In the previous part of the story about the first steps of Russian perlustration, the state councilor and outstanding codebreaker Christian Goldbach was mentioned, who became famous for successfully exposing the Marquis de La Chetardie. This Frenchman was actually conducting subversive activities in St. Petersburg, with the last words in his letters he watered the Empress Elizaveta Petrovna and did everything to overthrow Alexei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin. It is noteworthy that when de Chtardie was taken, charged and sent in disgrace to his homeland, in France all the rage for the failure of the operation was unleashed on his secretary Despres. It was this henchman of Chetardie who was accused of transmitting the ciphers to the Russians - no one dared to think that in Russia they were capable of decrypting themselves. And not only the French were guilty of such arrogance. So, in the book "Notes on the most important persons at the Russian Court", which was written in 1746 by the German diplomat Baron Axel von Mardefedel, Goldbach is spoken of slightly condescendingly.
His mathematical abilities are rightfully appreciated, but the deciphering skills, in the opinion of Mardefedel, were quite modest. And with careful coding, Christian Goldbach will not be able to read diplomatic cables. At the same time, the archives retained information about the deciphered correspondence of both Mardefedel himself, Baron Neuhaus and the French nobleman Lestock, who tried to continue the deed of Chetardie. It is not surprising that after such a cascade of revelations, foreign ambassadors were subsequently notified of the highest level of caution in the conduct of diplomatic correspondence. Thus, the French envoys of Louis XV to Russia Douglas Mackenzie and Eon de Beaumont arrived in the country with special codes hidden in heels and a specific legend. They were supposed to find the ground for the resumption of Franco-Russian relations, but presented themselves as fur traders, so as not to attract additional attention of the Russian "black cabinets". For this reason, there were funny symbols in the correspondence. So, Bestuzhev-Ryumin was identified as a "lynx", and the rise of his authority in the retinue, of course, was encoded as "a lynx in value." But the British ambassador, William Genbury, was designated nothing more than "the black fox". In addition to such a thorough "encryption", the French envoys were strongly advised to enter into correspondence with the "center" only in extreme cases. Excessive caution in such a situation did not seem superfluous at all.
Until the end of the 18th century, the Russian special services confidently and easily read all the diplomatic correspondence of the French. Analysts cracked encryption, but many keys for cryptographers were obtained by operational methods. For example, a recruited official from the French Foreign Ministry worked for the Russian embassy in Paris. He passed the initial data for decryption to the secretary of the embassy Meshkov, then the information went to the official ambassador Smolin, and he already forwarded it to Russia. In fact, it was possible to send a secret message through diplomatic channels to Russia (from Russia) only either in person or with a reliable messenger.
Perlustration under Catherine II
After a short period of decline in the perlustration service, Empress Catherine II breathed new life into the office. In 1764, she replaced Friedrich Asch as head of the service with the postal director von Eck, and replaced Goldbach, who had left untimely in the same year, by Academician Franz Epinus. The staff of "black offices" has expanded significantly, and now all foreign correspondence, without exception, has been searched. In total, correspondence from thirty countries had to be deciphered and translated. Only in 1771, the Prussian ambassador managed to write and receive 150 messages through diplomatic channels, which, for fidelity, were encoded in different ways.
The "black offices" functioned well under such harsh conditions. There were cases when Catherine II received transcripts of letters on the table before the addressees received them. The Empress often gave instructions not only about the first-priority revision of the correspondence of this or that ambassador, but also destroyed the letters she disliked. Many outgoing letters to France, which dealt with the alleged riots in the country, went straight to the oven. The Empress's attention was also paid to the important transit mail - it was also successfully decrypted. The well-known historian V. S. Izmozik in his book "Black Cabinets" The History of Russian Perlustration "gives an example of interception and decryption by" clerks "of a letter to the Pope from the ruler of the Persian city of Rasht. The geographic location of Russia has greatly contributed to such a transit interception of strategically important mail.
In addition to encrypted messages, Catherine II enjoyed reading the private correspondence of foreign ambassadors with relatives abroad. In the memoirs of the diplomat Louis Philippe de Segur, one can find the following words of the empress:
“Write to your wife from me that she can forward everything she wants through my hands. At least then you can be sure that your letters will not be printed. " Catherine II loved to boast of the effectiveness of her "black offices".
At the end of the 18th century, the perlustration service acquired a new function - the prevention of illegal export (import) of money with postal items. Bank notes, in accordance with the instructions, were required to be removed from the envelopes and transferred to the benefit of the governorships on whose land the money was found.
