volume=11 |number=2/3 |pages=114–125|jstor=4312777 }}</ref> It has been widely claimed that the Soviet Union organised and financed western peace movements; for example, ex-KGB agent ] claimed that in the early 1980s the KGB wanted to prevent the United States from deploying nuclear missiles in ] as a counterweight to Soviet missiles in ],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nuke.fas.org/control/inf/inf-chron.htm |title=Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces &#91;INF&#93; Chronology |access-date=23 April 2023 |archive-date=13 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413221043/https://nuke.fas.org/control/inf/inf-chron.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and that they used the ] to organize and finance anti-American demonstrations in western Europe.<ref name="Comrade J">{{cite book |last=Earley |first=Pete |author-link=Pete Earley |date=2007 |title=Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War |location=New York City |publisher=Berkley Books |pages=167–177 |isbn=978-0-399-15439-3}}</ref><ref name="CNN Opposition to the Bomb">{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/opposition/ |title=Opposition to The Bomb: The fear, and occasional political intrigue, behind the ban-the-bomb movements |first=Bruce |last=Kennedy |date=1998 |website=CNN |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080418133553/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/opposition/ |archive-date=April 18, 2008}}</ref><ref name="Moscow and the Peace, Offensive">{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.org/research/russiaandeurasia/bg184.cfm |title=Moscow and the Peace, Offensive |first=Jeffrey G. |last=Barlow |date=May 14, 1982 |website=] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027233109/http://www.heritage.org/Research/RussiaandEurasia/bg184.cfm |archive-date=2008-10-27}}</ref> The Soviet Union first deployed the ] (called ''SS-20 Saber'' in the West) in its European territories in March 1976, a mobile, concealable ] (IRBM) with a ] (MIRV) containing three nuclear 150-kiloton ]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4814/1/1998CantPhD.pdf|title=The development of the SS-20|last=Cant|first=James|date=May 1998|website=Glasgow Thesis Service|access-date=9 January 2019|archive-date=13 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213165043/https://theses.gla.ac.uk/4814/1/1998CantPhD.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The SS-20's range of {{convert|4700–5,000|km|mi|sp=us}} was great enough to reach Western Europe from well within Soviet territory; the range was just below the ] minimum range for an ] (ICBM).{{convert|5500|km|mi|abbr=on}}.<ref name=ss20>{{cite web |title=RSD-10 MOD 1/-MOD 2 (SS-20) |publisher=Missile Threat |date=17 October 2012 |url=http://missilethreat.com/missiles/rsd-10-mod-1-mod-2-ss-20/ |access-date=15 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828104632/http://missilethreat.com/missiles/rsd-10-mod-1-mod-2-ss-20/ |archive-date=28 August 2016}}</ref><ref name=faschron>{{cite web |title=Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Chronology |publisher=] |url=http://fas.org/nuke/control/inf/inf-chron.htm |access-date=15 August 2016 |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404053656/https://nuke.fas.org/control/inf/inf-chron.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |last1=Bohlen |first1=Avis |author1-link=Avis Bohlen |last2=Burns |first2=William |last3=Pifer |first3=Steven |author3-link=Steven Pifer |last4=Woodworth |first4=John |title=The Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces: History and Lessons Learned |year=2012 |url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/30-arms-control-pifer-paper.pdf |access-date=16 August 2016 |publisher=Brookings Institution |location=Washington, D.C. |page=7 |archive-date=15 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215124917/https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/30-arms-control-pifer-paper.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Tretyakov made further stated that "he KGB was responsible for creating the entire ] story to stop the ] missiles,"<ref name="Comrade J" /> and that they fed misinformation to western peace groups and thereby influenced a key scientific paper on the topic by western scientists.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/4312777 |title=The Atmosphere after a Nuclear War: Twilight at Noon |last1=Crutzen |first1=Paul J. |author-link1=Paul J. Crutzen |last2=Birks |first2=John W. |author-link2=John W. Birks |name-list-style=amp |date=1982 |journal=] |volume=11 |number=2/3 |pages=114–125|jstor=4312777 }}</ref>


