The article is devoted to one of the forms of implementation of the discrediting strategy in the Soviet political media discourse – the tactics of labeling. Examples from the Soviet press of the 1960–1970s (Pravda, Izvestia, Krasnaya zvezda and Vecherniaia Moskva) are analyzed. As a result of the study, semantic groups of labels are identified; their ways of interacting with other means of discrediting are analyzed