Vasili Mitrokhin

Vasili Mitrokhin
Василий Митрохин
Born
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin

(1922-03-03)3 March 1922
Died23 January 2004(2004-01-23) (aged 81)
NationalityRussian, British
EducationHistory and Law
OccupationMilitary
EmployerKGB

Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (Russian: Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин, romanizedVasily Nikitich Mitrokhin; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was an archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1992. Mitrokhin first offered his material to the US' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Latvia but they rejected it as possible fakes.[1] After that, he resorted to the UK's MI6 which arranged his defection from Russia.[2] These notes became known as the Mitrokhin Archives.[3][4]

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.

  1. ^ Brennan, S. (2022). The KGB and the Vatican: Secrets of the Mitrokhin Files. Catholic University of America Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-949822-22-9. Retrieved July 17, 2024.
  2. ^ Smith, J.; Davis, S. (2017). Historical Dictionary of the Cold War. Historical Dictionaries of War, Revolution, and Civil Unrest. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-4422-8186-8.
  3. ^ Getty, J. Arch (2001). "Review of The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB". The American Historical Review. 106 (2). Washington, D.C.: American Historical Association: 684–685. doi:10.2307/2651786. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 2651786.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference econ was invoked but never defined (see the help page).