Voikov to Stomoniakov: nails, rakes and saws

01 The telegram

The heading is in clear: Polpred Lutovinov Berlin Delsovpra Stomoniakov, then the numbers 01135–26205 and the word RAION. The same numbers close the text, followed by the date, the serial and the signature. We read the signature as P. L. Voikov and the addressee as B. S. Stomoniakov of the Berlin trade delegation; the frame gives surnames only.

The letters are Russian with nothing substituted: across the traffic to Stomoniakov O runs at 11.3%, I at 10.0%, E at 8.8%. So only the order is hidden. Q stands for the soft or hard sign, and punctuation is spelled out: zpt for a comma, dvoetochie for a colon.

02 How the key came out

The solver tries a column order, reads the rows and scores them against a Russian model. On this model, held-out Russian scores −2.14 per letter and shuffled letters −4.96.

• At widths 22 to 26, with 120,000 steps, only width 24 stood apart: −4.87 to −5.01 on four restarts, with controls at −5.22 and −5.24.
• Longer runs at width 24 produced readable Russian (−3.73), and independent restarts gave the same stretches of text in different rotations.
• After setting Q to the soft sign and moving columns within the row, the score reached −3.21.

Read-out order of the columns, 0–23: 5 17 0 23 9 1 16 13 7 18 19 8 12 20 10 6 11 3 21 4 22 2 15 14. A different telegram of the same day carries the same first number, 01135, but this key does not decipher it, so that number does not name the key on its own. The key's source is unknown: its pattern matches nothing in 14 MB of general English or two George Wither texts, the poet Tiltman found behind another Soviet system.

03 What it says

For the goods-exchange fund with the countryside it is necessary to buy immediately hardware, colon: tyre iron, horseshoe iron; wire nails from two and a half to seven inches; horseshoe nails of middle sizes; shovels for earthwork, square, nine [or ten] by eleven and three-quarter inches, pointed, ten by eleven and a half inches; rakes; forks for hay and manure; carpenters' axes weighing two and a half to three pounds; cross-cut saws, three and a half, four […] by six inches; joiners' pincers of eight and ten inches; for sharpening saws; mortise chisels up to three-quarters of an inch; flat paring chisels from a half to one and a quarter inches; half-round from a half to one inch. Continuation follows.

The Politburo approved "Comrade Kopp's proposal" on 16 April 1921; notes to Lenin's collected works tie it to goods exchange and to Stomoniakov. We have not seen the decision itself, so the link to this order rests on subject matter. The closing prodslid is prod. sled., the "continuation follows" formula Tiltman quotes from the system he broke on another link.

04 What remains uncertain

• chetyre shjima: not deciphered; probably a size or unit for the saws.
• ce before the shovel size: unexplained. de?iatg has a lost letter, so девять or десять.
• kieszi as клещи (pincers) comes from context, and "for sharpening saws" may be its own item.
• The opening derevnei could also be деревне и, "for the countryside, and".
• Slips such as tkwaroobcennogo for tovaroobmennogo look like radio errors; they are bracketed in the reading. So is the missing "s" before each polovinoi.

The continuation has its own kind of neighbour: another message in this system, with its own key and its own page. The continuation itself is decoded but does not yet form sentences, so it has no page. The figure traffic in the same file, a different cipher, is not solved.

Full texts

The transcription and the decryption of every document on this page, so that the reading can be used and checked. Short files are shown here; all are in the repository.

Nr 1883/1188/S, 1 June 1921

A buying order to Stomoniakov in Berlin: hardware for the goods-exchange fund with the countryside, listed with sizes (iron, nails, shovels, rakes, forks, axes, saws, chisels). It ends "continuation follows". The goods-exchange subject fits the Politburo decision on Kopp's proposal of 16 April 1921, by subject only.

