The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB

The Spy in the Archive is 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 man determined to expose the truth about the dark forces that had subverted Russia, forces still at work in the country today.

This is the story of one man’s journey from the heart of the Soviet state to disillusion and then betrayal and his determination to take on the most powerful institution in the world.

Gordon Corera is a journalist and writer on intelligence and security issues. He is the co-host of "The Rest is Classified" podcast which tells stories about spies and secrets. He spent twenty years as a security correspondent for BBC News, where he covered terrorism, cyber security, the work of intelligence agencies and other national security issues and continues to appear as a security analyst for the BBC.

He has reported from across the United States, Asia, Africa and the Middle East and presented a number of programmes focusing on intelligence agencies including MI6, MI5, GCHQ, the CIA, the NSA and Mossad.

He is the author of The Spy in the Archive - How one mad tried to kill the KGB; Russians Among Us, Ghost Stories, Sleeper Cells and the Hunt for Putin's Spies; Secret Pigeon Service: Operation Columba, Resistance and the Struggle to Liberate Europe, Intercept: The Secret History of Computers and Spies (entitled Cyberspies in the US), MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service (also entitled The Art of Betrayal), and Shopping for Bombs.

He was educated at Oxford and Harvard universities, and lives in London.