Thousands of Leaked KGB Files Are Now Open To the Public

schwit1 (797399) writes "Over 20 years after being smuggled out of Russia, a trove of KGB documents are being opened up to the public for the first time. The leaked documents include thousands of files and represent what the FBI is said to view as "the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source." The documents include KGB information on secret Russian weapons caches, Russian spies, and KGB information on the activities of Pope John Paul II. Known as the Mitrokhin Archive, the files are all available as of today at Churchill College's Archives Centre."

No they're not

[Anonymous Coward]

With the exception of sections 6-7[which are closed], the collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Churchill Archives Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. A prior appointment and two forms of identification are required.

Yeah, thanks...

Re:seems like snowden did the exact same thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

No see it's okay because they were dirty commies and aren't allowed to have secrets, what are you some kind of terrorist?

Re:seems like snowden did the exact same thing.

[i kan reed]

Snowden had the decency to alert his own people to abuses, rather than just foreign governments?

And in 20 years

[wiredog]

The Russians will release the complete Snowden Archive.

Re:seems like snowden did the exact same thing.

[blueg3]

Well:
* The documents are being revealed to the public now and document events from 30-40 years ago.
* These are documents that he personally worked with, rather than a cache of documents acquired for the purpose of copying and releasing them.
* There's no question, I think, that this guy was a spy and defector. He was moved from Russia to the UK with the help of UK intelligence agencies in exchange for Russian secrets. Nobody's trying to claim that he's a "whistleblower". No comment on his actions or motivations vs. Snowden's, but they are potentially substantially different.
* This guy is dead.

Up to you to decide if any of these are substantive differences and why, but there are distinct differences.

Nobody check this

[DNS-and-BIND]

These old KGB archives are very inconvenient. They have a lot of damaging information about people who are still in politics, who cooperated in the past. It's not a good thing for the world to remember that the KGB funded the anti-nuclear movement in Europe, or Greenpeace, or Amnesty International. Let's just let this quietly lay. Fortunately, it's all in Russian and translators are a pain in the ass.

Re:seems like snowden did the exact same thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

How is the parent post Insightful? The only entity Snowden alerted were the American public, if you could say even that. I could be mistaken, but Glen Greenwald was filtering the information and chose to release information pertaining to foreign governments. All Snowden did was flee to other countries because his own was no longer safe for him.

Even if he were responsible for notifying Germany of phone-hacking their heads of state, I still agree with that 100%. History has shown American's apathy will plow through every serious civil issue that doesn't directly interfere with their self-indulgence. Notifying foreign governments is probably the only way to put *real* pressure on the US's craptacular governing bodies, though the court is obviously still out on whether even that makes a difference.

Re:Not anonymously available

[royallthefourth]

Surely you realize that scanning and creating a workable computer index of this material is a huge task

Dead Trees

[Skiboy941]

If I can't download it, then what's the point of this even being posted? Am I really going to have to fly to Britain to read these? Also, It's in Russian. These aren't useful in their current form. "Hi guys! I'm going to leak the TRUTH! But you'll have to be able to know how to read Russian, be in Britain, set up an appointment, and have 2 forms of ID!" Hopefully, some nice person will bother to scan these, just like they did with JD Sallinger's "unreleased" stories.