According to intelligence historian ], the KGB in Britain was unable to infiltrate major figures in the ], and the Soviets relied on influencing "less influential contacts" which were more receptive to the Moscow line. Andrew wrote that ] "found no evidence that KGB funding to the British peace movement went beyond occasional payment of fares and expenses to individuals."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Andrew |first=Christopher M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/421785376 |title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 |date=2009 |location=London, UK |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-7139-9885-6 |oclc=421785376}}</ref> According to intelligence historian ], the KGB in Britain was unable to infiltrate major figures in the ], and the Soviets relied on influencing "less influential contacts" which were more receptive to the Moscow line. Andrew wrote that ] "found no evidence that KGB funding to the British peace movement went beyond occasional payment of fares and expenses to individuals."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Andrew |first=Christopher M. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/421785376 |title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 |date=2009 |location=London, UK |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-7139-9885-6 |oclc=421785376}}</ref>
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* Attempts to discredit the ], using writer ] (codenamed PONT), who exposed the identities of many CIA personnel. Mitrokhin alleges that Agee's bulletin '']'' received assistance from the Soviet KGB and Cuban ]<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |title=The Sword and The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB |date=1999 |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |pages=230–234 |isbn=0-465-00310-9 |oclc=42368608}}</ref> * Attempts to discredit the ], using writer ] (codenamed PONT), who exposed the identities of many CIA personnel. Mitrokhin alleges that Agee's bulletin '']'' received assistance from the Soviet KGB and Cuban ]<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |title=The Sword and The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB |date=1999 |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |pages=230–234 |isbn=0-465-00310-9 |oclc=42368608}}</ref>
* Stirring up racial tensions in the United States by mailing bogus letters from the ], placing an explosive package in "the Negro section of New York" (])<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |title=The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB |date=2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-00312-5 |pages=237–239}}</ref> * Stirring up racial tensions in the United States by mailing bogus letters from the ], placing an explosive package in "the Negro section of New York" (])<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |title=The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB |date=2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-00312-5 |pages=237–239}}</ref>
* Planting claims that both ] and ] had been assassinated by the CIA<ref name="g">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/jun/14/russian-fake-news-is-not-new-soviet-aids-propaganda-cost-countless-lives |title=Russian fake news is not new: Soviet Aids propaganda cost countless lives |first=David Robert |last=Grimes |date=14 June 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |date=2000 |title=The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West |location=London, UK |publisher=] |at=Ch. 14 |isbn=0-14-028487-7}}</ref><ref name="m">{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |date=2005 |title=The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World |location=London, UK |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-71399-359-2}}</ref><ref name="h">{{cite journal |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article02.html |title=The Lie that Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination |last=Holland |first=Max |author-link=Max Holland |date=2001 |journal=] |publisher=] |number=11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221134108/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article02.html |archive-date=December 21, 2018}}</ref> * Planting claims that both ] and ] had been assassinated by the CIA<ref name="g">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/jun/14/russian-fake-news-is-not-new-soviet-aids-propaganda-cost-countless-lives |title=Russian fake news is not new: Soviet Aids propaganda cost countless lives |first=David Robert |last=Grimes |date=14 June 2017 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=24 June 2020 |archive-date=1 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701205100/https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/jun/14/russian-fake-news-is-not-new-soviet-aids-propaganda-cost-countless-lives |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |date=2000 |title=The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West |location=London, UK |publisher=] |at=Ch. 14 |isbn=0-14-028487-7}}</ref><ref name="m">{{cite book |last1=Andrew |first1=Christopher |last2=Mitrokhin |first2=Vasili |name-list-style=amp |date=2005 |title=The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World |location=London, UK |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-71399-359-2}}</ref><ref name="h">{{cite journal |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article02.html |title=The Lie that Linked CIA to the Kennedy Assassination |last=Holland |first=Max |author-link=Max Holland |date=2001 |journal=] |publisher=] |number=11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221134108/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/fall_winter_2001/article02.html |archive-date=December 21, 2018}}</ref>
* In the Middle East in 1975, the KGB claimed to identify 45 statesmen from around the world who had been the victims of successful or unsuccessful CIA assassination attempts over the past decade<ref name="m" /> * In the Middle East in 1975, the KGB claimed to identify 45 statesmen from around the world who had been the victims of successful or unsuccessful CIA assassination attempts over the past decade<ref name="m" />
* Make US military aid to the ] government (increased more than fivefold by the Reagan administration between 1981 and 1984) so unpopular within the United States that public opinion would demand that it be halted. About 150 committees were created in the United States which spoke out against US interference in El Salvador, and contacts were made with US Senators<ref name="m" /> * Make US military aid to the ] government (increased more than fivefold by the Reagan administration between 1981 and 1984) so unpopular within the United States that public opinion would demand that it be halted. About 150 committees were created in the United States which spoke out against US interference in El Salvador, and contacts were made with US Senators<ref name="m" />
* Starting rumors that fluoridated drinking water was in fact a plot by the US government to maintain population control<ref name="g" /> * Starting rumors that fluoridated drinking water was in fact a plot by the US government to maintain population control<ref name="g" />
* Fabrication of the story that the ] was ] at ]; the story was spread by Russian-born biologist ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/operation-denver-kgb-aids-disinformation-campaign/ |title=Lessons From Operation "Denver," the KGB's Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign |first=Mark |last=Kramer |date=2020-05-26 |website=The MIT Press Reader |language=en |access-date=2021-04-15}}</ref> In a secondary role to the KGB during the operation, former East German spymaster ] admitted, during a visit to Italy in 1998, the role of the ] in spreading AIDS conspiracy theories<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Selvage |first=Douglas |date=2019-10-01 |title=Operation "Denver": The East German Ministry of State Security and the KGB's AIDS Disinformation Campaign, 1985–1986 (Part 1) |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=71–123 |doi=10.1162/jcws_a_00907 |issn=1520-3972 |doi-access=free}}</ref> * Fabrication of the story that the ] was ] at ]; the story was spread by Russian-born biologist ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/operation-denver-kgb-aids-disinformation-campaign/ |title=Lessons From Operation "Denver," the KGB's Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign |first=Mark |last=Kramer |date=2020-05-26 |website=The MIT Press Reader |language=en |access-date=2021-04-15 |archive-date=13 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213150658/https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/operation-denver-kgb-aids-disinformation-campaign/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In a secondary role to the KGB during the operation, former East German spymaster ] admitted, during a visit to Italy in 1998, the role of the ] in spreading AIDS conspiracy theories<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Selvage |first=Douglas |date=2019-10-01 |title=Operation "Denver": The East German Ministry of State Security and the KGB's AIDS Disinformation Campaign, 1985–1986 (Part 1) |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=71–123 |doi=10.1162/jcws_a_00907 |issn=1520-3972 |doi-access=}}</ref>


