Disinformation: Soviet Political Warfare 1917 - 1991

by Natalie Grant

Before Fake News, There Was Soviet Disinformation. “A true masterpiece, this is perhaps the most important single study of communist information warfare, notwithstanding a sizeable library of excellent resources already available on the topic. Scrupulously researched, with copious footnotes in several languages in addition to Russian, the book demonstrates both the boundless cynicism and the demonic genius of Lenin and his disinformation professionals. A page-turner, the book provides enough movie script ideas for generations. More important, the author – a legendary figure in the counterintelligence community – explains clearly and convincingly the fundamental principles governing the sinister instruments of deception used by an elite bound on gaining and keeping power while inflicting the maximum harm to their enemies, real or perceived. One simply cannot understand the war of ideas tearing apart the Western world today without having read and understood this book.” ~ Juliana Geran Pilon, Ph.D. Senior Fellow, The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. “Natalie Grant’s Disinformation is an absolutely unique piece of historical research on Soviet and Russian disinformation from the earliest days of the USSR. Her research makes it clear that disinformation was always central to Soviet, and now Russian, intelligence operations. And it continues as an extremely important element of Russian government policy to this day.” ~ Stanislav Levchenko was a Major in the KGB and was intimately associated with their active measures and disinformation directorate operations. He defected to the US in 1979. Levchenko is the author On the Wrong My Life in the KGB ; and co-author with Herbert Romerstein of The KGB Against the ‘Main Enemy’: How the Soviet Intelligence Service Operates Against the United States . “During the Cold War, the United States struggled to mount a Counterintelligence response adequate to the variety and sophistication of strategic world-wide Soviet intelligence activities, ranging from espionage to technology theft to ‘active measures.’ In the 1980s the Reagan administration pushed hard to reform and improve intelligence capabilities to counter these threats in the face of a reluctant intelligence bureaucracy. No area proved more difficult than that of ‘active measures,’ especially disinformation. Natalie Grant’s history of Soviet political warfare analyzes the reasons for Soviet success and American and Western shortcomings. Most importantly, she provides us with an excellent guide for meeting the challenges of disinformation in today’s world, where the threat is even greater.” ~ Kenneth E. de Graffenreid was Director of Intelligence Programs in the Reagan Administration National Security Council and currently is Distinguished Fellow in Intelligence Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council.

468 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Natalie Grant is a singer-songwriter of contemporary Christian music