Soviet influence on the peace movement During the Cold War ( 1947 – 1991 ) , when the Soviet Union and the USA were engaged in an arms race , the Soviet Union promoted its foreign policy through the World Peace Council and other front organization s . It has been claimed that it also influenced non - aligned peace groups in the West . The World Peace Council . The World Peace Council ( WPC ) was set up by the Soviet Communist Party in 1948 - 50 to promote Soviet foreign policy and to campaign against nuclear weapons at a time when only the USA had them . The WPC was directed by the International Department of the Soviet Communist Party via the Soviet Peace Committee , a WPC member . The WPC and its members took the line laid down by the Cominform that the world was divided between the peace - loving Soviet Union and the warmongering United States . From the 1950s until the late 1980s the Soviet Union used numerous organizations associated with the WPC to spread its of view of peace . They included : Other international peace organizations have been said to be associated with the WPC . International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War is said to have had " overlapping membership and similar policies " to the WPC . The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and the Dartmouth Conferences were said to have been used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda . Joseph Rotblat , one of the leaders of the Pugwash movement , said that there were a few participants in Pugwash conferences from the Soviet Union " who were obviously sent to push the party line , but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such " . The WPC organized international peace conferences which condemned western armaments and weapons tests but refrained from criticizing Russian arms . For example , in 1956 it condemned the Suez war but not the Russian invasion of Hungary . The former KGB officer Sergei Tretyakov said that the Soviet Peace Committee funded and organized demonstrations in Europe against US bases . Because of the energetic activity of the WPC from the late 1940s onwards , with its large conferences and budget , there was little difference in the public mind between a peace activist and a Communist . It was sometimes said that the peace movement in the West was influenced by or even led by the WPC . US President Ronald Reagan said that the peace demonstrations in Europe in 1981 were sponsored by the WPC and Soviet defector Vladimir Bukovsky claimed that they were co - ordinated at the WPC ' s 1980 World Parliament of Peoples for Peace in Sofia . The FBI reported to the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the WPC - affiliated U . S . Peace Council was one of the organizers of a large 1982 peace protest in New York City , but said that the KGB had not manipulated the American movement " significantly . " At first there was limited co - operation between western groups and the WPC . However , western delegates who tried to criticize the Soviet Union at WPC conferences , or the WPC ' s condemnation of western armaments while defending Russian armaments , were often shouted down . This led them to gradually to dissociate themselves from the WPC . As the non - aligned movement " was constantly under threat of being tarnished by association with avowedly pro - Soviet groups " , many individuals and organizations " studiously avoided contact with Communists and fellow - travellers . " As early as 1949 the World Pacifist Meeting warned against active collaboration with Communists . Finally , as a result of confrontation between western and Soviet delegates at the 1962 World Congress for Peace and Disarmament , organised by the WPC in Moscow , forty non - aligned organizations decided to form a new international body , the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace , to which Soviet delegates were not invited . Rainer Santi , in his history of the International Peace Bureau , writes that the WPC " always had difficulty in securing cooperation from West European and North American peace organisations because of its obvious affiliation with Socialist countries and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union . Especially difficult to digest , was that instead of criticising the Soviet Union ' s unilaterally resumed atmospheric nuclear testing in 1961 , the WPC issued a statement rationalising it . In 1979 the World Peace Council explained the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an act of solidarity in the face of Chinese and US aggression against Afghanistan . " It was suggested by a former secretary of the WPC that it simply failed to connect with the western peace movement . It was said to have used most of its funds on international travel and lavish conferences , to have poor intelligence on Western peace groups , and , even though its HQ was in Helsinki , to have no contact with Finnish peace organizations . Claims of wider Soviet influence . Conservative organizations and writers and some defectors from Soviet intelligence have claimed that the non - aligned peace movement was controlled by the Soviet Union . In 1951 the House Committee on Un - American Activities published " The Communist " Peace " Offensive " , which detailed the activities of the WPC and of numerous affiliated organisations . It listed dozens of American organisations and hundreds of Americans who had been involved in peace meetings , conferences and petitions . It noted , " that some of the persons who are so described in either the text or the appendix withdrew their support and / or affiliation with these organizations when the Communist character of these organizations was discovered . There may also be persons whose names were used as sponsors or affiliates of these organizations without permission or knowledge of the individuals involved . " In 1982 the Heritage Foundation published " Moscow and the Peace Offensive " , which said that non - aligned peace organizations advocated similar policies on defence and disarmament to the Soviet Union . It argued that " pacifists and concerned Christians had been drawn into the Communist campaign largely unaware if its real sponsorship . " Russian GRU defector Stanislav Lunev said in his autobiography that " the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad , " and that during the Vietnam War the USSR gave $ 1 billion to American anti - war movements , more than it gave to the VietCong . Lunev described this as a " hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost " . According to " Time " magazine , a US State Department official estimated that the KGB may have spent $ 600 million on the peace offensive up to 1983 , channeling funds through national Communist parties or the World Peace Council " to a host of new antiwar organizations that would , in many cases , reject the financial help if they knew the source . " Richard Felix Staar in his book " Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union " says that non - communist peace movements without overt ties to the USSR were " virtually controlled " by it . Lord Chalfont claimed that the Soviet Union was giving the European peace movement £100 million a year . The Federation of Conservative Students ( FCS ) alleged Soviet funding of CND . Western intelligence assessments . In 1967 , a CIA report on the US peace movement observed that " the Communist Party of the USA benefits from anti - US activity by Peace groups but does not appear to be inspiring them or directing them . " After demonstrations against NATO missiles in West Germany in 1981 , an official investigation turned up circumstantial evidence but no absolute proof of KGB involvement . Western intelligence experts concluded that the movement in Europe at that time was probably not Soviet - inspired . According to the Danish Ministry of Justice , in the early 1980s the KGB promised to help finance advertisements signed by prominent Danish artists who wanted Scandinavia to be declared a nuclear - free zone . In November 1981 , Norway expelled a suspected KGB agent who had offered bribes to Norwegians to get them to write letters to newspapers denouncing the deployment of new NATO missiles . In 1983 , MI5 and MI6 reported to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Soviet contacts with the peace movement , based on the testimony of KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky . According to Christopher Andrew ' s official history of MI5 , Gordievsky ' s evidence indicated that there was little effective contact between either the KGB or the Soviet embassy and the peace movement . This evidence was consistent with previous intelligence assessments . See also . Soviet activity :