TheCodeBreakers
"
Alexander denied it. "He assumed a serious air," Macdonald related,
"placed one hand on his heart and raised the other. 'No,' he replied, 'I
give you my word of honor.' " His cryptanalysts would have been proud of
so stout a defense of their honor.
During the nineteenth century, cryptanalysts functioned as one of the
Czar's chief tools of despotism. Libertarian movements were growing
increasingly restive and radical. One way in which the Okhrana, the
notorious secret police, kept tabs on underground workers was to have
the black
chambers read the letters and telegrams of suspects—as well as most
foreign mail and a random selection of the domestic post, too.
The most popular cipher of the Russian underground seems to have
derived from the prisons in which so many of its leaders had to serve
time. Intercommunication among the inmates was strictly forbidden. But
annaabi.ee 
