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
 20FEB_KINSKIJ.PDFMore biographic information on Leonid Kinskij.
 11DEC_MORE_GOOD_GIRL.PDFMore info from GOOD GIRL 11 December 1943 (Release 2)
 5MAR_HENWOOD.PDFMore information on Darcy Henwood; KGB agent Isaac Folkoff mentioned
 24JUN_MARCEL_GAUTIER.PDFMore information on Marcel Gautier, and his association with Georges Mandel
 25MAR_FAMILY.PDFMore KGB family matters
 19MAY_DEFECTOR.PDFMore KGB reporting about Soviet defector Kravchenko
 14AUG_MORE_LEND_LEASE.PDFMore Lend - Lease information 14 August 1943 (Release 4)
 29MAR_MORE_ON_MACLEAN_MSG.PDFMore on a Maclean message 29 March (Release 3)
 17JAN_CODENAME_IVERI.PDFMore on codename IVERI and the film industry in California.
 15JUN_GUARD.PDFMore on GUARD's activities 15 June 1943 (Release 2)
 12APR_KUZNETSOVA.PDFMore on the Elizabeth Kuznetsova case
 7APR_TRANSIT_VISA_OP.PDFMore on transit visa operation - US into Mexico 7 April (Release 3)
 3JUN_MORE_PROBATIONERS.PDFMore probationers on staff of the purchasing commission 3 June 1942 (Release 2)
 9NOV_SHIPMENTS.PDFMore shipments 9 November 1943 (Release 4)
 5JUN_SOVIET_NAVAL_CREWS.PDFMore Soviet naval crews 5 June 1943 (Release 4)
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