June 1 is officially considered the Day of Establishment of Russian Government Communications. It was on this day in 1931 that a long-distance high-frequency communication network was put into operation in the Soviet Union, which was to serve the government structures of the Soviet country. The importance of government communications for the security and defense of the state, for the uninterrupted and operational management of all processes taking place in the political and economic life of the country, can hardly be overestimated.
The Soviet government realized the need to create a system of operational management of the state, its institutions and the armed forces almost immediately after the end of the Civil War. However, the solution of this problem required a serious technical modernization of the means of communication at the disposal of the Soviet state. Already in 1921, the engineers of the radio laboratory of the Moscow plant "Electrosvyaz" began experiments on organizing multichannel telephony, which ended in success - three telephone conversations were simultaneously transmitted over the cable line.
Two years later, in 1923, P. V. Shmakov successfully conducted experiments on the simultaneous transmission of telephone conversations at high and low frequencies over a cable line 10 kilometers long. In 1925, the first high-frequency telephony equipment for copper circuits was presented, developed by the team of the Leningrad Scientific Testing Station under the leadership of P. A. Azbukina. By this time, the principle of high-frequency telephony was considered the safest when conducting telephone conversations. Ultimately, it was high-frequency telephony that was approved by the leadership of the Communist Party and the Soviet state as the basis of the system of state administration in the Soviet country.
Since control by telephone communication was of strategic importance for the Soviet state, the overall organization of the multichannel telephone communication system was immediately taken over by the United State Political Administration (OGPU), which was responsible at that time for the state security of the country. It was the strategic importance of the system of government communications that explained its inclusion in the system not of the People's Commissariat of Communications of the USSR, but of the state security agencies of the Soviet state.
In the late 1920s. government communications were subordinated to the 4th department of the Operations Department of the OGPU of the USSR. Considering the increased importance of the system of government communications, the engineering and technical personnel who provided it were recruited on the basis of two main criteria - the highest professional competence and complete loyalty to the Soviet government. That is, the selection criteria were the same as when recruiting other units and departments of the USSR state security bodies.
The first high-frequency communication lines were laid between Moscow and Leningrad and Moscow and Kharkov. The supreme party-state leadership of the country was provided with intercity communication. On June 1, 1931, the 5th department of the Operations Department of the OGPU was allocated as part of the OGPU. It was headed by a staff member of the OGPU - NKVD Ivan Yuryevich Lawrence (1892-1937), who headed the department for almost six years. When the OGPU was included in the NKVD, the 5th department of the Operations Department of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR remained the organ of government communications.
The tasks of providing the country with government communications required the intensified and accelerated construction of main permanent air lines of medium and long length, which began in the early 1930s. Each line allocated two circuits to the competence of the state security agencies, which equipped intermediate and terminal stations of government communications. During 1931-1932. government communication was established between Moscow and Leningrad, Kharkov, Minsk, Smolensk. In 1933, government communication lines connected Moscow with Gorky and Rostov-on-Don, in 1934 - with Kiev, during 1935-1936. communication was established with Yaroslavl, Tbilisi, Baku, Sochi, Sevastopol, Voronezh, Kamyshin and Krasnodar, and in 1938, 25 new high-frequency stations were put into operation at once, including stations in such large and strategically important cities as Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Stalingrad, Sverdlovsk. In 1939, 11 more high-frequency stations were put into operation in Novosibirsk, Tashkent, Chita and a number of other cities. At the same time in Lyubertsy a remote control room of the Moscow high-frequency station was built. By 1940, 82 government communications stations operated in the country, serving 325 subscribers throughout the Soviet Union. The longest aerial trunk communication line in the world is the Moscow - Khabarovsk line, built in 1939 and having a length of 8615 kilometers.
Thus, by the end of the 1930s, the organization of the system of government communications in the Soviet Union was generally completed. High-frequency communication began to be used to ensure contacts of the country's top leadership with the leaders of the republics, regions and territories of the Soviet Union, the administration of the most important industrial enterprises and other economic facilities, the military command and the leadership of the power structures.
In the 1930s, Soviet engineers also developed the main methods for automatically classifying telephone conversations. So, in 1937, the Krasnaya Zarya plant began production of the ES-2 security equipment, developed by engineers K. P. Egorov and G. V. Staritsyn. Then the more developed and perfect devices MES-2M and MES-2A, PZh-8, EIS-3 were released. As a result, by the end of the 1930s. with the help of inverters ES-2 and MES-2, it was possible to classify all the main channels of Soviet government communication.
