active measures

Active Measures was a program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which attempted to further Soviet foreign policy goals through clandestine operations conducted by the KGB (Committee for State Security). Methods such as disinformation, propaganda, counterfeitting official documents, and training false defectors were used to confuse and to destabilize foreign governments, especially those potentially hostile to the Soviet regime. The program further established and backed international front organizations (e.g. the World Peace Council); foreign communist, socialist and opposition parties; wars of national liberation in the Third World; and underground, revolutionary, insurgency, criminal, and terrorist groups. The intelligence agencies of Eastern European and other communist states also contributed to the program, providing operatives and intelligence for assassinations and other types of deniable covert operations. For example, it is widely believed that the KGB subcontracted the Bulgarian KGB to attempt the assassination of Pope John Paul II.

Active Measures

See also