Happy shipper
On May 5, 1921, a cryptography and encryption service was created in Russia.
In the same year, Einstein received the Nobel Prize “For services to theoretical physics, and especially for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect,” the organization Gosstrakh was created, and Hitler became the chairman of the NSDAP.
')
I asked colleagues from the Hackspace and from the Edison company: “Shannon, Turing, Feistel, Shamir, Schneier, finally. Tell me at least one last name of a Soviet cryptographer? ”It's like asking an ash tree or a troika. Do not give an answer. It seems that the Soviet cryptography was so good that it perfectly encrypted all the information about itself.
I had an attempt to dig up something about Soviet cryptography, I even went to Ankort company (these are the comrades who made a diamond crypto phone and using the MK- 85S Electronics calculator prevented the “Chechen fraud” ), the article was written, but at the last moment the customer srul, and the NDA for a long time buried the article in drafts.
Encryption is in our blood, I invite all readers to share their stories or tips on interesting facts about Soviet cryptography. I will share two personal stories about my first code and about the organization of the first Far Eastern Olympiad on cryptography for schoolchildren.
My first cipher
It would be in the eighth or ninth grade, I already went to the programming circle (KSYUT) and mastered LOGO and BASIC.
The young genius had the idea that it would be necessary to figure out how to defend against the
It took two days to develop a highly secure encryption method, a day to write a cipher, 2 days to write a cipher, and a week to catch bugs.
Only Russian text could be encrypted.
The 30 letters of the Russian alphabet were set in correspondence with the 120 character alphabet (something I was tormented with ASCII).
Each letter is uniquely matched by a 4-character tuple.
"A" - <"q", "g", "p", "d">
"B" - <"w", "x", "y", "z">
and so forth
Which of the 4 characters replaced the original letter, decided to randomize the BASIC (I remember that I had a lot of trouble with it).
What did I know then about frequency analysis? I knew nothing. But I remember how enthusiastic I am about the work done. Then I first woke up in the middle of the night to add the code.
First Olympiad
It was in Vladivostok. Year about 2004/2005. Inspired by the trainings and master classes after the Potanin Olympiad, the 4th year students of FENU decided to exercise their leadership skills.
I came to the band mate and said: "And let's muddle the Olympics." "Nonsense question," he answered. We came up with 10 puzzles, tested on groupmates, invited two more friends to help. The head of the chair Pavel Nikolaevich Kornyushin came (thank you so much for your support), he gave the go-ahead and promised to drive away a bunch of schoolchildren and agree on all administrative matters.
100-150 schoolchildren came to the Olympiad, the Olympiad lasted 4 hours.
The girl won, deciding everything in 1.5-2 hours. She was given a secret diploma with the right to enter without exams for "Computer Security".
Recently, I tried to get the texts of tasks, even sent a request to the department, but they did not find anything there.
(By the way, if you were a participant of this Olympiad - respond. The code word "MOLOFF", you should know what it is.)
There was a funny moment when they hung up gratitude in front of the dean's office. They pointed out the merits of the rector, vice-rector, dean, head of the department, as well as students: "Anton N., Andrei G., Evgeny K. and others." Then I troll all the years for a few years, that I am the very “idr”, so that, according to the Soviet tradition, not to reveal the true organizers.
PS Crumbs of information from the network about Soviet cryptography
“The first to put the cryptographic service on a truly professional basis was Peter the Great. Under him, the cryptographic service was under the direct supervision of Chancellor Golovkin and Vice Chancellor Shafirov. At the same time, they begin to engage not only in encrypting their messages, but also in deciphering others, that is, cryptanalysis appears. Peter's successors continued their introduction to European civilization: under Elizabeth Petrovna, Russia had its own “black offices” - mail postal service. ”
Secret writing as a science .
“ VA Kotelnikov was the founder of Russian and Soviet mathematical cryptography and digital technologies. In 1933 he formulated the“ Kotelnikov theorem ”, in English literature it is called the“ Neyquist – Shannon theorem ”or the“ reading theorem ”."
"The Russian way" in the cryptography of the twentieth century. Part 2 .
