Struggle in Soviet Russia

The curtains in the conference room were opened, the sunlight projected from the window dispelled the darkness in the room, and the slide projector was also turned off. The target of everyone’s attention was no longer the image displayed on the slide screen, but the coffee table in front of the sofa. A cipher machine placed.

For Serov, Fitin, and Eitingo, this was the first time they saw the "riddle" cryptographic machine used by the German army. According to the Germans, this thing should be called the "Ennig" cryptographic machine. .

The cipher machine is like a box, with round keys on the top, exactly like a typewriter, and on the front of the cipher machine, there is a terminal block with twenty-six English letters marked on the terminal board, matching it Yes, there are twenty-six plug-in holes.

The "four-dimensional" setting of the cipher machine is realized through the wiring board. Each time the message is decoded, two double-headed cables need to be inserted into the corresponding plug-in holes, in other words, it is one time. Occupy the plug-in hole represented by the four letters.

If the letters occupied by the plug-in holes are different, the letters typed by the typewriter above will be different.

For example, if the front jacks occupied by the two connecting lines are "a", "w", "c", "f", then press the typewriter "a" key above, and the letter it typed out may be " s", if you change the wire slot to a hole and change the "w" to "d", then press the "a" key of the typewriter, and the letter it typed out may be "b".

That’s not to say, the cipher machine must be used in conjunction with the key, and this key is the so-called "rotor". The rotor is similar to the cipher lock on the cipher box. There are three rotating gears, and each gear corresponds to 1 The 26 numbers to 26 correspond to 26 letters. In this way, when the three rotating gears correspond to different numbers, the letters typed out by the same key on the cipher machine are also completely different.

Therefore, if you want to determine the content of a German encrypted telegram, you need to determine at least five conditions: the letter slot occupied by the two double-headed connecting wires, and the order of the numbers corresponding to the three gears on the rotor.

If the information is not certain, and only rely on permutation and combination to touch, then you have to choose one of the hundreds of millions of possibilities. The difficulty can be imagined, not to mention relying on manual calculations. , Even if you use a computer to calculate, I am afraid it is not an easy task.

The person responsible for explaining to everyone present was an old man with gray hair. Regardless of the rusticity of the old man, his beard was also sloppy, but he was not an ordinary person.

The old man's name is Henriel Berezinski, a Polish, formerly famous Polish mathematician and codebreaker expert. Before the outbreak of World War II, he was the teacher of Marian Rejewski in the so-called "Three Polish Masters". Has been engaged in the work of deciphering German radio codes.

As a Jew, he was stranded in Lithuania when Poland was occupied by the German army. He was later arrested by the NKVD and put in jail. Now, he is also the one who serves the NKVD while serving his sentence. Scientific workers.

Introducing the operating principle of the cryptographic machine to everyone present, Henriel finally said: “With the cooperation of the rotor and the power strip, the combination of letters that these keys can present may be as many as 150 million, relying solely on logic. Cracking is extremely difficult."

Speaking of this, he picked up the handbag, took out a piece of paper and placed it on the coffee table, and said: "So far, only one of the nearly 120,000 encrypted communications we have obtained from the intelligence center has been cracked."

Victor picked up the piece of paper and saw that on the top of the paper, there were two lines of garbled characters composed of capital letters. In these garbled codes, five letters formed a group, making a total of sixteen groups.

And below these garbled characters, there is a paragraph in Russian: "The last position of contact with the enemy is: 0830hAJ9863; 220 degrees; 8 knots; trailing."

Looking at the content, this should be a secret telegram sent by a German ship.

"However, this is a message from March of the previous year," Henrik continued. "We compared a series of cipher messages from the same period and finally determined that between March and June of the previous year, the Germans used the same Set of four-dimensional parameters and keys, but after July 2nd of that year, these parameters were changed."

Speaking of this, he paused for a while, seeming to be hesitating whether to say the following words or not. In the end, he cautiously said: "There are two options for cracking the secret code, one is logical cracking, and the other is violent means. Cracking, considering the complexity of this type of cryptographic machine, I think it is unscientific to choose a logical cracking method."

"What is violent means?" Feijing interjected in some confusion.

