For decades, the true extent of KGB operations during the Cold War remained shrouded in state secrets and speculation. That changed with the defection of Vasili Mitrokhin, a senior KGB archivist who smuggled thousands of pages of handwritten notes out of the Soviet Union.
The Mitrokhin Archive represents one of the most significant intelligence leaks in modern history, offering an unprecedented window into Soviet KGB operations. Vasili Mitrokhin, a senior archivist for the KGB's foreign intelligence service, spent over two decades secretly copying classified files. When he defected to the United Kingdom in 1992, he brought thousands of pages of handwritten notes detailing assassinations, subversion, and global espionage networks. mitrokhin archive pdf 2021
. This document provides a retrospective look at how the British government handled the revelations and the subsequent investigations into individuals named in the archive. Accessing the Archive For decades, the true extent of KGB operations