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In early 1992, a Russian man walked into the British embassy in a newly independent Baltic republic and asked to "speak to someone in authority." As he sipped his first cup of proper English tea, he handed over a small file of notes. Eight months later, the man, his family, and his enormous archive had been safely exfiltrated to Britain. When news that a KGB officer had defected with the names of hundreds of undercover agents leaked out in 1996, a spokesperson for the SVR (Russia's foreign intelligence service, heir of the KGB) said, "Hundreds of people! That just doesn't happen! Any defector could get the name of one, two, perhaps three agents--but not hundreds!"
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin worked as chief archivist for the FCD, the foreign-intelligence arm of the KGB. Mitrokhin was responsible for checking and sealing approximately 300,000 files, allowing him unrestricted access to one of the world's most closely guarded archives. He had lost faith in the Soviet system over the years, and was especially disturbed by the KGB's systematic silencing of dissidents at home and abroad. Faced with tough choices--stay silent, resign, or undermine the system from within--Mitrokhin decided to compile a record of the foreign operations of the KGB. Every day for 12 years, he smuggled notes out of the archive. He started by hiding scraps of paper covered with miniscule handwriting in his shoes, but later wrote notes on ordinary office paper, which he took home in his pockets. He hid the notes under his mattress, and on weekends took them to his dacha, where he typed them and hid them in containers buried under the floor. When he escaped to Britain, his archive contained tens of thousands of pages of notes.
In 1995, Mitrokhin, by then a British citizen, contacted Christopher Andrew (For the President's Eyes Only), head of the faculty of history at Cambridge University and one of the world's foremost historians of international intelligence. Andrew was allowed to examine the archive Mitrokhin created "to ensure that the truth was not forgotten, that posterity might some day come to know of it." The Sword and the Shield is the earthshaking result. The book details the KGB's foreign-intelligence operations, most notably those aimed at Great Britain and the "Main Adversary"--the United States. In the 700-page book, Andrew reveals operations aimed at discrediting high-profile Americans, from Martin Luther King to Ronald Reagan; secret arms caches still hidden--and boobytrapped--throughout the West; disinformation efforts, including forging a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald in an attempt to implicate the CIA in the assassination of JFK; attempts to stir up racial tensions in the U.S. by sending hate mail and even bombs; and the existence of deep-cover agents in North America and Europe--some of whom were effectively "outed" when the book was published.
Mitrokhin's detailed notes are well served by Andrew, who writes forcefully and clearly. The Sword and the Shield represents a remarkable intelligence coup--one that will have serious repercussions for years to come. As Andrew notes, "No one who spied for the Soviet Union at any period between the October Revolution and the eve of the Gorbachev era can now be confident that his or her secrets are still secure." --Sunny Delaney
The New York Times Book Review, Joseph E. Persico
...a sweeping, densely documented history of the K.G.B. and its predecessor incarnations.... The overall impact of this volume is convincing, though none of the material will send historians scurrying to rewrite their books.
The New York Times
"The Mitrohkin files, which the British considered reliable enough to share with the C.I.A. and F.B.I. have offered Western intelligence and law enforcement officials a treasure trove of historical information about K.G.B. operations around the world."
The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Timothy Naftali
The book is astounding.... Beyond being essential reading for students of international affairs, Andrew and Mitrokhin's book belongs on the shelves of anyone who wishes to plumb the depths of intrigue and indeed evil in the modern world.
The Washington Post
"The defection of KGB researcher Vasili Mitrohin, who brought out six trunks of notes and copied documents recounting some of the KGB's most highly sensitive activities against Britain and the United States, was described by former Western and Russian spies-who gathered here [in Berlin] this weekend for a conference on Cold War espionage-as one of the most extraordinary events in the intelligence game since the Soviet Union collapsed."
From AudioFile
Since this audiobook consists of "forbidden fruit" gleaned from secret Russian KGB files, the narrator's taciturn, sometimes whispering voice was well chosen to remind listeners they're hearing of stealth. Charles Stransky pronounces the plethora of Russian names with ease but has no Russian accent. There is no drama in this production, an interesting chronicle of famous events and how agents and double agents affected them. Because the details become a little pedantic at times, the publisher's choice to offer this abridgment allows casual historians to enjoy a six-hour sampler of a challenging work. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Los Angeles Times Book Review
"The book is astounding...Every page brims with the plots for a dozen movies and Robert Ludlum thrillers. Thanks to what they have done, no history of the last half of the Cold War can be written the same again."
