During the Cold War (1947–1991), when the Soviet Union and the United States were engaged in an arms race, the Soviet Union promoted its foreign policy through the World Peace Council and other front organizations. Some writers have claimed that it also influenced non-aligned peace groups in the West.
Russian Revolution and the Polish-Soviet War
The Bolsheviks aimed at spreading their revolution by the use of force, linking the revolution in Russia with an expected revolution in Germany and assisting other Communist movements in Western Europe. Poland, in particular, was the geographical bridge that the Red Army would have to cross in order to do so and thus Soviets had been preparing their own strike against Poland even before the Polish Kiev offensive; they planned to take over Galicia, and use the conquered ethnic Polish territories as a springboard for the invasion of Germany and other European countries.
However, the Soviet propaganda, aimed at the international scene, would deny any visions of conquest and pro-Soviet sympathizers would stage various protests in Western European countries against their government actions which aimed to support Poland against the Soviet advance. Eventually, the Soviets were defeated at the battle of Warsaw, but they learned from the war of the importance of foreign propaganda that could sway Western public opinion, and would continue to use similar strategies in the future.
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 view of peace. They included:
Christian Peace Conference
International Federation of Resistance Fighters
International Institute for Peace
International Organization of Democratic Lawyers
International Organization of Journalists
International Union of Students
World Federation of Democratic Youth
World Federation of Scientific Workers
World Federation of Trade Unions
Women's International Democratic Federation
World Peace Esperanto Movement.
In October 1981, the Danish authorities expelled Vladimir Merkulov, a Soviet Embassy second secretary and KGB operative, whom they charged with passing money to Arne Herløv Petersen, a member of the WPC's Danish affiliate, the Copenhagen-based Liaison Committee for Peace and Security, to finance a newspaper campaign calling for the establishment of a Nordic nuclear weapons-free zone.<ref>[http://insidethecoldwar.org/sites/default/files/documents/Department%20of%20State%20Note%20World%20Peace%20Council's%20Peace%20Assemblies%20May%201983.pdf United States Department of State,The World Peace Council's "Peace Assemblies", Foreign Affairs Note, 1983]</ref>
Other international peace organizations have been said to be associated with the WPC as well. 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".See also Abrams, I., The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates
The main activity of the WPC was organizing enormous international peace conferences with thousands in attendance; they condemned western military action, armaments and weapons tests but refrained from criticizing Russian aggression. For example, in 1956 the WPC condemned the Suez war but not the Russian invasion of Hungary.