Active Measures, A Structured, Systematic, and Massive Disinformation Campaign of the Soviet Union
Today we live in the era of the internet, which means we could access and share information at unprecedented level unimaginable even 20 years ago–when the internet slowly becomes mainstream. This ease of access of information resulted in our dependency of the internet, because we are naturally a being that are thirsty of information, and the internet provided just that. Now we can’t pass a single day without information, maybe just to look how our loved ones doing, stalking our favorite musician, and–probably–looking about covid-19’s pandemic updates. But our dependency to internet and information it provided is a double edged sword. Just because we use internet everyday, we lower our guard and assumed that every information we see is true, even though that’s not always the case.
We must realize that when we browse information on the internet, there’ll be always a threat of disinformation and the danger of it is very real. But before we dive deeper into disinformation, first we must understand what is disinformation. According to former KGB (Komitet Gosudartsvennoy Bezopasnosti) agent Ladislav Bittman, in his interview with The New York Times, the meaning of disinformation is, “Deliberately distorted information that is secretly leaked into the communication process in order to deceive and manipulate.” Disinformation is specially designed to sow discord and divisions in society, with the final goal of changing their perception of reality. So even though there is a lot of information that can be used to cross check, no one can know the fact.
You may ask, why I’d include a statement about disinformation from an ex-KGB officer? What’s they got to do with disinformation? The answer is related to the origin of the word “disinformation” itself, which by the way, didn’t even exist in English dictionary until at least 1980. The word “disinformation” is directly absorbed from Russian term, “dezinformatsiya” (дезинформация), which referring to a special division in which purposes is to craft and spread misinformation with intent to manipulate public opinion. The creation of this special division is correlated with power struggle within Russian Empire which resulted in the October Revolution. This power struggle largely depends on a combination of propaganda techniques, political influence, and armed forces. The term “dezinformatsiya” then absorbed to the english languange and became “disinformation” in the cold war era, as a code name within west intelligence community that refers to the Soviet intelligence operation.
Disinformation itself, is part of a bigger operation within the Soviet Union which is called active measures (активные мероприятия). The goal of this operation is to influence the policies of other countries, reduce public trust in the institutions and leaders of their countries, disrupt the relations of a country with other countries, and to discredit and weaken countries that were seen as enemies of the Soviet Union. Major General Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB officer, stated that disinformation is an important component of active measures. He stated that disinformation is, “The heart and soul of 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 the case of cold war went hot”.
Some examples of dizinformatsiya are, the news that the FBI and CIA were behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the CIA’s attempt to kill Pope John Paul II, and rich Americans buying poor Latin American children to harvest their organs. But in my opinion, one of the most massive dezinformation operations ever carried out and having a long lasting impact after its conception is the operation infection. This was a disinformation operation by the Soviet Union in the 80s, that claims that the HIV virus was secretly created by the US to kill African-American and gay people.
There are three factors behind the operation of infection, the first is the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the early 80s, secondly the lack of verifiable facts on the origin of this virus, and lastly the trial of biological weapons by the US in the late 70s. These three factors provided an opportunity for the KGB to exploit it, they just need to add to the idea that US government scientists had created the HIV virus. Operation infektion began on July 17, 1983, when a small newspaper in India–Patriot Magazine–printed a story with the headline, “AIDS may invade India: Mystery disease caused by US experiments.” The story, allegedly written by “famous American scientist and anthropologist” in New York, claims that, “AIDS is believed to be the result of the Pentagon’s experiments to develop new and dangerous bio-logical weapons.”
After the news released to Indian public, the KGB let this news lie dormant for several years, while HIV/AIDS was still making headlines in various parts of the globe in the 80s. Three years later they brought this story back to life, this time in a leading Moscow newspaper. Of course the source of the news from the Moscow media is the Patriot Magazine. But this time, the KGB wanted to add credibility to this “news”. They then ordered the East German intelligence services to find someone who could use a “scientific approach” and could state with confidence that the AIDS virus had been developed in the USA, specifically from Fort Detrick (which conduct US’s biological weapon program at that time).
The East German intelligence services then found Dr. Jakob Segal and his wife, Lili Segal. The KGB immediately tidied up the news and made sure that this “credible news” was read by journalists all over Africa. They keep pushing this news using their various intelligence assets, until finally the news went viral. The news then appeared in 200 newspapers in 80 countries, such as Kenya, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Findland, and even the UK. Until finally on March 30, 1987, KGB hit the jackpot. In other words, this news had reached the United States and was broadcast on news channels and published by US newspapers. Thus, operation infection deserves the title of the most successful hoax ever made. For America itself, the impact is tremendous, the US society and foreign governments (at that time and to some extent until today) believe that America is responsible for HIV/AIDS.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s, KGB as the brain of dezinformatsiya also disintegrated. However, this does not mean that this disinformation activity stops, because many large fragments of their apparatus continue to exist and function, for the most part now under Russian administration. Because active measures are a very potent and dangerous weapon, just like another ex-KGB spy Yuri Bezmenov said, “The highest art of warfare is not to fight at all, but to subvert anything of value in yout enemy’s country. Put white against black, old against young, and so on. As long as it disturbs society, as long as it cuts the moral fiber of the nation. And then you just tak this country, when everything is subverted, when the country is disoriented and confused, when it’s demoralized and then destabilized, then the crisis will come.”
Further ReadingAbrams, S. (2016). Beyond Propaganda Soviet Active Measures in Putin’s Russia Beyond Propaganda: Soviet Active Measures in Putin’s Russia. Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies, 15(1), 5–31. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26326426%0Ahttp://about.jstor.org/terms%0Ahttp://dx.doi.org/10.11610/Connections.15.1.01Bittman, L. (1985). The KGB and Soviet Disinformation: An Insider’s View. Pergamon-Brassey’s.Boghardt, T. (2009). Soviet Bloc Intelligence and Its AIDS Disinformation Campaign. Studies in Intelligence, 53(4).Ellick, A. B., & Westbrook, A. (2018). Operation InfeKtion: How Russia Perfected the Art of War | NYT Opinion. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_6dibpDfo&t=18sGodson, R., & Shultz, R. (1985). Soviet active measures : Distinctions and Definitions. Defense Analysis, 1(2), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/07430178508405191Kaznacheyev, A. (1981). Inside a Soviet Embassy: Experiences of a Russian Diplomat in Burma. New York: Ballantine.Mahairas, A., & Dvilyanski, M. (2018). Disinformation, Дезинформация (Dezinformatsiya).pdf. The Cyber Defense Review, 3(3), 21–28.
