Book review : The Mitrokhen Archives; Vol 2, KGB & World

                      

            BOOK THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD !!

NEWYORK TIMES BESTSELLER

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

 

GENRE Non-Fiction, Strategy, Story

AUTHOR Vasili Mitrokhin, Christopher Andrew

PAGES   690

YEAR OF PUBLISH 2005 

 

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

Vasili Mitrokhin was an archival officer in KGB (intelligence agency of Russia). For 20 years he secretly transferred the documents from his office to his residence. With the fall of the USSR, he moved to Britain and shared these documents with MI6 (British secret service). In 1999 MI6 published these documents worldwide in the form of two books Sword and Shield and Mitrokhin Archives. Vasili Mitrokhin passed on in 2004, soon after the distribution of the primary volume of The Mitrokhin Archive, the work that he and student of history Christopher Andrew. Andrew finished this second volume all alone, working with Mitrokhin's unique notes. 

 

 BOOK REVIEW OF MITROKHIN ARCHIVES

You must be knowing about the world war. When it started, ended, who participated, who lost or won. We know about the institutions that were formed after world war. The new world order where we live today. But what we don't know is is the history of the cold war. We know that the biggest power USA and USSR were driving forces. It started in 1960 and ended with the disintegration of the USSR. So, what happened between 1960 to 1991?

The first volume of The Mitrokhin Archive managed KGB action in the West, for the most part in Europe and the United States. The Mitrokhin Archive II spotlights on the remainder of the world, most explicitly on the 'Third World' countries that the Soviet Union viewed as likely areas were to assemble communist or socialist states.

Mitrokhin archives was never a bestseller but it shocked the world. The cold war wasn't the fight for military supremacy but this was technology and ideological warfare. The book is separated into areas in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with parts zeroing in on either a particular country or time span for the KGB's exercises.

USSR was a socialist society and USA believed in capitalism. The cold war saw the involvement of third world Nations. Both the superpower tried to superimpose their ideology on the world. 

Mitrokhin archives volume2 is the story of USSR practices in the same direction.

You must have heard the famous activists like Fidel Castro and other activists in Latin America and Cuba. Here you will get to know the background story. The dirty politics, the financial support, spying, manipulation. If you are a part of this third-world nation that has an influence on socialist ideology then your beliefs may get a real bad hit.

I am from India. The book separately talks about my country in chapters 12th and 13th. It was not good, really disturbing. The names like K.K Menon, Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sanjay Gandhi and many more. Our post-independence history has been manipulated.

 

Soviet surveillance in China after the Sino-Soviet split was made everything except outlandish by the way that the Chinese mystery police knew every one of the personalities of the KGB's representatives in the PRC and continued to slaughter them all off - an exercise on why it's not in every case great to impart everything to your partner

 - Attempts to keep an eye on China via Japan ran into issues when the Japanese Communist Party decided to align itself philosophically with Beijing

- The KGB was really engaged with beginning and spreading the metropolitan legend about Latin American kids being grabbed and murdered to give gave organs to rich Americans.
 

What I liked about the Mitrokhin Archives and why you should read

The Mitrokhin archives open an additional perspective towards understanding global politics. I read the part on South Asian countries and it helped me understand the politics of the left in the three countries. More importantly, it helped me understand why intelligence is critical for policymaking, especially good intelligence. 

I am no one to tell what is right and what is wrong. You will find infinite examples that were immoral, unethical, self-centric, materialistic, in-human.

But the extensivity at which USSR performed its global operations was and will be one of its kind. The agents were so much aware of the political geographical ecological factors of a nation that they can manipulate it at their fingertips. They were aware of the likes and dislikes of the most celebrated political leaders. They had friendly relations with the media. Do you really want to understand what is the meaning of strategy read this book? Literally, they left no stones unturned when it came to imposing socialistic idealogy.

 

 

 

  

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