At different times, the tasks of special services were very different and corresponded to the interests of the state at a given moment of its history. For example, in the 1920s and 1930s, for Soviet special services, it was operations against White émigré, Trotskyist, and nationalist organizations. Western special services, in this period, focused their efforts on reducing the authority and influence of the young Soviet state. During World War II, the activities of special services in many countries were directed against the main enemy—fascist Germany. The “Cold War” period was characterized by a powerful confrontation between Western and Eastern special services in the struggle for political, economic, and military influence and supremacy on the international stage.