"Cold War files smuggled out of Russia" Topic

The papers spent years hidden in a milk churn beneath a Russian dacha and read like an encyclopedia of Cold War espionage.

Original documents from one of the biggest intelligence leaks in history — a who's who of Soviet spying — were released Monday after being held in secret for two decades.

The files smuggled out of Russia in 1992 by senior KGB official Vasili Mitrokhin describe sabotage plots, booby-trapped weapons caches and armies of agents under cover in the West — the real-life inspiration for the fictional Soviet moles in "The Americans" TV series.

The volumes also reveal that Soviet agents stashed weapons and communications equipment in secret locations around NATO countries. Included is a map of Rome showing three caches, along with detailed instructions for finding them. It's unclear how many such weapons dumps have been tracked down by Western authorities.

There are glimpses of Mitrokhin's mindset in the titles he gave the volumes, including "The Accursed Regime" and "The Mousetrap."

Andrew said Mitrokhin took huge risks, knowing that "a single bullet in the back of the head" would be his fate if he was caught.

"The material mattered to him so desperately that he was prepared to put his life on the line for it," Andrew said.

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Them sneeky Russkies !!!!

I wonder how many were in dropped in Warsaw Pact countries, to supply native guerrilla armies?