Vasili Mitrokhin
Vasili Mitrokhin | |
---|---|
Василий Митрохин | |
Born | Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin 3 March 1922 Yurasovo, Ryazan Oblast, Russian SFSR |
Died | 23 January 2004 | (aged 81)
Nationality | Russian, British |
Education | History and Law |
Occupation | Military |
Employer | KGB |
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (
He was co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence operations based on copies of material from the archive. The second volume, The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World, was published in 2005, soon after Mitrokhin's death.
Education
Mitrokhin was born in
Career
Military
Towards the end of the
During the 1950s, he served on various undercover assignments overseas. In 1956, for example, he accompanied the Soviet team to the Olympic Games in Australia. Later that year, however, after he had apparently mishandled an operational assignment, he was moved from operational duties to the archives of the KGB's First Chief Directorate and told he would never work in the field again.
Disillusionment
Mitrokhin sometimes dated the beginnings of his disillusionment to
However, when he began looking into the archives, he claimed to have been shocked by what he discovered about the KGB's
Between 1972 and 1984, he supervised the move of the archive of the First Chief Directorate from the
Defection
During the Soviet era, Mitrokhin made no attempts to contact any Western intelligence services. After the
Mitrokhin Archive
These works are collectively referred to as the Mitrokhin Archives.
- Vasili Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, Basic Books (1999), hardcover, ISBN 0-465-00312-5
- Vasili Mitrokhin and Christopher Andrew, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, Basic Books (2005) hardcover, 677 pages ISBN 0-465-00311-7
- OL 7352280M – via Internet Archive.
- Vasiliy Mitrokhin, KGB Lexicon: The Soviet Intelligence Officer's Handbook, Frank Cass & Co. Ltd (2002), 451 pages, ISBN 0-7146-5257-1
- "Chekisms", Tales of the Cheka, A KGB Anthology, Compiled and introduced by Vasiliy Mitrokhin. "Чекизмы" The Yurasov Press (2008), 435 pages, ISBN 978-0-10-850709-0. (The book could be obtained from any copyright library).
Other publications
- Mitrokhin, Vasiliy Nikitich, The KGB in Afghanistan, English Edition, introduced and edited by Christian F. Ostermann and Odd Arne Westad, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Cold War International History Project, Working Paper No. 40, Washington, D.C., February 2002.
See also
- Mitrokhin Archive
- List of Eastern Bloc defectors
- List of KGB defectors
References
- JSTOR 2651786.
- ^ a b "Shaken and stirred". The Economist. November 12, 2016. Archived from the original on April 22, 2018. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
- ^ "Vasili Mitrokhin". The Telegraph. February 2, 2004. Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
- ^ "Behind a bittersweet industry". Washington Post. January 30, 2004. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
Sources
- The Times, January 29, 2004, obituary
- The Daily Telegraph, February 2, 2004
External links
- The Mitrokhin Archive from the Cold War International History Project
- Spy Fever Strikes UK at Literature of Intelligence, Muskingum College at the Wayback Machine (archived May 4, 2006)
- BBC News - BRITAIN BETRAYED - Spies who betrayed Britain - Monday, 20 December 1999 at the Wayback Machine (archived January 18, 2000)
- The Papers of Vasiliy Mitrokhin held at Churchill Archives Centre