"It's..." Henrik looked up at Victor and said, "It's best to get the German secret telegrapher. Of course, it needs to be without the Germans noticing it."

"Well, you can go out," Serov nodded and said, "We will consider your suggestion."

Hearing this, Henrik stood up hurriedly, holding his briefcase, cringed and left the meeting room.

"Aitingo," said Serov, sitting upright from the sofa when Henrik left the room, "according to Victor's suggestion, follow it."

Victor’s suggestion was to target Kabeshova and leak a piece of information about the alliance’s rocket technology research and development project to her in a targeted manner.

Initially, Victor’s idea was that this kind of "disclosure" behavior could be repeated several times, and in the leaked information, a certain key word should be repeated. In this way, when the German secret reporter will When the information is sent out, the Counter-Spyware Bureau can intercept them, and then provide these cipher texts to cryptographic experts, who can decipher the texts.

In fact, secret code decryption methods like this are the most commonly used and the most labor-saving.

For example, the counterintelligence bureau can frequently leak information about rocket engines to hidden German intelligence organizations, and the German secret officers who have obtained the intelligence always send these intelligence information, and in the intelligence they send, The words "rocket engine" or "engine" will inevitably appear frequently.

In a certain period, this frequently-occurring cipher text can be compared. As a result, cryptographic experts can find the corresponding response letter based on these frequently-occurring cipher texts.

German, like English, belongs to the Germanic language family. There are only 26 letters in its alphabet. As long as part of the letters corresponding to the secret code can be determined, the subsequent deciphering work will become simple.

In order to find out whether this method is feasible, Victor also specifically sought out Henrik.

As a cryptographer, Henrik said that Victor’s idea is feasible, but its effectiveness is too low.

First of all, it is impossible for German secret telegraphers to send reports frequently. After all, they need to hide and send reports too frequently, which will bring them risks.

Since they do not send reports frequently, there will be a cycle for the decryption of passwords. If the cycle is short, it may be three to four weeks, and if it is long, it may take several months.

Even if in this process, the Germans are not suspicious and follow the counterintelligence bureau's thinking completely, then two or three months later, the Germans are likely to change the four-dimensional parameters and keys, and finally the password will be deciphered. It is invalidated.

If this is the case, then it is really better to take violent means to directly control the secret code officer, and take out the four-dimensional parameters and key from her mouth. In this case, at least before the Germans realize that there is a problem, the corresponding secret code Can still play a role.

Faced with such a result, Victor could only modify his plan. Instead of trying to directly decipher the secret code, he tried to find out the German secret code first. The best result was to not disturb the hidden intelligence organization in Germany. In this case, control the secret caller and let her serve the alliance party.

However, in this way, all the pressure of action rests on Eitingo's shoulders, let alone him, even Victor feels a headache for him.

But from another point of view, once this mission is achieved, the Counter-Spyware Agency really controls the hidden secret electrician, then at least for a period of time in the future, or before the Germans detect the abnormality, the intelligence department’s Work efficiency will be improved by a leap, and in the field of intelligence, the Germans will no longer have any secrets.

If nothing else, it is not a problem to get at least one Hero of the Soviet Union just to accomplish such a task.

Under Serov’s decision, even if this task is confirmed, even though the Counterintelligence Agency is in charge of Eitingo, Victor cannot stay out of the matter. He also has to provide Eitingo with "intelligence", which can be leaked to the Germans. Of intelligence.

A committee meeting lasted more than three hours. When he came out of the meeting room, it was almost eleven o’clock. Victor, who hadn’t slept for two consecutive nights, felt that everything was so bright and his mind I was groggy as if I had been filled with lead, and when I walked, my feet were covered with sponge.

He gave up the idea of ​​going home and didn't plan to eat lunch. Victor went straight back to his office and told Sophia not to be disturbed by anyone. Then he fell asleep in the lounge with his head covered.

The sleep was so full that I didn't even dream. When I was awakened by the roar of explosions, my hands were already dark in the lounge.

Lying on the bed, Victor, who had just woke up, was still a little dazed. He rubbed his sore eyes and was thinking of getting up from the bed. His eyes suddenly lit up, and a cyan electric light illuminated the whole lounge.

Immediately afterwards, a thunder of "rumbling..." rolled across the window, and the open glass windows were all hummed.