May 5, 2016 at 16:26Happy ransomware dayǃ
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 Gosstrakh organization was created, and Hitler became chairman of the NSDAP.
I asked my colleagues from hackspace and Edison : “Shannon, Turing, Feistel, Shamir, Schneier, finally. Tell me at least one surname of the Soviet cryptographer? ” It’s the same as asking an ash tree or a triple. Do not give an answer. Looks like Soviet cryptography was so good that it perfectly encrypted all information about itself.
I had an attempt to unearth something about Soviet cryptography, I even went to the Ancort company (these are the comrades who made a diamond crypto telephone and prevented the “Chechen fraud” using the Electronics MK-85C calculator ), the article was written, but at the last moment the customer taxied, and the NDA buried the draft article for a long time. Encryption is in our blood, I invite all readers today to share their stories or tips on interesting facts of Soviet cryptography. I’ll share two of my personal stories about my first cipher and about the organization of the first Far Eastern cryptography Olympiad for schoolchildren.
My first cipher
It would be in the eighth or ninth grade, I already went to the programming circle (CJCT) and mastered LOGO and BASIC.
The idea came to the head of a young genius that it would be necessary to figure out how to protect themselves from the
It took two days to develop a super-secure encryption method, one day to write an encryptor, 2 days to write an encryptor, and a week to catch bugs.
Only Russian text could be encrypted.
The 30 letters of the Russian alphabet corresponded to the 120 character alphabet (something I messed up with ASCII).
Each letter was uniquely matched by a tuple of 4 characters.
“A” - <“q”, “g”, “p”, “d”>
“b” - <“w”, “x”, “y”, “z”>
, etc.
Which of the 4 characters replaced the original letter was decided by the BASIC randomizer (I remember I suffered with it).
What did I know then about frequency analysis? He didn’t know anything. But I remember how enthusiastic I was about the work done. Then I first woke up in the middle of the night to finish writing the code.
First Olympiad
It was in Vladivostok. The year is approximately 2004/2005. Inspired by the trainings and master classes after the Potanin Olympiad, 4th year students of FENU decided to show their leadership qualities.
I came to a classmate and said: “Let's stir up the Olympics.” “Nonsense is a question,” he answered. We came up with 10 problems, tested on classmates, invited two more friends to help. We came to the head of the department, Pavel Nikolayevich Kornyushin (thank you very much for your support), he gave the go-ahead and promised to drive 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 letter with the right to enter without exams on "Computer Security".
Recently, I tried to get the texts of the assignments, even sent a request to the department, but they did not find anything there.
(By the way, if you were a participant in this Olympiad, please respond. The code word is "MOLOKOFF", you should know what it is.)
There was a funny moment when they hung up gratitude to the dean's office. They noted the merits of the rector, vice-rector, dean, head of the department, as well as students: "Anton N., Andrei G., Eugene K. and others." I then troll all over several years that I’m the very “idr”, so that, according to Soviet tradition, not to reveal the true organizers.
PS Craps of information from the network about Soviet cryptography
“The first to put the encryption 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. Then they begin to deal not only with encrypting their messages, but also decrypting others, that is, cryptanalysis also appears. Peter's successors continued their familiarization with European civilization: under Elizabeth Petrovna, their “black offices” appeared in Russia - the postal service. ”
Cryptography as a science .
" V.A. 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" sampling theorem. "
"Russian Way" in the cryptography of the twentieth century. Part 2 .
Cryptography in the USSR (wiki).
"Remote" article on Geektimes "Treasury of domestic cryptography . "
“The standard GOST 28147-89 was born presumably in the bowels of the eighth main department of the KGB of the USSR, now transformed into the FAPSI. I had a chance to talk with people who claimed that back in the 70s they participated in projects to create software and hardware implementations of this code for various computer platforms. In those days, he had the signature stamp “Owls. secret “, later the signature stamp was changed to“ secret ”, then completely removed. On my copy of GOST there was only a modest mark “Particleboard”. Unfortunately, unlike the standard itself, the history of its creation and the design criteria for the cipher still remain a mystery for seven seals. »
GOST 28147-89 encryption algorithm, its use and implementation for Intel x86 platform computers.