Cryptography in the USSR (wiki).
"Deleted" article on GeekGx "Treasury of domestic cryptography . "
“The standard GOST 28147-89 was born presumably in the depths of the Eighth Main Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, now transformed into FAPSI. I happened to talk with people who claimed that in the 70s they participated in projects for creating software and hardware implementations of this cipher for various computer platforms. In those days he had a neck “Owls. Secret “, later the neck was changed to“ Secret ”, then removed altogether. On my copy of the GOST there was only a modest “chipboard” mark. Unfortunately, unlike the standard itself, the history of its creation and the design criteria for the cipher still remain a secret behind seven seals. "
Encryption algorithm GOST 28147-89, its use and implementation for computers platform Intel x86.
UPD
V.N. SEMENOV, Director of Special Communications Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, from archives mid.ru
“ON THE HISTORY OF CREATING A NUMERICAL SERVICE AT THE MFA OF RUSSIA”
On May 5, 1921, a special department of the Cheka-GPU was formed. This date is now considered the beginning of the creation of a cryptographic encryption service of the country.
more about the story
Magazine "DIPLOMATIC BULLETIN"
April 2001
PAGES OF HISTORY
__________________________________________________________________________
ON THE HISTORY OF CREATING A NUMERICAL SERVICE AT THE MFA OF RUSSIA
May 5, 1921 is considered the date of formation of the country's encryption service. However, the roots of its creation go to the distant past.
The emergence in Russia of the first Taynopistse specialists who were in the public service dates back to 1549, the time when the Ambassadorial Order was formed, which provided general guidance for Russia's foreign policy. At the service in the Ambassadorial order there were people who created the codes, or, as they were then called, “numbers”, “numbers” and “alphabets”.
From the seventeenth century, diplomatic correspondence begins to be shipped not only via couriers, but also by mail. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great set up the ambassadorial embassy office in charge of political correspondence. Since 1709 it was called the Ambassadorial Office. It concentrates all the work on encrypting and deciphering Peter's correspondence with his associates, as well as on creating ciphers and recommendations for their use.
After the formation of the College of Foreign Affairs, the first expedition was engaged in the creation and distribution of ciphers.
At the beginning of the 1940s in the 18th century, perusal of correspondence of foreign diplomats was organized in Russia.
With the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1802, three secret expeditions were formed: the first is a digital (encryption) expedition, the second is a digital (decrypted) expedition, and the third is a newspaper (perusal) service. All cryptographic activities, as well as management of the perusal service, were concentrated in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Supervised by this work under the direct supervision of the Minister Office Manager.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a digital committee was organized at the Foreign Ministry, which included the most experienced and qualified cryptographers. The tasks of the committee included: analysis and introduction of new cipher, control over their proper use and storage; deduction from the action of obsolete or compromised ciphers; drawing up conclusions, reports and memoranda for the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the emperor on the activities of the encryption and decryption services. This committee was subordinate to the minister, and was headed by “the main member of the tsifirnom committee”.
As in the 18th century, encrypted correspondence in the 19th century was conducted on political, military, economic, and other major government issues.
In 1828, three secret expeditions of the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were given the name “Department of External Relations”. The directors of secret expeditions worked directly under the direction of Vice-Chancellor KV Nesselrode.
In 1846, the assigned name of the three secret expeditions "Department of External Relations" was replaced by "special office of the Ministry." The expedition managers were directly subordinated to the chancellor on a par with the directors of the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Political correspondence was concentrated in a special office.
In the second half of the XIX century, the cryptographic service was created in the War Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior and ceased to be a privilege of the Foreign Ministry.
The MIF ciphers were divided into secret and unclassified. In addition to them, special purpose codes were also introduced.
Non-secret keys should be used in all cases where the content of the message itself could not be considered secret, but when transmitting it in unencrypted form for some reason did not seem convenient, for example, when it was desirable to avoid premature publicity of the transmitted messages in print, etc.
Special purpose keys were used to communicate with “various government agencies, as well as with private institutions and individuals.”
In 1862, a special (secret) office was merged with the general office.
