The Sword and the Shield

The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB

By: Christopher Andrew, Vasili Mitrokhin

Narrated by: Charles Stransky

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

In 1992 Vasili Mitrokhin defected to England and brought along an extensive archive of military intelligence from the Soviet Union. A career KGB officer who served as chief archivist for its foreign operations, Vasili Mitrokhin became disillusioned with the Soviet system and its constant repression of dissidents at home and abroad. Determined to preserve the truth, he secretly compiled a detailed record of the agency's worldwide espionage network. The Sword and the Shield offers an unprecedented look into the KGB's top-secret activities. It is described by the FBI as "the most complete and extensive intelligence ever achieved from any source."

Supplementing this trove of KGB secrets with extensive research in other archives, published and unpublished, Christopher Andrew has written an extraordinary book which forces you to acknowledge that there was indeed an enemy - and that he was very much in our midst.
Revelations from The Sword and the Shield:

The massive role that the KGB played in the Cold War and the state-sanctioned paranoia behind it

The KGB's attempts to discredit J. Edgar Hoover, and their eavesdropping activities against Henry Kissinger

Details of secret radio and arms caches buried throughout Western Europe and the United States

The real identities of the KGB's most senior spies in Britain and the United States

The internal repression of dissidents within the Soviet Union, including the KGB's own most capable and best educated officers

©1999 Christopher Andrew (P)16 9; 2000 HighBridge Company

Great History - Great Spy Story

Vasili Mitrokhin was an archivist for the KGB. For several years, he reviewed files as they were moved to a new building. He began to secretly copy information from the files and take it home. Security was surprisingly lax and he became bold. Eventually, he had six crates of notes and quotes. After the fall of the Soviet Union, British intelligence exfiltrated him and his family in exchange for access to his files.

In this book, he names names. Hundreds of names. For instance, he names an employee of M.W. Kellogg in Houston, whom no one ever suspected of being a Soviet agent. He names key members of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

But saying that he names names is understating the importance of this book.

Beginning in the 1930's and continuing into the late 1980's, he describes Soviet tradecraft and the work of master spys, cutouts, agents, and persons compromised. For instance, the provides the Soviet side of the recuiment and running of the Kim Phily Five, the Alger Hiss matter, the Rosenbergs, etc.

HE EVEN IDENTIFIES SASHA, a Soviet mole who did much damage (although the CIA's hunt for SASHA may have been even more damaging than Sasha's own work - and the skeptics amoung us question whether there was another Sasha).

If this were fiction, it would be a pretty good book. As non-fiction, it is a must read for anyone who wants to know what really happened in the cold war and how close we came to losing to the Soviets.

About 20% of the information in this book is incorporated into Robert Littel's novel, THE COMPANY.

Enriching Book Astounishing Reading

Great narrator, great story, but for those folks who suggested The Company is the same kind of book, I disagree. This book is fact base and everything is real. The Company is fiction and all made up. My only regret is this audiobook is not unabridged.
In point of fact I think abridge book should be allowed unless the author himself cut it.

Exposed! The KGB was evil!

Well. Here's a revelation. The KGB and it's predecessors was an instrument of terror in the hands of paranoid tyrants. The good information that they produced that indicated that the U.S was not interested in empire buiiding was discarded and messengers shot. The survivors then, with new understanding, painted the U.S. and its allies as greedy power hungry hegemonists intent on invading mother Russia and received medals. All of this from the KGB's own archives through the bravery and dedication to truth of one minor file clerk, Vasily Mitroken. This is a first rate read for anyone who survived the Fifties.

wish it weren't abridged

a good introduction to the Mitrokhin archives, but I wish it were the entire book. this just gives a taste without a whole, detailed picture.

a must follow up to

For anyone who loved "The Company" by Robert Littell. The sword and the shield is a must read/listen.

A fine record of the other company.

learned more than I thought

a very unusual but fascinating book that I would encourage anybody to read. it is very interesting to listen to the history of the KGB from someone who has an inside view

If you are looking for Cold War and James Bond ...

... type stories, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for an accurate history of the KGB, then this is a solid book.