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The Sword And The Shield

The Mitrokhin Archive And The Secret History Of The Kgb

Contributors

By Christopher Andrew

Formats and Prices

On Sale
Feb 9, 2027
Publisher
Hachette Audio
ISBN-13
9781668664667

Price

$49.99

Format

Format:

  1. Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $49.99
  2. ebook $19.99
  3. Trade Paperback $29.99

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.


Christopher Andrew

About the Author

Christopher Andrew is the creator of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, former president of Corpus Christi College, former official historian of the Secret Service, and former chair of the British Intelligence Study Group. Andrew is the author of several books, including Defend the Realm, The World Was Going Our Way, and For the President’s Eyes Only. He lives in Cambridge, England. 

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