At the end of the 19th century, there was a cryptographic department with two offices at the office of the minister. In one section, messages from the ministry to ambassadors and consuls abroad were encrypted and messages received from them from abroad were disassembled. In another, the copies of the ciphered telegrams were understood.
During the First World War at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the organization of the entire encryption service, as before, was in charge of the digital committee. In 1915, it included A. Neratov, V. Artsimovich, N. Bazili, K. Taube, E. Fetterline, Y. Colemin, M. Chekmarev,
N. Schilling, I. Fon der Fleet.
In the structure of the NKID in 1917, there were five departments:
- department of relations with the West,
- Department of relations with the East,
- lecture department,
- control department
- typographic department.
The printing department was engaged in the publication of diplomatic documents, and a group of encrypters worked there.
In connection with the further expansion of the activity of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, its structure gradually changed. In December 1917, in the structure of the NKID of the RSFSR, the “encryption and printing department” was already listed.
According to the information compiled on April 29, 1918, an independent Cryptographic Department was already part of the NKID. After the reorganization of the People's Commissariat in August 1918, when the Office of the NKID for Western Affairs was renamed the Department of the West, it included several departments, commissions, as well as a “cryptographic department”.
On September 1, 1920, the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR G.V. Chicherin in his letter to the People's Commissar of Finance N. N. Krestinsky raises the question of sending staff to the People's Commissariat for work in the cryptographic department. “Our cryptographers were previously overloaded with work, and now there is a complete discrepancy between their composition and work ... Increasing the number of our cryptographers is now of primary importance,” wrote G.V. Chicherin.
The documents show that the organization of the encryption work, the acquisition of the cryptographic department by the appropriate employees, the distribution of cipher telegrams, etc., were also the subject of personal correspondence between G. V. Chicherin and V. I. Lenin.
So, in a letter to V. I. Lenin of August 21, 1920
GV Chicherin expressed concern about the possibility of decrypting "our encryption". In particular, he writes that “there was no foreign dispatch that would not be decrypted, and not because of betrayal, but because of the art of Russian decrypters. At the same time, foreign governments have more complex ciphers than we use. ”
V. I .. Lenin imposed the following resolution on the letter of the People's Commissar:
“I propose (1) to change the system immediately,
(2) change the key every day, for example, according to the date of the dispatch or according to the day of the year (1st ... 365 ... day, etc.), etc.
(3) change the system or its details every day (for example, for the letter 5 digits; one system, the first digit is fictitious; the second system is the last digit, fictitious, etc.).
If you change at least weekly (a) a key and (b) such details, then you cannot decipher. Lenin. "
In his letter to V.I. Lenin of September 16, 1920, G.V. Chicherin wrote about the introduction of “precautions on the issue of personnel related to encryption”, and suggested that V.I. Lenin that all employees of the cryptographic department or cryptographers ” were approved by the Organizing Bureau and the Special Department of the Cheka. ” In his opinion, it was especially necessary to carefully select “scooters” that would carry the encryption. In other letters to V.I. Lenin, G.V. Chicherin raised issues such as the rules for sending cipher telegrams, their storage, the protection of the People's Commissariat, especially the protection of the encryption department, for which the People's Commissar proposed to appoint cadets, "as is practiced in the Kremlin."
During this period, the State Commission worked on the issue of “setting up a encryption case in the Republic”. In this connection, G.V. Chicherin, on September 25, 1920, reported to the Council of People's Commissars that “from Monday, Comrade Dove will start working with us, the task of which will be to turn the encryption into official papers for sending them in such completely modified form to ordinary recipients ". At the end of 1920, the NKID developed a “Circular on Ciphers”.
On March 1, 1921, I. M. Michel, the former head of the people's commissar’s office, was appointed head of the encryption part.
On May 5, 1921, the Special Department of the Cheka-GPU was formed. This date is now considered the beginning of the creation of a cryptographic encryption service of the country.
On June 6, 1921, the Council of People’s Commissars approved the regulation on the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Article 11 of this provision defined the tasks facing the Office of the NCID, the most important of which was also the implementation of cryptographic communication.
