The KGB and the World - The Mitrokhin Archive II
by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin
Penguin $225
Cambridge historian Christopher Andrew has held to two themes since he first began writing books about spies and their masters in 1986: historians can't properly assess past events without understanding activities of intelligence communities; and cognitive dissonance - 'the difficulty all of us have in grasping new concepts which disturb our existing view of the world'. There are parallels aplenty for the reader to draw with the world today, although Andrew isn't prone to analysis. The KGB and the World - The Mitrokhin Archive II is the second volume (2005) of work based on 'six large containers' of papers secured from former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin after he did a deal with the British in 1992. A condition was for all the information to be made public. The first volume (1999) dealt mainly with Europe. This volume takes in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the KGB's activities concerning China. Of the 1984 Joint Declaration on Hong Kong: 'The KGB sought, without striking success, to disseminate through the media the 'thesis' that weak-kneed Britain had suffered a major humiliation at the hands of the Chinese.'