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“Active Measures” Master Degree Programme in Comparative International Relations Final Thesis “Active Measures” The Soviet Political Warfare in The Last Decade of The Cold War Supervisor Co-supervisor Prof. Stefano Petrungaro Prof. Duccio Basosi Student Academic Year Simone Perin 852048 2019/2020 1 Abstract in English This work is intended to offer a detailed study of one of the numerous offensive approaches employed by the Soviet Union and the intelligence services during the last decade of the Cold War. Starting from the analysis of the concept of political warfare and what “active measures” means in the panorama of international relations, the thesis will examine a specific case of disinformation campaign that occurred in the early 1980s concerning a secret operation, codenamed “Operation Denver”, carried by the secret services of Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, KGB, with the direct support of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, Stasi, and the Komitet za dăržavna sigurnost, KDS. From the numerous testimonies, from the previously inaccessible archival documents, and thanks to recent scientific studies in this regard, this work will subsequently focus on the analysis of the relationship between the numerous state and police intelligence services of the Soviet Bloc involved in this type of “active measures”, and how they spread internationally, what was their real purpose and the results achieved by these operations in the delicate context of the last decade of the Cold War. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract in English .................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER I: The Soviet Union in the Last Decade of the Cold War .................................... 13 I.1. Historical Background ................................................................................................. 13 I.1.1. The End of Détente .............................................................................................. 14 I.1.2. Tensions and The Second Cold War (1979-1985) .............................................. 18 I.1.3. The Gorbachev Era (1985-1991) ......................................................................... 25 CHAPTER II: Soviet Active Measures .................................................................................. 40 II.1. Political Warfare ......................................................................................................... 40 II.1.1. The Concept of Subversion ................................................................................ 48 II.2. Active Measures .......................................................................................................... 51 II.2.1. Active Measures Origins .................................................................................... 54 II.2.2. Organizational Structure ..................................................................................... 56 II.2.3. Disinformation .................................................................................................... 60 II.2.4. Forgeries ............................................................................................................. 61 II.2.5. Agent of Influence .............................................................................................. 62 II.2.6. Front Organizations ............................................................................................ 63 II.3. KGB First Chief Directorate Structure ....................................................................... 64 II.4. Main Directorate for Reconnaissance HVA (MfS) .................................................... 65 II.5. First Main Directorate of Bulgarian State Security (PGU) ........................................ 67 CHAPTER III: Operation Denver ........................................................................................... 69 III.1. Origins of the AIDS Disinformation Campaign ....................................................... 70 III.2. Jakob Segal and the HIV-from-Fort-Detrick myth ................................................... 82 III.3. The debate over the role of the Soviet Bloc secret services in AIDS disinformation campaign ......................................................................................................... 91 III.3.1. Operation “Denver” or “InfeKtion” .................................................................. 96 III.3.2. KGB as the perpetrator of the AIDS disinformation campaign ........................ 97 III.3.3. The Role of the Stasi and Bulgarian secret services in the AIDS disinformation campaign ....................................................................................................... 101 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 112 Notes ..................................................................................................................................... 118 3 Acronyms and Abbreviations in English AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome BfDI Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information BStU Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service BWC Biological Weapons Convention Treaty CDC Centres for Disease Control and Prevention CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany CHEKA All-Russian Extraordinary Commission CIA Central Intelligence Agency COMDOS Committee for Disclosing the Documents and Announcing the Affiliations of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and Intelligence Service of the Bulgarian National Army CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CzCP Czechoslovak Communist Party DAW German Academy of Sciences of Berlin DGI Cuban Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Intelligence DM Deutsche Mark EIR Executive Intelligence Review FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation FRG Federal Republic of Germany GDR German Democratic Republic GKChP State Committee on the State of Emergency GPU State Political Directorate GRU Main Intelligence Directorate HIV Human Immunodeficiency Viruses HSWP Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party HVA Main Directorate for Reconnaissance ID International Department IID International Information Department INF Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty ISI Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan KDS Committee for State Security of People’s Republic of Bulgaria KGB Committee for State Security of Soviet Union 4 KhAD Ministry of State Security of People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan LG Literaturnaya Gazeta MfS Ministry for State Security of the former German Democratic Republic MGB Ministry for State Security of the Soviet Union (1946-1953) MIRV Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicle MOR Monarchist Association of Central Russia NAM Non-Aligned Movement NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NKVD People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union NVA National People’s Army of the former German Democratic Republic PCI Italian Communist Party PDPA People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan PGU First Chief Directorate PSI Italian Socialist Party RYAN Nuclear Missile Attack Secret Operation SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Talks SDI Strategic Defence Initiative SED East German Communist Party START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty StB State Security of Communist Party of Czechoslovakia TASS Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union UN United Nations URANIA Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge of the GDR USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions WHO World Health Organization WPC World Peace Council 5 Abstract Il presente lavoro ha lo scopo di analizzare e comprendere uno degli approcci offensivi che l’URSS e i servizi segreti di intelligence sovietici hanno adottato durante il periodo dopo la détente tra la fine degli anni Settanta e la fine degli anni Ottanta. L’espediente più utilizzato erano le cosiddette “misure attive”, aktivnye meropriyatiya, con le quali si intende delineare tutte le operazioni eversive tramite le quali il l’Unione Sovietica poteva avere un’influenza in materia politica sugli altri paesi, e più precisamente quelli facenti parte del Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Queste operazioni venivano attuate attraverso canali ufficiali, mediante l’uso dei media tradizionali da parte del governo, e non ufficiali, come ad esempio pamphlet, trasmissioni radio clandestine, associazioni non governative e culturali. Disinformazione scritta e orale, controllo dei media e della stampa nei paesi esteri, utilizzo e/o instaurazione di front organizations, agents of influence e collaboratori “non ufficiali” sono alcuni esempi di “misure attive”. Partendo dall’analisi del concetto di “misure attive” nel panorama delle relazioni internazionali, la tesi prenderà in esame un caso specifico di campagna di disinformazione verificatosi agli inizi degli anni Ottanta riguardante un’operazione segreta, nome in codice “Operazione Denver”. L’operazione fu opera del “Dipartimento A” del Primo Direttorato Centrale, Pérvoye glávnoye upravléniye, dei servizi segreti del Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, KGB, con l’aiuto diretto della sezione Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, HVA, del Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS o Stasi, operativa
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