In 1999, the Moscow office of the Gorbachev Foundation granted access to its vast digital archive to a limited number of vetted Russian history researchers. One of them was Pavel Stroilov. Parts of the archive were password restricted, but Stroilov noticed he could see the password by peeking whenever the office archivist booted the system. He memorized it and for several visits managed to access and secretly copy volumes of folders amounting to 50,000 documents.
Stroilov couldn't believe what he read. The restricted documents were the KGB transcripts of private and secret conversations of Mikhail Gorbachev during his years as leader of the Soviet Union (1985-1992.)
In a recent interview with urban policy magazine City Journal, he said they "tell a completely new story about the end of the Cold War. The 'commonly accepted' version of history of that period consists of myths almost entirely. These documents are capable of ruining each of those myths."
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_2_soviet-archives.html
Stroilov decided the facts had to be available to the public. He emigrated to London knowing he'd be a wanted man in Russia. He was right about that. What he hadn't expected was that no publisher or media outlet in the world was interested in publishing the Gorbachev archives. No library wants to house them or fund their translation. "In fact, he can't get anyone to take much interest in them all."
