Search

Home > History Extra podcast > The librarian who stole KGB secrets
Podcast: History Extra podcast
Episode:

The librarian who stole KGB secrets

Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:32:07
Publish Date: 2025-11-12 00:00:00
Description:

When an elderly man with a battered suitcase walked into the British embassy in Vilnius in 1992, few could have guessed what he was about to hand over. Gordon Corera tells the story of Vasili Mitrokhin, an under-the-radar Soviet archivist who copied thousands of classified KGB documents over 12 years. Speaking to Elinor Evans, he reveals how a project that began as a private rebellion against the agency he once served evolved into one of the greatest intelligence coups of the 20th century.


(Ad) Gordon Corera is the author of The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB (William Collins, 2025). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spy-Archive-Gordon-Corera/dp/0008644799/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty.


The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Total Play: 0

Users also like

1K+ Episodes
NPR News Now 2K+     2K+
90+ Episodes
World War On .. 40+     20+
80+ Episodes
Welsh Histor .. 10+    
1K+ Episodes
IELTS Energy .. 2K+     500+
100+ Episodes
A History of .. 100+     20+

Some more Podcasts by History Extra

50+ Episodes