Radio Electronic Espionage

Author: Xia Guangzhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: "Radio Electronic Espionage" (or translated as "Radio Electronic Reconnaissance") is a book that tells the history of world radio electronic espionage activities. The book was first published in the mid-1990s, but it was immediately banned upon its release. It was only in 2000, when published by the Central Publishing House of Russia as part of the "Declassified Archives of Russia" series, that it was made available to the public again. The author, Boris Yulyevich Anin, was a major in the KGB of the former Soviet Union and worked in both grassroots and headquarters positions for many years. In the book, he describes numerous little-known military historical facts, introduces all major espionage operations of foreign intelligence agencies, and also provides a detailed account of the work of the KGB's intelligence department. Radio electronic espionage is a branch of the entire intelligence activity. Its history, since its inception, has been closely intertwined with major political and military changes in the world, making it itself a highly protected secret. Radio electronic espionage has a significant impact on the outcome of wars and international conflicts. For example, the decryption of a coded telegram from Germany's Foreign Minister Count von Jagow led the United States to join the Allies and enter the Second World War. Soviet cryptanalysts had long strived to analyze and study the workings of Germany's "Enigma" cipher machine, yet until Hitler's army suddenly invaded the Soviet Union, they had failed to break even a single key of the cipher system, leaving the Soviet army unprepared and suffering heavy losses. However, during World War II, the Soviet intelligence agency recruited Colonel Schmidt, the leader of the German army's signal department, enabling them to decrypt the cipher intelligence of Abwehr (Germany's spy and counterintelligence agency—translator's note). Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's fleet implemented radio silence, evading American radio tracking and deceiving the Americans, ultimately launching a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. In the 1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency used a specifically dug Berlin underground tunnel to monitor phone calls between Moscow and Berlin for a long time. During the August 1991 events in the Soviet Union, the National Security Agency of the United States monitored phone calls between the then KGB Chairman Kryuchkov and the Minister of Defense Yakov, and according to President Bush's order, this intelligence was passed to Yeltsin, greatly helping him—the information was crucial to Yeltsin's success or failure in the August events. The above examples, along with many other facts described in the book, will help readers broaden their horizons and enjoyably reflect on this part of human history, prompting them to think about history.