TheMitrokhin Archive refers to a collection of handwritten notes about secretKGB operations spanning the period between the 1930s and 1980s made by KGB archivistVasili Mitrokhin which he shared with British intelligence in the early 1990s.[1] Mitrokhin, who had worked at KGB headquarters in Moscow from 1956 to 1985, first offered his material to the US'sCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Latvia, but they rejected it as possible fakes.[2] After that, he turned to the UK'sMI6, which arranged his defection from Russia.[1]
Mitrokhin secretly made his handwritten notes by copying archival documents in the period between 1972 and 1984, when he supervised the move of the archive of KGB's foreign intelligence departmentFirst Chief Directorate from theLubyanka Building to their new headquarters atYasenevo. When hedefected to the United Kingdom in 1992, he brought the archive with him, in six full trunks. His defection was not officially announced until 1999.[3]
The official historian ofMI5,Christopher Andrew, wrote two books,The Sword and the Shield (1999) andThe World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (2005), based on material from the Mitrokhin Archives.[4] The books provide details about many of theSoviet Union's clandestine intelligence operations around the world. They also provide specifics aboutGuy Burgess, a British diplomat with a short career in MI6, said to be frequently under the influence of alcohol; the archive indicates that he gave the KGB at least 389 top secret documents in the first six months of 1945, along with a further 168 in December 1949.[5]
The utilization of the Mitrokhin Archive is not without risk because these documents only contain his handwritten notes, and no original documents or photocopies were ever made available to analyze these notes.[2] Many scholars remain skeptical of the context and authenticity of the notes made by Mitrokhin.[1]
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin originally started his career with theFirst Chief Directorate of theKGB (Foreign Espionage) in undercover operations. After Nikita Khrushchev'sSecret Speech in February 1956, which denounced the previous regime ofJoseph Stalin, Mitrokhin became critical of the existing KGB system and was transferred from Operations to the Archives.[citation needed]
Over the years, Mitrokhin became increasingly disillusioned with the Soviet system, especially after the stories about the struggles of dissidents and the 1968invasion of Czechoslovakia, which led him to conclude that the Soviet system was incapable of reform.[6]
By the late 1960s, the KGB headquarters at theLubyanka Building in central Moscow became increasingly overcrowded, and the Chairman of the KGB,Yuri Andropov, authorized the construction of a new building on the outskirts of Moscow inYasenevo, which was to become the new headquarters of the First Chief Directorate and all foreign operations.[citation needed]
Mitrokhin, who was by that time the head of the Archives department, was assigned by the director of the First Directorate,Vladimir Kryuchkov, with the task of cataloging the documents and overseeing their orderly transfer to the new headquarters. The transfer of the massive archive eventually took over 12 years, from 1972 to 1984.[6][7][8]
Unbeknown to Kryuchkov and the KGB, while cataloging the documents, Mitrokhin also secretly copied documents by hand, making immensely detailed notes, which he smuggled to hisdacha in the countryside and deposited under the floorboards. Mitrokhin retired from the KGB in 1985, just after the move was completed.[citation needed]
During the Soviet era he made no attempt to contact any Western intelligence services, but just after thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 he traveled toLatvia with copies of the material from his archive and walked into the American embassy inRiga.Central Intelligence Agency officers stationed there did not consider him to be credible, concluding that the copied documents could have been faked.[citation needed]
He then went to theBritish embassy, and a young diplomat there saw his potential. After a further meeting one month later with representatives of MI6 flown in from the UK, operations followed to retrieve the entire 25,000-page cache of files hidden in his country house, which contained details about KGB operations abroad from as far back as the 1930s.[6][7]
Notes in the Mitrokhin Archive claim that more than half of the Soviet Union's advanced weapons were based on US designs, that the KGB tappedHenry Kissinger's phone during the time he wasUS Secretary of State (1973–77), and had spies in place in almost all US defense contractor facilities.[citation needed]
The notes also allege that some 35 senior politicians inFrance worked for the KGB during theCold War. InWest Germany, the KGB was said to have infiltrated the major political parties, the judiciary, and the police. Large-scale sabotage preparations were supposedly made against the US,Canada, and elsewhere in case of war, including hidden weapons caches prepared for that event; Mitrokhin's books later claimed several of these have been removed or destroyed by police relying on Mitrokhin's information.[9][where?]
