Russian and Soviet cryptology: I--some communications intelligence in Tsarist Russia

isGeorge von Lengerke Meyer served as U. S. Ambassador to Russia from 8 March 1905 to 26 January 1907. He later served as U. S. Postmaster General (1907-09) and Secretary of the Navy (1909-1913).

l4Cited in "The Revolution of 1905-06 in the Reports of Foreign Diplomats" by M. G. Fleer in Krnsnyj Arkhiv (Red Archive), Moscow, Vol 3 (16), 1926, p. 220. The Portsmouth Peace Conference (August-September 1905) which took place at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation efforts at the conference.

15 See also Kahn, "Soviet Comint in the Cold War," 14-15.

16From Peresykpin, op. cit., p. 56.

17pereypkin, op. cit., p. 57. The existence of Russian Army COMINT liaison with the COMINT services of Great Britain and France has not heretofore been acknowledged in any western publication concerning Allied COMINT activities in World War I.

18Peresypldn, op. cit., p. 57 and Ocherki Vneshej Politiki Rossii: 1914-1917. (Studies of Russian Foreign Policy 1914-1917) by V. A. Emeta, Moscow: Nauka Izdat, 1977, p. 165, footnote 441.

19Batyushin, General-Major N., Tajnaya Voennaya Razvedka i Bor'ba a Nej (Secret Military Intelligence and Combat with It), Sofia: Nov'Zhivot Press, 1939, p. 73. See also General Batyushin's articles "Cryptography in World War I," Ratnik, (Soldier), Belgrade, June-July 1928, and "Radiotelegraphic Intelligence," Vestnik Voennykh Znanj (Herald of Military Knowledge), Bosnia (Yugoslavia), January-March 1931.

aaNepenin is discussed in more detail in a forthcoming article. zlDudorov, op. cit., July 1958, p. 39.

aaAording to Dudorov, op. cit., December 1958, pp. 17-22, Nepenin's chief assistants included Mikhail Platonovich Davydov, who was in charge of all critical analysis and intelligence reporting based on all-source data received by the Communications Service resources; V. P. Orlov, who as chief engineering officer was in charge of all engineering and mechanical support to the Communications services; Anatolij Kovafakij, who was in charge of the central radio station (CRS) at Revel and later chief of the Southern Region of the Communications Service; and B. P. Dudorov, who set up and operated the first aerial reconnaissance wing of the Communications Service.

Z3Dudorov, op. cit., December 1958, p. 38. 24pavlovich, op. cit., Vol 1, p. 79.

25An article on this is scheduled for a future issue of Cryptologia.

2sIn Ivanovich Rengarten, a leader in Russian radiotelegraphy and RDF, had set up two RDF stations by September 1914; One on Osel (now Saarema) Island and one at Libau. See Dudorov, op. `cit., March 1960, pp. 50-51, and "On Radio Communications in the Navy" by I. I. Rengarten, Morskoj Sbornik (Naval Collection), Moscow, Jan-Mar 1920, pp. 32-33.

27Even the official Soviet history of the Navy in World War I (Pavlovich) does not credit the Black Sea Fleet with any substantial intelligence activity.

2Steblin-Kamenskij, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich, "Mine Warfare in the Black Sea" La Revue Maritime (Naval Revue), Paris, Nov 1932, p. 620.