From the Archives: CX–52 Messages Read by Red Poles?

Abstract

A former communist Polish SIGINT document suggests that messages encrypted with Hagelin CX-52 machines were read by the Poles during the 1960s.

Polish Cold War Codebreaking of 1959–1989: A Preliminary Assessment

“…26 These teleprinters were used to control the Cyklamen sets and to print the output from these sets. 27 While the document did not specify the type of Hagelin devices possessed by the Poles, considering the sources mentioned in [23], it can be assumed that these were two Hagelin CX52s purchased by the Poles in the early 1960s to streamline their codebreaking activities while targeting foreign diplomatic posts that used such equipment. Likely, one CX-52 was a general model, while the other was the one-time tape version.…”

“…Notably, an executive memo of 29 November 1986, available in [13], which was related to the translations of the Delfa, Delos, Sparta, and Syrena decrypts, mentioned an increase in hourly compensations of the interpreters due to the change in state regulations related to professional interpreting. 63 In May 1987, Colonel Tadeusz Wojtowicz, a veteran cryptologists and author of a memo published in [23] on the Hagelin CX-52 decrypts, was appointed the cashier of the Bureau ''A'' secret account. Notably, Colonel Wojtowicz, and the then-chief of codebreaking Section VI, Colonel Zdzislaw Gawlik, and his deputy, Captain Roman Iwanicki, officially destroyed the voluminous documentation of the secret account expenditures at MoI Bureau ''A'' of 1966-1983 on 6 June 1987.…”

“…-Skwierczynski; Sawicki. 23. Take part throughout the year in interrogations of captured foreign intelligence agents, who utilized ciphers, in order to identify cryptosystems and methods used by foreign intelligence headquarters in communication with their assets in Poland.…”

“…20 Perhaps the one-time tapes were initially copied by Polish intelligence in such a manner that prohibited their direct input into coding machines. One of the main such machines and cryptosystems targeted at the time by the Poles was the one-time tape version of the Hagelin CX-52; see [23] for details.…”

“…S-II-0306=66), was unfortunately missing from [4]. 23 At the time, the Poles researched the cryptographic strength of their new devices, such as the DUDEK teleprinter security devices and the Bocian-2 (Stork-2) used by the military, to secure telegraphic lines. The Poles also created two telephone scramblers in the 1960s, the DELTA and SEZAM; however, both were flawed, and eventually their development was abandoned.…”