Christopher Andrew states that in the Mitrokhin Archive there are several Latin American leaders or members of left wing parties accused of being KGB informants or agents. For example, leader of theSandinistas who seized power in Nicaragua in 1979,Carlos Fonseca Amador, was described as "a trusted agent" in KGB files.[16][17]Nikolai Leonov was Sub-Director of the Latin American Department of the KGB between 1968 and 1972. In 1998 he gave a lecture where he denied these claims, for instance Leonov claimed that said that the KGB was not called to recruit members from Communist or other left wing parties.[18]
Daniel Ortega agreed to "unofficial meetings" with KGB officers.[not specific enough to verify] He gave Nikolai Leonov a secret program of theSandinista movement (FSLN), which stated the FSLN's intent to lead class struggle inCentral America, in alliance withCuba and theSoviet bloc.[19] Leonov claimed that he became friends with many Latin Americans including some leaders, and that he and other Soviets supported the struggles of left wing groups. But he clarifies that he did not let people know that he was a KGB agent and that his relationships with them did not involve intelligence.[18]
In September 2016, a work by two researchers (Dr.I. Ginor and G. Remez) stated thatMahmoud Abbas (also known as 'Abu Mazen'), thePresident of the Palestinian National Authority, worked for the Soviet intelligence agency. According to a recently released document from the Mitrokhin Archive, entitled "KGB developments – Year 1983", Abbas apparently worked under the code name "Krotov", starting early 1980s.[20][21][22]
Andrew described the followingactive measures by the KGB against the United States:[37]
According to Mitrokhin's notes, Soviet security organizations played key roles in establishing puppet Communist governments inEastern Europe andAfghanistan. Their strategy included mass political repressions and establishing subordinatesecret police services at the occupied territories.
The KGB directorYuri Andropov took suppression of anti-Communist liberation movements personally. In 1954, he became the Soviet ambassador toHungary, and was present during the1956 Hungarian Revolution. After these events, Andropov had a "Hungarian complex":
... he had watched in horror from the windows of his embassy as officers of the hated Hungarian security service were strung up from lampposts. Andropov remained haunted for the rest of his life by the speed with which an apparently all-powerful Communistone-party state had begun to topple. When other Communist regimes later seemed at risk—in Prague in 1968,in Kabul in 1979,in Warsaw in 1981, he was convinced that, asin Budapest in 1956, only armed force could ensure their survival.[47]
Andropov played a key role in crushing the Hungarian Revolution. He convinced reluctantNikita Khrushchev that military intervention was necessary.[48] He convincedImre Nagy and other Hungarian leaders that the Soviet government had not ordered an attack on Hungary while the attack was beginning. The Hungarian leaders were arrested and Nagy was executed.
During thePrague Spring events in Czechoslovakia, Andropov was a vigorous proponent of "extreme measures".[48] He ordered the fabrication of false intelligence not only for public consumption, but also for theSoviet Politburo. "The KGB whipped up the fear that Czechoslovakia could fall victim toNATO aggression or to a coup." At that moment, Soviet intelligence officerOleg Kalugin reported from Washington that he had gained access to "absolutely reliable documents proving that neitherCIA nor any other agency was manipulating the Czechoslovak reform movement." But, Kalugin's messages were destroyed because they contradicted the conspiracy theory fabricated by Andropov.[49] Andropov ordered manyactive measures, collectively known as operation PROGRESS, against Czechoslovak reformers.[50]
The book describes establishing the "Moscow Patriarchate" on order from Stalin in 1943 as afront organization for theNKVD, and later, for theKGB.[58] All key positions in the Church, including bishops, were approved by the Ideological Department of CPSU and by the KGB. The priests were used asagents of influence in theWorld Council of Churches and in front organizations such asWorld Peace Council, Christian Peace Conference, and theRodina ("Motherland") Society founded by the KGB in 1975. The future RussianPatriarch Alexius II said thatRodina was created to "maintain spiritual ties with our compatriots" and to help organize them. According to the archive, Alexius worked for the KGB as agent DROZDOV, and received an honorary citation from the agency for a variety of services.[59]
The Andrew and Mitrokhin publications briefly describe the history of the PLO leader,Yasser Arafat, who established close collaboration with the RomanianSecuritate service and the KGB in the early 1970s.[60] The KGB provided secret training forPLO guerrillas.[61] However, the main KGB activities and arms shipments were channeled throughWadie Haddad of the PFLP organization, who usually stayed in a KGBdacha BARVIKHA-1 during his visits to the Soviet Union. Led byCarlos the Jackal, a group of PFLP fighters carried out a spectacular raid on theOrganization of Petroleum Exporting Countries office inVienna in 1975. Advance notice of this operation "was almost certainly" given to the KGB.[60]
Many notable operations are alleged to have been conducted by the KGB to support international terrorists with weapons on the orders from theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union, including:
