...
A real and serious historical example of how controlled opposition worked:
Just after the Russian revolution of October 1917 when the Bolshevik communists came to power in Russia Lenin and the the heads of the Cheka secret police (later to renamed to KGB) Feliks Dzerzhinsky and (((Leon Trotsky))) set up an organisation called Operation Trust.
Officially it was opposed to Bolshevik Communist rule and wanted to overthrow the new soviet government in Russia. In reality it was a way for the new leaders of the Soviet Union to identify all those who opposed its rule and find out who their financial backers were. In addition to identifying their enemies, they were also able to secretly get foreign money this way as well.
A British secret agent named (((Sidney Reilly))) (the real life man James Bond is based on) was supposedly sent by the British government to infiltrate this organisation in 1925 to find out what was really behind it, but disappeared during his secret visit to the Soviet Union. His fate has never been 100% fully clarified to this day. Probably arrested and killed under orders of Stalin.
After Lenin's and Dzerzhinsky's deaths in 1924 and 1926, and after Trotsky was sent out of the USSR into exile, it was shut down by Stalin after he came to power in the mid 1920s.
The story of Reilly's infiltration of this controlled oppositional organisation was filmed as part of a 12 episode TV miniseries called "Reilly, Ace of Spies". Reilly was played by Hollywood actor Sam Neill. Done to a high standrad and really worth the watch.
Episodes number 10, 11 and 12 dealt heavily with Operation Trust and how it worked.
A real and serious historical example of how controlled opposition worked:
Just after the Russian revolution of October 1917 when the Bolshevik communists came to power in Russia Lenin and the the heads of the Cheka secret police (later to renamed to KGB) Feliks Dzerzhinsky and (((Leon Trotsky))) set up an organisation called Operation Trust.
Officially it was opposed to Bolshevik Communist rule and wanted to overthrow the new soviet government in Russia. In reality it was a way for the new leaders of the Soviet Union to identify all those who opposed its rule and find out who their financial backers were. In addition to identifying their enemies, they were also able to secretly get foreign money this way as well.
A British secret agent named (((Sidney Reilly))) (the real life man James Bond is based on) was supposedly sent by the British government to infiltrate this organisation in 1925 to find out what was really behind it, but disappeared during his secret visit to the Soviet Union. His fate has never been 100% fully clarified to this day. Probably arrested and killed under orders of Stalin.
After Lenin's and Dzerzhinsky's deaths in 1924 and 1926, and after Trotsky was sent out of the USSR into exile, it was shut down by Stalin after he came to power in the mid 1920s.
The story of Reilly's infiltration of this controlled oppositional organisation was filmed as part of a 12 episode TV miniseries called "Reilly, Ace of Spies". Reilly was played by Hollywood actor Sam Neill. Done to a high standrad and really worth the watch.
Episodes number 10, 11 and 12 dealt heavily with Operation Trust and how it worked.