KGB Archives Reveal Ex-Soviet Spies From Britain, Paper Says

The KGB archives revealing that an 87-year-old British woman was a long-serving Soviet spy also say a former Scotland Yard officer served as a KGB messenger in the 1970s, the Sunday Times reported.

The revelations come from a book being published this month, the newspaper said. The book--”The Mitrokhin Archive” by historian Christopher Andrew--is based on thousands of copies of KGB papers that were brought out of the Soviet Union by Vasili Mitrokhin, an archivist for the Soviet intelligence service, when he defected in 1992.

The Mitrokhin papers reveal that former police officer John Symonds left Britain in 1969 under suspicion of corruption and was recruited by the KGB, the paper reported. It said Symonds gave the Soviets names of police officers he knew to be corrupt and undertook a number of missions as a messenger.

Symonds returned to Britain in 1980, gave himself up and served a two-year sentence on corruption charges, the newspaper said.

The Times, sister newspaper of the Sunday Times, reported Saturday that a British woman, code-named Hola, had given the Soviets information important to the development of their nuclear weapons since the 1930s.

Hola--a.k.a. Melita Norwood--reportedly had access to British atomic secrets through her office job at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Assn., which was involved in metallurgical research associated with the bomb project, the Times said.

The extent of Norwood’s access to British secrets has not been determined, it said.

Norwood, of suburban Bexleyheath, said Saturday that she would do it all again because of her belief in communism.