According toPeter-Michael Diestel, East Germany became "an Eldorado for terrorists".[64] The KGB aided the Stasi in supporting theRed Army Faction, which perpetrated terrorist attacks such as the1985 Rhein-Main Air Base bombing.[64] Other Stasi contacts included theProvisional IRA, the BasqueETA, and previously mentioned "Carlos the Jackal".[64]
In 1981 the Soviets had launched "Operation Kontakt", which was based on a forged document purporting to contain details of the weapons and money provided by the ISI to Sikh militants who wanted to create an independent country.[65] In November 1982,Yuri Andropov, theGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party and leader of the Soviet Union, approved a proposal to fabricate Pakistani intelligence documents detailing ISI plans to foment religious disturbances in Punjab and promote the creation ofKhalistan as an independent Sikh state.[66] Indira Gandhi's decision to move troops into the Punjab was based on her taking seriously the information provided by the Soviets regarding secret CIA support for the Sikhs.[67] The KGB role in facilitatingOperation Bluestar was acknowledged bySubramanian Swamy who stated in 1992: "The 1984 Operation Bluestar became necessary because of the vast disinformation against Sant Bhindranwale by the KGB, and repeated inside Parliament by the Congress Party of India."[68]
Notes in the archive describe extensive preparations for large-scale sabotage operations against the United States, Canada, and Europe in the event of war, although none was recorded as having been carried out, beyond creating weapons and explosives caches in assorted foreign countries.[69] This information has been corroborated in general byGRU defectors, such asVictor Suvorov[70] andStanislav Lunev.[71] The operations included the following:
Utilization of Mitrkohin Archive is not without risk because these documents only contain handwritten notes of Mitrokhin and no original documents or photocopies were ever made available to analyze these notes.[2] Many scholars remain skeptical of the context and authenticity of the notes of Mitrokhin.[1]
In 1999, the historianJoseph Persico wrote that "several of the much-publicized revelations [from the book], however, hardly qualify as such. For instance, the authors tell how the K.G.B. forged a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald to E. Howard Hunt, the former CIA officer and later Watergate conspirator, in order to implicate the CIA in the Kennedy assassination. Actually, this story surfaced in Henry Hurt'sReasonable Doubt, written 13 years ago. Similarly, the story that the KGB considered schemes for breaking the legs of the ballet dancerRudolf Nureyev for defecting to the West was first reported in a book written six years ago." He added that "it does seem odd that a key KGB archivist never had access to a copying machine, but had to copy thousands of pages in longhand. Still, the overall impact of this volume is convincing, though none of the material will send historians scurrying to rewrite their books."[76]
In her 2000 review, scholarAmy Knight said: "WhileThe Sword and the Shield contains new information ... none of it has much significance for broader interpretations of the Cold War. The main message the reader comes away with after plowing through almost a thousand pages is the same one gleaned from the earlier books: the Soviets were incredibly successful, albeit evil, spymasters, and none of the Western services could come close to matching their expertise. Bravo the KGB."[77] That same year, Reg Whitaker, a professor of Political Science atYork University inToronto, gave a review at theIntelligence Forum about the book where he wrote that "The Mitrokhin Archive arrives from a cache under a Russian dacha floor, courtesy of the British intelligence community itself, and its chosen historian, Chris Andrew", and that the book "is remarkably restrained and reasonable in its handling of Westerners targeted by the KGB as agents or sources. The individuals outed by Mitrokhin appear to be what he says they were, but great care is generally taken to identify those who were unwitting dupes or, in many instances, uncooperative targets."[78]
In 2001,The American Historical Review wrote that "Mitrokhin was a self-described loner with increasingly anti-Soviet views ... Maybe such a potentially dubious type (in KGB terms) really was able freely to transcribe thousands of documents, smuggle them out of KGB premises, hide them under his bed, transfer them to his country house, bury them in milk cans, make multiple visits to British embassies abroad, escape to Britain, and then return to Russia, and carry the voluminous work to the west, all without detection by the KGB ... It may all be true. But how do we know?"[79] That same year, theCentral European Review described Mitrokhin and Andrew's work as "fascinating reading for anyone interested in the craft of espionage, intelligence gathering and its overall role in 20th-century international relations", offering "a window on the Soviet worldview and, as the ongoingHanssen case in the United States clearly indicates, how little Russia has relented from the terror-driven spy society it was during seven inglorious decades of Communism."[80]
In 2002, David L. Ruffley, from the Department of International Programs, United States Air Force Academy, said that the material "provides the clearest picture to date of Soviet intelligence activity, fleshing out many previously obscure details, confirming or contradicting many allegations and raising a few new issues of its own", and "sheds new light on Soviet intelligence activity that, while perhaps not so spectacular as some expected, is nevertheless significantly illuminating."[81]