KNZOK NISL? TFPPO PLIUV IEADL UGMIZ ZVPRK AMNUR HREMZ APEST
OLDDL VOOSC TNROD TVOTO SAMAD OIOAD ONVOO ATTRA PASNL EIITI PUNOE
PCCVO NWGTE VTYVP TVMCE MOUZL EEAEL EHJCI KZGOM OVTRO DIIMG OIBEO
OIETN IQIIC TYISI ZHORP SEHSJ EPONA DDIIY TICSK DPRIT ERAIK TVEIE
AAENL ZOLPH MSTNT OKNOO AODIO OVLOA ISNET AITTT KZLIF NNSIN DEAZV
IMEYC RNSID VIIDD RNUOO IMDNT RYOPR OOEOE OYAGR WCQE? OHVHR OUSOL
OOEET OITKE YPOEO HPOKL DAOVO H???A TDOEE UOOOI HHUVI CNQDI VPIEY
ZQHDE CGPWE AEOYU RIIVH OIPOY CIOAT SNUIB BTINC GCHAI ENILN RRPIK
OSHLT AENDO CIOED HNTAA VPNDY DLIOP DNMII RIOOR TSEVA VFPSO ILROD
OTVOV DHDEM EEEQB TAIOI ELBMU OIDET NODVP AQTNZ NEUOH LUOTT IDIRN
RPOMN ZECOA RZDVI QNVOU DAOND OLVLD MONUT DLION JESLE LETDN OKEGO
ZOBII AUDND DHILE IIPVO

dliatkwaroobcennogofonda
derevneineobqhodimonemed
lennozakupiteskobianoito
vardvoetochi?jelezoshinn
oepodkovochnoegvozdiprov
olochnyeivuchpolovinoido
semidiuimovgvozdipodkovo
chnoesrednichnomeroelopa
tjzemlianwchrabotkvadrat
ncede?iatgnaodinnalzatqt
richetvertqiudiuimovostr
okonefhnyedesiatqnaivena
dzatqpolovinoiudiuimovzp
tgrabpizptvilydlirsehana
vozatoporyplotnichny?ves
omdvapolovinoidotrec?fun
tovpilypoperecdnyetr?pol
ovinoichetyreshjimanashe
stqdiuimovzptkieszistoli
arnyevosemqiodlsiatidiui
movdliatochkipelzptdolot
adolbetnyedotriehetverti
diuimastameskiiloskieotp
oidoudnogochetpertziudiu
imapolukruglyevtpoldoodn
ogodiuinwzptprodslid

для т[о]в[а]рооб[м]енного фонда деревней необходимо немедленно закупите скобяной товар двоеточие
железо шинное подковочное
гвозди проволочные [от] двух [с] половиной до семи дюймов
гвозди подковочные средних номеров
лопаты земляных работ квадратные де?ять на одиннадцать три четверти дюймов
остроконечные десять на [о]диннадцать [с] половиною дюймов зпт
грабли зпт вилы для сена [и] навоза
топоры плотничные весом два [с] половиной до трех фунтов
пилы поперечные три [с] половиной четыре [...] на шесть дюймов зпт
клещи столярные восемь и десяти дюймов
для точки пил зпт
долота долбежные до трех четвертей дюйма
стамески плоские от по[л] до одного [и] четверти дюйма
полукруглые от пол до одного дюйма зпт
прод след

For the goods-exchange fund with the countryside it is necessary to buy immediately hardware, colon:
tyre iron, horseshoe iron;
wire nails from two and a half to seven inches;
horseshoe nails of middle sizes;
shovels for earthwork, square, nine [or ten] by eleven and three-quarter inches,
pointed, ten by eleven and a half inches;
rakes; forks for hay and manure;
carpenters' axes weighing two and a half to three pounds;
cross-cut saws, three and a half, four [...] by six inches;
joiners' pincers of eight and ten inches;
for sharpening saws;
mortise chisels up to three-quarters of an inch;
flat paring chisels from a half to one and a quarter inches;
half-round from a half to one inch.
Continuation follows.

Key: keyA3.json

05 Sources

• NARA, RG 59, 861.00, M316 roll 42: frame 1273.
• Bristol, No. 153, 20 April 1921, on the interception: frame 0871.
• John H. Tiltman, “Experiences 1920–1939”, NSA Doc ID 6618711.
• Lenin, Collected Works vol. 53, notes.

Transcription, key and reading: targets/voikov1921/; solver: targets/stomoniakov1921/.