In 1974, according to KGB statistics, over 250 active measures were targeted against the CIA alone, leading to denunciations of Agency abuses, both real and (more frequently) imaginary,<ref>''Mitrokhin Archive''. Vol. 3 pak, app. 3, item 410.</ref> in media, parliamentary debates, demonstrations and speeches by leading politicians around the world.<ref name="m" /> In 1974, according to KGB statistics, over 250 active measures were targeted against the CIA alone, leading to denunciations of Agency abuses, both real and (more frequently) imaginary,<ref>''Mitrokhin Archive''. Vol. 3 pak, app. 3, item 410.</ref> in media, parliamentary debates, demonstrations and speeches by leading politicians around the world.<ref name="m" />
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== Russian Federation active measures, 1991 to present == == Russian Federation active measures, 1991 to present ==
{{See also|Propaganda in the Russian Federation|Second Cold War}} {{See also|Propaganda in the Russian Federation|Second Cold War}}
Active measures have continued in the post-Soviet ] and are in many ways based on Cold War schematics.<ref name="am"/> After the ], Kremlin-controlled media spread disinformation about Ukraine's government. In July 2014, ] was shot down by a Russian missile over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers. Kremlin-controlled media and online agents spread disinformation, claiming Ukraine had shot down the airplane.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/02/22/russian-disinformation-distorts-american-and-european-democracy |title=Russian disinformation distorts American and European democracy |date=22 February 2018 |newspaper=] |access-date=26 November 2018}}</ref> Active measures have continued in the post-Soviet ] and are in many ways based on Cold War schematics.<ref name="am"/> After the ], Kremlin-controlled media spread disinformation about Ukraine's government. In July 2014, ] was shot down by a Russian missile over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers. Kremlin-controlled media and online agents spread disinformation, claiming Ukraine had shot down the airplane.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/02/22/russian-disinformation-distorts-american-and-european-democracy |title=Russian disinformation distorts American and European democracy |date=22 February 2018 |newspaper=] |access-date=26 November 2018 |archive-date=26 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126181142/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/02/22/russian-disinformation-distorts-american-and-european-democracy |url-status=live }}</ref>


Russia's alleged disinformation campaign, its involvement in ], ], and its alleged support of far-left movements in the West, has been compared to the Soviet Union's active measures in that it aims to "disrupt and discredit Western democracies".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21711538-1930s-moscow-beacon-international-movement-russian-propaganda |title=The motherlands calls: Russian propaganda is state-of-the-art again |date=10 December 2016 |newspaper=] |access-date=13 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/russia-is-already-winning-214648 |title=Russia Is Already Winning |first=Molly K. |last=McKew |date=18 January 2017 |website=] |access-date=24 January 2017}}</ref> Russia's alleged disinformation campaign, its involvement in ], ], and its alleged support of far-left and documented support of far-right movements in the West, has been compared to the Soviet Union's active measures in that it aims to "disrupt and discredit Western democracies".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21711538-1930s-moscow-beacon-international-movement-russian-propaganda |title=The motherlands calls: Russian propaganda is state-of-the-art again |date=10 December 2016 |newspaper=] |access-date=13 December 2016 |archive-date=13 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161213022837/http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21711538-1930s-moscow-beacon-international-movement-russian-propaganda |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/russia-is-already-winning-214648 |title=Russia Is Already Winning |first=Molly K. |last=McKew |date=18 January 2017 |website=] |access-date=24 January 2017 |archive-date=21 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121093116/http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/russia-is-already-winning-214648 |url-status=live }}</ref>