UPD
V. N. SEMENOV, Director of the Special Communication Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the mid.ru archives
“TO THE HISTORY OF CREATING AN ENCRYPTION SERVICE IN THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
On May 5, 1921, a Special Division 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
DIPLOMATIC BULLETIN Magazine
April 2001
HISTORY PAGES
__________________________________________________________________________
TO THE HISTORY OF CREATING AN ENCRYPTION SERVICE IN THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
On May 5, 1921, is considered the date of establishment of the country's encryption service. However, the roots of its creation go back to the distant past.
The appearance in Russia of the first cryptographic specialists who were in the public service dates back to 1549 - the time of the formation of the Ambassadorial Order, which carried out the general management of Russia's foreign policy. In the service in the Ambassadorial order there were people who created ciphers, or, as they were called then, “tsifiri”, “numbers” and “alphabets”.
Since the seventeenth century, diplomatic correspondence begins to be forwarded not only through couriers, but also by mail. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Peter the Great established the Traveling Ambassadorial Chancellery, which was in charge of political correspondence. Since 1709, it has been called the Embassy Chancellery. It is in it that all the work on encrypting and decrypting the correspondence of Peter and his associates is concentrated, 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 40s of the eighteenth century in Russia, there was organized a censorship of the correspondence of foreign diplomats.
With the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1802, three secret expeditions were formed: the first - digital (encryption), the second - digital (decryption) and the third - newspaper (censorship service). All cryptographic activities, as well as the management of the censorship service, were concentrated in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The director of the office supervised this work under the direct supervision of the minister.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a digital committee was organized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which included the most experienced and qualified cryptographers. The tasks of the committee included: analysis and introduction of new ciphers, control over their proper use and storage; Deprecation of obsolete or compromised ciphers; drawing up conclusions, reports and memos 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 digital committee."
As in the eighteenth century, encrypted correspondence in the nineteenth century was conducted on political, military, economic, and other important government issues.
In 1828, the three secret expeditions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were given the name "Department of External Relations." Secret expedition managers worked directly under the direction of Vice Chancellor K.V. Nesselrode.
In 1846, the name given to the three secret expeditions, the Department of External Relations, was replaced by the "special office of the ministry." The expedition managers were directly subordinate to the chancellor along with the directors of the foreign ministry departments.
In a special office, political correspondence was concentrated.
In the second half of the 19th century, the cryptographic service was created in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior and ceased to be a privilege of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Ministry ciphers were divided into secret and unclassified. In addition to them, special-purpose ciphers were introduced.
Unclassified keys should be used in all cases when the message content 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 publication of transmitted messages in print, etc.
Special-purpose keys were used to communicate with “various government institutions, as well as with private institutions and individuals.”
In 1862, a special (secret) chancellery was combined with a common chancellery.
At the end of the 19th century, the minister’s office had an encryption department with two branches. In one department, the ministry’s messages were encrypted to ambassadors and consuls abroad and the messages received from them from abroad were examined. In another, copies of the illustrated cipher telegrams were disassembled.
During the First World War in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 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. Fetterlayn, Yu. Kolemin, M. Chekmarev,
N. Schilling, I. Von der Fleet.
In 1917, there were five departments in the structure of the NKID:
- the department of relations with the West,
- the department of relations with the East,
- the lecture department,
- the control department,
- the printing department.
The printing department was engaged in the publication of diplomatic documents, and a group of cryptographers worked in it.
In connection with the further expansion of the activity of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, its structure gradually changed. In December 1917, the “Encryption and Printing Division” was already listed in the structure of the NKID of the RSFSR.
According to information compiled on April 29, 1918, an independent Encryption Department was already part of the NKID. After the reorganization of the People’s Commissariat in August 1918, when the NKID Office for Western Affairs was renamed the Department of the West, it included several branches, commissions, as well as an “encryption branch”.
