Paraphrasing from Christopher Andrew's and Visili Mitrokhin's book The Sword And The Shield, Service A was the name given to the disinformation and covert action group, which fell under the jurisdiction of the FCD (First Chief Directorate; foreign intelligence) of the USSR state Security Committee aka the KGB (Комитет государственной безопасности СССР (КГБ). One of their main goals was to spread disinformation and propaganda around the world to exploit weak spots of the main adversary, a term of little endearment for the USA.
The book describes service A as basically half competent with the other half composed of rejects from other areas of the KGB. Being assigned to service A was not deemed highly by everyone due to the lack of foreign postings. Those who specialized in propaganda were responsible for quite a few successes, while the other half "relied on crude conspiracy theories about the capitalist and Zionist plotters who supposedly operated a secret 'command center' in the United States." Such conspiracy theories were the result of the KGB, writ large, not heeding the famous Chinese warrior Sun Tzu's advice: "Know your enemy"... for if "you know your enemy and know yourself you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." But, Sun Tzu also cautioned, "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."
Such propaganda, much of it made up by the service, were part of "active measure" campaigns. These measures are revealing, albeit not well-known as to the source, subjects of posts to come, which I hope shed light on some modern urban legends.
