What are Russian Active Measures and origins

Active Measures

Just as with the conceptualization through reference books like dictionaries, there are differences between the concepts of disinformation and misinformation within the scientific framework as well. In this case, a few authors explain the difference between misinformation and disinformation from an intelligence perspective:

Disinformation is as different from misinformation as night from day. Misinformation is an official government tool and recognizable as such. Disinformation (i.e., dezinformatsiya) is a secret intelligence tool, intended to bestow a Western, non-government cachet on government lies. Let us assume that the FSB (the new KGB) fabricated some documents supposedly proving that American military forces were under specific orders to target Islamic houses of worship in their bombing raids over Libya in 2011. If a report on those documents were published in an official Russian news outlet, that would be misinformation, and people in the West might rightly take it with a grain of salt and simply shrug it off as routine Moscow propaganda. If, on the other hand, that same material were made public in the Western media and attributed to some Western organization, that would be disinformation, and the story’s credibility would be substantially greater.

The meanings of disinformation that Pacepa and Rychlak bring are more contemporary to current situations. However, as Pacepa and Rychlak themselves presented in their book *Disinformation* (2013), this type of subversive activity has a long history, starting in Imperial Russia with the Okhrana and later in Soviet Russia with the infamous KGB. Proof of this is the definition of Disinformation provided by the Great Soviet Encyclopedia:

"DEZINFORMATSIYA (from des (q.v.) and French information). Dissemination (in the press, on the radio, etc.) of false reports intended to mislead public opinion. The capitalist press and radio make wide use of dezinformatsiya, in order to fool the people, entangle them in lies, and depict the new war being prepared by the Anglo-American imperialist bloc as a defensive weapon, but depict the peaceful politics of the USSR, countries of the people’s democracy and other peace-loving countries as allegedly aggressive. A special role in disseminations of this sort of provocative reports, of every kind of falsehoods, etc., belongs to the American capitalist press, radio, and various publication agencies, furnishing false information to the press and to other propaganda organizations." (GREAT SOVIET ENCYCLOPEDIA, 1952)

The broader framework that incorporates Disinformation is the Active Measures, a free translation of the original term *Active Measures*. These Active Measures are so Russian that the terms "Active Measures" and "Disinformation" are directly imported from the Soviet intelligence lexicon. Disinformation is the dissemination of entirely or partially false information, meanings already exposed by other authors. However, Active Measures are the broader concept in which disinformation plays an essential role.

Within the Soviet intelligence doctrine, the concept of Active Measures is: "a set of practices, including disinformation operations, political influence efforts, and activities of Soviet front groups and foreign communist parties" (KUX, 1984, p. 19). All Active Measures activities have the common goal of enhancing Soviet influence, commonly achieved by degrading the opponent's image, involving elements of deception, illusion, and means to mask the "hand" of Moscow.

Analyzing the meaning that the Soviet encyclopedia provides and Kux's text, which explains the concept of Active Measures, it becomes clear the mentality of the Soviet state and the intelligence doctrine of the Soviet bloc secret services. The communist state not only considered itself involved in a cold war against the capitalist world, mainly against what it calls the Anglo-American imperialist bloc, but also considered itself in an information war. Therefore, it used the doctrines called Dezinformatsya and the concepts within Active Measures to carry out its own disinformation activities, manipulate opinions, and in a way, try to tarnish the opponent's image to present itself as morally superior to the Anglo-American capitalist imperialist bloc.

Romanian intelligence agent training manuals stated that the term disinformation was born in the 18th century in Imperial Russia. If we trace this origin, we discover that disinformation was the result of the love affair between Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin, her principal political and military advisor. In 1787, Potemkin, then Governor-General of New Russia (now Ukraine), took the Empress on a tour of Crimea.

It is worth noting that Potemkin had been instrumental in annexing Crimea from the Turks four years earlier. To impress her, Potemkin arranged for the construction of fake villages along the route the Empress would take. One of these empty facade villages, erected at the mouth of the small Bug River, went so far as to welcome the Empress with a triumphal arch bearing the inscription: "This is the way to Constantinople". In 1843, the Marquis de Custine traveled to Russia, inspired by the travels of his compatriot Alexis de Tocqueville. Custine sought to accomplish a work similar to Tocqueville's. For Custine, Russian despotism not only counts ideas and feelings for nothing but remakes facts; it wages war on evidence and triumphs in the battle.

It is worth remembering that Russian history after the outbreak of the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars is a history marked by a constant struggle against the forces of Political Liberalism and extremist groups frustrated with slow social progress. Frustration and tension from radical groups in Russia culminated in 1881 with the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, a great reformer who abolished the institution of serfdom that had plagued Russian peasants for generations.

The assassination of Tsar Alexander II also led to the death of the Tsar's reformist spirit, ushering in a new era of repression of civil and political liberties and shelving any plans for a constitution. Tsar Alexander III, in turn, embarked on a renewed journey for autocratic power, leaving Alexander II's liberalization plans definitively behind. Count Stroganov, in a conversation with Alexander III, talks about his late father's plans that were about to be published:

"The nation, he said, did not require greater liberties but more energetic action by the government. The suggested proposals were harmful; their approval could only result in the ultimate destruction of the necessary, autocratic power of the tsar. His authority would then pass into the hands of the people concerned only with their selfish, personal motives. Implementation of the proposals, the count said, will surely 'lead straight to a constitution, which I desire neither for your sake nor for that of Russia.'"

In reaction to the Tsar's assassination, the so-called Okhrana, the secret police of the Tsarist regime, was created, ending in 1917. Created to combat political terrorism and revolutionary groups, preventing another Tsar from being assassinated, the Okhrana executed secret operations, used undercover and double agents, infiltrating these revolutionary groups to keep the government informed and contained. To do this, they also extensively used *agents provocateurs*, even having branches abroad, mainly in France, which at the time was a haven for exiled revolutionaries.

Some of the methods used by the Okhrana were later appropriated by the post-revolutionary secret police of 1917. One of the greatest feats of disinformation or simply forgery was carried out by the Okhrana in 1903 when a text that would become infamous in the 1930s with the rise of the Nazi party, *The Protocols of the Elders of Zion*, was published in Russia. This publication was a fabrication amalgamating various sources and described a supposed Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world.

Although anti-Semitism was not uncommon in 19th-century Europe, the Pogroms in Russia were particularly brutal and in some cases actively instigated by local authorities. The fabrication of world domination conspiracies, of which *The Protocols of the Elders of Zion* is the pinnacle, exemplifies anti-Semitism as state policy and the complicity of imperial authorities, not only in the mild punishments of the perpetrators but also in what would be a prototype of Active Measures. Later, such measures would be developed by communist agencies, actively creating and fabricating lies or half-truths to cause a reaction or change of opinion.