Venona


The U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, the precursor to the National Security Agency, began a secret program in February 1943 later codenamed VENONA

The mission of this small program was to examine and exploit Soviet diplomatic communications but after the program began, the message traffic included espionage efforts as well.

Although it took almost two years before American cryptologists were able to break the KGB encryption, the information gained through these transactions provided U.S. leadership insight into Soviet intentions and treasonous activities of government employees until the program was canceled in 1980.

The VENONA files are most famous for exposing Julius (code named LIBERAL) and Ethel Rosenberg and help give indisputable evidence of their involvement with the Soviet spy ring.

The first of six public releases of translated VENONA messages was made in July 1995 and included 49 messages about the Soviets' efforts to gain information on the U.S. atomic bomb research and the Manhattan Project. Over the course of five more releases, all of the approximately 3,000 VENONA translations were made public.

ImageTitle
 27MAY_ASSIGNMENT_FOR_ARTUR.PDF2nd Reissue: Assignments for "ARTUR," "KhULIO," "ALEKSANDR," "ERNESTO," and "YaN" 27 May (Release 5)
 15JUL_BIOGRAPHICAL_DETAILS_MAZUR.PDF2nd Reissue: Biographical details of "MAZUR" 15 July (Release 5)
 26JAN_DEFEATIST_OPTINIONS.PDF2nd Reissue: Defeatist opinions of DVORETsKIJ and mention of Soviet Trade Delegation members connected with "MILITARY NEIGHBOURS" in England
 17DEC_REISSUE_FINANCE.PDF2nd Reissue: Financial estimates for the first quarter of 1944 17 December 1943 (Release 5)
 20JAN_GERMAN_APPEAL_TO_SWEDISH.PDF2nd Reissue: German appeal to Swedish trade unions about transit traffic
 14DEC_REISSUE_ABRAM.PDF2nd Reissue: Information from "ABRAM" and "TERENTIJ" 14 December 1943 (Release 5)
 10JAN_ARKADIJ_POLYARNIK.PDF2nd Reissue: Information from "ARKADIJ" and "POLYaRNIK" on the political situation in Finland 10 January 1942 (Release 5)
 27NOV_GUNNAR.PDF2nd Reissue: Reference to GUNNAR, "D" GROUP(S) SAFE FLATS
 10MAY_ACHIEVEMENT1.PDF2nd Reissue: Reply on whereabouts of "ACHIEVEMENT" case
 11OCT_INSURANCE_OFFICE.PDF2nd Reissue: Use of insurance office as legalisational base: STRAKhOVShchIK, HALFORD 11 October (Release 5)
 12NOV_REISSUE_DRUGS.PDF2nd Reissue; "DRUG'S" Letter to the Soviet Minister; Dankwort and Dmitrievskij;Letter passed to Semenov and to Nkid 12 November 1943 (Release 5)
 30JAN_TECHNICIAN.PDF30JAN_TECHNICIAN.PDF
 31MAR_SECURITY_INSTRUCTION.PDF31MAR_SECURITY_INSTRUCTION.PDF
 12MAR_LENA_PER.PDF3rd Re-issue- 1. Release of LENA and PER 2. LENA's departure for London and future employment (A more complete version of British Government-excised messages previously released in fifth VENONA release on 1 Oct 1996) 12 March 1943 (Release 6)
 8APR_BRANDO.PDF3rd Reissue- BRANDO (A more complete version of British Government-excised messages previously released in fifth venona release on 1 Oct 1996) 8 April 1942 (Release 6)
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