In testimony before the ] hearing on the US policy response to Russian interference in the 2016 elections, ], former US Ambassador to NATO, referred to herself as "a regular target of Russian active measures."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?447328-1/obama-administration-officials-testify-russia-election-interference#Victoria&start=772 |title=Senate Intelligence Committee on the policy response to Russian interference in the 2016 elections |first=Victoria |last=Nuland |date=June 20, 2018 |website=] |access-date=July 19, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/CHRG-115shrg30501.pdf |title=Hearing Before The Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate: Policy Response To The Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Elections |date=June 20, 2018 |website=U.S. Senate}}</ref> In testimony before the ] hearing on the US policy response to Russian interference in the 2016 elections, ], former US Ambassador to NATO, referred to herself as "a regular target of Russian active measures."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?447328-1/obama-administration-officials-testify-russia-election-interference#Victoria&start=772 |title=Senate Intelligence Committee on the policy response to Russian interference in the 2016 elections |first=Victoria |last=Nuland |date=June 20, 2018 |website=] |access-date=July 19, 2018 |archive-date=15 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715064539/https://www.c-span.org/video/?447328-1/obama-administration-officials-testify-russia-election-interference#Victoria&start=772 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/CHRG-115shrg30501.pdf |title=Hearing Before The Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate: Policy Response To The Russian Interference in the 2016 U.S. Elections |date=June 20, 2018 |website=U.S. Senate |access-date=23 August 2020 |archive-date=26 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200826024415/https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/hearings/CHRG-115shrg30501.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>


The introduction of the Internet, specifically social media offered new opportunities for active measures. The Kremlin-affiliated ], also referred to as the Information Warfare Branch, was established in 2013.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26271634 |title=Commanding the Trend: Social Media as Information Warfare |last=Prier |first=Jarred |date=2017 |journal=] |publisher=] |volume=11 |number=4 |pages=50–85|jstor=26271634 }}</ref> This agency is devoted to spreading disinformation through the Internet, the most well-known and prominent operation being its part in the interference in the 2016 US presidential election.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bastos |first1=Marco |last2=Farkas |first2=Johan |date=2019-04-01 |title='Donald Trump Is My President!': The Internet Research Agency Propaganda Machine |journal=Social Media + Society |language=en |volume=5 |issue=3 |doi=10.1177/2056305119865466 |s2cid=181681781 |issn=2056-3051|doi-access=free }}</ref> According to the ], by 2018, organic content created by the Russian IRA reached at least 126 million US Facebook users, while its politically divisive ads reached 11.4 million US Facebook users. Tweets by the IRA reached approximately 288 million American users. According to committee chair ], " social media campaign was designed to further a broader Kremlin objective: sowing discord in the U.S. by inflaming passions on a range of divisive issues. The Russians did so by weaving together fake accounts, pages, and communities to push politicized content and videos, and to mobilize real Americans to sign online petitions and join rallies and protests."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exposing Russia's Effort to Sow Discord Online: The Internet Research Agency and Advertisements |url=https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/ |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-11-05 |website=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107222939/https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/ |archive-date=7 January 2019 }}</ref> The introduction of the Internet, specifically social media offered new opportunities for active measures. The Kremlin-affiliated ], also referred to as the Information Warfare Branch, was established in 2013.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26271634 |title=Commanding the Trend: Social Media as Information Warfare |last=Prier |first=Jarred |date=2017 |journal=] |publisher=] |volume=11 |number=4 |pages=50–85 |jstor=26271634 |access-date=28 October 2021 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204160128/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26271634 |url-status=live }}</ref> This agency is devoted to spreading disinformation through the Internet, the most well-known and prominent operation being its part in the interference in the 2016 US presidential election.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bastos |first1=Marco |last2=Farkas |first2=Johan |date=2019-04-01 |title='Donald Trump Is My President!': The Internet Research Agency Propaganda Machine |journal=Social Media + Society |language=en |volume=5 |issue=3 |doi=10.1177/2056305119865466 |s2cid=181681781 |issn=2056-3051|doi-access=free |hdl=2043/29693 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> According to the ], by 2018, organic content created by the Russian IRA reached at least 126 million US Facebook users, while its politically divisive ads reached 11.4 million US Facebook users. Tweets by the IRA reached approximately 288 million American users. According to committee chair ], " social media campaign was designed to further a broader Kremlin objective: sowing discord in the U.S. by inflaming passions on a range of divisive issues. The Russians did so by weaving together fake accounts, pages, and communities to push politicized content and videos, and to mobilize real Americans to sign ]s and join rallies and protests."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exposing Russia's Effort to Sow Discord Online: The Internet Research Agency and Advertisements |url=https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/ |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-11-05 |website=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107222939/https://intelligence.house.gov/social-media-content/ |archive-date=7 January 2019 }}</ref>


== See also == == See also ==
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* ] * ]
* ] of KGB of the USSR * ] of KGB of the USSR
* '']''
* ]—a military strategy which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare and cyberwarfare * ]—a military strategy which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare and cyberwarfare
* '']''—book * '']''—book
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* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
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* {{cite book |first=Ishmael |last=Jones |title=The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture |location=New York City |publisher=Encounter Books |date=2010 |isbn=978-1-59403-223-3}} * {{cite book |first=Ishmael |last=Jones |title=The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture |location=New York City |publisher=Encounter Books |date=2010 |isbn=978-1-59403-223-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mitrokhin |first1=Vasili |author-link1=Vasili Mitrokhin |last2=Andrew |first2=Christopher |author-link2=Christopher Andrew (historian) |title=The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World |publisher=Basic Books |date=2005 |isbn=0-465-00311-7}} * {{cite book |last1=Mitrokhin |first1=Vasili |author-link1=Vasili Mitrokhin |last2=Andrew |first2=Christopher |author-link2=Christopher Andrew (historian) |title=The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World |publisher=Basic Books |date=2005 |isbn=0-465-00311-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Rid |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Rid |title=Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |date=2020 |isbn=978-0374287269}}