On September 1, 1920, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR G.V. Chicherin, in his letter to the People's Commissar of Finance N.N. Krestinsky, raised the question of sending employees to the People's Commissariat for work in the encryption department. “Our cryptographers were previously overloaded with work, and now there is a complete discrepancy between their composition and work ... Increasing the composition of our cryptographers is now a task of paramount importance,” wrote G. Chicherin.
The documents indicate that the organization of cryptographic work, the acquisition of the cryptographic office by appropriate employees, the distribution of cipher telegrams, etc. were also the subject of personal correspondence between G. Chicherin and V. I. Lenin.
So, in a letter to V.I. Lenin of August 21, 1920
G.V. Chicherin expressed concern about the possibility of deciphering "our ciphers." In particular, he writes that “there was no foreign dispatch that could not be deciphered, not due to betrayal, but because of the art of Russian decryptors. Moreover, 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) to change the key every day, for example, according to the date of dispatch or according to the day of the year (1st ... 365 ... day, etc. .), etc.,
(3) change the system or its details every day (e.g. for a letter of 5 digits; one system, the first digit is fictitious; the second system, the last digit is fictitious, etc.).
If you change at least weekly (a) the key and (b) such details, then you can not decrypt. Lenin. ”
In his letter to V. I. Lenin dated September 16, 1920, G. V. Chicherin wrote about the introduction of “precautions on the issue of personnel associated with encryption,” and suggested that V. I. Lenin should all employees of the encryption department or cryptographers ” were approved by the Organizing Bureau and the Special Division of the Cheka. ” In his opinion, it was especially necessary to carefully select “scooters” that would carry encryption. In other letters to V.I. Lenin, G.V. Chicherin raised issues such as the rules for sending cipher telegrams, their storage, guarding the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, especially the protection of the encryption department, for which the People's Commissar suggested appointing cadets, "as is the practice in the Kremlin."
During this period, the State Commission worked on the issue of “setting up an encryption case in the Republic”. In this regard, G.V. Chicherin on September 25, 1920 reported to the Council of People's Commissars that “comrade Pigeon will begin working on Monday, the task of which will be to turn ciphers into official papers for sending them in such a completely changed form to ordinary recipients " At the end of 1920, the NKID developed the “Cipher Circular”.
On March 1, 1921, I. M. Mikhel, the former head of the People’s Chancellery, was appointed the head of the encryption unit.
On May 5, 1921, a Special Division 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 NKID, the most important of which was also the implementation of encryption communications.
The leadership of the People’s Commissariat constantly paid special attention to the establishment of the activities of this unit. For example, on October 21, 1921, at a meeting of the Board of the NKID, the question “on measures taken to strengthen staff and improve the work of the encryption department” was considered.
In 1922, the Board of the NKID of the RSFSR examined such issues as the provision of the NKID with the right to appoint cryptographers, increasing the rate coefficient for cryptographers, etc.
In the appendix to the report of the NKID of the RSFSR to the Congress of Soviets for 1922, the structure of the NKID was given, according to which the "Encryption branch" was still part of the Office of the affairs of the NKID and was called the "Encryption 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 NKID board on the creation of a secret department took place. “So far, to create a small apparatus with a staff of 11 people,” the board said. Moreover, it was assumed that this department is organized on the basis of administrative and organizational principles applicable to the encryption part of the NKID, and will be associated with it both territorially and personally in the person of one head.
On July 6, 1923, the second session of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR approved the Constitution of the USSR, 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 Central Executive Committee of the USSR approved a new provision on the USSR NKID. As a result, the encryption part was called the “encryption and secret part”. She left the Office of Affairs and became a structural part of the secretariat of the board. During this period, there was a reduction in the state institutions.
In a letter to the relevant authorities on July 31, 1923, G. V. Chicherin wrote: “The enormous reductions made by us as well as the terribly low rates are extremely difficult for the cipher ... We must recognize the unlimited devotion of those party comrades who in such a difficult environment, they work until exhaustion, transferring an unbearable burden lying on an immensely reduced cipher unit. " In the same letter, G. V. Chicherin informed that V. L. Kopp, the newly appointed member of the Board of the USSR NKID, was instructed to “work on all issues of organizing an encryption case in the NKID”.
