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.

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 13APR_WALDMER_VON_OPPENHEIM_CORRECTION.PDFBaron Waldemar von Oppenheim visits Stockholm discusses peace proposals with Wallenberg: Details from "PER" and others (1942) (A more complete version of British Government-excised messages previously released in fifth VENONA release on 1 Oct 1996) 13 April 1942 (Release 6)
 13APR_WALDMER_VON_OPPENHEIM.PDFBaron Waldemar von Oppenheim visits Stockholm discusses peace proposals with Wallenberg: Details from "PER" and others (1942) (A more complete version of British Government-excised messages previously released in fifth VENONA release on 1 Oct 1996) 13 April 1942 (Release 6)
 13APR_WALDEMAR_VON_OPPENHEIM.PDFBaron Waldemar von Oppenheim visits Stockholm discusses peace proposals with Wallenberg: Details from "PER" and others (1942) (A more complete version of British Government-excised messages previously released in fifth VENONA release on 1 Oct 1996) 13 April 1942 (Release 6)
 16SEP_INFORMANT.PDFBauer; Czech Officer of Interest as Informant and Talent-Spotter
 27NOV_BEAN_REPORTS.PDFBEAN reports on Polish matters 27 November 1943 (Release 2)
 22FEB_MICROWAVE_TRANS_DESIGN_DATA.PDFBELFORD to check on availability of American publication "Microwave Transmission Design Data" 22 February (Release 5)
 17MAR_HANDLING_AGENTS.PDFBeria instructs Mexico city KGB on the handling of agents. KGB General Eitingon (who had organized the murder of Trotsky in 1940) sends greetings.
 17MAR_INSTRUCTIONS.PDFBeria sends instructions on handling of agents. The message includes a password ("senoris" in the spanish language)
 9JUN_AMERICAN_INTEL_CONF.PDFBerlin instructed to discover details regarding American intelligence conferences 9 June (Release 5)
 19JUN_BERNSTEIN_BISSON.PDFBernstein and Bisson provide U.S. State Department report to GRU 19 June 1943 (Release 4)
 12JUN_COMMUNIST_PARTY_MEMBER.PDFBio. of American Communist Party member, LANYa's husband 12 June (Release 3)
 12MAY_ROLAND_ERIK.PDFBiographical details of "ROLAND" and "ERIK" 12 May 1943 (Release 5)
 1MAR_BERTIL.PDFBiographical details of ….., in future "BERTIL" 1 March 1943 (Release 5)
 12MAY_BIO_DETAILS.PDFBiographical details of 1. Arne Lund, in future "ROLAND" 2. Artur Folden, in future "ERIK" (A more complete version of British Government-excised messages previously released in fifth VENONA release on 1 Oct 1996) 12 May 1943 (Release 6)
 29MAY_BIOGRAPHICAL_DETAILS.PDFBiographical details of Latin Americans and Germans 29 May 1942 (Release 2)
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