Vasili Mitrokhin
| Vasili Mitrokhin | |
|---|---|
Vasili Mitrokhin, source of the Mitrokhin Archive
|
|
| Native name | Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин |
| Born |
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin March 3, 1922 Yurasovo, Central Russia Ryazan Oblast, RSFSR |
| Died | January 23, 2004 (aged 81) London |
| Nationality | Russian, British |
| Education | History and Law |
| Occupation | Military |
| Employer | KGB |
Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (Russian: Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was a major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Directorate of the KGB and co-author with Christopher Andrew of The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, a massive account of Soviet intelligence operations based on copies of material from the archive. The second volume, The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB in the World, was published in 2005, soon after Mitrokhin's death.
Mitrokhin was born in Yurasovo, in Central Russia, Ryazan Oblast, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. After leaving school, he entered artillery school, then attended university in Kazakh SSR, graduating with degrees in history and law.
Towards the end of the second World War, Mitrokhin took a job in the military procurator's office in Kharkiv in the Ukrainian SSR. He entered the MGB as a foreign intelligence officer in 1948. His first foreign posting was in 1952.
During the 1950s he served on various undercover assignments overseas. In 1956, for example, he accompanied the Soviet team to the Olympic Games in Australia. But later that year, after he had apparently mishandled an operational assignment, he was moved from operational duties to the archives of the KGB's First Chief Directorate and told he would never work in the field again.
...
Wikipedia