According to the available summary of the work of the 2nd branch of the secret-encryption part of the NKID of the USSR in 1924, it appears that 309,408 were encrypted and 479,299 documents were decrypted.
On January 7, 1925, the commission attached to 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 name the newly created part the "Secret-encryption part of the NKID." Two months later, on March 7, 1925, a decision was made to liquidate the secret part, and instead of it, a secret department was established as part of the encryption part III, on March 9, 1925, the NKID Board approved this decision.
In the same year, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR
G.V. Chicherin again raised the issue of replenishing cryptographic personnel. On April 21 and
May 8, 1925, he appealed to the secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.) On this issue: "The insufficient personnel of our cipher unit is already becoming a state danger."
At the end of 1925, the “units” and “branches” that existed in the NKID as “organizational units” were renamed into “departments” and “sub-departments”. Thus, the secretariat of the collegium began to function as a manager, the secret-encryption part was renamed the secret-encryption department, and the three departments that were part of it were, respectively, renamed the first, second and third subdivisions.
It should also be noted that the cryptographic department also included the secret archive of the USSR NKID. In connection with the constant growth of cases in the archive, the management of the encryption department asked the NKID Board about the allocation of a new room for the archive, drew attention to the lack of workers who could not only handle incoming archive files, but also put the archive's activities on a scientific basis.
In 1927, instead of the encryption department, which consisted of three sub-departments, a secret-encryption department was organized, consisting of only two sub-departments. The third subdivision was liquidated and a secret archive was created.
In November 1927, in a report of the department to the leadership of the NKID on the establishment of secret cryptographic work in the bodies of the NKID, all the activities carried out by the department in improving the setting of the encryption case in the NKID system and correcting the existing shortcomings in this area were reported. The report emphasized that “the decision of the court regarding cipher-keeping was fully implemented”. The report also indicates an improvement in the setting of secret clerical work in the departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR. In conclusion of the report, it was pointed out that “the combination of secret records management with encryption in practice has fully justified itself.”
On February 12, 1930, the NKID administrative commission considered the issue of improving the work and changing the structure of the collegiate secretariat and decided to allocate the secret-encryption department from the secretariat as an independent department directly subordinate to one of the collegium members. On March 3, 1930, the Board of the NKID of the USSR approved this decision of the commission.
In December 1938, in agreement with the secret-encryption department for conducting secret office work, secret units were created in the central office of the USSR NKID, which in certain matters of their activities should be guided by the instructions of the secret-encryption department of the NKID of the USSR.
In May 1939, the secret-encryption department of the USSR People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was reorganized. It was isolated from it as an independent department - the encryption department with direct subordination to the deputy people's commissar and renamed the 10th department of the People’s Congress. All functions of the secret-encryption department, not related to the 10th department, were respectively transferred to the personnel department, business administration and the political archive. The name of the post “cryptographer” was abolished and the official names adopted in the operational departments of the NKID were introduced (responsible referent, senior referent, referent and ml. Referent).
During the Great Patriotic War, women mainly worked as cryptographers, as men volunteered to join the militia. Almost all of them died defending Moscow. After the war ended, the department was replenished with signalmen from partisan detachments and demobilized from the army. In 1946, a large group of employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the 10th department, were awarded state awards for their dedicated work during the Great Patriotic War.
In March 1946, the NKID was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1989, the 10th department was transformed into the Communications Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1992, the Communications Directorate was included in the newly created Department of Administrative Affairs (DAV) of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In August 1996, the Communications Department was withdrawn from the DAV.
On February 1, 2000, the Communications Department was renamed the Special Communications Department (DSS).
Over the years, the leaders of the NKID-MFA encryption 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 entire history of the cryptographic service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is replete with examples of the feat of arms and the dedicated work of its employees. Loyalty to their work is a characteristic feature of cipher workers of all generations. In the most diverse conditions, they showed and are showing the best qualities, brought up on the good traditions of the special service of the foreign ministry of our state.