In July 2014, the Churchill Archives Centre atChurchill College released Mitrokhin's edited Russian-language notes for public research.[82][83] The original handwritten notes by Vasili Mitrokhin are still classified.[84]
In 1999,Jack Straw (thenHome Secretary) stated to theBritish Parliament: "In 1992, after Mr. Mitrokhin had approached the UK for help, our Secret Intelligence Service made arrangements to bring Mr. Mitrokhin and his family to this country, together with his archive. As there were no original KGB documents or copies of original documents, the material itself was of no direct evidential value, but it was of huge value for intelligence and investigative purposes. Thousands of leads from Mr. Mitrokhin's material have been followed up worldwide. As a result, our intelligence and security agencies, in co-operation with allied Governments, have been able to put a stop to many security threats. Many unsolved investigations have been closed; many earlier suspicions confirmed; and some names and reputations have been cleared. Our intelligence and security agencies have assessed the value of Mr. Mitrokhin's material world wide as immense."[85]
In 2001, the authorJoseph Trento commented that "we know the Mitrokhin material is real because it fills in the gaps in Western files on major cases through 1985. Also, the operational material matches western electronic intercepts and agent reports. What MI6 got for a little kindness and a pension was the crown jewels of Russian intelligence."[86]
The publication of the books prompted parliamentary inquiries in the UK, Italy, and India.[87]
After the first book (Andrew and Mitrokhin,The Sword and the Shield, 1999) was published in the UK, an inquiry was held by the House of Commons' Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). Its findings, "The Mitrokhin Inquiry Report", were presented to Parliament in June 2000. The Committee expressed concern that theSecret Intelligence Service (MI6) knew the names of some spies years before the publication of the book but took a decision, without informing the proper prosecuting authorities, not to prosecute them. The ISC believed that this decision was for the Law Officers to take, not the SIS. The ISC interviewed Mitrokhin, who was not content with the way the book was published. He told them that he felt he had not accomplished what he intended when writing the notes. He wished that he had retained "full control over the handling of his material". SIS stated that they were clearing the UK chapters with the Home Secretary and the Attorney General, as required before publication of the book; the Committee then found that they did not do so. In addition, ISC thought that "misleading stories were allowed to receive wide circulation", and the Committee found that SIS had handled neither the publication nor related media matters appropriately.[88]
In Italy in 2002,Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, theHouse of Freedoms, established theMitrokhin Commission, presided over byPaolo Guzzanti (senator ofForza Italia) to investigate alleged KGB ties to figures inItalian politics. The commission was criticized as politically motivated as it was focused mainly on allegations against opposition figures.[89] The commission was shut down in 2006 without having developed any new concrete evidence beyond the original information in the Mitrokhin Archive.[90] FormerFederal Security Service (FSB) officerAlexander Litvinenko allegedly said that he had been informed by FSB deputy chief, GeneralAnatoly Trofimov (who was shot dead inMoscow in 2005), that "Romano Prodi is our man [in Italy]".[91] The allegations were rejected by Prodi. Litvinenko also said that "Trofimov did not exactly say that Prodi was a KGB agent, because the KGB avoids using that word."[92] In April 2006,Gerard Batten of theUK Independence Party, at the time a Britishmember of the European Parliament forLondon, demanded a new inquiry into the Italian and Prodi allegations.[93] In November 2006, a new commission was established to investigate the Mitrokhin Commission for allegations that it was manipulated for political purposes.[94]
In India,L. K. Advani, a senior leader of theBharatiya Janata Party, requested of the government a white paper on the role of foreign intelligence agencies and a judicial enquiry on the allegations inThe Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World.[95] Advani was interested in the book because it made claims about ex-prime ministerIndira Gandhi's (Codenamed VANO) relations with the KGB.[96][97]
Abhishek Singhvi, the spokesperson of theIndian National Congress, referred to the notes as "puresensationalism not even remotely based on facts or records", and mentioned that the book is not based on official records from the Soviet Union but provided by a person who defected to the western world in 1992. Singhvi further added that the book is going after those Indian leaders who are "not alive to deny the charge".[97]
KERL.Operator and Rashid were senior KGB agents who operated within the Somali government and the Arab League. KERL is believed to have connected Libya to USSR. Operator was Lt General Salad G. Kediye. Based on documents drawn from the Mitrokhin Archive, and book published by Cambridge historian Christopher AndrewThe World Was Going Our Way, a comprehensive account ofKGB operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America co-authored with the late KGB MajorVasili Mitrokhin. Kediye had been a paid KGB agent codenamed "OPERATOR". Ironically, the KGB-trainedNational Security Service (NSS), theSRC's intelligence wing, had carried out Kediye's initial arrest.[15]