== External links == == External links ==
{{commons category}} {{commons category}}
* {{cite web |url=http://cicentre.com/disinformation.htm |title=Crash Course in KGB/SVR/FSB Disinformation and Active Measures |date=2007 |website=The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614052728/http://cicentre.com/disinformation.htm |archive-date=2007-06-14}} * {{cite web |url=http://cicentre.com/disinformation.htm |title=Crash Course in KGB/SVR/FSB Disinformation and Active Measures |date=2007 |publisher=The Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614052728/http://cicentre.com/disinformation.htm |archive-date=2007-06-14}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/disinformation |title=Disinformation |website=Gale Encyclopedia of Espionage & Intelligence |via=Answers.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100730130750/http://www.answers.com/topic/disinformation |archive-date=2010-07-30}} * {{cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/disinformation |title=Disinformation |website=Gale Encyclopedia of Espionage & Intelligence |via=Answers.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100730130750/http://www.answers.com/topic/disinformation |archive-date=2010-07-30}}
* {{cite web |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/media/misinformation.html |title=Identifying Misinformation |website=U.S. State Department |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070104092905/http://usinfo.state.gov/media/misinformation.html |archive-date=2007-01-04}} * {{cite web |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/media/misinformation.html |title=Identifying Misinformation |publisher=U.S. State Department |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070104092905/http://usinfo.state.gov/media/misinformation.html |archive-date=2007-01-04}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.psywar.org/content/sovietActiveMeasures |title=Soviet Active Measures in the West and the Developing World |date=1981 |website=Psywar.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817161219/https://www.psywar.org/content/sovietActiveMeasures |archive-date=August 17, 2018}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.psywar.org/content/sovietActiveMeasures |title=Soviet Active Measures in the West and the Developing World |date=1981 |publisher=Psywar.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817161219/https://www.psywar.org/content/sovietActiveMeasures |archive-date=August 17, 2018}}
* {{cite journal |url=https://www.bu.edu/iscip/vol10/Bittman.html |title=Disinforming the Public |first=Lawrence |last=Bittman |date=February 2000 |journal=Perspective |volume=X |number=3 |publisher=Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610020448/https://www.bu.edu/iscip/vol10/Bittman.html |archive-date=June 10, 2008}} * {{cite journal |url=https://www.bu.edu/iscip/vol10/Bittman.html |title=Disinforming the Public |first=Lawrence |last=Bittman |date=February 2000 |journal=Perspective |volume=X |number=3 |publisher=Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080610020448/https://www.bu.edu/iscip/vol10/Bittman.html |archive-date=June 10, 2008}}
* {{cite web |url=http://intellit.muskingum.edu/russia_folder/russiad%26d_folder/russiadis%26dectoc.html |title=Soviet Active Measures: Deception, Disinformation, and Propaganda |first=J. Ransom |last=Clark |website=The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070112144010/http://intellit.muskingum.edu/russia_folder/russiad%26d_folder/russiadis%26dectoc.html |archive-date=2007-01-12}} * {{cite web |url=http://intellit.muskingum.edu/russia_folder/russiad%26d_folder/russiadis%26dectoc.html |title=Soviet Active Measures: Deception, Disinformation, and Propaganda |first=J. Ransom |last=Clark |publisher=The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070112144010/http://intellit.muskingum.edu/russia_folder/russiad%26d_folder/russiadis%26dectoc.html |archive-date=2007-01-12}}
* {{cite web |url=http://axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 |title=Russian Secret Services' Links with Al-Qaeda |first=Michel |last=Elbaz |date=18 July 2005 |website=Axis Information and Analysis |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060223070505/http://axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 |archive-date=2006-02-23}} * {{cite web |url=http://axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 |title=Russian Secret Services' Links with Al-Qaeda |first=Michel |last=Elbaz |date=18 July 2005 |publisher=Axis Information and Analysis |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060223070505/http://axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=252 |archive-date=2006-02-23}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAzGLb1j40 |title=Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete) 1984 |author=Greene Ernest |date=5 December 2017 |website=YouTube}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAzGLb1j40 |title=Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete) 1984 |author=Greene Ernest |date=5 December 2017 |publisher=YouTube}}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/03/01/welcome-to-russian-psychological-warfare-operations-101-a57301 |title=The Secrets of Russia's Propaganda War, Revealed |first1=Alexey |last1=Kovalev |first2=Matthew |author-link=Alexey Kovalev (journalist) |last2=Bodner |name-list-style=amp |date=March 1, 2017 |newspaper=]}} * {{cite news |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/03/01/welcome-to-russian-psychological-warfare-operations-101-a57301 |title=The Secrets of Russia's Propaganda War, Revealed |first1=Alexey |last1=Kovalev |first2=Matthew |author-link=Alexey Kovalev (journalist) |last2=Bodner |name-list-style=amp |date=March 1, 2017 |newspaper=]}}
* {{cite web |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39977961.pdf |title=Modern Russian Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) |first=Peter A. |last=Mattsson |date=2015 |website=]}} * {{cite web |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39977961.pdf |title=Modern Russian Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) |first=Peter A. |last=Mattsson |date=2015 |publisher=]}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_6dibpDfo |title=Operation InfeKtion: How Russia Perfected the Art of War |author=The New York Times |date=25 November 2018 |website=YouTube}} * {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_6dibpDfo |title=Operation InfeKtion: How Russia Perfected the Art of War |website=The New York Times |date=25 November 2018 |via=YouTube}}
* {{cite web |url=http://intellit.muskingum.edu/russia_folder/pcw_era/index.htm#Contents |title=Soviet Active Measures in the "Post-Cold War" Era 1988-1991 |author=U.S. Information Agency |date=June 1992 |website=The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments}} * {{cite web |url=http://intellit.muskingum.edu/russia_folder/pcw_era/index.htm#Contents |title=Soviet Active Measures in the 'Post-Cold War' Era 1988-1991 |author=U.S. Information Agency |date=June 1992 |publisher=The Literature of Intelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments}}


