Vasili Mitrokhin was born in central Russia in 1922. He began his career as an intelligence officer in 1948 working for the Committee of Information--the temporarily combined MGB (future KGB) and GRU (Soviet military intelligence).<ref>{{hnb|Andrew & Mitronkhin|1999|Ref=CITEREFAndrewMitrokhin1999|p=1}}</ref> His first five years in intelligence were during the final paranoid years of Stalin's dictatorship, when intelligence agencies were commanded to conduct investigations against usually imaginary Titoist and Zionist conspiracies. <ref>{{hnb|Andrew & Mitronkhin|1999|Ref=CITEREFAndrewMitrokhin1999|p=1-2}}</ref> | Vasili Mitrokhin was born in central Russia in 1922. He began his career as an intelligence officer in 1948 working for the Committee of Information--the temporarily combined MGB (future KGB) and GRU (Soviet military intelligence).<ref>{{hnb|Andrew & Mitronkhin|1999|Ref=CITEREFAndrewMitrokhin1999|p=1}}</ref> His first five years in intelligence were during the final paranoid years of Stalin's dictatorship, when intelligence agencies were commanded to conduct investigations against usually imaginary Titoist and Zionist conspiracies. <ref>{{hnb|Andrew & Mitronkhin|1999|Ref=CITEREFAndrewMitrokhin1999|p=1-2}}</ref> |