The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB

Based on astonishing KGB documents, this essential exposé uncovers the shadowy operations of the Soviet Union’s top intelligence organization.

“ The Sword and the Shield will stand as an indispensable reference work on Soviet espionage for years to come.” - Washington Post

Derived from an unprecedented, top-secret archive described by the FBI as “the most complete and extensive intelligence ever achieved from any source,” 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.

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. Mitrokhin spent over a decade making notes and transcripts of these highly classified files which he smuggled daily out of the archives and kept beneath his dacha floor. Christopher Andrew has had exclusive access to both Mitrokhin and his archive.

Supplementing this treasure trove of KGB secrets with extensive research in other archives, and published and unpublished sources, he has written an extraordinary book which forces us to acknowledge that there was indeed an enemy—and that he was very much in our midst.