Mitrokhin, archivist for the KGB, risked death to copy material painstakingly from the highly secret archives over 30 years; he hid the scraps under his house and bided his time. With the advent of glasnost and Gorbachev, he hauled the secrets to a British Embassy in the Baltics and received asylum in the UK. This is a highly detailed account of Soviet espionage from the beginnings of the Soviet state to the end of the Cold War. Early on, Mitrokhin shows how easily future spies were recruited to further the goals of the workers' state while they pursued careers in the diplomatic corps. But Russians were too paranoid to take full advantage of this superb intelligence. After World War II, spies were harder to recruit as the truth about Soviet life became common knowledge. Robert Whitfield meets the challenge and reads these massive tomes well--trouble is, the details are too massive even for the interested listener. A library would do better to get an indexed hard copy so students can use selected parts for research.--James L. Dudley, Westhampton Beach, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Based on unprecedented access to a secret archive of intelligence, The Sword and the Shield presents by far the most complete picture we have ever had of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe, revealing for the first time the full extent of its worldwide network.
Vasili Mitrokhin worked for almost thirty years in the foreign intelligence archives of the KGB. Mitrokhin spent over a decade making notes and transcripts of these highly classified files which, at enormous personal risk, he smuggled daily out of the archives and kept beneath his dacha floor. Now he has offered Christopher Andrew exclusive access to his archive. The picture that emerges in this sobering book will force us to acknowledge that there was indeed an enemy-and that he was very much in our midst.
Based on unprecedented access to a secret archive of intelligence, The Sword and the Shield presents by far the most complete picture we have ever had of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe, revealing for the first time the full extent of its worldwide network.
Vasili Mitrokhin worked for almost thirty years in the foreign intelligence archives of the KGB. Mitrokhin spent over a decade making notes and transcripts of these highly classified files which, at enormous personal risk, he smuggled daily out of the archives and kept beneath his dacha floor. Now he has offered Christopher Andrew exclusive access to his archive. The picture that emerges in this sobering book will force us to acknowledge that there was indeed an enemy-and that he was very much in our midst.
The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB
The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169544909 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 06/22/2005 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 654,609 |
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