{{Soviet Bloc disinformation in the Cold War}} {{Soviet Bloc disinformation in the Cold War}}

Latest revision as of 20:13, 20 October 2024

Political warfare conducted by the USSR & Russia For other uses, see Active Measures (disambiguation).

Active measures
Lubyanka Building, the headquarters of KGB and later FSB
Russianактивные мероприятия
Romanizationaktivnye meropriyatiya
IPA[ɐkˈtʲivnɨje mʲɪrəprʲɪˈjætʲɪjə]

Active measures (Russian: активные мероприятия, romanizedaktivnye meropriyatiya) is a term used to describe political warfare conducted by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. The term, which dates back to the 1920s, includes operations such as espionage, propaganda, sabotage and assassination, based on foreign policy objectives of the Soviet and Russian governments. Active measures have continued to be used by the administration of Vladimir Putin.

Description

Active measures were conducted by the Soviet and Russian security services and secret police organizations (Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, KGB, and FSB) to influence the course of world events, in addition to collecting intelligence and producing revised assessments of it. Active measures range "from media manipulations to special actions involving various degrees of violence". Beginning in the 1920s, they were used both abroad and domestically.

Active measures includes the establishment and support of international front organizations (e.g., the World Peace Council); foreign communist, socialist and opposition parties; wars of national liberation in the Third World. It also included supporting underground, revolutionary, insurgency, criminal, and terrorist groups. The programs also focused on counterfeiting official documents, assassinations, and political repression, such as penetration into churches, and persecution of political dissidents. The intelligence agencies of Eastern Bloc states also contributed to the program, providing operatives and intelligence for assassinations and other types of covert operations.

Retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, former head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for the KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of the Soviet intelligence":

Not intelligence collection, but subversion: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs.

According to the Mitrokhin Archives, active measures was taught in the Andropov Institute of the KGB situated at Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) headquarters in Yasenevo District of Moscow. The head of the "active measures department" was Yuri Modin, former controller of the Cambridge Five spy ring.

History

Defector Ion Mihai Pacepa claimed that Joseph Stalin coined the term disinformation in 1923 by giving it a French sounding name in order to deceive other nations into believing it was a practice invented in France. The noun disinformation does not originate from Russia, it is a translation of the French word désinformation.

Implementation

Guerrillas

Promotion of guerrilla and terrorist organizations worldwide

Further information: Propaganda in the Soviet Union

Soviet secret services have been described as "the primary instructors of guerrillas worldwide". According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, KGB General Aleksandr Sakharovsky once said: "In today's world, when nuclear arms have made military force obsolete, terrorism should become our main weapon." He also claimed that "Airplane hijacking is my own invention". In 1969 alone, 82 planes were hijacked worldwide by the KGB-financed PLO.

Lt. General Ion Mihai Pacepa stated that operation "SIG" ("Zionist Governments"), devised in 1972, intended to turn the whole Islamic world against Israel and the United States. KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov allegedly explained to Pacepa that

a billion adversaries could inflict far greater damage on America than could a few millions. We needed to instill a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States

Installing and undermining governments

See also: Russia–European Union relations § Allegations of Russian intimidation and destabilisation of EU states

After World War II, Soviet security organizations played a key role in installing puppet communist governments in Eastern Europe, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and later Afghanistan. Their strategy included mass political repressions and establishment of subordinate secret services in all occupied countries.

Some of the active measures were undertaken by the Soviet secret services against their own governments or communist rulers. Russian historians Anton Antonov-Ovseenko and Edvard Radzinsky suggested that Joseph Stalin was killed by associates of NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria, based on the interviews of a former Stalin bodyguard and circumstantial evidence. According to Yevgenia Albats' allegations, Chief of the KGB Vladimir Semichastny was among the plotters against Nikita Khrushchev in 1964, which led to the latter's downfall.

KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov reportedly struggled for power with Leonid Brezhnev. The Soviet coup attempt of 1991 against Mikhail Gorbachev was organized by KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov and other hardliners. Gen. Viktor Barannikov, then the former State Security head, became one of the leaders of the uprising against Boris Yeltsin during the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.

The current Russian intelligence service, the SVR, allegedly works to undermine governments of former Soviet satellite states like Poland, the Baltic states, and Georgia. During the 2006 Georgian-Russian espionage controversy, several Russian GRU case officers were accused by Georgian authorities of preparations to commit sabotage and terrorist acts.

Political assassinations

The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa claimed to have had a conversation with Nicolae Ceaușescu, who told him about "ten international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to kill": László Rajk and Imre Nagy from Hungary; Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej from Romania; Rudolf Slánský and Jan Masaryk from Czechoslovakia; the Shah of Iran; Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, President of Pakistan; Palmiro Togliatti from Italy; John F. Kennedy; and Mao Zedong. Pacepa also discussed a KGB plot to kill Mao Zedong with the help of Lin Biao organized by the Soviet intelligence agencies and alleged that "among the leaders of Moscow's satellite intelligence services there was unanimous agreement that the KGB had been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy."

The second President of Afghanistan, Hafizullah Amin, was killed by the KGB's Alpha Group in Operation Storm-333 before the full-scale Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Presidents of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria organized by Chechen separatists, including Dzhokhar Dudaev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, Aslan Maskhadov, and Abdul-Khalim Saidullaev, were killed by the FSB and affiliated forces.

Other widely publicized cases are murders of Russian communist Leon Trotsky and Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov by NKVD.

There were also allegations that the KGB was behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981. The Italian Mitrokhin Commission, headed by senator Paolo Guzzanti (Forza Italia), worked on the Mitrokhin Archives from 2003 to March 2006. The Mitrokhin Commission received criticism during and after its existence. It was closed in March 2006 without any proof brought to its various controversial allegations, including the claim that Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission, was the "KGB's man in Europe." One of Guzzanti's informers, Mario Scaramella, was arrested for defamation and arms trading at the end of 2006.

Puppet rebel forces

Operation Trust

In "Operation Trust" (1921–1926), the State Political Directorate (OGPU) set up a fake anti-Bolshevik underground organization, "Monarchist Union of Central Russia". The main success of this operation was luring Boris Savinkov and Sidney Reilly into the Soviet Union, where they were arrested and executed.

Basmachi Revolt

Main article: Basmachi movement

The Islamic anti-Soviet Basmachi movement in Central Asia posed an early threat to the Bolshevik movement. The movement's roots lay in the anti-conscription violence of 1916 that erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service in World War I. In the months following the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power in many parts of the Russian Empire and the Russian Civil War began. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form an autonomous government in the city of Kokand, in the Fergana Valley. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a general massacre of up to 25,000 people. The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi who waged a guerrilla and conventional war that seized control of large parts of the Fergana Valley and much of Turkestan. The group's notable leaders were Enver Pasha and, later, Ibrahim Bek. Soviet Russia responded by deploying special Soviet military detachments masqueraded as Basmachi forces and received support from British and Turkish intelligence services. The operations of these detachments facilitated the collapse of the Basmachi movement and the assassination of Pasha.

Post World War II counter-insurgency operations

Main article: Anti-communist insurgencies in Central and Eastern Europe See also: Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1953), Guerrilla war in the Baltic states, and Anti-Soviet resistance by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Following World War II, various partisan organizations in the Baltic states, Poland and Western Ukraine fought for independence of their countries, which were under Soviet occupation, against Soviet forces. Many NKVD agents were sent to join and penetrate the independence movements. Puppet rebel forces were also created by the NKVD and permitted to attack local Soviet authorities to gain credibility and exfiltrate senior NKVD agents to the West.

Supporting political movements

According to Stanislav Lunev, GRU alone spent more than $1 billion for the peace movements against the Vietnam War, which was a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost". Lunev claimed that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad".

By the 1980s, the US intelligence community was skeptical of claims that attempted Soviet influence on the peace movement had a direct influence on the non-aligned part of the movement. However, the KGB's widespread attempts at influence in the United States, Switzerland, and Denmark targeting the peace movement were known, and the World Peace Council was categorized as a communist front organization by the CIA.

The World Peace Council was established on the orders of the Communist Party of the USSR in the late 1940s, and for over forty years carried out campaigns against western, mainly American, military action. Many organisations controlled or influenced by Communists affiliated themselves with it. According to Oleg Kalugin,

... the Soviet intelligence really unparalleled. ... The programs—which would run all sorts of congresses, peace congresses, youth congresses, festivals, women's movements, trade union movements, campaigns against U.S. missiles in Europe, campaigns against neutron weapons, allegations that AIDS ... was invented by the CIA ... all sorts of forgeries and faked material— targeted at politicians, the academic community, at public at large. ...

