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In 1972, the KGB exiled Vasili Mitrokhin to the archives. It was meant to be the end of his career. Instead, it gave him access to everything. For the next twelve years, the failed spy read every classified file that passed through his hands, took secret notes in a code only he could read, and buried the results under the floorboards of his dacha outside Moscow. When he finally brought his archive to the West, the CIA called it the biggest counterintelligence bonanza of the entire post-war period. This is the story of how a punishment became a catastrophe, and why the man who caused it died believing his warning had gone unheard.

📚 Sources & Further Reading (affiliate links):

📕 The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin - https://amzn.to/48IEcSD

📘 The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin - https://amzn.to/4eb5JzK

📕 The Spy in the Archive by Gordon Corera - https://amzn.to/3NWndp1