The Mitrokhin Archive is a collection of handwritten notes made secretly by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin during his thirty years as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Directorate. When he defected to the United Kingdom in 1992 he brought the archive with him.

The official historian of MI5, Christopher Andrew,^[1] wrote two books, The Sword and the Shield (1999) and The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (2005), based on material in the archives. The books purport to provide details about many of the Soviet Union‘s clandestine intelligence operations around the world.

In July 2014, the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College released Mitrokhin’s edited Russian-language notes for public research; the archives are the largest openly available KGB data trove.^[2] The original handwritten notes by Vasili Mitrokhin are still classified.^[3]

Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE (August 25, 1926 – December 29, 2008)^[1] was a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership. He was born in Pyriatyn, Ukrainian SSR. He provided “a wide range of intelligence to the CIAon the operations of most of the ‘Lines’ (departments) at the Helsinki and other residencies, as well as KGB methods of recruiting and running agents.”^[2] He was an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)^{[citation needed]} and, as late as 1984, was an American citizen.^[3]

Golitsyn’s books[edit]

New Lies for Old[edit]

In 1984, Golitsyn published the book New Lies For Old,^[16] wherein he warned about a long-term deception strategy of seeming retreat from hard-line Communism designed to lull the West into a false sense of security, and finally economically cripple and diplomatically isolate the United States. Among other things, Golitsyn stated:

The “liberalization” would be spectacular and impressive. Formal pronouncements might be made about a reduction in the communist party’s role: its monopoly would be apparently curtailed. An ostensible separation of powers between the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary might be introduced. The Supreme Soviet would be given greater apparent power, and the president of the Soviet Union and the first secretary of the party might well be separated. The KGB would be “reformed.” Dissidents at home would be amnestied; those in exile abroad would be allowed to return, and some would take up positions of leadership in government.

Sakharov might be included in some capacity in the government or allowed to teach abroad. The creative arts and cultural and scientific organizations, such as the writers’ unions and Academy of Sciences, would become apparently more independent, as would the trade unions. Political clubs would be opened to nonmembers of the communist party. Leading dissidents might form one or more alternative political parties.

There would be greater freedom for Soviet citizens to travel. Western and Unitized Nations observers would be invited to the Soviet Union to witness the reforms in action.^[17]

Angleton and Golitsyn reportedly sought the assistance of William F. Buckley, Jr. (who once worked for the CIA) in writing New Lies for Old. Buckley refused but later went on to write a novel about Angleton, Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton.^[18]

The Perestroika Deception[edit]

In 1995, Anatoliy Golitsyn and Christopher Story published a book entitled The Perestroika Deception^[19] containing purported memoranda attributed to Golitsyn claiming:

• “The [Soviet] strategists are concealing the secret coordination that exists and will continue between Moscow and the ‘nationalist’ leaders of [the] ‘independent’ republics.”^{[citation needed]}
• “The power of the KGB remains as great as ever … Talk of cosmetic changes in the KGB and its supervision is deliberately publicized to support the myth of ‘democratization’ of the Soviet political system.”^{[citation needed]}
• “Scratch these new, instant Soviet ‘democrats,’ ‘anti-Communists,’ and ‘nationalists’ who have sprouted out of nowhere, and underneath will be found secret Party members or KGB agents.”^{[citation needed]}

Richard John Charles Tomlinson (born 13 January 1963) is a former officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He argued that he was subjected to unfair dismissal from MI6 in 1995, and attempted to take his former employer to a tribunal. MI6 refused, arguing that to do so would breach state security.

Tomlinson was imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act 1989 in 1997 after he gave a synopsis of a proposed book detailing his career with MI6 to an Australian publisher. He served six months of a twelve-month sentence before being given parole, whereupon he left the country. The book, named The Big Breach, was published in Moscow in 2001 (and later in Edinburgh), and was subsequently serialised by The Sunday Times. The book detailed various aspects of MI6 operations, alleging that it employed a mole in the German Bundesbank and that it had a “licence to kill“, the latter later confirmed by the head of MI6 at a public hearing.^[5]

Tomlinson then attempted to assist Mohamed al-Fayed in his privately funded investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and al-Fayed’s son Dodi. Tomlinson claimed that MI6 had considered assassinating Slobodan Milošević, the president of Serbia, by staging a car crash using a powerful strobe light to blind the driver. He suggested that Diana and Dodi may have been killed by MI6 in the same way, although that claim was dismissed at their inquest in 2007. MI6 admitted that plans of that nature had been drafted regarding a different Eastern European official, but that the proposal had been swiftly rejected by management.

In 2009, MI6 agreed to allow Tomlinson to return to Britain, unfreeze royalties from his book and drop the threat of charges. MI6 also apologised for his mistreatment.^[6] Staff at MI6 have been allowed employment tribunals since 2000, and have been able to unionise since 2008.^[7][8]