The leadership of the People's Commissariat constantly paid special attention to the improvement of the activities of this unit. For example, on October 21, 1921, at the meeting of the NKID Board, the question “of measures taken to strengthen the staff and improve the work of the cryptographic department” was considered.
In 1922, the NKID College of the RSFSR considered such issues as the granting by NKID of the right to assign cryptographers, an increase in the rate coefficient for cryptographers, etc.
In the annex to the report of the NKID of the RSFSR to the Congress of Soviets for 1922, the structure of the NKID was cited, according to which the “Encryption Section” was still part of the Administration of the Affairs of the NKID and was called the “Cipher Part”.
In 1923, the Politburo adopted a "program of measures to ensure conspiracy in the NKID." In this regard, in January 1923, the decision of the board of the NCID on the creation of a secret department took place. “For the time being, create a small apparatus with a staff of 11 people,” said the decision of the board. Moreover, it was assumed that this department is organized on administrative and organizational basis, applied to the encryption part of the NKID, and will be connected with it both geographically and personally in the person of one manager.
On July 6, 1923, the second session of the USSR CEC approved the USSR Constitution, in accordance with Articles 49 and 51 of which the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR was formed.
On November 12, 1923, the fourth session of the USSR Central Executive Committee approved a new regulation on the USSR NKID. As a result, the encryption part was called the “encryption and secret part”. She resigned from the Office of Affairs and became a structural part of the secretariat of the board. During this period, there was a reduction in the number of state institutions.
On July 31, 1923, G.V. Chicherin wrote in one of the letters to the relevant authorities: “The cipher part is extremely hard to bear on both the colossal reductions made in our country and terribly low rates ... We must recognize the boundless devotion of those party comrades who in such a difficult situation, however, they are working to the extent of overstrain, suffering an unbearable burden lying on an immensely reduced cipher part. ” In the same letter, G.V. Chicherin reported that the newly appointed member of the Collegium of the NCID of the USSR V.L. Kopp was entrusted with “working on all matters related to the organization of the encryption file in the NCID”.
According to the available report on the work of the 2nd branch of the secret-ciphering section of the NKID of the USSR, done in 1924, it appears that 309,408 was encrypted and 479,299 documents were decrypted.
On January 7, 1925, the commission at the secret-encryption part of the NKID heard a report on the work of the secret part and decided to merge the secret and encryption parts and call the newly created part the “Secret-encryption part of the NKID”. Two months later, on March 7, 1925, the decision was made to liquidate the secret part, and instead of it, a third (secret) branch was established as part of the encryption part, March 9, 1925. The board of the NCID approved this decision.
In the same year, the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs
GV Chicherin again raises the question of recruiting cipher personnel. April 21 and
On May 8, 1925, he turned to the secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.) On this issue: "The lack of personnel in our cipher part is becoming a national danger."
At the end of 1925, the “units” and “departments” that existed in the NKID as “organizational units” were renamed “departments” and “subdivisions”. Thus, the secretariat of the board began to operate on the rights of management, the secret-encryption part was renamed the secret-encryption department, and the three divisions that were part of it were renamed the first, second, and third sub-divisions, respectively.
It should also be noted that the cryptographic department also included the secret archive of the NKID of the USSR. In connection with the constant growth of cases in the archive, the management of the encryption department raised a question before the NKID Board about the allocation of an archive to the new premises, drew attention to the lack of workers who could not only process incoming archive files, but also put the archive’s activities on a scientific basis.
In 1927, instead of a cryptographic department consisting of three sub-departments, a secret-encryption department was organized, consisting of only two sub-departments. The third subdivision was eliminated and a secret archive was created.
In November 1927, the report of the department to the leadership of the NKID on the establishment of secret-cipher work in the organs of the NKID reported on all the activities carried out by the department to improve the formulation of the encryption case in the NKID system and correct existing deficiencies in this area. The report emphasized that “the ruling of the instance in the part relating to the encrypting case was fully implemented”. The report also testifies to the improvement in the production of secret office work in the departments of the People's Commissariat of the USSR. In conclusion, the report stated that “in practice, the unification of secret office work with the encryption in practice was fully justified”.
