Active Measures was a term used to describe a multi-tier operation campaign created during the Soviet era that encompassed several types of efforts including espionage, influence operations, smear campaigns, forgery campaigns, front groups, propaganda and disinformation. These active measures were used to maneuver the perceptions of people across the globe so to keep the United States, the CIA, and the NATO allies 

Before the creation of the Active Measures department, there already existed a disinformation strategies bureau under the Central Committee. The Committee of Information was created in 1947 and dissolved in 1951. Known as the ‘komitet informatsii’, it was a direct response to the establishment of the CIA’s creation under the American National Security Act of June 1947. It was led by Vyacheslav Molotov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 1959, the Department for Active Measures, or Department D, was established in the KGB. The era of Soviet active measures would expand through the satellite countries of the U.S.S.R. and eventually the world.

Operations were carried out under the KGB’s First Chief Directorate through a department first known as “Department D” then changed to “Service A”, however other departments were sometimes tapped to assist in operations where they were needed. Created under the helm of General Ivan Ivanovich Agayants, this department had five divisions that focused on political, scientific and technical, military, economic and counterintelligence operations.

The department’s growth showed how important it was to the Soviet interests in the world. Growing from just a few dozen officers in the early 1960s to almost 15,000 personnel by the fall of the Soviet Union.