The Spy in the Archive: How one man tried to kill the KGB
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By Gordon Corera
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1 review
LONGLISTED for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2026
The compulsively readable new book from The Rest is Classified host Gordon Corera. About how one man – Vasili Mitrokhin – turned first disaffected dissident and then traitor to the KGB, stealing the most secret Soviet archives and smuggling them to the West. How do you steal a library? Not just any library but the most secret, heavily guarded archive in the world. The answer is to be a librarian. To be so quiet, that no-one knows what you are up to as you toil undercover and deep amongst the files. The work goes on for decades but remains so low key, that even after your escape, aided by MI6, no-one even notices you are gone. The Spy in the Archive tells the remarkable story of how Vasili Mitrokhin – an introverted archivist who loved nothing more than dusty files – ended up changing the world. As the in-house archivist for the KGB, the secrets he was exposed to inside its walls turned him first into a dissident and then a spy, a traitor to his country but a man determined to expose the truth about the dark forces that had subverted Russia, forces still at work in the country today. Bestselling writer and historian Gordon Corera tells of the operation to extract this prized asset from Russia for the first time. It is an edge-of-the-seat thriller, with vivid flashbacks to Mitrokhin’s earlier time as a KGB idealist prepared to do what it took to serve the Soviet Union and his growing realisation that the communist state was imprisoning its own people. It is the story of what it was like to live in the Soviet Union, to raise a family and then of one man’s journey from the heart of the Soviet state to disillusion, betrayal and defection. At its heart is Mitrokhin’s determination to take on the most powerful institution in the world by revealing its darkest secrets. This is narrative non-fiction at its absolute best. TweetReviews
I only read non-fiction very occasionally, but this looked intriguing enough to borrow when I saw it at the library – and I’m glad I did! It is a tantalising story of how one, lowly librarian for the KGB became a traitor, stole Soviet-era archives and smuggled them to the West. I wasn’t surprised to discover that, earlier this year, it had been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction.
Set in post-Cold War Russia, the man in question – Vasili Mitrokhin – worked for the KGB, but after a failed mission was sent to work as a librarian in the archives, where no-one of importance thought anything more about him.
Day after day, buried under files, what Mitrokhin read while he worked upset him so much that he slowly began making his own archive. He took notes about the things that had disturbed him and hid the papers in his shoes, taking them home with him at the end of each day. Slowly, over time, he created books of these notes before eventually deciding to do something with them.
First, he made an approach to the American Embassy, offering the material he had, but they turned him away. Next, he tried the British who, while they thought him a bit of an oddball, decided the information he had would be useful. Mitrokhin wanted to defect and demanded that his wife, son and mother-in-law be included in the deal, which of course made it a complicated escape for MI6 to arrange. The extraordinary thing was that the KGB deemed Mitrokhin to be such a lowly employee that even after he’d escaped, no one really noticed he had gone. It’s a true story, and a tale of absolute daring and real-life bravery.
My verdict
Historian and journalist, Gordon Corera, was the BBC’s security correspondent and is now a Security Analyst and Visiting Professor with the Strand Group at King’s College London. He’s also co-host on the popular podcast 'The Rest is Classified', so he knows what he’s talking about.
In itself, that background would probably be enough to make sure Corera’s book was interesting. But in my opinion, he’s written something that’s hugely readable, even for someone like me who doesn’t read a lot of non-fiction. The story is full of suspense and danger, told in a mix of mundane detail, vivid flashbacks to Mitrokhin’s earlier career in the KGB, and tension as he steals his own notes, and then defects to Britain with his family and his precious archive.
As all this begins in the 1990’s the story also covers the career of Vladimir Putin. How he worked to join the KGB and was underestimated by other countries in his rise to power. It also portrays the lives of ordinary Russians at that time, and how everyone lived in fear – not just of the authorities but of family members as well, because everyone was prepared to report on each other and fear was power. I found it fascinating.
Because the story is so well written the facts and information are easy to absorb. I found it both terrifying and exciting at the same time and finished this book feeling I’d been given a new insight into what Russia is today. I’m really glad I made the effort to read this.
Review by: MadDog, Oundle Crime
