The story of the archive begins not with a spy, but with a librarian. Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (1922-2004) was a career foreign intelligence officer for the KGB’s First Chief Directorate. In 1972, he was transferred to the KGB’s operational archive in Moscow, where his role gave him unprecedented access to the files of Soviet intelligence operations dating from the 1920s to the early 1980s. Over twelve years, from 1972 to 1984, Mitrokhin engaged in an extraordinary act of defiance. Fearing that the totalitarian system he served would never reform, he began secretly copying top-secret documents by hand, condensing thousands of files into six small, densely written notebooks. When he retired in 1984, he smuggled these notes out of KGB headquarters, hiding them under a floorboard at his dacha. The archive remained hidden there until the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Mitrokhin, now living in a fragile new Russia, made contact with British intelligence. In 1992, he and his family were exfiltrated to the United Kingdom, where the notebooks were finally analyzed.
The Mitrokhin Archive is a vast collection of documents revealing the inner workings of the Soviet Union's KGB, one of the most infamous intelligence agencies in history. The archive was compiled by Vasily Mitrokhin, a former KGB major who defected to the United Kingdom in 1992. Mitrokhin spent over 30 years collecting and documenting the KGB's operations, and his archive is considered one of the most significant intelligence coups of the 20th century. mitrokhin archive pdf
: Detailed analyses are available in volumes co-authored by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, such as The Sword and the Shield and The World Was Going Our Way . The Spy in the Archive The story of the archive begins not with
In 1992, a defector named Vasili Mitrokhin walked out of Russia with a treasure trove of secrets that would rewrite the history of Soviet espionage. Today, historians, researchers, and enthusiasts pore over the files available online to understand the true scope of the Soviet intelligence apparatus. Over twelve years, from 1972 to 1984, Mitrokhin
In 1992, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mitrokhin traveled to Latvia with a backpack full of notes.