On February 12, 1930, the administrative committee of the NKID considered the issue of improving the work and changing the structure of the board’s secretariat and decided to separate the secret-encryption department from the secretariat as an independent department, reporting directly to one of the board members. On March 3, 1930, the Collegium of the NKID of the USSR approved this decision of the commission.
In December 1938, in coordination with the secret-ciphering department, secret units were created for conducting secret clerical work in the central apparatus of the USSR NKID, which in certain issues of their activities were to be guided by the instructions of the secret-cipher department of the USSR NKID.
In May 1939, the secret-encryption department of the NKID of the USSR was reorganized. From it was allocated as an independent department - encryption with direct subordination to the Deputy People's Commissar and renamed to the 10th section of the NKID. All functions of the secret-ciphering department, not related to the 10th department, were respectively transferred to the personnel department, case management and political archives. The name of the position “encrypter” was abolished and the job titles adopted in the operational departments of the NKID (responsible referent, senior referent, referent and junior referent) were introduced.
During World War II, women mainly worked as encryptors, since men volunteered for the militia. Almost all of them died defending Moscow. After the war, the department was replenished with signalmen from partisan detachments and demobilized from the army. In 1946, a large group of Foreign Ministry employees, including the 10th Division, were presented with state awards for self-sacrificing labor during the years of the Great Patriotic War.
In March 1946, the NKID was renamed the Foreign Ministry.
In 1989, the 10th Division was transformed into the Office of Communications MFA.
In 1992, the Communications Directorate was incorporated into the established Department of Administrative Issues (DAV) of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In August 1996, the Communications Authority was withdrawn from DAW.
On February 1, 2000, the Communications Department was renamed the Department of Special Communications (DSS).
Over the years, the leaders of the NKID — MFA cryptographic service were N. G. Markin, I. M. Iekhel, V. D. Tsibizov, M. F. Bezukhov, I. V. Klimov,
F. M. Shlyakov, F. M. Ryzhikh, N. S. Zherebtsov, I. I. Lobanov, A. I. Kalinin, Yu. I. Kantsurov.
The whole history of the cipher service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is replete with examples of the feat of arms and the dedicated work of its employees. Dedication is a characteristic of cipher workers of all generations. Under the most varied conditions, they showed and display the best qualities brought up in the good traditions of the special service of the foreign affairs agency of our state.
The staff of the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire and the Russian Federation of the Historical and Documentary Department provided great assistance in the preparation of this material. All - our sincere thanks.
V.N. SEMENOV,
Director, Special Communications Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
April 2001
PAGES OF HISTORY
__________________________________________________________________________
ON THE HISTORY OF CREATING A NUMERICAL SERVICE AT THE MFA OF RUSSIA
May 5, 1921 is considered the date of formation of the country's encryption service. However, the roots of its creation go to the distant past.
The emergence in Russia of the first Taynopistse specialists who were in the public service dates back to 1549, the time when the Ambassadorial Order was formed, which provided general guidance for Russia's foreign policy. At the service in the Ambassadorial order there were people who created the codes, or, as they were then called, “numbers”, “numbers” and “alphabets”.
From the seventeenth century, diplomatic correspondence begins to be shipped not only via couriers, but also by mail. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great set up the ambassadorial embassy office in charge of political correspondence. Since 1709 it was called the Ambassadorial Office. It concentrates all the work on encrypting and deciphering Peter's correspondence with his associates, as well as on creating ciphers and recommendations for their use.
After the formation of the College of Foreign Affairs, the first expedition was engaged in the creation and distribution of ciphers.
At the beginning of the 1940s in the 18th century, perusal of correspondence of foreign diplomats was organized in Russia.