It has been widely claimed that the Soviet Union organised and financed western peace movements; for example, ex-KGB agent Sergei Tretyakov claimed that in the early 1980s the KGB wanted to prevent the United States from deploying nuclear missiles in Western Europe as a counterweight to Soviet missiles in Eastern Europe, and that they used the Soviet Peace Committee to organize and finance anti-American demonstrations in western Europe. The Soviet Union first deployed the RSD-10 Pioneer (called SS-20 Saber in the West) in its European territories in March 1976, a mobile, concealable intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) with a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) containing three nuclear 150-kiloton warheads. The SS-20's range of 4,700–5,000 kilometers (2,900–3,100 mi) was great enough to reach Western Europe from well within Soviet territory; the range was just below the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks II (SALT II) Treaty minimum range for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).5,500 km (3,400 mi). Tretyakov made further stated that "he KGB was responsible for creating the entire nuclear winter story to stop the Pershing II missiles," and that they fed misinformation to western peace groups and thereby influenced a key scientific paper on the topic by western scientists.

According to intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, the KGB in Britain was unable to infiltrate major figures in the CND, and the Soviets relied on influencing "less influential contacts" which were more receptive to the Moscow line. Andrew wrote that MI5 "found no evidence that KGB funding to the British peace movement went beyond occasional payment of fares and expenses to individuals."

United States

See also: Soviet espionage in the United States

Some of the active measures by the USSR against the United States were exposed in the Mitrokhin Archive:

  • Attempts to discredit the Central Intelligence Agency, using writer Philip Agee (codenamed PONT), who exposed the identities of many CIA personnel. Mitrokhin alleges that Agee's bulletin CovertAction received assistance from the Soviet KGB and Cuban DGI
  • Stirring up racial tensions in the United States by mailing bogus letters from the Ku Klux Klan, placing an explosive package in "the Negro section of New York" (Operation PANDORA)
  • Planting claims that both John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated by the CIA
  • In the Middle East in 1975, the KGB claimed to identify 45 statesmen from around the world who had been the victims of successful or unsuccessful CIA assassination attempts over the past decade
  • Make US military aid to the El Salvador government (increased more than fivefold by the Reagan administration between 1981 and 1984) so unpopular within the United States that public opinion would demand that it be halted. About 150 committees were created in the United States which spoke out against US interference in El Salvador, and contacts were made with US Senators
  • Starting rumors that fluoridated drinking water was in fact a plot by the US government to maintain population control
  • Fabrication of the story that the AIDS virus was manufactured by US scientists at Fort Detrick; the story was spread by Russian-born biologist Jakob Segal. In a secondary role to the KGB during the operation, former East German spymaster Markus Wolf admitted, during a visit to Italy in 1998, the role of the HVA in spreading AIDS conspiracy theories

In 1974, according to KGB statistics, over 250 active measures were targeted against the CIA alone, leading to denunciations of Agency abuses, both real and (more frequently) imaginary, in media, parliamentary debates, demonstrations and speeches by leading politicians around the world.

Blowback

Further information: Blowback (intelligence)

Soviet intelligence, as part of active measures, frequently spread disinformation to distort their adversaries' decision-making. However, sometimes this information filtered back through the KGB's own contacts, leading to distorted reports. Lawrence Bittman also addressed Soviet intelligence blowback in The KGB and Soviet Disinformation, stating that "There are, of course, instances in which the operator is partially or completely exposed and subjected to countermeasures taken by the government of the target country."

Russian Federation active measures, 1991 to present

See also: Propaganda in the Russian Federation and Second Cold War

Active measures have continued in the post-Soviet Russian Federation and are in many ways based on Cold War schematics. After the annexation of Crimea, Kremlin-controlled media spread disinformation about Ukraine's government. In July 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers. Kremlin-controlled media and online agents spread disinformation, claiming Ukraine had shot down the airplane.

Russia's alleged disinformation campaign, its involvement in the UK's withdrawal from the EU, interference in the 2016 United States presidential election, and its alleged support of far-left and documented support of far-right movements in the West, has been compared to the Soviet Union's active measures in that it aims to "disrupt and discredit Western democracies".

In testimony before the United States Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the US policy response to Russian interference in the 2016 elections, Victoria Nuland, former US Ambassador to NATO, referred to herself as "a regular target of Russian active measures."

The introduction of the Internet, specifically social media offered new opportunities for active measures. The Kremlin-affiliated Internet Research Agency, also referred to as the Information Warfare Branch, was established in 2013. This agency is devoted to spreading disinformation through the Internet, the most well-known and prominent operation being its part in the interference in the 2016 US presidential election. According to the House Intelligence Committee, by 2018, organic content created by the Russian IRA reached at least 126 million US Facebook users, while its politically divisive ads reached 11.4 million US Facebook users. Tweets by the IRA reached approximately 288 million American users. According to committee chair Adam Schiff, " social media campaign was designed to further a broader Kremlin objective: sowing discord in the U.S. by inflaming passions on a range of divisive issues. The Russians did so by weaving together fake accounts, pages, and communities to push politicized content and videos, and to mobilize real Americans to sign online petitions and join rallies and protests."

See also

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Further reading

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Active measures

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