The staff of the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire and the Russian Federation of the Historical and Documentary Department greatly assisted in the preparation of this material. To all - our sincere gratitude.
V. N. SEMENOV,
Director of the Special Communication Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
April 2001
HISTORY PAGES
__________________________________________________________________________
TO THE HISTORY OF CREATING AN ENCRYPTION SERVICE IN THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
On May 5, 1921, is considered the date of establishment of the country's encryption service. However, the roots of its creation go back to the distant past.
The appearance in Russia of the first cryptographic specialists who were in the public service dates back to 1549 - the time of the formation of the Ambassadorial Order, which carried out the general management of Russia's foreign policy. In the service in the Ambassadorial order there were people who created ciphers, or, as they were called then, “tsifiri”, “numbers” and “alphabets”.
Since the seventeenth century, diplomatic correspondence begins to be forwarded not only through couriers, but also by mail. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Peter the Great established the Traveling Ambassadorial Chancellery, which was in charge of political correspondence. Since 1709, it has been called the Embassy Chancellery. It is in it that all the work on encrypting and decrypting the correspondence of Peter and his associates is concentrated, 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 40s of the eighteenth century in Russia, there was organized a censorship of the correspondence of foreign diplomats.
With the creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1802, three secret expeditions were formed: the first - digital (encryption), the second - digital (decryption) and the third - newspaper (censorship service). All cryptographic activities, as well as the management of the censorship service, were concentrated in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The director of the office supervised this work under the direct supervision of the minister.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a digital committee was organized at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which included the most experienced and qualified cryptographers. The tasks of the committee included: analysis and introduction of new ciphers, control over their proper use and storage; Deprecation of obsolete or compromised ciphers; drawing up conclusions, reports and memos 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 digital committee."
As in the eighteenth century, encrypted correspondence in the nineteenth century was conducted on political, military, economic, and other important government issues.
In 1828, the three secret expeditions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were given the name "Department of External Relations." Secret expedition managers worked directly under the direction of Vice Chancellor K.V. Nesselrode.
In 1846, the name given to the three secret expeditions, the Department of External Relations, was replaced by the "special office of the ministry." The expedition managers were directly subordinate to the chancellor along with the directors of the foreign ministry departments.
In a special office, political correspondence was concentrated.
In the second half of the 19th century, the cryptographic service was created in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior and ceased to be a privilege of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Ministry ciphers were divided into secret and unclassified. In addition to them, special-purpose ciphers were introduced.
Unclassified keys should be used in all cases when the message content 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 publication of transmitted messages in print, etc.
Special-purpose keys were used to communicate with “various government institutions, as well as with private institutions and individuals.”
In 1862, a special (secret) chancellery was combined with a common chancellery.
At the end of the 19th century, the minister’s office had an encryption department with two branches. In one department, the ministry’s messages were encrypted to ambassadors and consuls abroad and the messages received from them from abroad were examined. In another, copies of the illustrated cipher telegrams were disassembled.
During the First World War in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 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. Fetterlayn, Yu. Kolemin, M. Chekmarev,
N. Schilling, I. Von der Fleet.
In 1917, there were five departments in the structure of the NKID:
- the department of relations with the West,
- the department of relations with the East,
- the lecture department,
- the control department,
- the printing department.
The printing department was engaged in the publication of diplomatic documents, and a group of cryptographers worked in it.
In connection with the further expansion of the activity of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, its structure gradually changed. In December 1917, the “Encryption and Printing Division” was already listed in the structure of the NKID of the RSFSR.
According to information compiled on April 29, 1918, an independent Encryption Department was already part of the NKID. After the reorganization of the People’s Commissariat in August 1918, when the NKID Office for Western Affairs was renamed the Department of the West, it included several branches, commissions, as well as an “encryption branch”.
On September 1, 1920, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR G.V. Chicherin, in his letter to the People's Commissar of Finance N.N. Krestinsky, raised the question of sending employees to the People's Commissariat for work in the encryption department. “Our cryptographers were previously overloaded with work, and now there is a complete discrepancy between their composition and work ... Increasing the composition of our cryptographers is now a task of paramount importance,” wrote G. Chicherin.
