ABSTRACT
The history of information manipulation to alter the perceptions and policies of others remains a consistent feature in international politics in the present era of fake news. The history of Russian active measures is in many respects unique to the Russian experience. Active measures and disinformation more narrowly both originate within the Russian lexicon and made their way into the English vernacular only in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Russian active measures are a skillset that has been honed over time and across technologies. Interestingly, the main targets of the Okhrana were Russian nationals engaged in revolutionary activities both living abroad and within the empire. The Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1927 and the early periods of Bolshevik governance within the Soviet Union in many ways established a test bed for information control and manipulation.
