Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 947
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Basic Books
Manufacturer: Basic Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 736
Printing Date: September 05, 1999
Publishing house: Basic Books
Sale Popularity Level: 455202
Studio: Basic Books
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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 very 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 acess to the upper echelons of New York society.
Amazon.com Review:
In early 1992, a Russian man walked into the British embassy in a newly independent Baltic republic and asked to 'speak to someone in authority.' As he sipped his very first cup of proper English tea, he handed over a small file of notes. Eight months later, the man, his family, and his enormous archive had been safely exfiltrated to Britain. When news that a KGB officer had defected with the names of hundreds of undercover agents leaked out in 1996, a spokesperson for the SVR (Russia's foreign intelligence service, heir of the KGB) said, 'Hundreds of people! That just doesn't happen! Any defector could get the name of one, two, perhaps three agents--but not hundreds!'
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin worked as chief archivist for the FCD, the foreign-intelligence arm of the KGB. Mitrokhin was responsible for checking and sealing approximately 300,000 files, allowing him unrestricted acess to one of the world's most closely guarded archives. He had lost faith in the Soviet system over the years, and was especially disturbed by the KGB's systematic silencing of dissidents at home and abroad. Faced with tough choices--stay silent, resign, or undermine the system from within--Mitrokhin decided to compile a record of the foreign operations of the KGB. Every day for 12 years, he smuggled notes out of the archive. He started by hiding scraps of paper covered with miniscule handwriting in his shoes, but later wrote notes on ordinary office paper, which he took home in his pockets. He hid the notes under his mattress, and on weekends took them to his dacha, where he typed them and hid them in containers buried under the floor. When he escaped to Britain, his archive contained tens of thousands of pages of notes.
In 1995, Mitrokhin, by then a British citizen, contacted Christopher Andrew (For the President's Eyes Only), head of the faculty of history at Cambridge University and one of the world's foremost historians of international intelligence. Andrew was allowed to examine the archive Mitrokhin created 'to ensure that the truth was not forgotten, that posterity might some day come to know of it.' The Sword and the Shield is the earthshaking result. The book details the KGB's foreign-intelligence operations, most notably those aimed at Great Britain and the 'Main Adversary'--the United States. In the 700-page book, Andrew reveals operations aimed at discrediting high-profile Americans, from Martin Luther King to Ronald Reagan; secret arms caches still hidden--and boobytrapped--throughout the West; disinformation efforts, including forging a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald in an endeavor to implicate the CIA in the assassination of JFK; attempts to stir up racial tensions in the U.S. by sending hate mail and even bombs; and the existence of deep-cover agents in North America and Europe--some of whom were effectively 'outed' when the book was published.
Mitrokhin's detailed notes are well served by Andrew, who writes forcefully and clearly. The Sword and the Shield represents a remarkable intelligence coup--one that will have serious repercussions for years to come. As Andrew notes, 'No one who spied for the Soviet Union at any period between the October Revolution and the eve of the Gorbachev era can now be confident that his or her secrets are still secure.' --Sunny Delaney
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
This book - "The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB" is very important, scrupulous and unique scientific-research work on the history of the KGB. It is based primarily on significant and top secret archival material. This monograph will become a valuable reference work for professional historians and for those, who are interested in the secret history of the KGB. This book of Professor Christopher Andrew is an outstanding contribution in the study of the history of the Soviet State Security system - great enemy for the democratic world.
With kind regards,
Dr. Levan Z. Urushadze,
Scientific Co-ordinator of the Museum
of the Soviet Occupation of the Georgian
National Museum, a Fellow of the World
Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)
Tbilisi, August 29, 2008
Rated by buyers -
Christopher Andrew uses a ridiculous amount of information to create a vivid picture of Soviet operations, policies and views during the Cold War era.
Andrew has a gift. He takes boring documents and weaves them into a tapestry that is worth reading. This book is an amazing addition to any history or spy buff's library. There is no more definitive or realistic look of Soviet espionage available.
Soviet fears, goals, problems and strengths are all covered without bias. Andrew has no agenda in this book. He is neither an apologist nor an attacker. He is a chronicler.
The portions covering the Majestic 5, a British spy ring that reached deep into British foreign and intelligence agencies, is gripping. The Soviet Union seems almost paralyzed by its own success, unable to trust the very people handing them the keys to the kingdom.
The late chapters dealing with Poland and the Pope John Paul II are also striking. Andrew presents a coherent and engaging tale about people sitting around worrying. That is no small task.
There are many histories of this sort that are boring and dry. Andrew finds a narrative voice that helps push the true story of history forward. This book is good, very good. I highly reccomend it.
Rated by buyers -
A revealing exposition of KGB practices from an insider. The book indicates that Western intelligence was much less developed before than after World War II,when several spies at high positions in US and UK agencies were exposed. The book evokes the idea that political espionage was not very productive. Much political information transferred to the USSR was not believed by political leaders that wanted to stick to their conspiracy theories. Scientific and technological espionage benefitted the military, but not the larger economy. An interesting aspect involves the motivation of these recruits to betray their country and live a double life with great risks. Ideological conviction seemed to have prevailed in the early years, but was surpassed by greed at a later date.
Rated by buyers -
For someone who grew up in the former Soviet Union it is an interesting read - learning parts of Soviet history omitted from textbooks. Just hope it is true.
Rated by buyers 
-
Mitrokhin & Andrews' book is just as described: an archive of information. As such, it is packed with information that the authors have tried to organize into something of a dry narrative. That said, this volume and its successor, "The World Was Going Our Way," contain a plethora of details on KGB tactics and experiences from WWII onwards.
What it doesn't contain is a good deal of information about NKVD operations prior to WWII. There are brief descriptions of a handful of operations, and a general outline of the organizations history and structure, but, as the title advertises, this is a work on the KGB and the KGB alone.
Andrews should be commended for making what I'm sure were dry and, at times, likely unreliable reports into a working narrative.
NOTE: The rating above should read four stars rather than three.
Find other books like this one:
