The Mitrokhin Archive - Hardcover

Andrew, Christopher; Mitrokhin, Vasili

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713993588 ISBN 13: 9780713993585

Publisher: Allen Lane, 1999

Synopsis

In 1992, the British Secret Intelligence Service exfiltrated from Russia a defector. Vasili Mitrokhin worked for almost 30 years in the foreign intelligence archives of the KGB, which in 1972 he was made responsible for moving to a new HQ just outside Moscow. He was congratulated by the head of foreign intelligence, Vladimir Kryuchkov (later the ringleader of the 1991 Moscow coup), for his success in transferring the archives and his devoted "service to the state security authorities". Unknown to Kryuchkov, Mitrokhin - a secret dissident - spent over a decade noting and copying highly-classified files which, at enormous personal risk, he smuggled daily out of the archives and kept beneath his dacha floor. This collection of KGB materials, supplemented by research from other published and unpublished sources, has enabled Christopher Andrew to cast new light on the history of both the Soviet Union and the East-West conflict which spanned three quarters of the 20th century. This first volume gives an insight into the KGB's penetration of the West, its secret links with Western Communist parties, its covert role in maintaining the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, and its brutal war against dissidents inside and outside the Soviet Union, all of which were on a scale and of a variety which we have never previously realized. Among the British Agents revealed for the first time are a corrupt Scotland Yard detective who became a KGB "Romeo Spy" on four continents, and a woman who was both the KGB's longest-serving British agent and its most important female spy. Both are still alive.

About this title

Review:

Derived from 30,000 top-secret files of the KGB's Foreign Intelligence Service, The Mitrokhin Archive has sparked controversy in Whitehall and Fleet Street. It has also made Melita Norwood--Britain's grandmother-spy--an overnight media celebrity. This huge book is the result of a collaboration between Vasili Mitrokhin, a former senior officer of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service, and Christopher Andrew, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and Chair of the Faculty of History at Cambridge University.

Mitrokhin defected to the UK in 1992, bringing with him notes and classified files he had smuggled out of the Soviet foreign intelligence archives. The authors reveal that Norwood was more highly valued by the Soviets as a spy than the more famous Kim Philby. She passed on technical information that had enabled the Russians to build their own atomic bomb. As an employee at the British Non- Ferrous Metals Research Association, she passed on top- secret files on the Tube Alloys (atomic bomb) project. But Norwood was not alone in being approached to spy for the Soviets--others were MPs Tom Driberg and Raymond Fletcher. The book also records a misguided attempt at recruiting Sir Harold Wilson.

The soviets may have been masters at collecting intelligence, but The Mitrokhin Archive shows their inability to interpret the information they received. It's an exhaustive but riveting read--and there's a promise of a second volume. --Susan Sheph

About the Author:

Christopher Andrew is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Cambridge University, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and guest lecturer at numerous American universities and the CIA. He lives in Cambridge, England, and is a frequenthost of BBC TV and radio programs on history and world affairs.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0713993588
• ISBN 13: 9780713993585
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1024