The story of how one man—a librarian for the KGB—became a traitor to the intelligence agency, stealing the most prized Soviet-era archives and smuggling them to the West.
More than most Cold War thrillers, this true story offers genuine suspense—and genuine insight into Mitrokhin’s complex motivations ... His experience with the material lends weight to a thoroughly engrossing tale.
Corera sensibly tries to broaden the story by setting it within the wider context of the Soviet Union’s history. That in turn offers some insights into Mitrokhin’s motivation ... What Corera conveys particularly well is Mitrokhin’s peculiarly Russian mindset ... The overdue and often striking memorial Mitrokhin merits.
