Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB clerk, defied the Soviet security state by secretly archiving its documents, revealing its corruption and contributing to its collapse. Gordon Corera's biography, 'The Spy in the Archive,' details Mitrokhin's perspective on the USSR's paranoia, state terror, and the KGB's role in degrading civil society. The book highlights how fear fueled the Soviet Union's decline and its lingering impact on modern Russia.