With the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1802, three secret expeditions were formed: the first is a digital (encryption) expedition, the second is a digital (decrypted) expedition, and the third is a newspaper (perusal) service. All cryptographic activities, as well as management of the perusal service, were concentrated in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Supervised by this work under the direct supervision of the Minister Office Manager.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a digital committee was organized at the Foreign Ministry, which included the most experienced and qualified cryptographers. The tasks of the committee included: analysis and introduction of new cipher, control over their proper use and storage; deduction from the action of obsolete or compromised ciphers; drawing up conclusions, reports and memoranda for the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the emperor on the activities of the encryption and decryption services. This committee was subordinate to the minister, and was headed by “the main member of the tsifirnom committee”.
As in the 18th century, encrypted correspondence in the 19th century was conducted on political, military, economic, and other major government issues.
In 1828, three secret expeditions of the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were given the name “Department of External Relations”. The directors of secret expeditions worked directly under the direction of Vice-Chancellor KV Nesselrode.
In 1846, the assigned name of the three secret expeditions "Department of External Relations" was replaced by "special office of the Ministry." The expedition managers were directly subordinated to the chancellor on a par with the directors of the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Political correspondence was concentrated in a special office.
In the second half of the XIX century, the cryptographic service was created in the War Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior and ceased to be a privilege of the Foreign Ministry.
The MIF ciphers were divided into secret and unclassified. In addition to them, special purpose codes were also introduced.
Non-secret keys should be used in all cases where the content of the message itself could not be considered secret, but when transmitting it in unencrypted form for some reason did not seem convenient, for example, when it was desirable to avoid premature publicity of the transmitted messages in print, etc.
Special purpose keys were used to communicate with “various government agencies, as well as with private institutions and individuals.”
In 1862, a special (secret) office was merged with the general office.
At the end of the 19th century, there was a cryptographic department with two offices at the office of the minister. In one section, messages from the ministry to ambassadors and consuls abroad were encrypted and messages received from them from abroad were disassembled. In another, the copies of the ciphered telegrams were understood.
During the First World War at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the organization of the entire encryption service, as before, was in charge of the digital committee. In 1915, it included A. Neratov, V. Artsimovich, N. Bazili, K. Taube, E. Fetterline, Y. Colemin, M. Chekmarev,
N. Schilling, I. Fon der Fleet.
In the structure of the NKID in 1917, there were five departments:
- department of relations with the West,
- Department of relations with the East,
- lecture department,
- control department
- typographic department.
The printing department was engaged in the publication of diplomatic documents, and a group of encrypters worked there.
In connection with the further expansion of the activity of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, its structure gradually changed. In December 1917, in the structure of the NKID of the RSFSR, the “encryption and printing department” was already listed.
According to the information compiled on April 29, 1918, an independent Cryptographic Department was already part of the NKID. After the reorganization of the People's Commissariat in August 1918, when the Office of the NKID for Western Affairs was renamed the Department of the West, it included several departments, commissions, as well as a “cryptographic department”.
On September 1, 1920, the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR G.V. Chicherin in his letter to the People's Commissar of Finance N. N. Krestinsky raises the question of sending staff to the People's Commissariat for work in the cryptographic department. “Our cryptographers were previously overloaded with work, and now there is a complete discrepancy between their composition and work ... Increasing the number of our cryptographers is now of primary importance,” wrote G.V. Chicherin.
The documents show that the organization of the encryption work, the acquisition of the cryptographic department by the appropriate employees, the distribution of cipher telegrams, etc., were also the subject of personal correspondence between G. V. Chicherin and V. I. Lenin.
So, in a letter to V. I. Lenin of August 21, 1920
GV Chicherin expressed concern about the possibility of decrypting "our encryption". In particular, he writes that “there was no foreign dispatch that would not be decrypted, and not because of betrayal, but because of the art of Russian decrypters. At the same time, foreign governments have more complex ciphers than we use. ”
V. I .. Lenin imposed the following resolution on the letter of the People's Commissar:
“I propose (1) to change the system immediately,
(2) change the key every day, for example, according to the date of the dispatch or according to the day of the year (1st ... 365 ... day, etc.), etc.
(3) change the system or its details every day (for example, for the letter 5 digits; one system, the first digit is fictitious; the second system is the last digit, fictitious, etc.).
