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
 12JUN_POLISH.PDFARTUR reports on Polish individuals including ROLAND 12 June 1943 (Release 2)
 12JUN_NATIONALS.PDFARTUR reports on various French and Italian nationals 12 June 1943 (Release 2)
 27JUN_ARTUR.PDFARTUR's work in South America 27 June 1943 (Release 2)
 16FEB_ASHBY.PDFASHBY's visit to the Soviet Union
 17JAN_ASSESS_MICHAEL_LESHING.PDFAssessment of Michael Leshing, head of 20th Century Fox film laboratory and of his friend Sam Goldblat.
 29MAY_KGB_OFFICERS_5TH_LINE.PDFAssignments of KGB officers of the 5th Line (security of merchant fleet) 29 May (Release 4)
 28OCT_EFIMS_PARENTS.PDFAssistance for "EFIM'S" Parents 28 October (Release 5)
 3APR_CONFERENCE_MOSCOW.PDFAttendees at conference in Moscow 3 April (Release 3)
 14JUN_AMERICAN_PUBLIC_FIGURES.PDFAttitudes toward Soviet Union of some important American public figures 14 June (Release 4)
 15FEB_AUSTRIAN_ARMED_FORCES.PDFAustrian Armed Forces: Details required 15 February (Release 5)
 6FEB_AUTHORISATION_PAY.PDFAuthorisation to pay KIVISEMI's [B% medical expenses] 6 February (Release 5)
 10SEP_TIKHON_SCORPION.PDFAuthorization by Moscow of meeting between "TIKHON" and "SCORPION"; Study of KEU to continue 10 September (Release 5)
 26SEP_XGROUP.PDFBad work of the X Group; and MUSE
 21SEP_BARCHS_INSTRUCTIONS.PDFBARCh's instructions for DICK; IRIS; Possible payment to MARY; and KARL
 10AUG_BARCH_MTG.PDFBARCh's meeting; and FUCHS and probable Atomic Energy Project
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