How to listen to Soviet citizens. A bit of history and modern realities

Quite a lot is known about how the security services worked in the USSR, although not all of them. Nevertheless, it is reliably known that in the USSR there was a system for listening to telephones. This system was quite extensive, auditioned many, writes Cnews. But how effective was it all?

Answers are given to a question in the Red Web book recently published in the USA. Of course, it is necessary to treat this kind of literature with a certain degree of caution, but the book was prepared not by amateurs, but by Russian journalists who are familiar with the subject matter.

Who and how to audition?

Listening involved in the 12th Division of the KGB of the USSR. In the capital, Moscow, there were more than 160 listening points. Such points were located on the PBX (whole rooms were allocated for equipment and people), in some KGB buildings and in the central listening center, which was located on Warsaw highway.
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Different listening points specialized in different objects. Some “listened” to the embassies of foreign states, some ordinary citizens, there were still points that listened to officials of the highest rank. It was forbidden to listen only to the top leadership of the Communist Party of the country. The initiator of the introduction of such a system into work was Yuri Andropov.

Things were not so good with automatics at that time, so operators, mostly women, worked at the points. They listened to telephone conversations, and recorded some on tape, some conversations and stenographed messages. Each operator, as indicated in the book, had to recognize at least 50 different voices.



For their work, the operators received about 300 Soviet rubles - if someone does not remember, it was a very significant amount, since the average salary was 150-180 rubles.

The operators were controlled by representatives of the KGB, basically women too. Their duty was to enforce the rules.

How effective was all this?

Very inefficient, since the system had practically no common center. The problem, moreover, was heterogeneous PBX, some of which were created in the 30s of the 20th century. As a result, no more than 300 conversations were simultaneously tapped. It took about 7 hours to decode the hour of negotiations.

What about others?

A similar system was developed and implemented in the GDR. Only she was much more perfect. This system began work in the mid-50s of the last century, and in the 80s it was significantly modernized. Called a modernized variation of such a system Ceko-2.

It was centralized, and about 70% of all intercepted conversations passed through the central station. At the same time intelligence is able to listen to more than 400 thousand conversations. The total number of phones in the GDR at that time was 8 million. In general, several hundred thousand people were talking at the same time, so the system could listen to almost everything.

International negotiations

During the 1980 Olympics, the international telephone station M-9 was put into operation with 1.6 thousand international automatic telephone lines. The KGB was initially against such a station, but the engineers were able to find a solution that allowed counterintelligence agents to listen in on all channels, and the department calmed down.

Although not for long - already in the 81st year, it was decided to reduce the number of international telephone lines from 1.6 thousand to 100.

The ban on the introduction of automatic international telephone lines was lifted only after the collapse of the USSR.

What now?

Now in the Russian Federation there is a “system of technical means for ensuring the functions of operational search activities” ( SORM ). At the same time, “technical means” work not only to listen to telephone conversations, but also to analyze the traffic of domestic providers. Until 2013, there were no official requirements for equipment for conducting SORM with respect to Internet providers. Earlier, a few years ago, equipment requirements for conducting SORM with regard to telephone and radio telephone operators were introduced. In 2013, the requirements for equipment and for Internet providers were formulated . These requirements are collected in Part III of the Order.

This document specifies the requirements for hardware and software, the requirements that are necessary for the conduct of SORM (for providers this is SORM-2). Among other things, this project also contains a list of Internet services that are subject to control by SORM. These services include the well-known mail.ru; yandex.ru; rambler.ru; gmail.com; yahoo.com apport.ru; rupochta.ru hotbox.ru, ICQ and some other services.

“Failure to comply with this requirement may entail the imposition on the communication operator of an administrative penalty for non-compliance with the licensing conditions under Art. 14.1. Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, since one of the license conditions of most communication licenses is the implementation of requirements for networks and communication facilities when conducting operational search activities. Failure to comply with these requirements may also entail a decision by the licensing authority - Roskomnadzor - to suspend the license issued to the operator, as well as to cancel this license, ”the same Order says.

This year, postal services of the Russian Federation were obliged to deliver SORM. The corresponding instruction is contained in the order of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Communications “On approving the requirements for the equipment for automated mail sorting, which ensures that the specified actions are carried out when carrying out operational search activities”. Installation of the relevant system must be performed by companies within a year from the moment the order enters into force. “The commissioning of technical equipment in the network of a telecom operator is carried out in accordance with the plan of measures for the introduction of technical equipment developed by the Federal Security Service Agency, which specifies, in particular, the term for their commissioning. The plan is developed up to three months from the date of submission of the statement to the body of the Federal Security Service by the telecom operator, ”the process of installing the system is commented in the press service of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Post of Russia.

Means for installing SORM and providers, and the postal service should look for their own.