RYaN (Raketno-Yadernoe Napadenie)

RYaN grew from Soviet leaders' conviction that the United States and NATO were preparing a surprise nuclear first strike, and became the largest and most elaborate peacetime intelligence collection effort in Soviet history. KGB residencies abroad were ordered to watch the movements of nuclear decision-makers, the blood held in blood banks, evacuation sites, and the heads of churches and banks, and to report any sign of an imminent attack. The program's backdrop was NATO's 1979 Dual-Track decision to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe, plus the Reagan administration's anti-Soviet rhetoric and psychological operations.

The operation reached its peak in autumn 1983. After the KAL 007 shootdown and during exercise Able Archer 83, Soviet commanders suspected that NATO's nuclear command exercise was camouflage for a real first strike and loaded nuclear warheads onto combat aircraft. Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB's London rezident, passed the program's existence to the West, while the Soviet intelligence officer Yuri Shvets later called it disinformation aimed at the political leadership. The operation outlived Andropov, remaining active under Viktor Chebrikov until at least 1989.