Free Republic

CAMBRIDGE, England – 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.

Members of the Cambridge Five spy ring were regarded by their Soviet handlers as hopeless drunks incapable of keeping secrets, newly-released files suggest. Documents from the Mitrokhin Archive have been opened to the public for the first time after being kept at a secret location for more than 20 years. But 19 out of 33 box files containing typewritten versions of his notes, all in Russian, can be viewed by visitors to the archive centre.

<p>Diana West’s new book unravels the lies Americans have been told about Cold War history.</p> <p>There is no statue of Elizabeth Bentley at her alma mater, Vassar College, nor is there any memorial to her at Columbia University, where she received her master’s degree. Bentley’s career as a Communist spy could be the stuff of a Hollywood thriller, complete with a romantic interest in the form of her lover, Soviet intelligence agent Jacob Golos...</p>

Ted Kennedy's KGB Correspondence By Kevin Mooney on 6.22.10 @ 6:08AM Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's self-serving, secret correspondence with Soviet agents during the height of the Cold War included proposals for collaborative efforts designed to undermine official U.S. policy set by Democratic and Republican administrations, KGB documents show. With the media now reporting on the late senator's just released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file, now is an opportune time for a more expansive investigation into Kennedy's KGB contacts. The agency took a keen interest in a 1961 "fact-finding" trip the Massachusetts Democrat took to Mexico and other parts of...

A leading Italian neo-fascist with a nine-year conviction for conspiracy after the bombing of Bologna train station in 1980 has taken a seat in the European Parliament. Roberto Fiore, 49, came to Britain in the wake of the bombing, which left 85 people dead and over 200 wounded. The attack was carried out by the Nucleus of Armed Revolutionaries, a far-Right terrorist group. Although Mr Fiore, a member of the Third Position cell, was not directly involved in the execution of the bombing, he was convicted for conspiring to carry out an armed attack. He lived in the UK for...

EVER since Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, shot the late Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981 in St Peter’s Square in Rome, investigators have tried to solve one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries: did Agca act alone or was he obeying communist orders? This week an Italian parliamentary commission will officially conclude that Agca was part of a huge conspiracy masterminded by the GRU, the Soviet military secret service, on the orders of the politburo and Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist party. The findings are already being considered by a Rome prosecutor who may...

The scruffy visitor with dynamite secrets On April 9, 1992, a scruffy 70-year-old Russian arrived in the capital of a newly-independent Baltic state by the overnight train from Moscow for a pre-arranged meeting at the British Embassy with officers of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6). He began by producing a passport that identified him as Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin, former senior archivist in the First Chief (Foreign Intelligence) Directorate of the KGB. SIS then took the unprepossessing secret photograph of him that The Times publishes today for the first time. Mitrokhin had made his first visit to...

The Kremlin spent a fortune trying to influence the press, police, ministers and Indira Gandhi A HUGE cache of KGB records smuggled out of Moscow after the fall of communism reveal that in the 1970s India was one of the countries most successfully penetrated by Soviet intelligence. A number of senior KGB officers have testified that, under Indira Gandhi, India was one of their priority targets. “We had scores of sources through the Indian Government — in intelligence, counter-intelligence, the defence and foreign ministries and the police,” said Oleg Kalugin, once the youngest general in Soviet foreign intelligence and responsible...

Archbishop Mark’s “Friend” By Konstantin Preobrazhensky 1. Revelations from Mitrokhin’s Archives. “Friend” – that is the secret police code name of archpriest Vasiliy Fonchenkov, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In the 1970s, he helped the KGB imprison anti-communist priests. Now, his past does not prevent him from being a member of the clergy of the Church Abroad. The KGB is so sure of the Church’s indifference, it can openly reveal its agents. “Friend” serves as a priest in Salzburg, Austria. Don’t believe me? Allow me to refer you to the book, “Mitrokhin’s Achives,” co-authored with Professor Christopher...

MOSCOW, Sept. 13 - President Vladimir V. Putin ordered a stunning overhaul of Russia's political system on Monday in what he called an effort to unite the country against terrorism. If enacted, as expected, the proposals would strengthen his already pervasive control over the legislative branch and regional governments. Mr. Putin, meeting in special session with cabinet ministers and regional government leaders, outlined what would be the most sweeping political overhaul - and his most striking single step to consolidate power - in Russia in more than a decade. Critics immediately said it would violate the Constitution and stifle what...