The New Republic
"Stranger than fiction...Aficionados of espionage will be rummaging through this enormously detailed book for years."
William Safire, New York Times Sunday Magazine
"[D]eliciously erudite."
John Martin, former Justice Department prosecutor, ABC News
"[Mitrokhin] is really making a massive contribution to our understanding of Soviet activities going back a very long time, not only about espionage and intelligence collection, but also covert action."
Oleg Kalugin, former KGB General, ABC News
"It's now obvious that all these accusations thrown at the KGB over the period of time have now found confirmation in real archive documents, and this is important. They are not rumors. They are not gossip, not feeble recollections of the past. They are based on classified top secrets of the KGB."
Paul Redmond, former CIA Counter-intelligence Chief, ABC News
"The material contains incredible detail on some major spy cases."
David Major, fomer FBI Counterintelligence Agent, ABC News
"Anybody who was a Soviet agent from '85 or earlier can never sleep comforable again."
Book Description
Christopher Andrew's new book is based on one of the most extraordinary intelligence coups of recent times: the discovery of a treasure-trove of highly classified documents which the FBI has described, after close examination, as the "most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source." Though there is top-secret material on almost every country in the world, the United States is at the top of the list. The contents of the book remain embargoed until publication. As well as containing many fascinating revelations, this is a major contribution to the secret history of the twentieth century. The Sword and the Shield is based on one of the most extraordinary intelligence coups of recent times: a secret archive of top-level KGB documents smuggled out of the Soviet Union which the FBI has described, after close examination, as the "most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source." Its presence in the West represents a catastrophic hemorrhage of the KGB's secrets and reveals for the first time the full extent of its worldwide network. Vasili Mitrokhin, a secret dissident who worked in the KGB archive, smuggled out copies of its most highly classified files every day for twelve years. In 1992, a U.S. ally succeeded in exfiltrating the KGB officer and his entire archive out of Moscow. The archive covers the entire period from the Bolshevik Revolution to the 1980s and includes revelations concerning almost every country in the world. But the KGB's main target, of course, was the United States. Though there is top-secret material on almost every country in the world, the United States is at the top of the list. As well as containing many fascinating revelations, this is a major contribution to the secret history of the twentieth century. Among the topics and revelations explored are: The KGB's covert operations in the United States and throughout the West, some of which remain dangerous today. KGB files on Oswald and the JFK assassination that Boris Yeltsin almost certainly has no intention of showing President Clinton. The KGB's attempts to discredit civil rights leader in the 1960s, including its infiltration of the inner circle of a key leader. The KGB's use of radio intercept posts in New York and Washington, D.C., in the 1970s to intercept high-level U.S. government communications. The KGB's attempts to steal technological secrets from major U.S. aerospace and technology corporations. KGB covert operations against former President Ronald Reagan, which began five years before he became president. KGB spies who successfully posed as U.S. citizens under a series of ingenious disguises, including several who attained access to the upper echelons of New York society.
Card catalog description
"The Sword and the Shield gives us by far the most complete picture we have ever had of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe. It is based on an unprecedented, top-secret archive described by the FBI as "the most complete and extensive intelligence ever achieved from any source.""--BOOK JACKET. "In 1992 the British Secret Intelligence Service exfiltrated from Russia a defector whose presence in the West has remained secret until the publication of this book. Vasili Mitrokhin worked for almost thirty years in the foreign intelligence archives of the KGB. In 1972 he was made responsible for moving these entire archives, including all the files on the KGB's deep-cover operatives, to new headquarters 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 "irreproachable service to the state security authorities.""--BOOK JACKET. "Unknown to Kryuchkov, however, 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. No one who spied for the Soviet Union at any point between the Bolshevik Revolution and the 1980s can now be sure that his or her secrets are safe."--BOOK JACKET. "Christopher Andrew has had exclusive access to both Mitrokhin and his archive, which is now in Britain. Supplementing this treasure trove of KGB secrets with extensive research in other archives, published and unpublished sources, he has written an extraordinary book which forces us to acknowledge that there was indeed an enemy - and that he was very much in our midst."--BOOK JACKET.
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. His most recent book is KGB. He lives in Cambridge, England, and is a frequent host of BBC TV and radio programs on history and world affairs.
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