If you change at least weekly (a) a key and (b) such details, then you cannot decipher. Lenin. "
In his letter to V.I. Lenin of September 16, 1920, G.V. Chicherin wrote about the introduction of “precautions on the issue of personnel related to encryption”, and suggested that V.I. Lenin that all employees of the cryptographic department or cryptographers ” were approved by the Organizing Bureau and the Special Department of the Cheka. ” In his opinion, it was especially necessary to carefully select “scooters” that would carry the encryption. In other letters to V.I. Lenin, G.V. Chicherin raised issues such as the rules for sending cipher telegrams, their storage, the protection of the People's Commissariat, especially the protection of the encryption department, for which the People's Commissar proposed to appoint cadets, "as is practiced in the Kremlin."
During this period, the State Commission worked on the issue of “setting up a encryption case in the Republic”. In this connection, G.V. Chicherin, on September 25, 1920, reported to the Council of People's Commissars that “from Monday, Comrade Dove will start working with us, the task of which will be to turn the encryption into official papers for sending them in such completely modified form to ordinary recipients ". At the end of 1920, the NKID developed a “Circular on Ciphers”.
On March 1, 1921, I. M. Michel, the former head of the people's commissar’s office, was appointed head of the encryption part.
On May 5, 1921, the Special Department of the Cheka-GPU was formed. This date is now considered the beginning of the creation of a cryptographic encryption service of the country.
On June 6, 1921, the Council of People’s Commissars approved the regulation on the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. Article 11 of this provision defined the tasks facing the Office of the NCID, the most important of which was also the implementation of cryptographic communication.
The leadership of the People's Commissariat constantly paid special attention to the improvement of the activities of this unit. For example, on October 21, 1921, at the meeting of the NKID Board, the question “of measures taken to strengthen the staff and improve the work of the cryptographic department” was considered.
In 1922, the NKID College of the RSFSR considered such issues as the granting by NKID of the right to assign cryptographers, an increase in the rate coefficient for cryptographers, etc.
In the annex to the report of the NKID of the RSFSR to the Congress of Soviets for 1922, the structure of the NKID was cited, according to which the “Encryption Section” was still part of the Administration of the Affairs of the NKID and was called the “Cipher Part”.
In 1923, the Politburo adopted a "program of measures to ensure conspiracy in the NKID." In this regard, in January 1923, the decision of the board of the NCID on the creation of a secret department took place. “For the time being, create a small apparatus with a staff of 11 people,” said the decision of the board. Moreover, it was assumed that this department is organized on administrative and organizational basis, applied to the encryption part of the NKID, and will be connected with it both geographically and personally in the person of one manager.
On July 6, 1923, the second session of the USSR CEC approved the USSR Constitution, in accordance with Articles 49 and 51 of which the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR was formed.
On November 12, 1923, the fourth session of the USSR Central Executive Committee approved a new regulation on the USSR NKID. As a result, the encryption part was called the “encryption and secret part”. She resigned from the Office of Affairs and became a structural part of the secretariat of the board. During this period, there was a reduction in the number of state institutions.
On July 31, 1923, G.V. Chicherin wrote in one of the letters to the relevant authorities: “The cipher part is extremely hard to bear on both the colossal reductions made in our country and terribly low rates ... We must recognize the boundless devotion of those party comrades who in such a difficult situation, however, they are working to the extent of overstrain, suffering an unbearable burden lying on an immensely reduced cipher part. ” In the same letter, G.V. Chicherin reported that the newly appointed member of the Collegium of the NCID of the USSR V.L. Kopp was entrusted with “working on all matters related to the organization of the encryption file in the NCID”.
According to the available report on the work of the 2nd branch of the secret-ciphering section of the NKID of the USSR, done in 1924, it appears that 309,408 was encrypted and 479,299 documents were decrypted.
On January 7, 1925, the commission at the secret-encryption part of the NKID heard a report on the work of the secret part and decided to merge the secret and encryption parts and call the newly created part the “Secret-encryption part of the NKID”. Two months later, on March 7, 1925, the decision was made to liquidate the secret part, and instead of it, a third (secret) branch was established as part of the encryption part, March 9, 1925. The board of the NCID approved this decision.
