Mikhail Vasilyevich Gorshkov

In mid-January 1947, SIS briefly referenced an MGB lieutenant named Mikhail Vasilyevich Gorshkov, who defected probably in late 1946 and wrote an essay for SIS about the MGB. Kim Philby, who was in charge of the SIS’s Russia section, signed a transmittal memo forwarding the essay to MI5, although the essay itself is not available. Unfortunately for Gorshkov, the British handed him back to the Soviets as a deserter and nothing further is known of him, although he was likely executed.[i]

[i] MI6 memo, 16 January 1947, TNA, KV 5/105, serial 3a.