In 1995, Mitrokhin, by then a British citizen, contacted Christopher Andrew (For the President's Eyes Only), head of the faculty of history at Cambridge University and one of the world's foremost historians of international intelligence. Andrew was allowed to examine the archive Mitrokhin created "to ensure that the truth was not forgotten, that posterity might some day come to know of it." The Sword and the Shield is the earthshaking result. The book details the KGB's foreign-intelligence operations, most notably those aimed at Great Britain and the "Main Adversary"--the United States. In the 700-page book, Andrew reveals operations aimed at discrediting high-profile Americans, from Martin Luther King to Ronald Reagan; secret arms caches still hidden--and boobytrapped--throughout the West; disinformation efforts, including forging a letter from Lee Harvey Oswald in an attempt to implicate the CIA in the assassination of JFK; attempts to stir up racial tensions in the U.S. by sending hate mail and even bombs; and the existence of deep-cover agents in North America and Europe--some of whom were effectively "outed" when the book was published.

Mitrokhin's detailed notes are well served by Andrew, who writes forcefully and clearly. The Sword and the Shield represents a remarkable intelligence coup--one that will have serious repercussions for years to come. As Andrew notes, "No one who spied for the Soviet Union at any period between the October Revolution and the eve of the Gorbachev era can now be confident that his or her secrets are still secure." --Sunny Delaney

In The Sword and the Shield, Christopher Andrew revealed the secrets of the KGB's operations in the United States and Europe; now in The World Was Going Our Way, he has written the first comprehensive account of the KGB and its operations throughout the Third World. Our understanding of the contemporary world remains incomplete without taking into account the vast impact of the KGB in developing nations: Andrew reveals the names of political leaders on the KGB payroll as well as the KGB's successful penetration of numerous foreign governments. He also points to the many absurdities of KGB operations-such as agents attempting to assess the spread of influence of rival Chinese communism by visiting African capitals and counting the number of posters of Mao Tse Tung.

For decades the KGB believed that the world was going their way-and Americans at the highest reaches of government lived in fear that they were losing the Cold War in the Third World. This extraordinary book will transform our understanding of the history of the twentieth century.

Nach eigener Aussage ging es ihm dabei nicht um Verrat. Er war zu der Überzeugung gelangt, daß das russische Volk ein Recht darauf habe, die geheime Geschichte des KGB zu kennen, um seine eigene Vergangenheit besser verstehen zu können. Nachdem die westlichen Nachrichtendienste die Unterlagen jahrelang ausgewertet hatten -- Mitrochins Notizen führten u.a. zur Verhaftung mehrerer Agenten -- erhielt er die Erlaubnis, gemeinsam mit dem Historiker und Geheimdienstexperten Christopher Andrew das Material zum vorliegenden Buch zu verarbeiten.

Mit dem Schwarzbuch des KGB haben Andrew und Mitrochin zweifellos ein neues Standardwerk zur Geschichte des KGB vorgelegt. Ihre wissenschaftlich aufgearbeiteten Berichte lassen die Rolle des sowjetischen Geheimdienstes bei der Niederschlagung des Prager Frühlings und beim Kampf gegen die polnische Opposition in einem neuen Licht erscheinen. Von besonderem Interesse sind auch die Kapitel über die politische Kriegsführung -- "aktive Maßnahmen gegen den Hauptgegner" -- und die Auseinandersetzungen mit sowjetischen Dissidenten, die der "ideologischen Subversion" verdächtigt wurden.

Zwar wurde der alte KGB nach dem mißglückten Putschversuch gegen Gorbatschow im August 1991 zerschlagen, doch sein Geist lebt in den sechs Nachfolgeorganisationen weiter. Ehemalige KGB-Mitarbeiter haben längst wieder wichtige Positionen in Staat und Gesellschaft besetzt, und einige haben sogar gute Chancen, der nächste Präsident Rußlands zu werden.--Stephan Fingerle

Vasili Mitrokhin, a secret dissident, working in the KGB archive smuggled out copies of its most highly classified files every day for twelve years. In 1992, a U.S. ally succeeded in exfiltrating the KGB officer and his entire archive out of Moscow. The archive covers the entire period from the Bolshevik Revolution to the 1980s and includes revelations concerning almost every country in the world. But the KGB's main target, of course, was the United States.

Throughout the 700 pages of The Sword and the Shield, there are revelations of interest to journalists covering U.S. and international intelligence, history, and human interest regarding the following subjects:

-KGB's covert operations in the United States and throughout the West, some of which remain dangerous today.

-KGB files on Oswald and the JFK assassination that Boris Yeltsin almost certainly has no intention of showing President Clinton.

-KGB's attempts to discredit civil rights leaders in the 1960s, including its infiltration of the inner circle of a key leader.

-KGB's use of radio intercept posts in New York and Washington D.C. in the 1970s to intercept high level U.S. government communications.

-KGB's attempts to steal technological secrets from major U.S. aerospace and technology corporations. Their success seems to have inspired Chinese intelligence to do likewise.

-KGB covert operations against former President Ronald Reagan, which began five years before he became president.

-KGB spies who successfully posed as U.S. citizens under a series of ingenious disguises, including several who attained access to the upper echelons of New York society.

The Sword and the Shield is a work of great historical significance, which will fundamentally alter our understanding of Soviet history and modern international relations. For Russia's post-Soviet intelligence service, SVR, the publication of this book poses a real problem. No one who spied for Russia between 1917 and the final years of the Cold War can be sure anymore that his or her secrets are secure.