ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Mitrokhin Archive

The Mitrokhin Archive is a lot of secret papers collected by a man named Vasili Mitrokhin. He was a worker for the Soviet Union’s spy agency, the KGB. One day, Mr. Mitrokhin didn't like what he was seeing at work, so he decided to secretly collect papers and documents from the KGB over many years. He then stored it in his house, hidden under the floorboards, so that no one else could find them.

The Mitrokhin Archive includes information about Soviet Union's spying activities in many countries, including the USA, UK, and Canada. The papers also talk about details about spying for the KGB in classified places, such as in inside the British government and in NATO.

After Mr. Mitrokhin's undercover work was discovered by the KGB, he fled to the UK and took the Mitrokhin Archive with him. After awhile, he gave the archive to the British intelligence service, MI6, so they could use it to stop people like him from being spies.

In short, Vasili Mitrokhin was a KGB worker who collected secret documents for many years, and then gave them to MI6, who used them to stop spying.