The documents indicate that the organization of cryptographic work, the acquisition of the cryptographic office by appropriate employees, the distribution of cipher telegrams, etc. were also the subject of personal correspondence between G. Chicherin and V. I. Lenin.
So, in a letter to V.I. Lenin of August 21, 1920
G.V. Chicherin expressed concern about the possibility of deciphering "our ciphers." In particular, he writes that “there was no foreign dispatch that could not be deciphered, not due to betrayal, but because of the art of Russian decryptors. Moreover, 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) to change the key every day, for example, according to the date of dispatch or according to the day of the year (1st ... 365 ... day, etc. .), etc.,
(3) change the system or its details every day (e.g. for a letter of 5 digits; one system, the first digit is fictitious; the second system, the last digit is fictitious, etc.).
If you change at least weekly (a) the key and (b) such details, then you can not decrypt. Lenin. ”
In his letter to V. I. Lenin dated September 16, 1920, G. V. Chicherin wrote about the introduction of “precautions on the issue of personnel associated with encryption,” and suggested that V. I. Lenin should all employees of the encryption department or cryptographers ” were approved by the Organizing Bureau and the Special Division of the Cheka. ” In his opinion, it was especially necessary to carefully select “scooters” that would carry encryption. In other letters to V.I. Lenin, G.V. Chicherin raised issues such as the rules for sending cipher telegrams, their storage, guarding the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, especially the protection of the encryption department, for which the People's Commissar suggested appointing cadets, "as is the practice in the Kremlin."
During this period, the State Commission worked on the issue of “setting up an encryption case in the Republic”. In this regard, G.V. Chicherin on September 25, 1920 reported to the Council of People's Commissars that “comrade Pigeon will begin working on Monday, the task of which will be to turn ciphers into official papers for sending them in such a completely changed form to ordinary recipients " At the end of 1920, the NKID developed the “Cipher Circular”.
On March 1, 1921, I. M. Mikhel, the former head of the People’s Chancellery, was appointed the head of the encryption unit.
On May 5, 1921, a Special Division 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 NKID, the most important of which was also the implementation of encryption communications.
The leadership of the People’s Commissariat constantly paid special attention to the establishment of the activities of this unit. For example, on October 21, 1921, at a meeting of the Board of the NKID, the question “on measures taken to strengthen staff and improve the work of the encryption department” was considered.
In 1922, the Board of the NKID of the RSFSR examined such issues as the provision of the NKID with the right to appoint cryptographers, increasing the rate coefficient for cryptographers, etc.
In the appendix to the report of the NKID of the RSFSR to the Congress of Soviets for 1922, the structure of the NKID was given, according to which the "Encryption branch" was still part of the Office of the affairs of the NKID and was called the "Encryption 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 NKID board on the creation of a secret department took place. “So far, to create a small apparatus with a staff of 11 people,” the board said. Moreover, it was assumed that this department is organized on the basis of administrative and organizational principles applicable to the encryption part of the NKID, and will be associated with it both territorially and personally in the person of one head.
On July 6, 1923, the second session of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR approved the Constitution of the USSR, 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 Central Executive Committee of the USSR approved a new provision on the USSR NKID. As a result, the encryption part was called the “encryption and secret part”. She left the Office of Affairs and became a structural part of the secretariat of the board. During this period, there was a reduction in the state institutions.
In a letter to the relevant authorities on July 31, 1923, G. V. Chicherin wrote: “The enormous reductions made by us as well as the terribly low rates are extremely difficult for the cipher ... We must recognize the unlimited devotion of those party comrades who in such a difficult environment, they work until exhaustion, transferring an unbearable burden lying on an immensely reduced cipher unit. " In the same letter, G. V. Chicherin informed that V. L. Kopp, the newly appointed member of the Board of the USSR NKID, was instructed to “work on all issues of organizing an encryption case in the NKID”.
According to the available summary of the work of the 2nd branch of the secret-encryption part of the NKID of the USSR in 1924, it appears that 309,408 were encrypted and 479,299 documents were decrypted.
