Authors

Roman Horbyk¹;  ¹ University of Basel, Switzerland

Discussion

This paper aims to clarify the transformation of Soviet Cold War propaganda into the contemporary Russian information operations, bringing together two distinct periods characterised with the rise of new and sophisticated techniques. Even though previous research attempted to tackle the issue of to what extent Russian information operations today are the continuation of the Soviet doctrine (Fedchenko 2016; Sanovich 2019; Haigh & Haigh 2020), the answer remains inconclusive. I propose a two-prong focus: studying comparatively, on the one hand, KGB manuals on active measures and political warfare, published in the 1960s through to the 1980s and recently made available, and, on the other hand, the approach demonstrated in recent Russian publications as well as practices, such as evident in the 2014-2020 Secondary Infektion campaign. By comparing instructions in KGB manuals and the contemporary models and practices, I will demonstrate what of the “analogue” Cold War propaganda remains in the present-day computational propaganda and how exactly Soviet active measures evolved into the new mediascape. The findings, which are the first results of a three-year project funded by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, highlight both strong continuities of methods and techniques, such as source laundering, directed information, doctored documents and planted inferences, and certain discontinuities, such as the emphasis on a greater number of fabrications in lower quality, compared to the Soviet era.

Keywords: propaganda, disinformation, active measures, Soviet Union, KGB, Cold War, Russia, Secondary Infektion