After the arrest of I. Yu. Lawrence, the department of special communications of the GUGB of the NKVD of the USSR was headed by Ivan Yakovlevich Vorobyov (pictured), who previously worked at the telephone factory "Krasnaya Zarya", and then in 1931 was recruited into the service of the state security organs and first held the position of chief mechanic of the automatic telephone exchange of the NKVD, then the head of the communications department of the NKVD Administrative and Economic Directorate, and only then headed the government communications department. In 1939, Vorobyov was replaced as head of the government communications department by engineer captain of state security Mikhail Ilyinsky. He was one of the developers of the MA-3 and EIS-3 equipment. Ivan Vorobyov and Mikhail Ilyinsky were the people under whose leadership the establishment and development of national government communications was carried out, new stations were put into operation. After the death of Ilyinsky, the department of government communications of the NKVD of the USSR in 1941 was again headed by Ivan Vorobyov.
It should be noted that in the second half of the 1930s - early 1940s. there were four structures involved in the organization and management of government communications. Firstly, it was the already mentioned branch of government communications as part of the Main Directorate of State Security of the NKVD of the USSR. Secondly, it was the technical communications department of the Moscow Kremlin Commandant's Office, created on the basis of the former communications department of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which provided telephone services for the city government communications in Moscow and the Moscow region, cable network, watches and cinema in the Kremlin, sound reinforcement during meetings of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR … Thirdly, its own communications department acted as part of the NKVD Main Security Directorate. This unit was responsible for providing government communications in the offices and residences of members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and for sound reinforcement at party and government celebrations. Fourth, the communications department acted as part of the Administrative and Economic Directorate (AHOZU) of the NKVD of the USSR and performed the tasks of providing special communications for the operational units of the NKVD, the city communications station.
During the Great Patriotic War, government communications played a crucial role in ensuring the operational control of troops, government agencies and industrial enterprises, and party structures of the country. Without effective government communications, victory over the German fascist invaders would have been much more difficult. Government communications played an important role in ensuring international negotiations between the leaders of the Soviet state. The years of the Great Patriotic War can rightfully be called the most serious test of the effectiveness of Soviet government communications. The signalmen from the NKVD coped with the assigned tasks perfectly, although there were numerous problems and difficulties, including those of an administrative nature.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Stepanovich Konev recalled:
In general, I must say that this connection, as they say, was sent to us by God. She rescued us so much that we must pay tribute to both our equipment and our signalmen, who specially provided this high-frequency communication and in any situation literally on the heels of accompanying all those who were supposed to use this communication in any situation.
After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, further improvement and strengthening of the system of government communications in the Soviet country continued. In the 1950s, in particular, channels of international government communication were created, connecting Moscow and Beijing - the capitals of two key states of the socialist camp. On August 31, 1963, the line of government communication between Moscow and Washington began to operate - the decision to create it was caused by the growth of international tension during the Cuban missile crisis.
During the 1970s - 1980s. continued research and development in the field of increasing the efficiency of government communications. The leaders of the state and the party began to be provided with means of communication when moving anywhere in the world, which also required significant efforts from the government communications service.
In parallel with the development of communication itself, the forms of management of government communication bodies were also improved, and personnel training developed. Until the collapse of the USSR, government communications were part of the USSR State Security Committee as the 8th Main Directorate of Government Communications of the KGB of the USSR. To train specialists - officers of the government communications troops, by June 1, 1966, the Military Technical School of the KGB of the USSR was created in Bagrationovsk, Kaliningrad Region, and in 1972, due to the need for further development of the special education system, the school was relocated to Orel and renamed into the Oryol Higher Military Command School of Communications, which began training officers with higher education for the government communications troops. The term of study at the school was increased from three to four years.
When in 1991the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and the country's government communications system underwent serious changes. In connection with the liquidation of the KGB of the USSR, government communications were separated into a separate structure. On December 24, 1991, the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information (FAPSI) was created, which included the former departments of the 8th Main Directorate of Government Communications of the KGB and the 16th Main Directorate of the KGB, which was responsible for electronic intelligence.
The director of FAPSI was appointed Lieutenant General (since 1993 - Colonel General, and since 1998 - General of the Army) Alexander Vladimirovich Starovoitov - a well-known specialist in the field of government communications, who has worked for a long time as an engineer and manager at the country's largest enterprises engaged in the development of and the production of equipment for the needs of government communications. FAPSI, as a separate structure responsible for government communications, existed from 1991 to 2003. and was engaged in ensuring government communications, the security of encrypted communications, conducting intelligence activities in the field of encrypted and classified communications, providing information to the authorities of the Russian Federation. The personnel were trained at the Military Institute of Government Communications, which in 2000 was transformed into the FAPSI Academy.
In 2003, FAPSI was abolished, and its functions were divided between the Federal Security Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Security Service. At the same time, most of the FAPSI units, including government communications and the FAPSI Academy, were transferred to the structure of the Federal Security Service. Thus, the Federal Security Service, which includes the Special Communications and Information Service, is currently responsible for government communications in Russia. The head of the SSSI FSO is ex officio a deputy director of the Federal Security Service.
In modern conditions, given the constant development of information and communication technologies, the effectiveness of government communications depends on regular improvement, tracking the latest trends and developments. At the same time, the human factor continues to play an important role - the highest qualifications, diligence, readiness and ability to keep state secrets are required from employees of government communications.