In the same year, the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs
GV Chicherin again raises the question of recruiting cipher personnel. April 21 and
On May 8, 1925, he turned to the secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.) On this issue: "The lack of personnel in our cipher part is becoming a national danger."
At the end of 1925, the “units” and “departments” that existed in the NKID as “organizational units” were renamed “departments” and “subdivisions”. Thus, the secretariat of the board began to operate on the rights of management, the secret-encryption part was renamed the secret-encryption department, and the three divisions that were part of it were renamed the first, second, and third sub-divisions, respectively.
It should also be noted that the cryptographic department also included the secret archive of the NKID of the USSR. In connection with the constant growth of cases in the archive, the management of the encryption department raised a question before the NKID Board about the allocation of an archive to the new premises, drew attention to the lack of workers who could not only process incoming archive files, but also put the archive’s activities on a scientific basis.
In 1927, instead of a cryptographic department consisting of three sub-departments, a secret-encryption department was organized, consisting of only two sub-departments. The third subdivision was eliminated and a secret archive was created.
In November 1927, the report of the department to the leadership of the NKID on the establishment of secret-cipher work in the organs of the NKID reported on all the activities carried out by the department to improve the formulation of the encryption case in the NKID system and correct existing deficiencies in this area. The report emphasized that “the ruling of the instance in the part relating to the encrypting case was fully implemented”. The report also testifies to the improvement in the production of secret office work in the departments of the People's Commissariat of the USSR. In conclusion, the report stated that “in practice, the unification of secret office work with the encryption in practice was fully justified”.
On February 12, 1930, the administrative committee of the NKID considered the issue of improving the work and changing the structure of the board’s secretariat and decided to separate the secret-encryption department from the secretariat as an independent department, reporting directly to one of the board members. On March 3, 1930, the Collegium of the NKID of the USSR approved this decision of the commission.
In December 1938, in coordination with the secret-ciphering department, secret units were created for conducting secret clerical work in the central apparatus of the USSR NKID, which in certain issues of their activities were to be guided by the instructions of the secret-cipher department of the USSR NKID.
In May 1939, the secret-encryption department of the NKID of the USSR was reorganized. From it was allocated as an independent department - encryption with direct subordination to the Deputy People's Commissar and renamed to the 10th section of the NKID. All functions of the secret-ciphering department, not related to the 10th department, were respectively transferred to the personnel department, case management and political archives. The name of the position “encrypter” was abolished and the job titles adopted in the operational departments of the NKID (responsible referent, senior referent, referent and junior referent) were introduced.
During World War II, women mainly worked as encryptors, since men volunteered for the militia. Almost all of them died defending Moscow. After the war, the department was replenished with signalmen from partisan detachments and demobilized from the army. In 1946, a large group of Foreign Ministry employees, including the 10th Division, were presented with state awards for self-sacrificing labor during the years of the Great Patriotic War.
In March 1946, the NKID was renamed the Foreign Ministry.
In 1989, the 10th Division was transformed into the Office of Communications MFA.
In 1992, the Communications Directorate was incorporated into the established Department of Administrative Issues (DAV) of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In August 1996, the Communications Authority was withdrawn from DAW.
On February 1, 2000, the Communications Department was renamed the Department of Special Communications (DSS).
Over the years, the leaders of the NKID — MFA cryptographic service were N. G. Markin, I. M. Iekhel, V. D. Tsibizov, M. F. Bezukhov, I. V. Klimov,
F. M. Shlyakov, F. M. Ryzhikh, N. S. Zherebtsov, I. I. Lobanov, A. I. Kalinin, Yu. I. Kantsurov.
The whole history of the cipher service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is replete with examples of the feat of arms and the dedicated work of its employees. Dedication is a characteristic of cipher workers of all generations. Under the most varied conditions, they showed and display the best qualities brought up in the good traditions of the special service of the foreign affairs agency of our state.
The staff of the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire and the Russian Federation of the Historical and Documentary Department provided great assistance in the preparation of this material. All - our sincere thanks.
V.N. SEMENOV,
Director, Special Communications Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/282854/
All Articles