From the middle of the 18th century, the first home-grown specialists in deciphering foreign correspondence began to appear in the perlustration service. One of the first were Erofei and Fedor Karzhavin, who were trained in France. Erofei unauthorizedly left for Paris in 1748 and immediately entered the Sorbonne. It is worth knowing that Karzhavin was not at all a nobleman by origin - his father was engaged in petty trade in Moscow. At the university, Erofei learned languages and showed himself to be a talented student who deserved the attention of the Minister d'Argenson himself. Since 1760, Erofei has lived in Russia and worked as a translator and cipher officer at the College of Foreign Affairs. In addition to public service, Karzhavin is engaged in the translation of foreign literature. So, from under his pen came the first Russian-language version of "Gulliver's Travels". Fyodor Karzhavin, Erofei's nephew, came to Paris to visit his uncle in 1753 and studied science for thirteen years. Later, he also returned to Russia and, like his uncle, served the country in the College of Foreign Affairs as a translator and cipher clerk. A talented compatriot, in addition to the total secret work, left behind many literary works, historical and philosophical treatises.
Paradoxically, the names of Christian Goldbach, Franz Epinus, Efim and Fyodor Krazhavin, for all their merits in the field of state security, are practically unknown to a wide circle of Russians. Meanwhile, it was they who left behind many students who later became the backbone of the Russian service of perlustration and decryption.
At gunpoint "Freemasons"
From the end of the 18th century, Catherine II, who had previously favored the Freemasons in Russia, suddenly organized a persecution of the order. This was primarily due to the revolution in France and the horrors that accompanied it. Tsars all over Europe followed the revolutionary events and slowly tightened the screws in their country. The Russian empress was no exception. The search and decryption of correspondence has expanded significantly. All aristocrats who were even slightly noticed in opposition to the empress came under observation. In addition, Catherine II read all the letters that her son Paul, a freemason and future emperor, received and wrote. “Freemasons” in this situation could not escape close attention, since it was their ideas that excited the society with excessive “democracy”. The memory of the bloody "Pugachevism", which almost cost Catherine II the throne, was still fresh. The Empress also rightly feared that Masonic lodges could become excellent platforms for expanding the influence of the "enlightened West" on Russia.
Perlustration has become an important instrument of the state in controlling the Freemasons in Russia. In all post offices, it was necessary to pay special attention to the letters of "free masons" and to make at least two copies from each document. Historian Tatyana Soboleva in the book "History of ciphering in Russia" mentions the Moscow postal director Ivan Pestel (father of the Decembrist), who sent copies of the letters of the Masons to two addresses: empress. But to remove copies from a mason's letter was a simple matter - it was much more difficult to decipher the content. The texts of the "free masons", as you know, were distinguished by very intricate semantic encryption. "Hieroglyphs" of Masons most often denoted not just letters, but whole symbols and rituals.
The higher the status of the addressee in the lodge, the more he is aware of the meaning of encryption. That is, not every follower of the order can read the Masonic cipher. And if he does, then the meaning will differ significantly from the original one. Only a deep knowledge of the rituals and, most importantly, the symbolism of the order, made it possible to understand the essence of the text. Count of Villegorski, one of the greatest Freemasons of the period, told his followers:
"A bricklayer must in every possible way delve into the mysterious rites of our lodges, where every object, every word has a spatial range of meanings and this field expands, just as, ascending to a height, as you rise, the horizon we see spreads."
Such are the difficulties of perceiving reality awaited decoders in the secret messages of the Masons. For example, the sign of a compass, open at sixty degrees (the symbol of the Freemasons), in the text could mean the sun, fire, Mercury, spirit, will, beauty and a lot of other concepts.
No matter how difficult it was to decipher these texts, the perlustration services coped with their work - following the results of the examination of the correspondence, Catherine II imprisoned many Masons in dungeons. So, in 1792, the publisher Nikolai Nikolayevich Novikov was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg Fortress, and his printing house was destroyed. One of the largest Freemasons of Russia was released only under Emperor Paul I. The lodges of the Martinists and Rosicrucians, whose publishing activity fronted the reign of Catherine II, were dispersed and closed. With the beginning of the repressions, the Masons certainly understood where the state gets information about the plans and intentions of the order. It is noteworthy that many bricklayer activists, in letters between themselves, openly addressed Catherine II, trying to convince her of their innocence.
Perlustration and deciphering services in Russia in the 18th century proved their effectiveness and in just a few decades rose to the same level with colleagues from abroad. In many ways, this became the foundation for the strategically important work of the special services during the Patriotic War of 1812.
