The following is a declassified Top Secret cipher telegram dated 15 March 1941 from Tokyo about the training of Russian language translators to staff each of Japan’s army companies. The source of the information related in the cable was redacted during the declassification process, as was the pseudonym of Soviet agent who filed the cableContinueContinue reading “March 1941: Every Japanese Military Unit to have its own Russian Translator”
Tag Archives: NKVD
Top Secret 1945 Document Reveals Soviet Censors Ordered to Confiscate Mailed “Objectionable” Photographs of War Invalids
There are few testimonies and fewer photographs left about the life of Soviet disabled front-line soldiers after the war. This is a consequence of the near-total purge of the information by the NKVD: images and texts compromising the Soviet government were removed from everywhere, including personal correspondence. Even casual students of the history of theContinueContinue reading “Top Secret 1945 Document Reveals Soviet Censors Ordered to Confiscate Mailed “Objectionable” Photographs of War Invalids”
On This Date: 1944 Report from Beria on Security Operations to Destroy Armed Ukrainian Partisan Formations
Special Folder Top Secret Copy No. 1 5 August 1944 According to the NKVD-NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR, recently, in connection with the advance of the Red Army units to the West and the departure of individual units of the NKVD troops stationed in the areas of the Rivne region, the OUN (Organization ofContinueContinue reading “On This Date: 1944 Report from Beria on Security Operations to Destroy Armed Ukrainian Partisan Formations”
Russian FSB Declassifies and Publishes Materials from Potsdam Conference Preparations
To mark the 80th anniversary of the 16 July 1945 kick-off of the Potsdam Conference between the leaders of the Soviet Union, United States, and Great Britain, the Russian Federation Federal Security Service (FSB) has published a handful of materials, freshly declassified for the occasion. The following was translated from information cobbled together from aContinueContinue reading “Russian FSB Declassifies and Publishes Materials from Potsdam Conference Preparations”
Project “Enormoz” Update: 1944 NKVD Report on Foreign Nuclear Weapon Programs Using Input from Spies Abroad
On 5 November 1944, the head of the Soviet NKVD Foreign Intelligence Directorate, Pavel Mikhaylovich Fitin, disseminated a Top Secret report on global advances in the field of nuclear weapon developments. The list of addressees for the report is not included in the material, but given the level of detail and the highly sensitive natureContinueContinue reading “Project “Enormoz” Update: 1944 NKVD Report on Foreign Nuclear Weapon Programs Using Input from Spies Abroad”
Soviet Agent in 1941 London Reports to NKVD on England’s Atomic Bomb Project
In September 1941, a Soviet rezident in London known as ‘Vadim’ (now known to be Anatoly Gorsky) sent an enciphered Top Secret cable to his NKVD colleagues in Moscow regarding details of a recent meeting of the “uranium committee” (presumed to be a reference to the MAUD Committee) and England’s continued efforts at pursuing theContinueContinue reading “Soviet Agent in 1941 London Reports to NKVD on England’s Atomic Bomb Project”
DETI: Details of Sabotage Missions Come to Light from Detained Soviet German-Trained Children
Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the fourth in the series of documents translated. This is an undated five-page TOP SECRET report, probably written in September 1943, providing details of the arrest ofContinueContinue reading “DETI: Details of Sabotage Missions Come to Light from Detained Soviet German-Trained Children”
DETI: German-Trained Soviet Teens Parachute Into Kursk Oblast to Conduct Sabotage, 1943
Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the third in the series of documents translated. This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 3 September 1943 on the arrest of three saboteurs trainedContinueContinue reading “DETI: German-Trained Soviet Teens Parachute Into Kursk Oblast to Conduct Sabotage, 1943”
DETI: NKVD Discovers Saboteur Schools Established by German Intelligence to Train Kidnapped Soviet Orphans
Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the second in the series of documents translated. This is a “Special Message,” marked TOP SECRET, dated 25 December 1941 on the discovery of two saboteur andContinueContinue reading “DETI: NKVD Discovers Saboteur Schools Established by German Intelligence to Train Kidnapped Soviet Orphans”
DETI: NKVD Investigates Soviet Orphans Exploited by Germans to Sabotage Soviet Sites, 1941
Nine documents were declassified and published on the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) website on 1 June 2024, the International Day for the Protection of Children. This is the first of the documents translated; the rest will be translated and published on this site over the coming weeks. This is a “Special Message,” marked TOPContinueContinue reading “DETI: NKVD Investigates Soviet Orphans Exploited by Germans to Sabotage Soviet Sites, 1941”
Translating History 