On January 7, 1925, the commission attached to 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 name the newly created part the "Secret-encryption part of the NKID." Two months later, on March 7, 1925, a decision was made to liquidate the secret part, and instead of it, a secret department was established as part of the encryption part III, on March 9, 1925, the NKID Board approved this decision.
In the same year, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR
G.V. Chicherin again raised the issue of replenishing cryptographic personnel. On April 21 and
May 8, 1925, he appealed to the secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.) On this issue: "The insufficient personnel of our cipher unit is already becoming a state danger."
At the end of 1925, the “units” and “branches” that existed in the NKID as “organizational units” were renamed into “departments” and “sub-departments”. Thus, the secretariat of the collegium began to function as a manager, the secret-encryption part was renamed the secret-encryption department, and the three departments that were part of it were, respectively, renamed the first, second and third subdivisions.
It should also be noted that the cryptographic department also included the secret archive of the USSR NKID. In connection with the constant growth of cases in the archive, the management of the encryption department asked the NKID Board about the allocation of a new room for the archive, drew attention to the lack of workers who could not only handle incoming archive files, but also put the archive's activities on a scientific basis.
In 1927, instead of the encryption department, which consisted of three sub-departments, a secret-encryption department was organized, consisting of only two sub-departments. The third subdivision was liquidated and a secret archive was created.
In November 1927, in a report of the department to the leadership of the NKID on the establishment of secret cryptographic work in the bodies of the NKID, all the activities carried out by the department in improving the setting of the encryption case in the NKID system and correcting the existing shortcomings in this area were reported. The report emphasized that “the decision of the court regarding cipher-keeping was fully implemented”. The report also indicates an improvement in the setting of secret clerical work in the departments of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR. In conclusion of the report, it was pointed out that “the combination of secret records management with encryption in practice has fully justified itself.”
On February 12, 1930, the NKID administrative commission considered the issue of improving the work and changing the structure of the collegiate secretariat and decided to allocate the secret-encryption department from the secretariat as an independent department directly subordinate to one of the collegium members. On March 3, 1930, the Board of the NKID of the USSR approved this decision of the commission.
In December 1938, in agreement with the secret-encryption department for conducting secret office work, secret units were created in the central office of the USSR NKID, which in certain matters of their activities should be guided by the instructions of the secret-encryption department of the NKID of the USSR.
In May 1939, the secret-encryption department of the USSR People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs was reorganized. It was isolated from it as an independent department - the encryption department with direct subordination to the deputy people's commissar and renamed the 10th department of the People’s Congress. All functions of the secret-encryption department, not related to the 10th department, were respectively transferred to the personnel department, business administration and the political archive. The name of the post “cryptographer” was abolished and the official names adopted in the operational departments of the NKID were introduced (responsible referent, senior referent, referent and ml. Referent).
During the Great Patriotic War, women mainly worked as cryptographers, as men volunteered to join the militia. Almost all of them died defending Moscow. After the war ended, the department was replenished with signalmen from partisan detachments and demobilized from the army. In 1946, a large group of employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the 10th department, were awarded state awards for their dedicated work during the Great Patriotic War.
In March 1946, the NKID was renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1989, the 10th department was transformed into the Communications Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1992, the Communications Directorate was included in the newly created Department of Administrative Affairs (DAV) of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In August 1996, the Communications Department was withdrawn from the DAV.
On February 1, 2000, the Communications Department was renamed the Special Communications Department (DSS).
Over the years, the leaders of the NKID-MFA encryption 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 entire history of the cryptographic service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is replete with examples of the feat of arms and the dedicated work of its employees. Loyalty to their work is a characteristic feature of cipher workers of all generations. In the most diverse conditions, they showed and are showing the best qualities, brought up on the good traditions of the special service of the foreign ministry of our state.
The staff of the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire and the Russian Federation of the Historical and Documentary Department greatly assisted in the preparation of this material. To all - our sincere gratitude.
V. N. SEMENOV,
Director of the Special Communication Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs